Deepanjan Nag's Magnum Opus

Mantu, Anand & Mani @ ease in Bangalore!

I was feeling on top of the world only a few days back, thanks to some prospect of change. Now, everything seems lost and I'm in a gloom. It's terrible when hopes are dashed.

I bought a Nokia phone a few months back and got into downloading games for it only recently. I hit upon an absolutely fantastic Chess game for Symbian phones. It's called ChessGenius and I've spent sleepless nights playing against it on my mobile. I've won only 2, keeping the competition (read 'opponent') at the simplest level. There's no guessing what'll happen if ChessGenius plays in a stronger mode! After all, I'm as good at it as a Sumo wrestler may be at figure-skating! It's a dream game for me and I'm thoroughly enjoying playing against my newfound opponent.

Yours truly has had his share of what most people deem the ultimate luxury: one night stands. But before your juices begin to flow, dear erudite reader, let me forewarn you that all my 'bedmates' were just inanimate objects! It's about those times when the world hadn't gone digital. Times were simpler and I was only a kid. Dad would go to the bazaar every evening; and each time he came back, I would spring into action and probe his shopping bag for anything that might catch my fancy. Books & Magazines were my favorite...and there was generally enough of a steady supply of them to keep me happy. When they were not to be found after a probe, I would be happy to make do with any other thing, including fruits, vegetables, electric torches, buckets...the list is endless. Accommodating the newly bought 'object' by my side during bedtime was seldom an issue. My parents had learnt by observing me over the years that I was abnormal beyond repair & thus never trie...

Anish has been pressing me to writing something about him...so here I go. There are some people who stand apart from the crowd. Beethoven, Einstein, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, yours truly, etc have all been specially endowed people. Now Anish obviously doesn't belong to our league, but that doesn't mean he is not gifted. Anish has a way with people and people related issues. This became apparent during our early days of acquaintance. Any problem and Anish would be using his skills to navigate us out of it. Soon we got so used to him that we would be paralyzed without his presence. So we informally promoted him to our in-house HR Rep! I asked him to pursue an MBA with specialization in HR. He has been contemplating it ever since. The other thing nice about him is that he never loses his temper or patience. We pester him with all sorts of requests, both reasonable and unreasonable, and he never declines to help. What's more, like me, he too is an occupant of the nascent blogo...

...are finally coming to the fore. Transferred some Symbian games from the computer to my phone. A photo-editing software was also transferred. Some tracks from The Beatles, Herbie Hancock and Louis Armstrong also found their way.

Sittu & Prateek finally came to my place, although they couldn't have done so without our mobiles. Thanks to them, my data cable was finally put to some use like transferring files from the computer to my mobile and vice-versa. The pair of earphones that came with my mobile were also used for the first time.

Yahoo!, on Thursday, announced its entry into podcasting with the beta release of Yahoo! Podcasts. Yahoo! Bangalore had been the brain behind this new product with entire product development happening out of Bangalore Software Development Centre.

The much-hyped Mozilla-based Flock browser is finally downloadable. I'm not impressed.

A news site that describes itself as " a new blogging venture designed to bring together top online writers, journalists and commentators under a single umbrella, " is scrutinizing my blog to include me as one of its contributing writers. I've been asked for a report on the traffic my site generates. This is how the revered Cnet describes the endeavor: A group of bloggers including mainstream journalists from outlets such as CNBC, The Nation and The New York Times are banding together to strike a blow at established media and pick up some ad dollars in the process.

Vanity Fair is not a 'small' book. It's bulky and one needs patience to read it cover-to-cover, and that's a virtue I never had. After a long hiatus, I finally decided to continue with the book this week and though picking the lost thread wasn't easy, I did finally manage to let the plot twine around myself. Project Gutenberg is an online endeavor in documenting the classics and Vanity Fair is one of the 16,000 books to be thus privileged. I tried continuing with the online version during office hours at their site, and to my pleasant surprise it wasn't half as difficult on the eye as I had imagined. So that's how I hope to consummate the hallowed novel, reading the book at home and devouring its online avatar in the office!

After Prateek, it was Ritesh's turn today to execute the same telephonic prank on me regarding relocation...and I fell for it once again! I fear one of these days a genuine call will go hopelessly wrong!

Firefox has witnessed its 100 millionth download.

It's almost a month since I 'lost' my glasses and I'm now used to my slipped vision. However, I can't procrastinate buying a new pair much longer.

My computer system has been restored...but the entire experience has shaken me badly.

Reached home @ 6:45pm, only to find Santosh snoring. Met Manilal in the adjacent room and downloaded Google Earth on his computer. I was stunned to learn that the bugger had never had a hands-on experience of the phenomenon that had taken the world by storm. Downloading done, we swooped in on Bangalore, London and some other places. If only we could travel that easily. Unfortunately, there are biological limitations. The body can withstand only a maximum of 11g. Lingered in Manilal's room for some more hours before retreating to my room. Sleeping beauty was still snoring with gay abandon! Just how peacefully he lay while the storm of change was ravaging the world. Anyway, his slumber soon ended and I motioned him to reach out to Manilal and his computer for something wonderful, a suggestion he instantly heeded. Night time was right time for Anand to continue with where he left off the previous night. We discussed how weird the professors in BIT were and buttressed our allegations w...

Raveesh Neeraje's reply mail has offered me temporary respite. The consternation was so unsettling that I read Vanity Fair's Chapter #14 with great asperity yesterday. Anand's late night character sketch of his BIT classmates was a comic interlude I couldn't have done without. Serendipity struck with me and Santosh bridging the rift that had drawn us apart during the past few days because of a misunderstanding. And need I add how much of a pleasure it is to chat with Sameer?

...& I can't shed light on the incident because I'm incapable of making defamatory statements against any individual or institution in my current capacity as a techie. But I'm saddened at just how far some people would go to make infinitesimal gains. Deplorable, that's what it is. The culprit should be defaced publicly. Unfortunately, our toothless law is completely incapable of dealing a fittingly blow to such degenerated forms of life. In the meantime, my PC won't boot.