A Santa-stic Christmas!

It is one thing when a holiday fatefully falls on your birthday and quite another when your birthday happens to coincide with the biggest celebrations around the globe. Yes, I was born on the twenty fifth of December, Christmas Day and yes I am really lucky for the festivities that lead up and occur during and beyond this day.

Being the twenty second one (I am getting old!) , and with no hint of what my buddies had planned , this birthday turned out to be  - ' A Santa-stic Christmas'. I guess the title gives it away, it did involve a Santa (as can be guessed quite easily) - a fat, chubby, white-bearded merry making kind old man with the iconic cry (Ho! Ho! Ho!), or did it?

Well, we definitely had a Santa with the costume and the beard (fake but white!) yet, there were a few points of doubt and anxiety for the audience at Select City Walk , Saket :

• The Santa was lean (Lean by huge-fat-guy-stuck-on-a-doorway standards)
• The beard was a quite sparse.
• The Santa wasn't so sure of himself (the elves were shouting Ho! Ho! Ho! instead of the Santa)
• There was NO bag of goodies.
• The Santa was ME!

M. and Santa (near the Santa sleigh with the monster truck tires)

As is evident, the Santa is a poor rendition of the original, but yes such small shortcomings are of no consequence when such a wonderful surprise is planned and executed. (Though, next time, knock me out cold, then dress me up properly as a Santa -full edition- and smuggle me into the Christmas exhibition at the mall in the wee hours of the morning with a bag of candies!) 

Once upon a time

two of the best-est friends

crafted a plot so deviously coy

Involving a hat, a beard and an ancient trend

In short, I was dressed up as Santa and paraded around Select City Walk and DLF Place ( they are adjoining malls) on Christmas Day by my best friends - M. and S. . Though the idea was very embarrassing, I decided not to spoil the fun (I had no choice really, and I am just saving my face) and donned the costume in a corner wash room and that is where the day actually began for Santa.

Gangsta Santa (Fresh into Santa clothes)

'Twas his birthday

A riot he was made

In gaily coloured red

a thin, clean shaven Santa to-day? 

First up were two kids who actually got a photograph clicked with Santa in the mall's wash room! (Well, I guess I am the first Santa who does wash room snaps). Then, it was the entire mall. As we walked around, we were stopped quite a few times by kids, parents with kids, grown ups and on rare occasion, girls.The populace in general was confused as to my origins for I was quite a shabby looking Santa for a professional Santa -artist and M. and S. had a great laugh each time they explained the fate that had befallen me on this birthday

Mommy seems more happy to get the photo with Santa

Are you the only Santa?

Asked slightly confused merry makers

Its his birthday ma'am, so

Dressed he is,  a photograph maybe? Any takers?

It so happened that the mall authorities had overlooked the fact that you need a Santa on Christmas Day (which should have been pretty obvious) and so I was left with the task of ensuring that Santa was present to make all those little ones smile.

They were scared, and so was I.

Eyes bright with magical dreams.

Shying away on a greeting and

Some, only too happy to get away it seems

Both the kid and the Santa are scared

This kid was only too happy for the photograph

These kids were pretty happy to meet Santa

More smiles and joy!

And then there were the ones only too happy to see Santa. Beaming smiles showed us the magic that we had lost with our childhood. Their beliefs and happiness all entrusted to a magical dream land and on that day to me. Tasked with this important responsibility, I tried my best to impress them. But, then we had the skeptical ones

Are you the real Santa?

Your beard is false

Chimed the young ones in a suspicious tone

Santa, without the familiar calls ?

By then I had become exhausted

Poor little guy! He was afraid of Santa

While the elves (basically M.and S.) shouted Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa is here everybody! Santa (me) roamed around the mall as a unique spectacle for the day getting photos clicked with a lot of people.

Older ones weren't far behind!

Merry Christmas to young and old alike!

With friends who were out partying on Christmas in Select City Walk

And as all good things do, this day also came to an end (a little early than usual). S. had a train out of town at 4 so we forewent lunch (we didn't have much of an option, the food court was chock-full and so was Dunkin' Donuts!). After a quick change in the wash room I was back to being myself again.

Christmas end was near,

The festivities were at their peak.

