I am in a good mood these days because my Sims are in a good mood. I love that game(The only game I like other than NFSU(More on NFSU later)). Maybe still inside me is a little girl who likes to play with dolls in a doll house. And which little girl wouldn’t like dolls that are intelligent, smart, have a multi-faceted personality, get hungry, have a social life, like taking a bath, make their bed after they wake up, watch TV, check their e-mails, pay their bills, cook spaghetti and meat balls and <sniggers> take care of their bladder.The game play is amazingly life like (Except at a few points like when they pull a book out of nowhere when asked to read in the bed) and is challenging as hëll. It isn’t easy to keep your Sim happy and cheerful all the time and take care of their tough often contradicting aspirations.For example a beautiful Sim that I’ve named Arwen has an alarming ambition of going out with three guys at once <Tries and fails to keep a straight face>. They lead complex lives like we do (Although I have never met anybody who’d like to complicate life by going out with three people at one time) and that is exactly what makes the game so riveting.But there is something that the game has managed to teach me (Not referring to the lesson of not going out with three guys at a time)
I was playing with this character of a young girl.As it came about she started having(or rather I made her have)a romantic relationship with a guy in her neighborhood.They romanced each other,did all the things young couples do(Not all the way though 
) and I was generally having a good time during their whirlwind courtship.Then the guy proposed to my character and since I was curious to see which level they take their relationship to I made my character accept.So the guy’s character also moved into my control now as in I now had to take care of his happiness too.All hëll broke lose.It was hard enough time taking care of that one character now I had to keep another character happy too.My characters grew miserable.I couldn’t take care of both their needs simultaneously.They cribbed all the time,fought with each other and finally I grew so tired that I quit playing the game.Then I realized maybe marriage is a bit like this…just the thing is that there is no restart or quit button when you can’t take the responsibility anymore.
Not about Apple…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Blogging, College, Headshot, Humour, Random thoughts, Technology
Drafted on 13th Jan, 2009
Ever since I got my hands on a broadband Internet connection, which happened to be when I was in class IX, I have been looking up to owning something which was on display on this site. Infact, anything. There was something about those creations, that to my mind, they were as perfect as things could get. They had such a hypnotic aura surrounding themselves, that just their thoughts negated any close or better alternative/competitor from the vicinity of my mind. While browsing the site, a part of my head refuses to accept that this could get any better, in the nice way that is. All of it was just perfect.
Each time there was a new product, or an update to an old one, I used to be astonished to why I couldn’t imagine that it could get this much better. It challenged me for a very long time to imagine significantly revolutionary improvements to anything Apple, and that holds true even today. It was and still is very irrational to be frank. People have shown me, and have rationally tried convincing me to look beyond it for other alternatives. A much cheaper Alienware for instance for a MacBook Pro… I became a hypocrite subsequently to accept and even argue with Apple fanboys that it is always better to buy alternatives. But then, I knew that if given a choice, I would get myself an Apple no matter what.
But then eventually I realized that I need not keep my fetish towards Apple confidential anymore. I started admitting to people that Apple’s website serves the same purpose to me as Art of Living Programs do to some and pørn does to others… Even my endocrine system started giving weird reactions to this stimuli called Apple. Be it a silent mention, or a few pictures… The effect of a video or a keynote lasted even longer. I used to be lost in thoughts whenever I saw someone using an Apple. Mind you though, this was the story till the later half of 2007. But it took me a lot more maturity which I acquired much later to realize what kind of change fantasizing this way of Apple brought in me. I can probably call it the equivalent of taking a course in Technology Appreciation and Criticism (along the same lines as Music or Movie Appreciation). Appreciating elegance in interface, build quality aesthetics, and their subsequent (long-term) benefits amongst other abstract concepts.
Feelings like these grew stronger around the time I became serious enough to think about my career when I happened to read the Market Profile pages on Apple’s website. Wherever I think of myself on a job of my dreams, some or the other product from Apple made its way to fit just perfectly giving me insane satisfaction of my own job/work in dreamland. There were several nights which were spent sleeplessly pondering of working in a big Fortune 100 company where I used to dream more of the Apple product I would be using there than the actual job profile itself.
All this might seem just too kiddish, but it isn’t really as much as you think. Apple became more than just the PC-equivalent of a BMW, it turned into a symbol of technological elegance, or rather excellence. I badly needed to own one now and preach the whole world on what makes it rule so much with an even more powerful urge to turn the whole world into a technological critic. My interest towards learning and education jumped up with this new drive in me, just because I know that I would get to learn loads of new things to apply which I would use Apple computers like the real scientists. Now that I didn’t feel as odd as before to be vocal about my ancient obsession with Apple, I felt the time has arrived to have a part of Apple around me. And yes, I was being a cautious hypocrite when I questioned the likes of a few people when they got themselves an Apple while paying a hefty premium at the price of which they could probably get better hardware.
