Manas Garg Speaks

Moving to a new blog

2007-12-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

For this new year, I've gifted myself a new blog - with my own domain name - http://www.manasg.com/

All my future posts will be on the new site. Please update your links and blogrolls :)

Oh - am hosting it on nothing less than mediatemple - yeah baby!

Of Unicorns and Centaurs

2007-12-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

Of course it cannot be of either.. None of them exist!

But we do. And there is no mystery about us. We're humans after all!

But don't you think that friends can be more mysterious than strangers?

Loopholes

2007-11-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

answer to life, the universe, and everything

2007-11-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

"when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true"
-The Alchemist

Sometimes you get this itch to complete things that have been pending for a very long time. Like for the last couple of days, I've had this killing thirst to finish reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy. I started reading this a couple of years back (well, yeah) but had to abandon for some reason I don't remember.

So there I was sitting in my office on a Friday evening. What better way to mark the end of the weekdays than to get H2G2 from a bookstore and make the best of a weekend?!

I went to Walden book store - pretty nice. Sadly, They were out of stock.

I din't lose heart - No Sir! I went straight to the City Center mall where they have the best book store in town - Crosswords. I made a dash to the fiction section and was amazed to find myself amidst huge racks of sci-fi. It did not take even a minute - I found the Douglas Adams shelf right in front of me. My heart leapt. I could already hear the drumming in my ears. I could easily see The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life the Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish and even Mostly Harmless!!

Later, the man at the counter told me that the Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy is not expected to be in stock for the next 10 days.

Alchemist! Are You listening?

Shikhar

2007-11-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Its a movie. You might not have even heard about it - Ajay Devgan and Shahid Kapoor. Ajay Devgan plays a builder - a bad mean dirty fellow. Shahid Kapoor is a nice cute guy who Ajay Devgan makes friends with and spoils. Puts him into the habit of drugs, gambling and the sort.

I don't know what happened after that 'coz I could not bear it anymore.

Update: Managed to finish it. Not that bad afterall - typical Bollywood ishtyle masala with a social message. Don't watch it. You can do without it.

Why don't I blog?

2007-11-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

I don't even remember the last time I wrote in this text area! Somehow I've not got that itch I used to get every once in a while to write something down.

I'm missing all my pals in college today. Suddenly.

Speaking with Hari is always a pleasure - even if it is a small chat. He is one the the few guys on the planet who know (well.. almost) everything about me. It was fun doing those night outs in our Lab.

I miss Spider too.

And the recent news I've got about Spider is not all that great - the circumstances in college have become more difficult - Internet access to First year students is a welcome step, but it comes down heavily on the popularity of Intranet sites like Delta and Spider.

Then there was the deplorable decision of the institute authorities to totally disallow any form of interaction among the freshers and the senior students. The C course Spider taught was the *BEST* introduction to programming one can get. There used to be notable difference in the performance of students who used to attend the Spider C course compared to other first time coders.

And finally, all this has affected the enthusiasm of the team.

Bad times come and go, and even this one will. The Matlab course was a sweeping success, and I'm sure Hari and his army have something up their sleeve.

This post was supposed to be an explanation of why haven't I been blogging (see the title :P). Emotion overtook me? Maybe.

I was very attached to Spider. I saw it as my own thing. It was very hard to give up too. After 6 months now, I've tried hard to detach myself - now it is only like a void left inside me, and I do miss its presence in my everyday schedule often.

I should stop. I dont think I'm going to write anything merry tonight.

Donkey and the carrot

2007-06-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

I am finally an engineer. Four years of hard (read : hardly any) work have finally got me my degree. I'm not excited.

What I am excited about is my first job. My workplace is awesome, the people are great and you see good work happening around you.

All this put aside, there is something I've always felt. When I was in class X, everyone told me - Manas, do well in your boards and life will be a cakewalk.

I did well in my class X boards.

When I was in classes XI and XII, I was told that getting through a great Engineering Institute would secure my future.

I did.

In college, I was told that be in the first 5 in your class, and everything will be fine.

I did.

In my senior year, I was told that getting a great job would really settle my life.

I did.

Now I'm being told to make sure I perform well at the job as that will make sure that I have a successful career. Another set of people tells me to plan for my higher studies to ensure a great life.

Then I guess it will be about getting a good wife and then being happy in my marriage and then ensuring everything goes well for my kids.

When does it stop?

Spider - my love

2007-05-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

(This post will make sense to you only if you were in NIT Trichy during 2006-07 or know me pretty well)

What is it about Spider that I've been trying to prove? Our supremacy? Intellect? Or plain addiction to work?

I don't really know.. Never thought in these terms when we worked. It was a real morale booster to think about changing the 'image' of the group in the minds of the campus junta, and once that had been done, the next idea to motivate ourselves was 'work harder than anyone else' or to be the 'best'.

But all this was only internal. Only to motivate ourselves. Why we do all this is still not clear to me. Maybe we just love working.. and want to create a breed that loves to work too..

Or maybe its the recognition. When people stop us in the middle of the road and say "Hey! you're in spider right? I saw your photo.. you guys have done awesome work for 1st years!" It feels nice.

No. I don't think any of these are real reasons.

Here it is: I feel immensely satisfied with myself when I go to bed late at night dead tired from working in our lab. I feel that the day was worth it.

I've loved working for Spider and I hope I'll never stop.