Santa had doled out the smiles and gifts,

Away, out of the corner he did sneak.

One of the last photos (you can spot S. 's luggage behind him )

A brilliant surprise and a fantastic prologue to that at Khan Chacha's (sorry S. you had to miss it) made my birthday complete. It was only when we were setting off towards the metro station did we realize that in our happy celebrations, we had added little moments of joy to many kids' Christmas experience. Be it fate that willed it or just a happy coincidence we cannot say. Christmas is special! To share and to spread love and happiness is what the spirit of Christmas is all about. Hope that everyone had a great Christmas.

My only normal photograph from the day! (S. is missing, we'll photoshop him into this)

And hopping on to the sleigh

"Away Rudolph, our job is done"

"The kids are happy, the world joyous."

" Merry Christmas! Hope you had a lot of fun"

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Signed

Santa Claus

An important afterthought :

It is one thing to have friends who care, another to have ones who are with you always but the best ones are those who sculpt your life around you!

I am blessed to have the best of friends that anyone can have. This plan though utterly ridiculous turned out to be one that I enjoyed to the maximum. To be honest, at the end I did not want to change my garb. It was they who made the day special . Thank you guys!

Get you to smile, maybe

I'll sing you a song

whistle a soft tune or,

rustle up a new melody, maybe.

Tinker with some tools; tall

build you a castle, in line

decorated with roses and lilies, maybe.

Call the circus, host a show fine

Make the clowns go round a-round

Jump on the trapeze, break a leg, maybe

Voyage with the treasure map, bound

in search of pirates' gold, you at the wheel

'Aye, aye Captain!' I'll shout, maybe

Or simply , with a promise, I shall kneel

and hold you close, gentle after;

get you to smile, maybe.

Beauty

#This29th

Each day I feel the world rush

as the eyes twinkle naughty; treat

me to love, I see the magic

the beauty of my dreams

With each word, a lyric luring

me to depths of a fable

I sit to swoon, I strive to woo

the beauty of my dreams

I hold a hand, it pulls tight

whispers a promise, to hold true,

forever it says , I close my eyes 

for she is mine, the beauty I dreamed.

Five and thirty gone, millions more to come!

The Dark Ages

A collage of some incidents as reported on TOI online , in the past 30 days

When friends and family cannot be trusted

When morals and social values are lost

When life is a suffering, equality for none

It is the end, it is the Dark Age all over again!

No copyright infringement intended

Like A Red Rose

#This29th

Beauty like the red rose

brimming; A scene, spectacular to behold.

Enchanting, withholding but, pulling close

My lady, I see  like the blossomed red rose

In eyes, precious. A smile pure gold,

Seems a fairy tale, in a joyous and dreamy abode.

Lose a beat or two( O! Yes!) as she looks my way

My lady, a beauty ,more than a blossomed rose.

Image Courtesy : Google Images

ISTP - The Mechanics : Typealyzer Speaks

Another fun thing for a blogger to explore online is www.typealyzer.com. The analysis results in the determination of the Myers-Briggs type of the author. The results from my blog showed me to be the ISTP - The Mechanics.

The validity of the results are questionable (of course!) , but, well, they compare me to the likes of the famous Steve Jobs and Michael Jordan and I am not complaining. As for the qualities mentioned, we'll have to wait till N. verifies them.

Inhuman

Dilapidated, an ugly scar cut into her being,

Polluted, by shapeless and grey venom ,

Torn, in part and as a whole in soul,

Screaming -  poisoned by the holy serum.

The rut and rust crawling on her body,

Insects drawn to foul and filth.

A distant scream, not one , nor two,

to survive, to die, to squander all tilth.

No rush to aid, but blood sucking termites,

'Have mercy on my soul'  unnoticed from her lips,

Falls on ears deaf and sound.

'Kill me slowly as you murder my daughters' her heart rips.

The motherland cries, the mother - she dies,

Each moment, each time a cruel blow fells a daughter.

Society reeks of inhuman waste , a sorry cry

for the men and women who consider humans meat and fodder.

