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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 17 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 250773 |
| Visitors Out: 796 |
| Total Visitors Out: 2689 |
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| Reversus Quiltera |
| 2008-03-08 04:00:00 |
The quilter returns. On the eve of the second blogversary.The long blogging drought was caused by the combined efforts of Engineering Esq. and Exams Esq.This post is dedicated to the memory of a test that I took recently and almost flunked. (For the uninitiated, Boolean Algebra is a system of mathematics invented by mathematician George Boole.) ...
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| AWOL - 2 (Staccato Rendition) |
| 2007-10-12 04:58:00 |
Internal assessment tests up. Submissions next. Followed by the grand finale (a.k.a varsity exams.)Will be A.W.O.L till then. Need to get good O.W.L.s.Will be back. If alive.So long!...
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| Crazy Quilt on your mobile phone |
| 2007-10-03 03:22:00 |
Read Crazy Quilt on our mobile phone at this URL. Sign up to get web feeds for your blog by following this link:http://feedm8.com/web/user_signup?refer=FM8508-88/...
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| When Love Is M.I.A |
| 2007-09-28 12:51:00 |
Now that the south-west monsoon is receding, I’m feeling pretty blue. I love the rains.Lately, they remind me an ancient Sanskrit poet’s ‘cloud messenger’ who delivers the messages of an exiled demi-god to his wife.The rain –clouds bring me no news from my beloved. The more modern means of communication do precious little either. While Beau is time-strapped meeting deadlines, handling exigencies, jet-setting to places far and near, and chasing his dreams, I do not crib about it. It is losing out on the little joys of being in a relationship that gnaws at my heart.It means more longing and less loving. Walking into a social do all by myself. Dedicating a song for him live on air while knowing he won’t have the time to tune in to the radio. Textin...
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| Robo-tricks |
| 2007-07-31 07:59:00 |
I spent the weekend tinkering away at assorted circuitry and robot parts with a team of 3 awesome guys at a robotics workshop. It's a simple robot that performs pick-up-and-place tasks but it's the first wireless one I've ever made.The XcavatorWork In progress After the finishing touches Our team leader with our creation...
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| Current Mood |
| 2007-07-15 05:53:00 |
Because:This is my 50th post.It's my favourite season.I topped the Level 1 Spanish exam held at the varsity....
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| Laugh and Learn |
| 2007-07-08 05:28:00 |
I recall having read about Father Kallingal, the late journalist RGK’s physics teacher in south India, in one of the compilations of RGK’s popular column Acute and Obtuse. He writes that Kallingal would raise his right hand and demonstrate the swing of the pendulum with his index finger. “That’s how it’s”, he would say, “From to to fro and from fro to to”. The students would laugh derisively. That reminds me of Prof. X who teaches in our engineering college and is our own version of Father Kallingal. Here’s a sample of Prof. X’s unintentional and unwitting gaffes (published solely for laughs.)"Outermost backside”"Your presentee is absentee."(What he meant: You have been marked absent.) "Mere mendu pe burden mat dalo" (What he meant: Don’t burden my brains.) "Let us ...
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| Latin Lover |
| 2007-06-24 07:14:00 |
This is an advertisement I made for the Spanish Department of the varsity. What do you think about it, folks?...
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| Feliz cumpleaños to me! |
| 2007-05-03 00:50:00 |
Your Birthdate: May 3You are more than a big ball of energy - you are a big ball of hyper.You are always on the go, but you don't have a type a personality.Instead of channeling your energy into work, you instead go for fun and adventure.Witty and verbal, you can have an interesting conversation with anyone.Your strength: Your larger than life imaginationYour weakness: You tend to be pretty scatteredYour power color: LimeYour power symbol: Lightening boltYour power month: MarchWhat Does Your Birth Date Mean?...
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| It's Just Not Cricket |
| 2007-04-01 11:17:00 |
There are many things that I don’t understand, far more things than what I once thought I understood. It took me a long time to understand cricket, so long that eventually I knew there was nothing much to understand about it. But I still fail to understand why there is so much brouhaha about certain cricket tournaments or why so much money is spent on the game.I will not say cricket is a foolish game for there must be some virtue in a thing that is liked by so many people. For that matter, everyone says politics is a dirty game and everyone likes it. Ultimately, I have come to understand that cricket in India is spectator sport, entertainment, religion, OCD and big business all rolled into one.Like our national game hockey, cricket is an import from Bri...
