TROY

Just finished watching it ... Had Pizza too and Ice creams to go with it.. Well, one thing that I kept wondering after I saw this one was that why is the movie called Troy ?? It could have been called:

* Helen : The babe for whom the whole fight was fought ...
* Achilles : The fellow who actually fought everything ...
* Hector : Who HAD to fight things ..
* Paris : Who couldnt fight anything ..
* Trojan Horse : Who could have been the star of a movie all by itself but lost the footage to Brad Pitt, and last of all.
* Troy : its ok, Sexy spear once said, "whats in a name?", and since this movie has so many sexy spear throwings in it .. TROY *can* be a name for the movie.

Decent movie though ... seenable once... If you are not that senti on history or epics and also if you dont wonder till the end that what's the mystery of Achilles' Heel ..

-Thakkar
PS: I am running a similar poll on local servers ... you can also drop in a message on the discussion board on the right if you want to give your opinion...

IIT Bombay Campus News

Alumni Chat day today

Sometimes it happens that all the lost friends decide that they'll give an appearance on messenger the same day and you may even have to chat to 2-3 of them simultaneously.... Here's the list of who all came in past 24 hours and buzzed me ... (that means talking ! )
Peeyush Kumar Dubey, ex-BHU, ex-SSSX Bhilai, now placed in Infy Hyd., Sushma Ramakrishan ex-batchmate, now in Dubai with parents, awaiting her joining date for MS, Suan Elizabeth,who got disconnected very soon, Y. Srinivas Reddy and Ravi Prakash Tiwari , ex-batchmates, now working in some oil-Rig in Dubai, Saurabh Godha, ex-batchmate, now doing MS abroad, Abhinav Chintamani, at home after attending sachin's marraige yesterday, Apurva Agarwal, present SOM passing out batch, already joined the firm, from B'lore, Alok Srivastava, ex-batchmate doing MS in US, Ankur Agarwal, ex-roomie, doing MS in US, Geet Bhanawat, ex batchie, joined Inductis and currently on-Site in US, met quite a few others on Orkut and here and there in some forum or so ... quite a few ain't it ....

Pantera performs LIVE @ IITB

A panther (of the two who are actually paying a visit to our beautiful campus) actually chased down one of my batchmated Anand Prakash, 2 days ago and scared the shitting bricks out of the poor guy as he was cycling back from CC lab late in the night. Spotty Panthers have been spotted many a times in IIT Bombay even before my arrival here, I still remember the warning we recieved during orientation... but over the past two years, their frequency has increased.... its almost as if Hiranandani Gardens are becoming more famous amongst the wildcats and what better and cheap accomodation you can have on a honeymoon other than IIT Bombay in Mumbai ?? :D :D This time, however, as the rumours go... there is one spotty as usual (probably the guide) and a BLACKY!!!!! YESS!, a totally coooooooool magnificiently royal son of Bagheera, the BLACK PANTHER. Since there have been too many sightings of the blacky, the panther is black unless two spotty's are seen together, and gets the benefit of doubt to be cool ... More news will follow as I get them ...

Spiderman Indianized

Gotham Comics India have finally done the unthinkable... they have converted Peter Parker to Pavitra Prabhakar, as if you can digest that change.... It was funny enough when they (by they, I dont mean gotham only, but the ppl who decide on these name changing things) changed the name of a perfectly femalish-ly built Victoria Terminus to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus which IMHO, can be considered as the world's biggest sex change operation, and now they are *thinking* that they are indianizing western characters and they'll blend in with the Indian scene...

It is very sorry to notice that even the acclaimed cartoonist Jeevan J. Kang who is currently in charge of Pavitr Prabhakar, thinks that wearing a dhoti means that the character is Indian, whereas a small survey would have proved quite contrary....

Speaking of Indian comic characters, the major share of the market is of Raj Comics, whose characters

Nagraj and Dhruva are by far the most widely read characters with colossal fandom (myself being one of them). Speaking of that, incidently, I bought a comic "ROBOT" yesterday starring none another than our own Dhruva...and its nice to see that he is now fighting regular villians like Grand Master Robo (my fav villian) rather than the supernatural powers he was fighting lately.

I like spiderman as spiderman and okay he is simple in his normal life and gets the chick in the flick, but hey hey.. stay outta India man, the crooks here are far tougher, the politics here is more corrupt, the girls dont give smooches so easily and the villians do not hesitate or get intimidated by you. Here, the street law rulez, and when it comes to saving tajmahal, I trust Super Commando Dhruva, Nagraj and Parmanu to do a far, far better than a Pavitra Prabhakar... In fact, they could not have come up with a cornier name for the poor fellow, they have totally killed off his dating scene by naming him Pavitr, tsk tsk ... better than this was the word-to-word translation in the Indian Dubbing of the movie Spiderman, I mean it ... it was Insaani Makdi: Bichhaye Jaal, dikhaaye kamaal Muhahahahahaha....

maybe up coming are : Woh aadmi (He-man), Maha-Purush (Superman), Chamak (Flash) etc etc..