Be it the December gang rape case , or any other such act of cruelty, society as we know it is, at the brink of an end. It is not such cases that should serve as examples to open our eyes. The society is ours - yours and mine and therein lies our duty to stop such inhuman actions.  To see news paper headlines speak of nothing else but rape and such gruesome horrors as female foeticide, infanticide and such unspeakable deeds shows the lack of humanity. I just wish we were better. I just we were good enough to be called 'humans'.

My view after I saw an entire side in the online TOI page filled with rape cases from top to bottom an hour back.

La Luna - My Muse

Ever since I managed to get a decent camera I have been looking for subjects to capture with my camera. In my rather fruitful search, I have encountered many objects to point and shoot with my device but none has captured my imagination as vividly as moon - la luna . 

Of course, I do not have a camera that rivals the ones used by the photographers on National Geographic, nor do I have a DSLR or even a semi-DSLR. Presented below is a collection of the shutter capture from my beloved Nikon.

The Yellow Moon, my first capture

The Silver Neighbour

Before Dawn (captured at 5 am)

Through the clouds in the evening!

The evening apparition!

As we enter the clutches of darkness

Captures from the Lunar Eclipse in June 2012

 

Among the dark clouds, a black and white study

Shaking clear of the clouds

Super moon, June 2013

In silver glow, a beauty shines

Fills the heaven in colours divine

Completes Gaia, this life sublime

The wonders of nature, la luna, to capture is mine!

Pick up lines by an Electrical Engineer - The Use-Me-Nots

Many a time one loses oneself in the world of one's work and passion and ends up interlinking it to one's life outside. Though, a guitar slung around the shoulder can bolster your chances at getting a girl ( I think it may be a big misconception, but I owe this observation to the general perception), or a rant in the higher order might score some goodie points, but, adding electrical engineering to flirting (and creating electro-flirting) can be dangerous (in orders of MegaDumboElectroVolts or MDEVs) if you happen to use pick up lines like the ones mentioned below :

#1 You give me shocks just like a 440 V bus-bar.

#2 You are a 1200 KV line girl, you have the potential to be my wife.

#3 Baby your ass is rounder than a motor's rotor.

#4 You are like a 250 W halogen, you brighten my world.

#5 Baby you improve my power factor better than a synchronous condenser.

#6 Are you E.H.V.? Cuz I have corona discharge around you.

#7 I am an electrical engineer, I can fix your sho(r)ts.

#8 Baby are you the secondary winding to my transformer, I feel magnetically coupled to you.

#9 You and I are so perfect, want to make a complete circuit?

#10 If you were a burger at McDonald's, you would be the new McShock.

#11 You are my AA battery, you charge me up.

#12 Baby your hair are like the windings distributed on the armature of my motor.

#13 I think I know the wavelengths you emit, cuz the length of the antenna should be λ/4.

#14 No stock-bridge damper can control me, cuz you darling cause vibrations on 'my power line' like no one else.

#15 You and I - in a cascade or cascode on the silicon bed? You decide.

#16 Can I earth you? You seem to be at a high potential.

#17 You are the cause of my dielectric breakdown, cz you bring sparks in my life.

#18 You are the perfect switch. You turn me on.

#19 You are the resonant frequency to my band pass filter.

#20  Easy on the current darling, the I²R losses leave me weak.

I rest my case!

Credits : Unearthly midnight rantings by N. and me

# EE - Summing Up Two Years

Decisions – the triggers of forks in the journey of our lives. A right decision today could propel you into a successful world and one in the wrong direction can send you tumbling down to the sunken depths of hell.

But wait! Let us lay philosophical doodling aside and come to the discussion at hand – Electrical Engineering – two years gone, two to go (O! God!)

Many have pointed at a small splatter on the pages of my life history, centered somewhere around July 2011. I answer their raised eye brows with a shrug and the hopefully meaningful phrase “’Cuz I wanted to!”

“But why Electrical Engineering? “they press on shamelessly.

And I meet their eyes with a small shrug and move on.

