The 14h thing- My dream

April 5th
We came back from Nandi Hills yesterday and when I wanted to sleep I thought I'd listen to some music. I found my iTouch charger but not the iPod :( I looked everywhere, woke up my mom too, she didn't know where it was either. I was really tensed but I didn't complain to anyone about it though I really wanted to. Went to sleep very disturbed, knowing that I'd have nightmares about it. BUT guess what my dream was about.. :D or rather 'who' .. The one.. and only.. RAFAEL NADAL!!!!!!
  Ok so here's how it went. Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Thomas Berdych and Rafa were in the locker room. Rafa was half pissed off cuz he was injured and couldn't play well. Roddick and Berdych were acting arrogant and pissing him off even more. So I saw Rafa storming off and he walked towards me (I smiled inwardly) and was telling me in an angry tone about what idiots those guys were :). I calmed him down and he looked like he felt slightly better and walked off.
  The next day I was actually in the locker room standing next to Rafa and facing the other three. So Andy and Berdych were taunting Nadal that got me a bit annoyed at their unsportsmanlike behaviour. I finally turned to Federer, who I respect (though I might not say it often), and expected him to settle the issue. He just turned his face away like a weakling with no opinions!!! And this got me SO mad cuz I felt like he was acting like a loser by not doing the right thing, I stormed out of the locker room cursing the idiots and telling Rafa (he followed me out) that I could not IMAGINE how he put up with those shitty people! Rafa was relieved cuz now he knew that nothing was wrong with his temper or anything as they pissed off other people equally fast.. I then gave Rafa my cell phone number and I told him, "Listen, if these people get any shittier, don't hesitate to call me and tell me about it k? Cuz I can take it if you shout at me.. Just let it out and don't let them get to you and your tennis." Rafa said fine and that was it for the day.
  I remember waking up in my room the next day ( still in the dream here.. I was a hostelite and an I think Rafa and I were in the same college :) ) and I checked my cell phone (it was much better than my Moto) and I was disappointed that he hadn't called at all. I looked out of my window and saw Rafa below running up and down the stairs amidst few busy college students. He was in his tennis gear warming up for practice. So I smiled and went downstairs to meet him accidentally-on-purpose (don't judge me :) ). I was at the bottom of the huge stairs and waited for Rafa to come down again. So I was like, "Hey Rafa! Just help me up these stairs please?" And now picture this in slow motion- Rafa, wearing sleeveless, his muscles exposed, glistening slightly with sweat, extending his hand down for me to hold (few female Rafanatics would've fainted here) ... And when I did take his hand ... His was so large and so WARM!!! (I'm not blushing here ok?) And I felt so awed.. I couldn't believe it was actually happenning!! (Sigh.. It really wasn't..)
  And that's the last thing I remember. I was smiling to myself alot today. I am even now! LOL!

The 13th thing- Nandi Hills. 2nd to 4th April '10

Nandi hills day 1
Left at 830 in the morning. Was a nice drive. Not hot. Bought grapes for 35rs. We remembered that when we'd gone with Ajay Guldu it was 20rs for a huge basket. The kids selling the grapes asked for food and stuff and it was very sad. Gave just 2 chapathis. Then wound up the hills.. Dad didn't let me drive  we reached at 1030 cuz the roads were really good. We checked in early. Lots of tame monkeys.  We had breakfast- bread omlette, which is surprisingly bread in omlette.. and we slept a lot more than walked today. Oh and there was a bit of sun. But it doesn't sting like how it does in Bangalore. It's very cool in the evenings. 
We went for a walk at around 6. First time I walked I had what felt like tiny bubbles popping in my legs which gave me a curious sense of satisfaction. Second time I walked more but felt normal. We walked down to the check in point where we checked out places like Tipus Summer Palace, which is dingy and the rooms are locked (though mom and I did discover Tipus private pooping place), Amritha Sarovar, a deep sort of well with descending stairs.
When we were walking back up I found myself making few badminton lifting shots Now and then :P even my parents didn't notice. And I've been eating like a MONSTER!!!  drank juice and had sooo much fried rice for dinner. Didn't like lunch. Listening to music now. Really liking Dont Bring Me Down by BEP. Listening to Good Enough by Evanescence now. Piano and violin sound really good here. Oooh now it's Say All I Need 
 signing off. :P

