So I moved to this old new place (closer to work - now I am one of those rare animals in Bengaluru that commute on foot), on April 1 (note the date), alone (but not lonely, though I miss my friends very much), but the Internet moved in about a month late. No one else's fault, actually - I just wasn't around when the technician showed up, and he didn't know my cell phone number. I would be busy on weekdays, and travelling or just plain lethargic on weekends. Besides, I really didn't expect them to act so fast. Finally, I called up a BSNL customer service center to check the status of my application, got redirected to and by several people several times, and eventually found the right officer in charge of such business. And I had the good fortune to be addressed "saar" by our comrades in ghorment, several times, in an otherwise regular day.

Well, what can I say. This humble citizen is extremely honoured. Someone calling me saar!

( ... )

In which the protagonist is home alone and greps source codes for pr0n. And the computer plays moral police. Hahahaha.

(Actually, I was merely looking at gaim source code. You don't to believe me? You don't have to believe me. I grep and I grope the internets for pr0n. Just like everybody else.)

In other news, both my bank accounts do not allow me to login to their online services. When I try to call customer support on the number given in the debit card, phone company announces that the number has been changed. But they would not tell me rightaway, they will only respond to text message. So I send message, and their reply message says that they don't know the new number. So I grep the internets, find the phone banking number, punch through an labyrinthine IVR system that ultimately leads to nowhere, and finally give up in a state of heightened frustration. There is a form in the bank's website to request login reenabling. It requires me to enter my customer id. Customer id is eight digits, but the form will take only seven.

And so on, ad infinitum. I don't have the lifetime enough to put down it all.

Turns out that software is only adding to the brokenness of the universe. Damn.

shiv: So I kinda like this place
shiv: We have ties with all major univs in the US except MIT
shiv: So something good will turn up
shiv: and maybe they can fund my camera
shiv: I just have to put it in the equipments needed list
sajith: you evil dude!
shiv: I am soooo evil
shiv: I am Mugambo of Coimbatore

(Token post for June - I just could not allow it to pass like that. Noticed that I'd been silent here for over a month, which probably is a Good Thing. Maybe even an Accomplishment. Thanks to the four gentle souls that nudged!)

Curious History students of the future might wonder what made the doofus so crazy about photography and where it all began. This is for them. Well, not all, but part of this.

( history crap )

Search engines brought very little information about the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe, its history and the political process after the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950. Though Bylakuppe (or Bylakkuppe - I am not too sure about the correct spelling, or if there is one) appeared to be rather famous on the Internet, if the number of pictures out there are any indication.

( +2 )

From Indiatogether.org:

• Compassion at the top: P Sainath remembers K R Narayanan, "one of India's finest diplomats and its best President ever." Also read Narayanan's Republic Day speech of 2000. Sainath says -

  Four years after he made that brilliant speech, Indian voters showed they were much closer to his way of thinking. They dumped one of the worst governments this country had ever suffered.

• Ecology for the people: Ramachandra Guha on inclusive approaches in wildlife conservation.

Also had a small haul at the DC Books stall in Bangalore Book Festival. What they have here is so little compared to what they'd have in the shop back home, but oh well. Feels soooo good and happy when spending on Malayalam books :)

The picture is an old experiment that was gone wrong. Now it has turned out to be useful this way -

• So I need to wear glasses after all. The ophthalmologist dropped dilating potion into my eyes; in a while I could no longer see the pretty face clearly; everything around softened, blurred, finally lost the edges to merge into streaks of light. That stayed for a few hours. All the while - when walking back to home, trying to recognize things that come across, trying not to bump against people and lamp posts, while wishing I could read something instead of lying on my back - I felt thankful for this gift of vision, the ability to look around, to observe, to hold a book in the hands, to read it.


• Quick roundabout on road - Bangalore, Mysore, Gopalaswamy Betta, Bylakkuppe, back to Bangalore, Hyderabad and Secundarabad, again back to Bangalore - in six days. And now here I am at the workplace, on a fine Sunday evening. Damn this, why does JS_GetStringBytes() return undefined occasionally?


• Last week, came across this caucasian woman at Commercial Street - she wore a kurta, had mehndi on her palms, maybe a bindi on her forehead, and a thoroughly fascinated look on her face. Maybe she was meeting her India. I too was fascinated by the Deepavali and Ramzan crowd, but didn't had a camera with me. But that look in her eyes and the crowd deserved to be a photograph :-/

(Title of this post is stolen from Monet Refuses the Operation, Lissel Mueller's wonderful poem that showed up in minstrels list sometime back.)

A colleague, in an apparent deep hack mode. No lightning is striking the *computer*, thankfully.

I wish I could sit like that, but for the damn ADD. Computing is (was?) what I love and care for, but the realization that I don't know crap about anything has begun disturbing. That probably is a good sign...

Got to do something. Something, like, work. I wish I knew.

You and Your Research talk by Dr. Richard W. Hamming, via LTU.

Obligatory blockquote:

The people who do great work with less ability but who are committed to it, get more done than those who have great skill and dabble in it, who work during the day and go home and do other things and come back and work the next day. They don’t have the deep commitment that is apparently necessary for really first-class work.

Hmmph.

Also, a little more link love, this time for Practical Common Lisp. (How I wish...)

( mountain stuff. )

Here, a little link love for Deepak - Hampi!

(Vignesh, if you are reading this, sorry about stealing that phrase. But this is how languages evolve, you know.)

***

Update(11:17PM): Er, almost forgot. Happy birthday bloggy. I'm sorry I'm late and forgot to bring flowers :(

It's been a hard day's night,
And I've been working like a dog,
I should be sleeping like a log,
But when I get home to you,
I find the things that you do,
Will make me feel alright.

:)