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| High 5 bloggers |
| 2007-03-22 02:16:00 |
Comeback man, Lord Prometheus simultaneously tagged and nominated me for this meme that doubles up as a blog award.“OMG, thank you, Sir Prometheus!”The meme requires the tagee/ awardee name other thought - provoking blogs.The participation rules are:1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme# Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award'The Thinking Blogger AwardAnd the Thinking Blogger Award goes to:Arbitrary RavingsDisamaji KahitariNovice AcademicianPeaceThe Secret Back-Up Blog...
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| First Blogversary! |
| 2007-03-08 04:08:00 |
Exactly one year ago, I started Crazy Quilt on a whim. My very first post was about the newest member of my family, our Labrador, Sherlock. Over time I have come to love blogging for the priceless joys it has given me. Blogging has made me a better writer (I use the word writer in the same sense that someone who reads is a reader) and a better person. It won me (along with a couple of billion other Netizens) Time magazine’s Person of the Year award. Above all, I made these invaluable bloggerfriends- not in that order- in the Blogosphere:Lizza: who whips up post after post with such amazing frequency I wonder if she is human at all. Her writing is both funny and insightful.Prometheus: who is on an indefinite blog hiatus. His writing was brilliance ‘post’ified. I sorely miss his posts....
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| Holi and Springtime |
| 2007-03-05 03:55:00 |
Yesterday was Holi. Watching Holi celebrations makes me feel as if the entire city is taking part in a harlequinade. Though it is not all pantomime since the revelers are boisterous and more explicit in their gestures than mimics would be. I don’t participate in the revelry myself but I am told Holi is the festival of spring. I live in Peninsular India in a city by the sea where Nature sends only a lame apology for spring. Which reminds me of what I was thinking around this time about a year back. ...
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| Wedding Belles |
| 2007-02-14 04:07:00 |
You Will Be a Modern Bride!While you aren't ready to throw away all wedding tradions, you want a wedding with a twist. You're more inspired by celebrity weddings on E! than from bridal magazines. Whether this means getting married on the beach barefoot or a mariachi band for the reception...Your wedding will be a blend of old and new - white dress cocktail, personalied vows, whatever suites you!!!What Kind of Bride Will You Be?Back when I was in high school, I was a fanatical feminist. (I still am one; I have only become a little realistic and less fanatical.) My literary diet then consisted of a generous dose of Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem, Nancy Friday and the views of our own Barkha Dutt.I had a close friend who was a female cliché. Though she hail...
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| Current Mood |
| 2007-02-06 07:38:00 |
*HUGS* TOTAL!give julia_scissor more *HUGS*Get hugs of your own...
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| Earn Good Karma in 5 Easy Steps |
| 2007-02-03 03:00:00 |
All ye bloglings,Nominations for the Indibloggies Awards 2006 are open till Feb 5, 2007. You can nominate Crazy Quilt for the Weblog Awards in 5 easy steps.Click here for the illustrated 5-step guide.OR1) Login to your del.icio.us account.2) Add the blog by clicking on the post linkwith the URL http://aldebaran14.blogspot.comSite Description: Crazy Quilt andthe following set of tags:ib06 ib06BestIndiblog ib06Design ib06TopicalClick here for the list of Award Categories.Feel free to add you’re own tags when adding the bookmarks. Muchas Gracias!I’ll go prepare my winning speech ;-)...
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| Class Consciousness |
| 2007-01-29 05:06:00 |
What happens when a train of thought derails? Does one try to rescue the capsized ideas or salvage their germs? I was engrossed in thought, traveling by the second class women's compartment of a local train when the loud bickering between a fisherwoman and another passenger made me pull the mental alarm chain and stop my thoughts in their tracks. The fisherwoman swearing like a, well, fishwife said to her meek co-passenger with her nostrils flaring, “If you wish to travel in such luxury, take the first class instead.” Therein she reiterated a well-established fact. We Indians are a class conscious people.Perhaps the greatest contributors to our class consciousness are the railways. In the days of colonial rule, the vast majority of the natives t...
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| Love and Longing |
| 2007-01-24 05:37:00 |
What do I do whenmy love’s awayDoes it worry to be all alone?How do I feel by the endof the dayAre you sad becauseyou are on your own?--The BeatlesWhat does one do when one’s beloved is away in a foreign land? The Beatles’ song mentioned above speaks of getting by with a little help from friends. Well, not quite, if you have friends like mine. (“So he lives abroad. Imported boyfriend, eh?" Me: “Not imported, but exported. He’s an NRI/expat, you see.”) But that is beside the point. What I feel is not the debilitating, sickening pain of separation but a teeny-weeny niggling feeling of something being amiss. So what do I do now that I can no longer pick up the phone and have hour-long chats with him or just zip across the city to meet him?I re-re...
