Speed Demon

Friday. April 21. 2006.

Well .. It was a grt day 4 me.. ( Read my previous blog 4 da details.) It was 2:00 pm. I had just come out of the lab xam victorious and was in the mood 4 mischief.. My spirits were high and I was on cloud 9..hehe. After chattin with the guys n gals for some time.. I got onto my bike with Jose in the back seat and headed home from college.
Today, I felt adventurous. I decided to go via the kovalam-kazhakootam bypass route to home. It was a smooth ride, with sporadaric distribution of vehicles only. I cruised along the highway, takin in the sights and fresh air. After we passed the gates of Technopark, it was a straight road. The devilishly evil smirk resurfaced again to my face. I told Jose to hold on.. revved up the engine .. pushed down the gear.. increased the RPM off the charts and .... VROOOOM!!!! :D
The Pulsar wasnt meant for city cruising. It was meant for burning roads. And today..I meant to Burn some rubber!! I took it to the limits. Poor Jose. I cud barely hear him screaming!! It was a cool day and the wind was chilling. Even the Gods seemed to join me in the fun and it was gradually becoming overcast...
80 Kmpr.. It was a breeeze for the Pulsar. It can handle it smoothly.. Not Good Enuf 4 me!!
90 Kmpr.. Now the Fun starts..
95 Kmpr.. The sound of the wind through my helmet lends special effects to the ride. It sounded as if we were on a plane!!
100 Kmpr.. Jose starts screamin again.. It begins to drizzle very gently...
105 Kmpr.. The world's a blur.. The road's barely visible with the waterdrops smeared on the visor of the helmet. The rain stops..
110 Kmpr.. Nirvana!! I've never reached 110 before!! The few raindrops that were still fallin felt like bullets ricocheting off me as if I'm invulnerable. The bike starts shaking and screams for mercy. No Mercy today..Not today.

Then it happened.. I was behind an Indica which was behind a Qualis. As I was overtaking it, the Indica started to swerve to the right to overtake the Qualis.. .. And there was an Ambassador comin in the opp. direction to boot. I had figured I cud get in front of the Indica well before the car reachin us.. But I was in no-man's land now. I started blarin my horn desperately.. Luckily the Indica's driver realised the situation and started to pull back to the left ..I also slowed down.. but it was too late.. I prepared for the worst..
Don't really know how it happened.. I cud swear that the car's side rear view mirror had brushed me. My ears were still ringing from the commotion of the horns and the wind. But.. I was still alive..
I carried on like it never happened.. It was too close for comfort. Don't think Jose realised it.. I left him off at his house at Pettah and went home.. The incident got me thinking..
" Was it worth it?? What if something had happened to me? Worse.. what if something had happened to Jose? I would never be able to forgive myself " ... Anyway.. All's well that ends well.. and I'm glad that it wasn't the end of me......

Lucky Guy

Friday. April 21. 2006.

It was the end of S4. Another Semester gone .. And the most funny thing is.. it seems as if it was just yesterday that I joined college.. Anyway.. As usual, the 2nd series xams were a disaster but I was extremely lucky with the lab xams. In both the EC lab and Simulation Lab, I got the output in a matter of 20 mins!! Today I had the Simulation lab xam. I was prayin to god that I dont get to do SPICE and was hopin to get MATLAB. We use a stupid software called ED-WinXp for SPICE and the damn thing never seems to work with the proper design values and seems to need the values given in the lab manual for optimal functioning!! (A bad workman always blames his tools.. hehe ;) )
It was 1:00 pm. My time had come. I once again prayed to my Gods and gingerly went into the lab. The questions were written on bits of paper and set on the table in front of the examiner. I took a paper. "Design and set up...". DAMN!! . My heart skipped a beat.. I didn't wait to read the rest. I quietly put it back and took another one. Luckily he didnt notice me in the flurry of the other people in my batch submittin their records and taking their own question papers. The new question was.. " To generate a deconvoluted waveform ". BINGO!! :D
It was a breeze from there on. I got the output in good time. I was lucky in the VIVA too. I got almost the same questions that Dersh had got earlier in the day. "Use of transistor in simple sweep circuit", "Working of bistable multivibrator", etc..etc.. All in all, it was a grt day .
Btw, as I was about to leave the lab, I saw Karthik struggling with his question . He had entered the lab before me and still didnt seem to hav any luck. I asked him about it. "Design and set up a Monostable Multivibrator!!!!". Poor Karthik!! An evil smirk slowly formed across my face.. Bwahahahahahaha!!

Believe the hype??

I've been hearin bout this book for some time now.. Actually, I had the opportunity to read it more than once before.. but .. the cover of the book with the Mona Lisa paintin bored me and I set it aside without readin a word!!. I had read Deception Point recently. Liked it. Now I take this book in my hands with a lot of anticipation.

It is clear that there has been few such brilliant books which combine intellect and great storytellin. Dan Brown's extensive research on secret societies and symbology adds intellectual depth to this page-turning thriller. His surprising revelations on Da Vinci's penchant for hiding codes in his paintings such as The Mona Lisa, The Madonna of the Rocks and The Last Supper is sure to come as a surprise to many. The Last Supper holds the most astonishing coded secrets of all and, after reading THE DA VINCI CODE, you will never see this famous painting in quite the same way again.

But.. the book, I think is highly over-rated. It's brilliant.. no doubt.. but its linear. I cud sense the exact moments that twists were bout to happen in the storyline.. and by the middle of the book.. I even started solvin puzzles!! ( That one in which the puzzle is solved when u put the book in front of the mirror) and the main villain was predictable too. There weren't too many characters of importance.. and I had seen too many Hollywood flicks to b genuinely surprised.
Also, the book's unnatural popularity is clearly due to the anti-christian elements and the Pope banning it. I heard that almost all christians in the hostel bought one the next day from Dayal. hehe..
Anyway.. full credit to Dan Brown for such an excellent read. I wud highly reccomend this book .... even to highly orthodox christians 'cos its a great piece of art and genius and a Must Read!!