PS – This was written in a state of severe craving for an Apple product post a remarkably dreadful pre-bored examination. Due to acute lethargy, I decided to keep it un-edited or un-proof-read. Gives a more uncut, realistic feel to it I guess. Good luck for the rest of the entry if you endured it till here… 
Five Months Later… A week before DCE-CEE…
I got myself an iPod Touch and soon after using it, Dad got himself an iPhone 3G. Therefore, the whole purpose of the post concluded.
I just couldn’t just start a post with this. To add to this aesthetic complex of mine, I am chronically infected with writer’s block from the other person who calls this blog home. So well, I dug up some of my half written posts, around thirty of them from an unorganized text file, and put the most relevant one as a preamble. And then warning you, the rest of this entry could be even more unpleasantly unreadable than what you encountered before. Forgive me until I get over writer’s block, I’ve barely managed come out of the shocker Indian entrance exams detonated on almost every aspect of my life… I’ve done my job of warning you, every line of this post might eventually start looking like a rant.
Since both those devices were purchased outside India, they weren’t quite as pinching to the pockets as they would have been here. For some reason, Apple thinks people here are too rich to buy Apple products. Haven’t they seen Slumdog Millionaire themselves? [I choose to change the topic before this too grows into a rant]
Note: From here onwards, this blog would refer iPod Touch/iPhones as iPhods as they are equivalent devices with the key difference being in the ability to make calls using a GSM network.
And well, I expected nothing less than this from Apple. It feels just so great in the hands, and its a pleasure to use it. Everything is just so intuitive, your guesses on how to go about the interface are more or less usually right, with the smallest learning curve over any device I’ve used before… Apple has made a daunting substitute to the stereotyped smart-phones from RIM and HTC. Before I got to own it, I was just awestruck with a YouTube video of Google Earth running on it. Overall, a neat piece of technology with its own share of rant-able aspects as well, which I, for now think is forgivable or overlook-able.
Recent Update:
Read this for a very detailed story on how I got Dad’s iPhone 3G turned from a fat iPod Touch with a camera to the coolest smart-phone an MTNL Dolphin SIM has ever entered in the Vietnamese way… More on that soon…
I upgraded to iPhod OS 3.0 on my iPod. Neat changes. Some might not even notice it, but every refinement Apple makes to its already beautiful interface makes me smile with contentment. A simple change of making a sliding gallery of screenshots at the end of app descriptions in the App Store app is an excellent UI enhancement. The ability to recognize long sequences of numbers in the Notes App as potential contacts makes a utilitarian addition. I bet Spotlight Search is something everyone finds useful. I use GNOME-Do a lot on my PC, alongside Google Desktop Search, with an excellent calling hotkey. I am more of a keyboard guy who avoids going near his mouse. Maybe I have evolved to become one due to the weird table I keep my PC on. And a salute to Apple for making Spotlight search just a flick away, literally. And repeating what Abhishek once told me after he made a similar upgrade, I can finally use my iPhod as a netbook replacement in my college thanks to phod-wide copy-paste which is a pleasure to do. The implementation is definitely better-thought than (m)any others I’ve seen.
Also, being in company of Mac-sexuals (do notify me if there is pop-culture term for such people!), and me having turned into one already, I have in a very small insignificant way become an interface, quality and polishing/refinement observer at least, if not a connoisseur. Perhaps every Apple fan-boy is one. The old timers are probably perfectionists. A R Rahman for instance. Those who buy an Apple brainchild while not looking at it as a status symbol are potential visionaries, or better said by this beautiful piece of literature, Hyper-Critical. (BTW, special thanks to Prateek for linking to this and phrasing what I want to say with that tiny post. And thanks to Abhishek too for pointing out this particular Webmark… I had almost forgot that I am supposed to read my Feeds/Live Bookmarks while in that ordeal…) Look around you, see someone using a Macintosh? Chances are pretty high that he could make an interesting company… Now that’s a tip I’d use at airport lounges from today…
For those who are curious, I am most probably headed to do Mechanical Engg. at Vellore Institute of Technology University. For those even more curious, I am NOT happy about that.
Uma’s Brainwaves Revisited #2
Posted by Uma Damle | Filed under Blogging, General, Headshot, I think therefore I watch, It's My Life, School Life
Prolouge:Written in the days I cared about things like class Xth Board marks..
Mona Lisa Smile
To try and not think about the result of my exams I have gone on a movie-watching spree.Some one line reviews.
Harry Potter GOF: Slightly less unbearable than the previous movies.
Robots:A delightful, very well made, light hearted movie with serious undertones (which I’d like to explain some day)
Spirited Away:Mediocre plot but amazing graphics
Erin Brokovich:A strong story about a strong woman.Amazing acting by Julia Roberts.
Rang De Basanti:Stunning choreography,awesome music,great acting,realistic touching plot sans any melodrama,this movie deserves a separate post.
I have taken to going on long lonely walks in the JNU campus to take my mind off distressing stuff.It’s beautiful especially when it rains and everything in sight is green,yellow and orange and the peacocks come out and dance.The view from Parthsarthy point,the highest altitude point in JNU campus inspires me to poetry.The students are a lucky lot to study in a campus so gorgeous
OK I think I will finish this post now and go back to chewing my nails and thinking about the results.