Nidhi Panday is going to kansas!

Speaking of old friends, I called up Nidhi today .. She is an ex-batchmate and 1 of the many girls I had a crush on in my life. Nidhi has that sweet sounding voice having that cute nasal touch which makes it sound like ...... :"> Anyways, she did her BE from GSITS Indore and has got an full schol with TA in Kansas State University. She's coming here on 7th to get her ViSa approved, here's wishing her good luck!

on the other hand, Sachin is getting married right at this moment as I publish this post, just got off the phone from Fuckka and man they are having a gala time there....

thakkar

Saching Sancheti gets married today!

Nothing mucch happening in life, guides to please, projects to complete and other regular run of the mill stuff. Ravi came day before and he, chinta and Tomu left for Jodhpur. I feel bad, for I lied till the last moment to sachin that I am coming, whereas the recent events in life and the accumulated workload is not leaving any scope for this visit. As they say in Borderlands, "Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain". Sachin man, truely sorry, and my best wishes go out with you, I'll make it up to you someday, promise!.

Off topic

People make different blogs for different reasons, I myself write 4 of them and am thinking of starting one more, although I only keep two of them most regularly updated.

Take for example Prom Dress selection blog where this dame is having an opinion poll on what she should wear at her prom !!. Another good sample of the fact that the inventor cannot possibly guess all the uses of his invention.

The results are out..

..and as I expected 98%-ly, I didnt clear it. However, unlike what I expected, I am feeling a sense of serene calmness, as the feeling dawns on me that I am finally letting go of IIT.. and stepping into a new world of professionalism.

Ppl are asking me whether i'll try again next time?? As to that question, the answer is NO! IDC's loss is IDC
's loss, there can be no two thoughts about it, oppurtunity to teach me knocks but once. :D hehehe... So designer world, here I come... be prepared, the warning has been given.

Meanwhile, Panthers (two of them) are prowling IITB grounds, the gmail saga continuies as more and more btachmates who are otherwise silent on the news group mail back for the invite, the wheel of time turns and life goes on at its usual pace.

'till next time.
-Thakkar

Anticipation ...

Nothing much happened today, there are like 24 hours remaining for the final result to the IDC entrance exam, which are like killing me. Some computer on the network is sending a Denial of Service Attack on the whole subnet and thats why there is no net (In fact, I am typing this whole thing out on a Notepad file so that I can put it up later on the Blog board.

Then there is this work which the chemistry department wants me to do, which is renovation of their entire website. They liked the work which I did for SINE, just an irony that the sine people have not yet decided that whether or not they are going to use it or not! he he he ...

On the other hand, there is this choir group in US that also wants to get a website done. They are offering 100 euros, I think thats less, lets see what turns out. Then there CAD center who also needs an upgrade to be done ... but lets just see what turns out in IDC for now ...

Watch out this space for tommorow... THE RESULT!
-Thakkar

Much has happened ...

...since I last posted, and it was all happening so fast that it I was not even in a position to Blog! So this post has :

IDC final year presentations
Gmail accounts and invite saga
IDC entrance final tests
Of movies, old friends, treats and more ...

OF IDC ENTRANCE EXAM

To start with, for most of those who know me, and are anxious about the IDC interview thing, that didnt go so well. There was a design test on 16th and two interview sessions on 17th. The design test on 16th was fairly easy, considering I have been pretty much living off in IDC for the past two years, there must be some design sense which got into me... Then next day, the interview started. I got a Panel with Prof. Shilpa Ranande, Prof. Suresh Sethi, and Prof. Kirti Trivedi. They already knew that most of my last year, I have haunted IDC and the only question was "Why do you want to Join IDC, what do you want to become in life ?" And I started talking about games ...

In the next blur of 20 minutes, we went from normal games to commodore 64, nintendo and Xbox and playstation, dangerous territory to venture into since that kind of stuff is not taught at IDC. I stuck to my control of learning and defining the gameplay, and tried heavily to bring the discussion on how gaming can be deployed to other stuff like normal and educative softwares, but wasnt successful into doing so. In the end, as a result, I got the statement, "What you are trying to learn, we dont teach here at IDC at all! ". I was also not called for the 2nd round of interview. AS per the portfolio is concerned, Ma'm Ranade and Sethi sir liked it, KT sir didnt see the printed version at all and the CD didnt work!