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| Holy Cross in the Sky |
| 2007-01-21 00:05:00 |
Crux or the Southern Cross, the most familiar constellation seen from the southern hemisphere, is visualized as a Cross. The smallest of the 88 constellations seen from the earth, it points due north-south. Four bright stars in the constellation form a Latin cross.Thousands of years ago the four stars were revered in the Near East. In the Biblical days, 2000 years ago, they were visible just at the horizon. Over the millennia precession has brought the cross far to the south. It is no longer visible at latitudes north of 25 degrees. Some might find a religious connotation linking its disappearance with the Crucifixion of Christ. Crux was originally a part of the Centaurus constellation but the sight of such a brilliant cross was so compelling it came to treated as a separate constellation...
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| Blogging Kills By Degrees |
| 2007-01-17 11:37:00 |
After a Ph.D. in Men, blogging has earned me another degree.The University of BloggingPresents toJulia ScissorAn HonoraryBachelor ofSelf PortraitureMajoring inNon SequitursSignedDr. GoQuiz.com®Username:Blogging DegreeFrom Go-Quiz.comI am aware most of these ‘results’ of such quizzes are randomly generated but this one is absolutely right on! LOL!...
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| Puppy Love |
| 2007-01-12 07:38:00 |
My pride and joy, the apple of my eye, my buddy, my love, my baby Sherlock turns one today. When I had first set my eyes on the tiny chocolate Labrador whelp, I noticed his coat was remarkably white. I named him Sherlock- the one with white locks. Dad calls him Sherry; to his trainer he is Sheru, while mom calls him by assorted endearments in used to address a darling child. Surprisingly, Sherlock responds to every call. (A few years back I had a Pom, Watson, who would start yelping wildly every time the phone rang. His name was inspired by that of Thomas Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell. The duo had invented the telephone and Watson was the first person ever to hear a phone ring.)Though Sherlock is only a pre-teen going by Labrador life expectancy...
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| Hail Queen Nerd! |
| 2007-01-07 22:06:00 |
What can I say? Muchas gracias. Graci Amici. Thanks for the compliment! I'm truly honored.Just one question. I wonder what makes me 1% less nerdy?...
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| A Reason To Celebrate |
| 2007-01-03 12:55:00 |
We are relieved when a year is over. On New Year’s Eve the universe seems to bristle with infinite possibilities. An absurd question befuddles me. What if the sun loses the gravitational charisma that keeps the earth bound to it? There will be no more new years and time will stop. Newton, Galileo and Kepler will look puzzled but not Albert Einstein because he has faith in his God and he believes He wouldn’t gamble with the years.We are glad we made it to 2007. Buckminster Fuller said “I am a passenger on this spaceship, Earth.” I wonder where this spaceship of over six billion travelers is headed. After about 5 billion years the sun will expand to eat up our earth which will then wilt away like an ill-made papad in the degchi (kiln) of space. Would global warming and climate change...
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| Merry Christmas |
| 2006-12-25 00:06:00 |
Merry Christmas to everyone!And don't forget this:Get your own peace globe at http://mimiwrites.blogspot.com...
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| Floccinaucinihilipilification |
| 2006-12-21 05:54:00 |
The act or habit of esteeming something as worthless. Floccinaucinihilipilification of the great is a favorite occupation for many. Sample this compilation:Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance.-PlatoPlato was a bore.-Friedrich NietzscheNietzsche was stupid and abnormal-Leo TolstoyI’m not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy-Ernest HemingwayHemingway was a jerk.-Harold RobbinsBut,Lives of great men all remind usWe can make our lives sublime.And, departing, leave behind us,Footprints on the sands of time.-H.W Longfellow-------------------------------------------------------------Winter BikeThe winter that is usually not has set in (this late) here in Mumbai. Did you say you will be cycling south for winter? ...
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| To-Do List, Done List |
| 2006-12-18 04:21:00 |
I am obsessed with making to-do lists and this interesting one has a whopping 150 items on it. I flicked this meme off Terra Shield’s blog. The items in bold are the ones checked done.P.S: I am posting the second meme in a row because I have just written my exams and can't be bothered to tax my brains further and come up with a brilliant post. (So what if i cheated big time. An exam is still an exam.)01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink02. Swam with wild dolphins03. Climbed a mountain {It was just a hillock. I am such a lazy bum that all I can climb is Mt. Ever-rest. }04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive05. Been inside the Great Pyramid06. Held a tarantula07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone.08. Said “I love you” and meant it.09. Hugged a tree.10. Bungee jumped.11. Visited Paris...
