2g2m

one of the better sites I've visited off late...

www.chlorophyll.co.in

its a flash enabled site...venture only if you have loads of bandwidth.

end of days

I am charting into an unknown territory for a while - thinking.

why is it so difficult to be old?
why a life lived so well, content has to end in pain and misery?
don't we deserve something better after such a tumultous life?
why are running this race if it has to end in death?

the great escape

the cycle has turned full circle. it was nearly two years ago that I would, with this liberty, chat with friends , mail forwards etc from this very seat. in between I've done all those things but what was missing was the liberty.it was my release from TCS today. I wonder why they call the process a release...I would only use that term for animals - like the relase of a monkey in wilderness, or the release of fishes in water - you get the point?so I was talking about liberty. I would not say that I was shackled to my workstation or was being monitored a la 1984, but there was always this obligation to go back to work.its very evident from what I've written above that it was not something that I enjoyed doing. if I look back and think deep, its was not something in particular that irked me , rather it was a part of everything , every entity in the system that seemed rotten. work environment and work ethics was one. next was rampant disobeying of rules and going against the company principles - peeps higher up never ceased from using lofty terms like integrity, broader visions, morals , ethics but all these were used to add up numbers to win some award or the other. our office which was easy to get in most of the year used to become a fortress at the time of security audit. I could have continued working inspite of all these things, but essentially it was the work which was such a turn off. whereever there are people , there would be such problems - so I cannot guarantee myself a better deal in my next job. I know I've made a wise decision. ...and even if tis for a few days, I'm enjoying my liberty.

comic guy

hmmm...sleeping over problems does help. I'm full of ideas for my comic guy...his looks, personalities, attire et al.
I feel I've always done the thing I've wanted, and am generally happy with my looks, lengths and breadths but I also feel that things could have been better. maybe I can give my cg the dimensions and general feel that I've always wanted - 6 pack, long hair, a goaty, decently tall...
I had made a few sketches with this in mind, but after a few sketches my cg started looking like Aragorn from lotr. But I'm sufficiently satisfied with it. I wanted my cg to be a teenager, intelligent but detached...kind of a loner but with an attitude like Howard Roark. The problem with having such a sharp character is that it does not give me much room with the jokes and wise cracks. I'm being 'parochial' even before I could start. Which brings me to this question...do comic guys always have to be comics? I think this is a no brainer. No one would like a comic character who is snobbish, talks more through his eyes than mouth, and is aloof most of the time. But this again brings me to another question - Calvin is sometimes very amusing without being slapshod?
this is going to be a long journey...

this one's for P

I never thought that this blog would create such a cult following - so much so that people would ask me to explain my absence from this space. Gawwwdhhhh!!! I'm on cloud nine.

so where do I start this time???
hmmm...I have been thinking about a comic character. well every cartoonists worth his felt pen has one to his name. if I have to join the big league, its indispensable.
I've been greatly inspired, impressed by Bill Waterson and his Calvin. I cannot think of my comic guy to be without some Calvinseque properties - whether its popping his zits, or being adventurous to the point of being insane, or making life misereable for his folks and Susie, or asking some very pertinent questions and not getting one right answer, or.... the list would consume terabytes of webspace. I would want my comic guy to be my life's mouthpiece. I would like him to speak about some of the things that have come to me and some others that haven't. Though this should not happen all the time - he shouldn't sound too intelligent ;)

I can see a picture emerging...a short, quick, willy, smooth talking....zappppppppp.
it just vanished!!!
I guess I need to work on it a little more.

for the love of my pals

Aish, Q, Shiv and Arnold ( ????) have woken me from this deep, lazy slumber. In between this post and my last I was busy questioning the enitre idea behind this blog. This blog did not come up for some specific purpose - dispensing advice, salvation of lost souls, starting a cult...it came up jlt. Everytime I had to make a post, I had to try to hard - I never had much to speak or share ( what else can be expected from a techie in an IT company). Since it was such an effort, I thought I'd rather not do it. Then came the idea of using it for something I like doing most - cartooning. But again this wasn't too easy. Though I love cartooning, but am still very amateurish at it so my sketches look mostly like drawings by some 10 year old and I feel are not worth posting and I don't have a scanner do so either. This explains the state of 'postlessness' on this blog.
But to open a restaurant à la Scott Adams, I have to make a start somewhere. So guys thanks for egging me on...would try and be a regular blogger and QE sketches would follow once I have a scanner.

travails of a budding cartoonists and more...

While I was preparing for *AT,JMET,FMS etc I would think that once I'd get an admit I'll use all me free time for cartooning. It was a noble thought - I'd always wanted to cartoon, been mesmerised by the skills of Bill Waterson, Ninan, Hank Ketcham and the likes. The only hitch was that I didn't have time and I figured out that I'll have plenty of it when I'll convert.
...and that is what is really happening now. I have all the time in the world but don't know where to start from or how to start. The problem is everytime I'm on my drawing board, I just cannot make my hands put out what I have in my head - its a problem of lack of skills. I've heard it comes with practice, so I am ready to wait...
When would the time come when I'll start a cartoon strip, get a cult following and a band of fans who would by my originals for millions of bucks $$$$$$$$$

in the true Indian spirit...guests are always welcome

my blog finally had a visitor...rather two and one actually commended me on the work that I've done with my blog. man...ain't I happy!!!

despair

...and I thought that I was weird!!!
while rummaging through the net I found a site which celebrates failure, embodies shortcomings and embraces pessimists - it even has merchandise that proudly proclaims one's failure.
go and check it at www.despair.com ( they couldn't have expected selected a better name)

revealation

its a soft way of saying that I'm a publicity demanding, intellect lacking joker.

