No more COEP
But thankfully, only from next year, I think. The powers-that-be have managed to obtain autonomy for the old college . In one fell swoop of the eraser, they are preparing to do away with the only thing that saves COEP's goose: all the brand equity associated with the name "COEP". PIET? Who's gonna know what that is? A misspelling? Or it will be confused with PICT. And such a vapid and mundane name! Pune Institute of Engineering Technology? Hah! Glad to be out before all this uniforms, mid-sems exams, and now PIET nonsense. And anyway, methinks not much will change with "autonomy" unless the staff can be chased away. Does the administration have the will? Lemme leave it at this. Perhaps I'm like Seshan here: cursing the system while partly being in the middle of it with my teaching activity.
Or am I wrong? Is it good to cast aside "COEP" and associated baggage of negativism with that moniker?
And what will happen to the battle cries? Awaaz Kunacha? PIETcha? Yuck!

The Legend of Bhagat Singh...
...actually has some nice songs (IMHO of course). Didn't think Rahman would achieve the cultural crossover to the Punjabi style, but I found he used it in some songs without losing his usual touch. Particularly in Pagdi Sambhal Jatta, the harmonium was very interestingly used. One of those rare songs that Sukhwindra Singh can sing without being too odious, it is quite a rousing song as it must have been intended to be. I also liked Mahive and found Rahman's Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna quite melodious. Yes, I am no music pundit, but I liked most of the music. These days, I also listen to the lyrics (post Lagaan awareness) and was surprised to see Sameer to do a decent job (not exactly reputed for that in the past).

And would Fatboy send me some particulars please? Of course one suspects people, but it would be nice for the person to own up (read: I will not be able to guess who you are except for some wild shot-in-the-dark, so pliss do honours). I am sure there is some "Blog-etiquette" rule somewhere that behooves commentors (or is commentators?) in not being entirely anon.

Poona...
was what Badminton was once called (being invented by a few Raj chaps here in (then) Poona, with very little imagination I must add (have I balanced my parantheses?)). And so appropriately for a Punekar, I started playing on Saturday at the WIE Complex where I surprised the following triad:

1. My fellow players: They thought I was a complete rookie (I am, if you don't consider playing on the streets years ago as experience) and then for some reason, I behaved most un-rookie like by smashing a few around. They refused to believe my greenhorn status and there were a few "tu bahar aa re, tereko dekhta" faces.
2. My parents: Who wouldn't believe all of the above, except for the "I am a rookie" stuff. My father was rather concerned that I may not have been able to touch anything or, granting that minor miracle, return the shuttle.
3. And me: For I knew not, how out of shape I am. In a couple of hours, i had the muscles and joints in unified protest (the struggle continues till today) and I am happy that the next session will be only next Saturday, by which time I will have been sufficiently mended enough to be punished for some past sin again...

News that's of use...

• Respected Marathi musician Sudhir Phadke passed away.
• Agarkar got 1 and two 0's. But this time (with the accompaniment of egg on Sidhu's face(yah!), who doubted the lad's abilities), Agarkar got them in the order that mattered: 100. Now if he was like Sidhu, he'd never play well until being in danger of being dropped.
• And Varsha Bhonsle has more dragon-fire to dart.

This spree of blogging comes courtesy "work" and I have a feeling ki is raat ki subah nahin. Not good news for one with bodyache and cold as companions (read me).

~Blogging (~ means "not")
When I am (~Blogging), I'm reading other blogs and wondering how people have the time, frankly :). It also surprises me how much people are willing to bare their minds in public: being of a rather retiring kind who wouldn't usually display emotions in the open, it is quite a revelation.
As usual, I followed links to the other blogs like to Nidhi's and others and found it very interesting to see journals, diaries and so much more of pieces of people's lives upfront. Quite commend their spirit as I know this will not be as emotionally astonishing.
I have a theory that the life of each and every individual is pretty interesting (though that person may not know or agree ) and these blogs do much to bear it out.

Yessirree...
As I mentioned, my friend Nikhil and me take this class of undergraduates at COEP. And I am more than irritated by people calling us Sirs. One understands the intent, but considering what we thought of the profs. we used to call "Sir", I guess we prefer being hailed by our more plebian names. But for some students, it's just a habit, some sort of strange conditioning that makes them refer to the guys with the chalk thus, even though we're just three years elder to them. Probably like the Bollywood suffix of "-ji". We have just one meagre antidote: to call the offenders "Sir" or "Madam" in return.

..And on the subject, I quite liked Stroustrup's book on why C++ is the way it is. Having spent most of my time on C and only of late getting my hands dirty with objects, it is a revelation as to why things are the way they are. I now teach the subject of the Principles of Programming Languages at my undergrad college COEP that has much to do with how languages evolved, in particular C++. It is quite a help. Now I probably will tell my class how a "class" ended up that way. Nice and luscious quotes sprinkled by the creator of C++ who professes an interest in philosophy.

Fantastic quote I picked up from Bjarne Stroustrup's book on the Evolution of C++ is now featured on the left in this blog.

An old pal
Interesting how "keep in touch" is often the biggest broken promise in the world. Ruminations apart, was good to hear from old teammate Sujay with whom I had a great quizzing partnership for 4 years. He's moving to Detroit after graduating from Penn State.

Linux Milestones
Linux Journal has a listing of 100 most significant events in the history of Linux.

In the future
So many things to do! And I wanna blog too! I have all these things to cast out on this page, but don't have the mental strength right now. So just as a li'l reminder for me, here are those things:
Mr. Bedi & the Indian team, the BC quiz-survival, new feature, interesting blogging, The list of Indian Bloggers, Books I'm digging currently, More on Mastermind, Delhi-ccup, Name throwing. Forgotten the others. Shall I say grandly: "Coming Soon!" ?

The question many have on their minds is: Where has all the rain gone? As one who had taken a trip from Shimla to Delhi to Pune last week in pretty much a straightish line, one wondered what happened to the normal monsoon? Anyway, as Nikhil pointed out, it is quite a good time to take a monsoon trek or picnic, it is not very wet outside (tongue-entrenched-in-cheek).

Headphones with no cords: more at this NYTimes story

MMI se

First thing, as M. Dupond & Dupont would say: mum's the word. Not supposed to say anything about the Mastermind results in public. But, can tell you that I did very well. Read what you want into that. If you want more info, send me an e-mail and I'll spill the beans!

Back to Pune! Really missed my life here a lot, even though I keep cribbing about it!