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Everybody has a secret they fight to keep – a secret so dark that it makes their skin crawl and feel like numerous caterpillars have deigned to walk on it. For some, it is inappropriate thoughts. For others it is a petty crime. For yet others, it could be political affiliations, Nazi party memberships even, things that will make them outcasts in the current social fabric.

My dirty secret is something that will probably earn condemnation from most of my friends. Some will smile and make polite public noises about how it is all fine and yet privately swear off any association with me in the future. Maybe my inbox will be flooded with emails with “WTF” on their subjects. Maybe people that I haven’t spoke to in years will call and pray to get my voice mail because they don’t want nothing to do with me and yet are forced by social pressures to commiserate with my less than perfect life now. (more…)

One Halloween, a few summers ago, on an unusually balmy night, one decided to adopt the best spirit of Halloween that one could and dress up as a M.i.D.

Sadly, and most typically, no one understood! And since then disillusionment has crept in. *sigh*

The last few weeks, I have been getting, on an average, one invite a day to join Shelfari. While some of them are from people that I know on a personal basis, a lot of them are from casual acquaintances (friends of friends and the types). And I asked one friend if she had sent me an invite, she said she had. But the same day she sent me an invite, I got two more invites from people who she had introduced to me and who I haven’t talked in about a year or more. And not only that, I am also getting “friendly reminders” a few days after the original invite. (more…)

… in what was then the land of opportunity, it seems now that I am not so sure if this IS the land of opportunity. Sure, an eternity has seemed to have passed me by. But as they say, the grass is definitely greener on the other side.

August 17th also holds another significance. It’s three years since I defended my master’s thesis on machine scheduling, which is certainly an achievement of personal importance.

As always, Arun has his post up already about August 17 and our Sabena flight via Brussels.

It is natural that everyone feels important at some points in their life and wishes that people take them more seriously. Of course in a egotistic bastard’s (e.g. me) life, those points happen everyday. And that’s when pretentious, verbose blog posts (like this one for example) result.

But, having said that, the only reason that the last mentioned does not happen to often on this blog is because of a serious lack of time in between the hectic weekdays and the languorous weekends spent on the couch with a X-Box controller in my hands. So consider yourself lucky, ladies and gentlemen and pray that I stay a couch potato.

Right. But even with my big heart, one part of me does fight that “couch potato” tag and goads me into taking up every opportunity to spend time out of the confines of the apartment. So when one such opportunity came up a couple of weeks ago, that part of me jumped up in glee.

So, go to UberDesi and read TOW the SAJA convention ‘07 and look at some pictures here (Thanks Preston!) and you might even catch a glimpse of me somewhere along the way.

I saw you last Sunday. Where? Yeah, I was on the Turnpike heading North, when you went past. I tried to get your attention, but you did not seem to notice. It’s been sometime since we met, but you are as hot as I can remember. In fact, when I heard a couple of months ago that you had a makeover, I was skeptical. I never would have agreed if someone had told me that a makeover would make you better. To me, your beauty was unsurpassed. But when I laid my eyes upon you that summer evening, I realized that I had been pleasantly disproved. (more…)

(Updates at the bottom of the post)

I am not a rabid hit-counter. But I have received close to 25K visits (and more than 50K pageviews) in the last 10 months since I moved to my own domain. So when the built-in reports from the WP Google Analytics plugin informed me that no one had come to my blog on the 16th of May, I was certainly taken aback. And now I see that apparently there were just 3 hits on my blog yesterday (the 17th of May). That is certainly not a cause of alarm, for sometimes even I wonder why I get the hits I get usually. But having having said that, like any other self respecting blogger, I do care for incoming links. (more…)

Oh, Yuvan! You Spidey fanboy, you! You had to use it, didn’t you? But, I don’t have any complaints because it does sound good. The rest of you (if you are still wondering what I am talking about) check out the interlude between 1:14 and 1:32 of this song below.

Thanks Karthik, for the mention on itwofs.

Oz, the crazy brain responsible for PFC, is now a published author. This was his first work of fiction and was first published online on his blog. The book is available for download in electronic format.

Way to go Oz bhai! Looking forward to seeing more of your work on print.