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| 1-2-3, On Your (Book)Marks.. |
| 2006-12-16 07:31:00 |
Defender of the earth, Terra Shield tagged me with this meme.1. Grab the book closest to you.2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.4. Name of the book and the author.5. Tag three people.The only non-technical books in my room are my trusted Concise OED and a dog-eared copy of the Bhagwad Gita.So I walk into the adjoining room which houses my personal library, close my eyes, run my fingers across the spines and draw a lottery.Here goes:Amusing Anecdotes on Indian Red Tape– Barun Kumar Sahu"With so many units, there is utter confusion of a high order about what is whose work. For example, drinking water which is so essential for the rich and the poor alike, may relate to any of the following orga...
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| Narcissa Is Me |
| 2006-12-08 12:43:00 |
Quilter's CutI took up blogging on an impulse. I had given no thought to what my blog was going to be like. On being asked to fill the ‘Display Name’ field on Blogger, I was stumped.Beta of the Plough?Reminds one of A.G. Gardiner but sounds like too much of a spoof.Alpha Tauri?Obvious but too masculine.Belle, The Cat?Witty but too girlish.I was quizzing on the Encyclopedia Britannica right before going online to set up my blog. The last question was an audio-visual clip from the play Julius Caesar. (“When beggars die there are no comets seen”.) The ‘last stored value’ in my brain ‘Julius Caesar’ transmuted into ‘Julia Scissor’ (not Scissors, mind you.) Bingo! That’s a name with the cutting edge and it’s apt for the creator of the Quilt.Catch My StarAnother name that...
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| Of Men and Machines |
| 2006-12-02 10:36:00 |
You Have Your PhD in MenYou understand men almost better than anyone.You accept that guys are very different, and you read signals well.Work what you know about men, and your relationships will be blissful.How Well Do You Understand Men?I guess with the skewed guy-girl ratio in engineering we learn to handle both men and machines with equal aplomb. Wot say, folks?...
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| AWOL |
| 2006-11-16 08:36:00 |
It’s time to roll up my sleeves and face the barrage. The barrage of questions, to be precise. Varsity exams begin next week and, thanks to the long breaks between consecutive papers, end on Boxing Day. I hereby declare a partial blog hiatus. That is, I wouldn’t practice total abstinence from blogging. (I am so addicted I could sign up for Blogaholics Anonymous.) Instead I’ll Apparate (am I too old to read ‘Arry Pottah?) into the Blogosphere occasionally. To use military jargon- but translate it into another context – I am goin’ to be AWOL. Absent Without Official Leave. Absent from the ‘scene of action’ but without the intention to desert blogging! Adieu, Dahlings..************In the wee hours on Monday, a drunken youngster traveling with his partygoer friends crunched his...
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| Strange Signboard Syndrome |
| 2006-11-06 16:25:00 |
I was under the impression strange signboards were ‘native’ to the scholarly city of Pune. The signs found in and around Pune are a topic of great intrigue; they range from downright inane to brilliant to plain rude, sarcastic or scornful. (Spotted outside a Pune home: “We are vegetarian but our dog is not.”) However traces of the ‘strange signboard syndrome’ can be found everywhere in the world including Mumbai. Read on.· At the nursing home located opposite the mosque in Bandra:An assortment of signboards bearing the names and visiting hours of various medicos has been put up above the façade. One of them reads:Dr. D. K. SinghPHYSIO THE RAPIST Really. No cattle excreta. The painter clearly reads too many SMS jokes.· Last week I was at th...
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| A Rose By Any Other Genus.. |
| 2006-10-31 08:30:00 |
Taking off from where I left last week,The ‘Me’ Saga, Act II, Scene II am anIris What FlowerAre You?"You are a very sensual person. You like to experience all the sights, smells, tastes and textures the world has to offer. Ordinary be damned, because you want to do it all."The Me Saga, Act II, Scene IIMea Culpa. Julia Scissor’s apologies to Friends, Romans, Readers and Fellow Bloggers.I will be posting such useless stuff as above till my exams get over. I need to siphon off my creative juices from every possible place and tank ‘em up to write ‘creative’ answers in the exams. I cannot carve a date in stone as to when my posts will return to their usual magnificence. Mumbai University with its fascination for Russian roulette has been messin’ around with exam schedules (Nov 14,...