Nandi hills day 2
I don't get it!!! The fried rice that I loved last night smelt so bad this afternoon that I nearly puked!! I dunno if it was because I had yelniru earlier (now that was really tasty). So I just had some mildly disgusting lassi and some parle g biscuits, finished reading Frankensteine (finally. Tragic story. Not romantic as it says at the back) and went to sleep. Woke up a bit tired and in the middle of a weird and slightly disturbing dream. Went to a temple, wearing my BMSCE Telecomm tshirt. Liked the rocky terrain (since I'm a sure footed mountain goat. Ahem. Capricorn) and had some toasted bread in Hotel Ranjitha- Veg- North Indian, South Indian and "Chinise". (reminded of Inspector Clouseau- you zink I don't spik Chineeze??). There was no idli that had tasted like heaven this morning. Mom took Emergency Refresher LMNLMNLM-EENN. Tasted like lemon flavoured hand wash soap. Found out that CSK scored a whopping 256!
We then went for a walk. Had a nice time. It had grown dark by then. A tiny village with twinkling lights was laid out before us. We came back to our room and ordered some dinner. There's been a power cut. Sitting on the stairs underneath the stars. Dad and the manager are having their nightly chat. :) Devil signing off :)

Nandi hills facts (not necessarily fun)
1. The manager seems to be bored with the hill station life. Is eager to talk with the lodgers and will divulge personal facts concerning the lakhs of rupees that they make in Nandi and how it is spent. Useful for IPL updates.
2. The monkeys have attitude. When encountered on a narrow road they expect you to make way for them. They will perch dangerously on walls that have signs clearly stating - Sitting And Leaning Against The Wall Is Prohibitted.
3. Dogs are friendly. Though they don't have the gumption to face the monkeys with the aforesaid attitude.
4. Novels that have been hard to finish reading can be completed.

The 12th thing- THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER William Somerset Maugham

When I was a very small boy I was made to learn by heart certain of the fables of La Fontaine, and the moral of each was carefully explained to me. Among those I learnt was The Ant and The Grasshopper, which is devised to bring home to the young the useful lesson that in an imperfect world industry is rewarded and giddiness punished. In this admirable fable (I apologize for telling something which everyone is politely, but inexactly, supposed to know) the ant spends a laborious summer gathering its winter store, while the grasshopper sits on a blade of grass singing to the sun. Winter comes and the ant is comfortably provided for, but the grasshopper has an empty larder: he goes to the ant and begs for a little food. Then the ant gives him her classic answer:

'What were you doing in the summer time?'
'Saving your presence, I sang, I sang all day, all night.'
'You sang. Why, then go and dance.'

I do not ascribe it to perversity on my part, but rather to the inconsequence of childhood, which is deficient in moral sense, that I could never quite reconcile myself to the lesson. My sympathies were with the grasshopper and for some time I never saw an ant without putting my foot on it. In this summary (and as I have discovered since, entirely human) fashion I sought to express my disapproval of prudence and common sense.

I could not help thinking of this fable when the other day I saw George Ramsay lunching by himself in a restaurant. I never saw anyone wear an expression of such deep gloom. He was staring into space. He looked as though the burden of the whole world sat on his shoulders. I was sorry for him: I suspected at once that his unfortunate brother had been causing trouble again. I went up to him and held out my hand.

'How are you?' I asked.
'I'm not in hilarious spirits,' he answered.
'Is it Tom again?'

He sighed.

'Yes, it's Tom again.'
'Why don't you chuck him? You've done everything in the world for him. You must know by now that he's quite hopeless.'