Electrical Engineering - A diverse field of engineering studies that deals with electromagnetic phenomenon and their applications in everyday life.I guess this line just about sums it up. So far, so good. It has been a tough ride, tougher than most (I guess!). The course has been hard to crack and the professors harder (True!) . Though the going has been tough, roughing it has been interesting and fun in itself. Another unfortunate thing that plagues me is the fact that I never seem to score good in subjects I like and vice - versa! It happened in school and hasn't ceased since. But, let us not drift off the beaten path (or rather the path that beat us). Here are some of my experiences with the subjects so far :

#Basic Electrical Sciences

Average. Still the toughest subject in your first year. The simplest laws had me reeling in pain (proverbial). 

#Electronic Devices and Circuits + Linear Integrated Circuits + Digital Circuits and Systems

Interesting. Easy. 

#Network Systems Analysis

Circuit laws back to haunt us again. We thought they were done for good in the first year, yet they resurfaced and BAM took us down again.

#Power Plant Engineering

It takes a lot for us to understand electrical stuff and they shove in thermodynamics and its minions. Good that the subject was easy.

#Electrical Machines (I + II)

It is like WW I and WW II combined with the nuclear bombings and even then you would have to throw more than a million tonnes of TNT everywhere. AC machines, DC machines, static machines, rotating machines- MACHINEESSSS!! (whew, that turned me upside down!). Apart from the blood sucking and flesh devouring monster that it is, the subject is highly interesting, my favorite so far (no marks for guessing my scores in this!). It is truly worth reading and enjoying so far as we do not have exams.

#Control Systems

Highly interesting . The Prof once said that it is quite easy to get a cent percent score in this subject. B%$^ Please ! We could not even manage 50% in the mid sems.

#Power Systems

Only if you are interested. Otherwise a big pain for your existence.

#Electromagnetic Field Theory

It is good! Easy too. But it has a lot of vectors...loads of them. So if you are bad at vector calculus, be prepared.

#Electrical and Electronic Measurements

Nothing to say actually

Reading back, I feel a fresher might never take to his/her heels and never consider electrical engineering after my rantings. Do not worry. I actually enjoy the subject. Though everyone expresses their sympathies with us (it usually happens before the Machines examination), I am proud to say that one day I'll be an electrical engineer.

To this day , I do not regret my decision (though it may seem otherwise).Many a times during the counselling days, people had advised me to go for Computer Science or Civil Engineering. Yet, till date I do not find anyone who ever recommends Electrical Engineering, no one except me! 

One does what one is passionate about. So, choosing electrical was never crazy. It was the best decision I took so far! #EE #YouRock

And I would like to end this post with a word of advice to the commoner :

A lot people say that electrical engineering is dangerous as you have to be near wires that carry current etc etc. For you my friends, true we work with dangerous levels of currents, true that the experiments in the power systems lab have voltages in the order of KVs (that is kilo volts for you!) and true that shocks kill! But, do not worry, all work is done in a safe environment and we are engineers and not unintelligent beings who won't know when to touch a wire and when not to!

So please, do not scare others by saying and I quote verbatim " Electrical toh dangerous hoti hai, isme toh taaron ko chuna padta hai" which translates to " Electrical is dangerous. We touch wires in that."

Honestly, have you heard about insulation i.e. i-n-s-u-l-a-t-i-o-n (Google it) 

For She is God!

For, in the beginning, God created his image

The portrait of truth and pure love,

The most beautiful entity of my life

My mother , the best gift from above.

She understands me, more than I know

Keeps secrets, that I hide from her

Is the only friend in moments of loneliness

Becomes my strength when I duck and cower.

Yet, the scoldings come once too often,

I forget the love and care, I turn sour.

But, it is my fault dear mother

Many times I have hurt you so far.

True , I am blessed to have her

True, its a miracle ; For me she is God

The perfect soul , the brightest light in my life, i love,

My mother, the best gift from above!

In Memoriam!

For years you toiled, a friend, a faithful mate

Helped shape life by the bit; I complained

yet, steady as a rock you stayed

In memoriam, I raise a toast, brother

In memoriam, I let those tears flow

Forever you I shall remember

Farewell precious, you leave a memory etched in gold

Written in fond memory of the first car we had in the family, a '96 model Maruti 800 which was retired two days back. It was the first car my father bought. The car I learnt to drive in. We used it more roughly than in a gentle manner. It had its share of accidents too. The last one was pretty brutal. On taking delivery of the new vehicle, both my father and I were sadder to see it go than being happy at the prospect of owning a new car. 