You Are a Link Blogger!

Your blog is more about cool links than thougtful posts. Better to be entertaining and breif than longwinded and boring!

What kind of blogger are you?

fms meet and a stupid bug

my enitre day has been spent in making posts at pg and solving a very stupid bug.
since the day I've put in my papers at tcs, I have been given gradually reducing amount of work daily.
its always fun orgainsing a gathering...especially for the people whom you don't know. For in this case one always goes with some expectations and apprehensions...how would the people turn out to be, would I have fun, what if no one tunrs up...
for this meet on saturday, I'll be meeting people with whom I would be spending the next two years of my life. I hope they are good...and I hope they find me good, and most importantly, I hope this meet is successful...coz I'm the one who is organising it...kinda.

the art of avoiding work

I sometimes pride myself on avoiding work. Last year I managed a wonderful appraisal at my job by working zilch in the office. Appraisals are very subjective in nature...to get a good one, one just has to appear to be busy. Trust me, the maxim 'to get noticed, walk fast' is very true. I can tell you how I managed to do it. For one, involve as many people in the task assigned to you as possible but make sure one of those people is not someone who knows how the work can be done. Also make sure that all those people involved know that the pthers are involved too. This way a large number of people would think that the problem is big and you are doing some good work and putting in a lot of effort. Now when virtually everyone is involved in the task, go and talk to the person who knows how to do the job. But make sure this has to be done at a personal level. Do this when that individual is busy...so that he quickly gives you the solution, gets back to his work and forgets about the incident. All this can be done very easily if you are cute ( which incidentally I am...atleast that's what people say). Now go back to your seat and with the recently acquired knowledge, solve the problem and announce it to the world. Bingo, everyone would think that you actually worked out the solution which so many others could not.

Its easy...try it sometimes. If it works, you know whom to thank for it...if it doesn't, you ain't probably cute.

united colors of life

I think I've found out the reason for all my last mails being cynical and miserable. twas the sad black colour of the background.
this one though is much lively...hope it has a rub off effect of life and posts.

angry young man

have you ever had this feeling of being angry without any reason. I have been sulking since afternoon-I have mistreated a couple of friends ( one deservedly so), talked badly to a few more, been roaming alone...and done things which I would normally won't do. I don't know what blew the fuse...I think its because of one *** poking his finger in my ear. It might seem little frivolous to get ticked about, but it really pissed me off. thanks to that little instance, my entire day has been ruined.

all my past posts have sounded so miserable, that I feel I should rename the blog as miserablilty instead of stupfinity.

begining of another screwed weekend

can one get more lonely than this...
its a weekend and I'm in my office. it isn't that I all of a sudden I've developed a liking for my work, but I have been so tired of all the useless stuff that is beemed into my house by the cable companies, that I today decided to kill some time in the office. it seemed like a good idea when I left home for my office, but its started to turn on its head. I don't really understand how people spend zillions of hours surfing...I've been digging the vast field that is the Internet to look for something that would keep me interseted, but it has proved futile.
It seems that only this blog can save me from the drudgeries of life.

motivation 2

its just the third day today and I find myself low on motivation this early. at present I'm questioning the sanity of this entire process of blogging. Why would people be interseted in finding out how a nondescript character like me spent another boring day of his life! I think I'm being presumptous - in the entire life time of this blog, I might not have a single visitor on my blog. so all this typing that has gone so far and would take place in the future be futile? the countless hours that I've spent would all go waste? I'm an optimist. I believe someday something good would come out of it all - remeber Shawshank Redemption.

I have other things on my mind at this moment- like this stupid issue which requires me to think. Not that I'm not inclined to thinking, but after converting FMS, I'd thought that I would have a few days of absolute uselessness and complete inactivity of my grey cells...but I guess it wasn't to be. So I'm back to what I do worst...coding.

tadaaaaaaaa

why this title for my blog

it is said that "the Universe is a big sphere with its centre everywhere and boundary nowhere"...
going by the saying, since the center of the universe can be anywhere, it might as well be at my blog. but this raises another question...where does my blog reside? since I open it from my workstation, does it reside at my workstation or does it reside at the ISPs servers? and now that you're reading this piece and are at my blog, does it mean the centre of universe resides at your workstation? I guess the wise guy who quoted the statement about the Universe understood this dilemma.
how does one get out of this???

well since no one has so far claimed the ownership of the centre of the universe ( none that I know of), I Sachin Kataria, in the name of God, on this day of 18 Apr,2005 claim to be the owner of this most significant insignificant of the universe.

now that I've resolved this problem, from tomorrow onwards I'll move onto more saner issues.

motivation

on this lazy friday evening, people around me are leaving for the homes and I'm stuck in this hell hole. I'm one of the very few people in my company who have been blessed with an internet connection...but I've reached the limit beyond which even this thought doesn not excite me - after all how long can one surf in a day - 2 hrs , 3 hrs...5 hrs.
these hours of infinite boredom have prompted me to start this blog - I hope I have the motivation to continue posting on this blog tomorrow and the day after and the day after that and day after day after that and ...