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| Blogger's Block |
| 2006-10-24 19:39:00 |
One week into the study leave I am well and truly bugged. We have one phaadu (tedious) subject which is a melting pot of three subjects of mechanical engineering, another three subjects of electrical, one of electronics and math to boot. Even as my blog compltes 1K visitors I have nothing happening in my life that is worth putting into cold electronic print. Call it the web equivalent of what newspaper editors call the ‘big gooseberry season.’ To my rescue comes the easiest topic to write about: MyselfHere’s presenting 10 things about me that are quirky, off-beat or unusual. I bet no one knows this about me.l) I am obsessed with making to –do lists. I would be crippled without my little black diary.2) For some uncanny reason I keep meeting with freak accidents. Fortunately that has...
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| Blogger Girls |
| 2006-10-02 10:33:00 |
The link to 'blogging chicks' blogroll is way down in the left sidebar. Do join!...
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| CQ Is 6 Months Old! |
| 2006-09-08 20:05:00 |
My first blog, Crazy Quilt, was born on this day six months ago.Lately this site has seen a huge surge in the amount of traffic going from about one to three hits per day to 30 to 50 hits per day. The visitor counter seems to tick away magically like the (faulty) meter of a Delhi auto rickshaw.I am currently working on two new blogs but this one will always be special because it brought out the best and the worst in me. When I started off I had zilch net presence, no HTML skills and no knowledge of the tricks of the trade. I have come a long considering I started blogging on an impulse. To let the cat out of the bag, here’s the story:I did not get along well with a girl in my extended social circle. A cold war sparked off between us * and we used to lose no opportunity to go one-up on ea...
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| Take flight, Falcon |
| 2006-09-05 13:23:00 |
I haven’t been posting much recently. Readers write to me saying they hope I haven’t quit blogging.The reason for this lull was that I had been grappling with personal problems. Blogging was the last thing on my mind.I had been down in the dumps since two months with no real solution in sight and no one to turn to. Not even my best friend. (Why should he help me? He created the problem!)Thankfully, it’s all over now. Not only have I learnt I lot from this experience I am much happier now than I was before it happened.I am not much into Urdu and Hindi poetry but these lines from a Mohammed Iqbal poem titled Shaheen are some of most inspiring ones I have ever read. I had read it in one of his biographies. It keeps going when little problems bog me down.Tu shaheen hai /parvaaz hai kaam ...
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| Monsoon Blues |
| 2006-07-04 13:51:00 |
Another night has passed but it barely seems to be a new day.With the downpour unabated we have seen no sunlight since three days. The Rain God has been too generous.It pours. Just pours. Spurt after fresh spurt barraging the already rain-swept streets. Sporadically, the wind joins forces with the torrents.The metropolis doesn’t care for sun or rain. Life ticks here, perhaps, faster than the clock. When the showers ebb a little, a motley group of boys plays football in the slush. The hawker selling roasted corn cobs makes brisk business. Happy, shiny young couples sit by the promenade taking in the spray of the sea and the drizzle. When the torrents return everyone scampers back to their cubbyholes.The rain usually makes me feel happy and renewed. But a glum feeling overwhelms me today. ...
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| My B.F. |
| 2006-06-14 10:35:00 |
He’s my B.F – Best Friend. He calls me his G.F – Girl Friday. And we share a wonderful, wonderful platonic relationship.A fellow engineering student three years my senior, he’s my B.F, Santa Claus and comrade-in-arms all rolled into one. Being the sweet, sensitive soul and the popular man that he is, he attracts women by the droves. So much that his guy friends call him a chick-magnet. I always wonder how he cake-walks his way into people’s hearts. Maybe it has something to do with his being multi-talented. (An engineer and former state level cricketer who is skilled in half a dozen styles of ballroom dancing!)He is also a self confessed bevda (alcoholic.) He had once turned up slightly drunk to a Communication Skills practical session of making impromptu speeches and scored an A...
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| What's in a name.. |
| 2006-05-30 12:48:00 |
In an introductory lecture on computer programming,Prof: “C language ka naam ‘C’ kyun hain?” (Why is C language named so?)(Effect: Some blank faces. Thinking caps put on.)Student1: “Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of ‘C’ had temporarily named it that while the language was being developed. The name was however not changed later.” (Effect: Some skeptical looks, some nodding heads.)Student2: “When Roentgen accidentally discovered X-Rays he had arbitrarily named them ‘X’ indicating that they were an unknown entity. Today there is nothing that we do not know about X-rays but the name has been retained for convenience. The name of C language has stayed on for similar reasons.”(Effect: Some gear up for a protracted discussion, some feel enlightened.)My answer: ‘A’ and ...
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