It is funny how humans attach sentiments to inanimate objects. It is weird that a normal momento means such a lot. I guess it is just how we are wired .

We'll never forget you!

Story of my life - Bad connections

Internet! The most widely used technological development today has permeated through to all nooks and crannies of our lives. It has become the source of knowledge (quite in competition with printed books which it gobbles by the million daily). Be it on the personal computer, the cellphone or the tablet we've come to consider it an integral part of our lives and an important part it is too.

But, what happens when the bond you cherish is weak i.e. when your internet connection needs a CPR every now and then?

Well, that is the story of my life! After the tall promises that stretched the truth to the breaking point, I decided to go for a Govt. internet provider and had the BSNL 256Kbps connection installed.  Little did I know that it would bring as much joy as sorrow - not just to me but to a lot of people , especially N. This is how a lot of our Skype conversations have commenced :

A: Hello

N: Hello?

A: Helloooooooooo Can you hear me?

N: Can you hear me? 

A: Hellooooo

N: Hello Hello Hello?

(%$^&$*%&^*$^$% ) Disturbance in the signal

Skype : Internet Connection problem. (or) You are offline 

and then we return to Google Talk, where to our luck the following message is displayed - "Not connected."

Then comes the mechanical part of the conversation : Switching the modem on/off,restarting the system, hitting yourself!

A little while later N . calls 

N: Internet not working?

A: Nope. Sorry

N and A: (Curse the BSNL people)

It is worse when this happens in the middle of a conversation:

N: You know an awesome thing happened today?
A: What?
N: .............................
A: N.? What happened?
N: ..............................
A: N.? Are you there?
Skype: Internet connection problem (or) You are offline.

Arrrrgh!!

Too much of a trust on Govt. services can prove hazardous as, the people BSNL employs for troubleshooting take their own sweet time coming to rectify your problems. (It maybe that the number of complaints is large ). 

Much to my surprise/anger the same problem persists in the esteemed Govt. Uni. that I attend.While the wi fi connection was feeble in the first year , now, the hostel network has taken to switching off between 10pm to After - I - sleep pm/am. This leaves us with the customary phone call where the curses and insults are directed towards the college now instead of BSNL (I suspect BSNL is the network provider here too!) And so I wait out the time for a lucky connection or sulk and go to bed.

This is my life - hanging by the thread of a bad internet connection.

'Cuz my Education (At School) was Incomplete!

After a hectic week of mid semester exams (Ooooh Yes the BAD Electrical Engineering ones!), this Sunday was earmarked as the 'cool - off' day after the customary 'party night' on Saturday. I sauntered through the day without any serious activity and it was only later in the night that N. involved me in one.
Apparently, according to the serious observations of the oh-so-many people that N. informed, there happened to be a serious flaw in my education. While kids all over India had spent hours at the game of Name- Place- Animal - Thing, we had been missing this all along during our school years. This had come as a shock to the masses (N. couldn't believe her ears!) and many even expressed utter disappointment at the statement of this fact( N.'s face-palm). But, we were up in arms to defend the memories we so cherish and the three musketeers - M. , S. and me took on N. on the matter. A debate ensued and while there wasn't a clear winner, I decided to go through the rites of passage of the game and it turned out to be fun even now. Half and hour of fun as kids in the primary (Well you got me this time N. , we really missed 'something ' during our school years).

Name - Place - Animal - Thing

Rules of the game are simple (Primary - school - simple) :
1. Take a sheet of paper and divide it into four columns - label them points , name, place, animal, thing.
2. One person starts reciting the alphabet inaudibly in his/her mind when the other person says START.
3. The other person says STOP and the reciter has to say the letter that he/she was on when STOP was  called .
4. Begin writing a name, place, animal and thing using the letter that was called.
5. The first one to finish writing all calls STOP and then all must stop.
6. Points are awarded.  (We gave 10 for correct, 0 for incorrect or blank and 5 for correct and same by both)

In the end after 10 rounds taking up the good part of half an hour I ended up losing by 70 points! (I hope my Guru sees this, I lived up to his 'gyan' . )

 So, it was at the age of 21, that I first learnt the game of Name - Place - Animal - Thing.