Saifai

2007-02-15T15:42:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered how much is the power of one?

I did.

Saifai is a small village in Uttar Pradesh. There was nothing special about it, but that was only until the one in this story - Mulayam Singh took birth here.

I visited Saifai last month, and it was a treat. A high rising government hospital that beat Apollo Delhi in looks with an emergency section made only of glass panels, A state of the art medical college, a brand new university campus, hostels with amenities unheard of in the best campuses in the country!

Roads that looked like runways - even the humble Santro managed a 145 km/hr

And a village fair that was blessed with 100% rebate in Sales Tax on two wheelers and farm equipment - More than 10000 motorcycles were sold in 4 days.

The power of One.

Had he been on Orkut, I'd have become his fan.

The 5 goods trains

2006-07-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was returning to Kanpur from New Delhi when I saw these five goods trains standing parallel to each other just before Kanpur Central railway station. Their engines were aligned and they looked ready to race.

That is not the interesting part. This is: One of the trains was carrying steel hoops, two were full with heaps of coal, another was a petrol carrier and the carogo of last one, which could not be made out, I imagined to be cement.

I suddenly felt proud of my country - its actually racing towards development. Its there everywhere.

Oh India - I love you so.

Another addict

2006-06-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

I have been addicted to the internet for only about a month. Though I have always been a regular, i was never an addict. The simple reason for this change is internet connectivity in this campus which is much better than where I spend the greater part of my year.

Anyways, I am not writing this to talk about connectivity issues but instead to share this feeling of completeness.

Being connected to the net has helped me do things I have always wanted to do. Writing - in the form of this blog, and exploring the world - in the form of browsing. I suddenly have so many more things to learn and to find out about. I feel more satisfied in my bed at night when I think about all that I did during the day. The satisfaction of having learnt and explored is immense. And so is the satisfaction of having written.

Internet is helping me realize the kind of person I want to be and is also helping me be it - bringing to me this euphoric feeling of completeness .

I'm addicted. For life.

... but you promised it would get activated by 5 pm!

2006-06-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

All right. lets talk about something different now. Something in stark contrast to my previous and well debated post.

How many times has it happened that you bought a new prepaid sim card and it got activated when the dealer promised you it would? How many times has Domino's Pizza or Pizza Hut messed up your order?

How many times did you have to yell at that robot voiced customer care executive?

How many times have you actually got what was promised in on-the-phone customer services?

And they say India is the pinnacle of the service sector. Rubbish. I could fill this page with examples of bad service experiences. In fact it would be easier to mention the occasions when I actually got the quality of service I was promised.

Why is it so? Even after total computerization of records? Is the workforce to blame or the strange demands of the consumer? Or do i expect too much? (Asking them to stop sending you ads on Airtel is not bad enough to take 2 months I guess..)

I suppose this sector has still not matured in India. I don't know how it works in other parts of the world, but it always leaves me unsatisfied when I call any customer support service, and that is almost always so.

Waiter! There is a fly in my Soup!

2006-05-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

It is not often that we realize how ignorant we have become of the hard work that goes into services that we can simply buy off the shelf.

If that doesn't make sense, lets look at it this way - we go to a fancy restaurant, order, eat, ask for the cheque and that's about it. I have almost forgotten that food needs to be prepared before it can be served to me.. I only see it as if the waiter takes my order and comes back after a while with whatever I asked for. I don't see the hard work, the preparation, the time and energy that must've gone into it.

Maybe it is because of staying away from home for so long. I don't get to see food being prepared. Food is like an off the shelf commodity for so many of us. Order, wait and eat. Why care for who works how hard to make it - I'm paying for it, am I not?

I don't know, but I feel guilty.

Who moved my cheese?

2006-05-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Humans are supposed to be the species that evolved more than any other. The one that has undergone maximum change. And also the one that gained the most out of every change that took place.

Then why - why is it that we resist change so much? Why is it that I want to continue living in that same old house when the place my family has moved to is much better, even if in a different city? Why does Geetanjali not want to move in with her sister and wants to continue living with her flatmates? Why do I prefer sitting at the same workstation in the lab everyday? Why do I feel uncomfortable when I walk in and find someone else already working on it, even when all systems are the same?

The reason is that we are emotional beings. We get attached to things. Things - not just people, but even to activities, habits and routines. And when something changes, we face the double problem of coping with the new and missing what is not there anymore.

Being a little uncomfortable towards change is okay. But is being adverse to change? I don't know. What is it that is more important - our feelings or the routine? I guess the answer differs in different situations.

The problem arises when both are big. And you have to choose. It is so strange - I love to be free - but I hate to choose when life makes me do it.

Words

2006-05-22T02:29:00.000-07:00

"You say it best
When you say nothing at all"

Someone dedicated this song to me long back. Words were not as important then. SMS was Rs 4 per message, and internet access Rs 30 per hour. Silence was the most beautiful way of expressing yourself. And apparently, I used it effectively.

"Its only words, and words are all I have
To take your heart away"

SMS became free and internet access cheap. But silence became difficult and expensive to express.

I was communicating silence and they, 1700 miles away, thought it was a network problem.

First One

2006-05-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

I'm new to this thing.. The Blog stuff.. Most of the people with blogs I know have them in a horrible horrible state.. So lets see if I can do any better.. Lets see if the excitement lives!

Adios!