Bluegenemaid
PS: I think you all must have realized by now that this post had nothing to do with Mona Lisa or her smile.I figured some title was better than no title.
Another RANT: The Story of Indian Students
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Education, FIITJEE Pinnacle, Headshot, School Life
Really, the present happenings across my (older) peers’ lives sends jolts of electricity making all hair on my rise up, and has all the hairless parts goosebumped! In another few months, fate would get me close to something like this. It really makes me uncomfortable looking at people whom I thought were of the deserving kind in a helpless state. Really, Indian Education system makes beggars out of the brightest minds in the country.
Caution: You might see this post the same way you usually see rants on most other Indian blogs, especially on those run by students who are going through the toughest examinations in the world… Or you might see it as another perspective, another unique opinion, or perhaps something a degree lesser than a consolation to all those who have gone crazy in ranting so vehemently not just on their blogs, but in those phone calls better used as ventilators, those conversations which could more or less be addressed as punches on a rice sack or maybe those moments spent in Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt…
Here it goes…
Thinking in depth about everything, education in India lacks the 3 big M(s)… Money, Mindset and Modernisation. These things are barely enough to bring out just a few hundred successful professionals each year with a potential of several million. lack of money is a big problem in itself. Lack of money means so many things… lack of good colleges, lack of sufficient infrastructure in those colleges, or even lack of good teaching faculty in the colleges. The few institutes which DO get money don’t stand up anywhere when compared to the international institutes. Honestly speaking, it is just the maddening admission intake ratio or you might say the filtering process with the least porous membrane that gets nothing but the best inside. Maybe it is the general intellect of the students which gets IITs in the top 100 ranks of the world.
How does this effect India? Due to the lack of quality institutes, the success or the money making tendency of students is concentrated in just a few camps. Because opportunities are so few, and everyone in the populous of a billion odd people have big dreams, especially most literate ones, attachment towards studies is totally lost. Actually, studying is something someone OUGHT to do in order to earn enough to meet the family standards, which disproportionately grows with the country’s average income. The result – desperation,hunger and a famine like state with people craving for drops of those few seats which can mean the difference between owning a 100cc bike and luxury car in India.
There is this trend in India that makes money vending machines to placed in just certain fields. Like for instance, this particular hour has the management guys making the most out of the lot. A few years ago, it was the rapidly growing software engineering industry (which are mostly test centers or menial job sites for the world’s largest software MNCs) that got maximum professionals. All this leads to narrowing down what a student might want to do. Now everyone I know wants to go for the management side after the COMPULSORY engineering course. After all, everyone worries about FUD. With an Engg. degree in hand, he is ready to mint quite a bit, just in case management, which requires any damned degree as a pre-requisite doesn’t work out. The slightly under-exposed or the innocent sort speak what they have in mind… “It would give me better placement!”. The smarter ones, who know people or critics like me are around, fake or artificially create interest towards management. In reality, it is that very interest that the Indian students have lost. Money can actually buy everything, even interest. If a child confesses that he is not interested in Engg., the family and the brigade of relatives have him hypnotized into being interested in that subject.
Really, I know so many people, even upcoming software engg., who don’t have a crumb of interest towards their subject finally ending up as professionals for Indian counter-parts of well-known corporations really complacent about getting a job that pays them a tenth of a million rupees. People fail to realize that it might be a lot when seen in Indian standards, but then it is cheap labour for companies like MS, which would get those drudging jobs else where at a higher rate. Indians have lost choice, taste and the will to opt for what they really desire. Socio-economic conditions keep true interests confined inside, and the worst part being that the student never even realizes that he inside a fake world world which he didn’t actually desired to design. He has a fake illusion of happiness and satisfaction which finally removes feelings like – “Am I going to do this for the next 30 years of my life?” nurturing similar mentality in the next generation as well. The children of the so-called big professionals in India grow up to be in a similar race for trophie made up of anti-matter called success. Its a vicious loop that has to be stopped, and it is not really impossible to accomplish that.
Solutions can be many -
*Availability of greater number of universities
*Larger allocation of budget for higher education
*Competence amongst Indian colleges to go ahead of others in the world
*More diverse corporations basing themselves in India
*Corporations giving out large scale projects amidst Indian minds which are more than capable to create things, provided aptitude is generated at an early age
Aptitude comes during high school, when the student dreams. Dreams can be closer to reality than anyone might think. Dreaming, pondering is an activity that can lead students to dig and know more about what they might be doing in the future. Here, immature kids at the age of 18, who know just a little more than the placement opportunities in different fields decide what they could be doing for the next 42 years of their life. Coming to think about it, how much does an average student know about what exactly happens in in any stream of engineering that he might enroll himself in? How does he know that he is interested in it? Actually, Indians don’t need to know that. It’s almost like choosing what pays the most here. Finally, what you get to see here is brainy kids turning into menially productive mugpots, in time-lapse cinematography. And frankly speaking, I really don’t enjoy any bit of that show…
finally got a direction 4 ma carrier,,,,,,,,,part-2 of our...
...