I suppose every family has a black sheep. Tom had been a sore trial to his for twenty years. He had begun life decently enough: he went into business, married, and had two children. The Ramsays were perfectly respectable people and there was every reason to suppose that Tom Ramsay would have a useful and honourable career. But one day, without warning, he announced that he didn't like work and that he wasn't suited for marriage. He wanted to enjoy himself. He would listen to no expostulations. He left his wife and his office. He had a little money and he spent two happy years in the various capitals of Europe. Rumours of his doings reached his relations from time to time and they were profoundly shocked. He certainly had a very good time. They shook their heads and asked what would happen when his money was spent. They soon found out: he borrowed. He was charming and unscrupulous. I have never met anyone to whom it was more difficult to refuse a loan. He made a steady income from his friends and he made friends easily. But he always said that the money you spent on necessities was boring; the money that was amusing to spend was the money you spent on luxuries. For this he depended on his brother George. He did not waste his charm on him. George was a serious man and insensible to such enticements. George was respectable. Once or twice he fell to Tom's promises of amendment and gave him considerable sums in order that he might make a fresh start. On these Tom bought a motor-car and some very nice jewellery. But when circumstances forced George to realize that his brother would never settle down and he washed his hands of him, Tom, without a qualm, began to blackmail him. It was not very nice for a respectable lawyer to find his brother shaking cocktails behind the bar of his favourite restaurant or to see him waiting on the box-seat of a taxi outside his club. Tom said that to serve in a bar or to drive a taxi was a perfectly decent occupation, but if George could oblige him with a couple of hundred pounds he didn't mind for the honour of the family giving it up. George paid.

Once Tom nearly went to prison. George was terribly upset. He went into the whole discreditable affair. Really Tom had gone too far. He had been wild, thoughtless, and selfish, but he had never before done anything dishonest, by which George meant illegal; and if he were prosecuted he would assuredly be convicted. But you cannot allow your only brother to go to gaol. The man Tom had cheated, a man called Cronshaw, was vindictive. He was determined to take the matter into court; he said Tom was a scoundrel and should be punished. It cost George an infinite deal of trouble and five hundred pounds to settle the affair. I have never seen him in such a rage as when he heard that Tom and Cronshaw had gone off together to Monte Carlo the moment they cashed the cheque. They spent a happy month there.

For twenty years Tom raced and gambled, philandered with the prettiest girls, danced, ate in the most expensive restaurants, and dressed beautifully. He always looked as if he had just stepped out of a bandbox. Though he was forty-six you would never have taken him for more than thirty-five. He was a most amusing companion and though you knew he was perfectly worthless you could not but enjoy his society. He had high spirits, an unfailing gaiety, and incredible charm. I never grudged the contributions he regularly levied on me for the necessities of his existence. I never lent him fifty pounds without feeling that I was in his debt. Tom Ramsay knew everyone and everyone knew Tom Ramsay. You could not approve of him, but you could not help liking him.

Poor George, only a year older than his scapegrace brother, looked sixty. He had never taken more than a fortnight's holiday in the year for a quarter of a century. He was in his office every morning at nine-thirty and never left it till six. He was honest, industrious, and worthy. He had a good wife, to whom he had never been unfaithful even in thought, and four daughters to whom he was the best of fathers. He made a point of saving a third of his income and his plan was to retire at fifty-five to a little house in the country where he proposed to cultivate his garden and play golf. His life was blameless. He was glad that he was growing old because Tom was growing old too. He rubbed his hands and said:

'It was all very well when Tom was young and good-looking, but he's only a year younger than I am. In four years he'll be fifty. He won't find life so easy then. I shall have thirty thousand pounds by the time I'm fifty. For twenty-five years I've said that Tom would end in the gutter. And we shall see how he likes that. We shall see if it really pays best to work or be idle.'

Poor George! I sympathized with him. I wondered now as I sat down beside him what infamous thing Tom had done. George was evidently very much upset.

'Do you know what's happened now?' he asked me.

I was prepared for the worst. I wondered if Tom had got into the hands of the police at last. George could hardly bring himself to speak.

'You're not going to deny that all my life I've been hardworking, decent, respectable, and straightforward. After a life of industry and thrift I can look forward to retiring on a small income in gilt-edged securities. I've always done my duty in that state of life in which it has pleased Providence to place me.'
'True.'
'And you can't deny that Tom has been an idle, worthless, dissolute, and dishonourable rogue. If there were any justice he'd be in the workhouse.'
'True.'

George grew red in the face.

'A few weeks ago he became engaged to a woman old enough to be his mother. And now she's died and left him everything she had. Half a million pounds, a yacht, a house in London, and a house in the country.'

George Ramsay beat his clenched fist on the table.

'It's not fair, I tell you, it's not fair. Damn it, it's not fair.'

I could not help it. I burst into a shout of laughter as I looked at George's wrathful face, I rolled in my chair, I very nearly fell on the floor. George never forgave me. But Tom often asks me to excellent dinners in his charming house in Mayfair, and if he occasionally borrows a trifle from me, that is merely from force of habit. It is never more than a sovereign.

The 11th thing- Cheer up Anu!

My friend Anuradha hadn't done her exams well due to various (valid) reasons. She enters class one day to find that the CAED marks were being announced. The attender was the centre of attention, with students flocking around him and badgering him and trying to look into the register containing their marks.
Anu chose to walk up to Prajwal, the class nerd and asked him as to how he'd fared.
"9.8 on 10" was the smug answer.
She then joined the slowly dispersing crowd of students and managed to catch the attender's eye and said,"Anuradha R, roll number 5."
The attender looked importantly into the register, frowned and said something that sounded like a six.
Anu was shocked. She hadn't done that well! She was very nearly expecting a zero.
"Six?"
The attender got back to her and said,"No maa.. Point six."
Anu was devastated.
The attender took in her expression and said kindly but seriously,
"Its alright maa.. nothing to worry about. Point six is rounded off to one."

*************************
Note- There is no need to feel sorry for Anu. She's a bright kid. More importantly, all of her classmates except for the class nerd and his girlfriend have got marks ranging from 0-2.

The tenth thing- CF

Part 1: Einstein's Big Blunder

100 years ago, Albert Einstein published
three papers that rocked the world. These papers
proved the existence of the atom, introduced the
theory of relativity, and described quantum
mechanics.

Pretty good debut for a 26 year old scientist, huh?

His equations for relativity indicated that the universe
was expanding. This bothered him, because if it was
expanding, it must have had a beginning and a beginner.
Since neither of these appealed to him, Einstein introduced
a 'fudge factor' that ensured a 'steady state' universe,
one that had no beginning or end.

But in 1929, Edwin Hubble showed that the furthest
galaxies were fleeing away from each other, just as the
Big Bang model predicted. So in 1931, Einstein embraced
what would later be known as the Big Bang theory, saying,
"This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation
of creation to which I have ever listened." He referred
to the 'fudge factor' to achieve a steady-state universe
as the biggest blunder of his career.

As I'll explain during the next couple of days,
Einstein's theories have been thoroughly proved and
verified by experiments and measurements. But there's
an even more important implication of Einstein's discovery.
Not only does the universe have a beginning, but time
itself, our own dimension of cause and effect, began
with the Big Bang.

That's right -- time itself does not exist before
then. The very line of time begins with that creation
event. Matter, energy, time and space were created
in an instant by an intelligence outside of space
and time.

About this intelligence, Albert Einstein wrote
in his book "The World As I See It" that the harmony
of natural law "Reveals an intelligence of such
superiority that, compared with it, all the
systematic thinking and acting of human beings is
an utterly insignificant reflection."

He went on to write, "Everyone who is seriously
involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced
that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe--
a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in
the face of which we with our modest powers must feel
humble."

Pretty significant statement, wouldn't you say?
-Cosmicfingerprints