In many a rare cases, its decided in the 1st interview only that the fellow should be taken and they generally screw around with the candidate. Is my case like one of those rare few ? Or I am one of those few who hang out too well in the proximity of IDC and are not let in because they are just too familier with system?? Only time will tell (23rd, evening being the release of result). Just keeing my fingers crossed..

Even if I dont clear, I am going to continue working on becoming a designer. I have chosen a path, and will not turn down on facing the first obstacle. If not IDC, then I have an RA position waiting for me at Media Lab Asia, IIT Bombay.

THE GMAIL SAGA

Many thankz to Gags, who sent me the invite we he got those in his account a week ago. I got another one from my Techfest family using which, I made one as a passing out gift for one of the IDC seniors. I got 3 invites each 48 hrs later into both accounts and using them I created more accounts for other seniors. That was just about the time when Yahoo! declared increasing their package being upgraded to 100 MB. GMAIL panicked and gave 3 more invites in each of the accounts. And not much time would have passed that Rediff mail too pitched in with another 1 GB mailbox.

With the fight just getting started, I offered my extra invites to a few people in Gmail Swapping website, and got hold of a few goodies. Some more I distributed to people in the HCIIDC newsgroup and got to know a few of the silent lurkers who existed there, they just crammed up my inbox begging for one of those. Now I feel what Rashmi Sinha would have felt, when he offered the same some time back and I mailed him asking for one. I gave invites to many, and to the rest of those, I'll mail you as I get them.

IDC Final year presentations

Final year presentations had been delayed this year at IDC by 2 months, that period also got over a week back, just the time I stopped posting, and one of the many reasons why I stopped posting, I had to help close friends finish up and touch up on their work. This period I learned a lot of actionscripting and what effort goes on into their final presentations. IDC people are very funny people, they will fight like hell to defend that someone's name should be assoiciated with someone's project in the placement brochure, I just wish that I had a camera to film and show that apart from a select few Maestros like Rashmin Raj (who is already a masters in Industrial Design), none of them have made thier respective things all by themselves, for each of their final works, their whole batch has committed a nightout lending a helping hand and moral support, also setting an example of Teamwork and managing a project.

With such help from all over the batch in the end, and the massive brainstorming sessions at the beginning, why do these people have such a big sense of ownership over their work, do they feel that insecure in placements ? Or maybe the pride is too much, maybe I shouldnt comment on these topic till I have gone through the thing myself, but this is what I feel now. If they support each other, it will result in a better placement for all.

Lakshya : The movie

The Techfest Family, seeing my depressed post interview state, dragged me out of my room and took me to see the newly released movie, Lakshya starring Preity Zinta and Hritik Roshan. The movie is pretty decent, if you are not expecting another "Dil chahta hain" from the director. The entire second half, you can notice the LOTR OST, being played in background, with subtle change. Thats what I like about Indian Cinema, they are wildly creative and resourceful, the moment they see a good concept or raw material, their mind starts working in a frenzy on where can it be utilized, and here is an excellent example. The Mountain scenes of Lakshya, will give you the same feel as you got when looking on the Helm's Deep castle in LORD OF THE RINGS, and mainly because of the soundtrack. Apart from that there are many glitches that will stare you in face if you have seen 2-3 good war movies, but overall the movie is pleasent and nice to watch with company of friends, and the mountain shots are definitely worth watching in theatre.

Apparently the whole IIT was there namely three wings of Hostel 5, 1 group from Hostel 11, the entire Chem Dual and Elec Dual batches and people from the Techfest and MI families. It felt good to be on an Outing after sooooo long!

OF OLD FRIENDS

Sumit Kanuga and Pawan Jain, old batchmates and good friends, paid a visit back this last weekend. Kanuga came from Banglore while Pawan from Manglore, and the whole weekend had a touch of Nostalgia, we watched Charas and Yuva together. Also Ravindra Kumawat is expected to fly in next thursday, when the gang is planning to goto Jodhpur to attend the Sancheti's wedding.

Of Treats and Weddings

Brijesh(one of the passing out IDCians) threw in a treat yesterday (a reason why this post was sitting as a draft for 24 hours, I had no enthu to type :D), as his brother is getting married on the 30th. we went to a nice Hotel called Naaz on LBS Marg, near Kurla. The food is good for Non-veggies and decent for Veggies. The thing I liked most was the delicious sundae "Naaz ki Jaan", which is quite filling. Since the whole place was pro-non-veg, and us veggies were in a minority, and the fact that this was the first time they were about to see me eating *nicely*, I was on a performance Drive and had: 1 Mango Juice, 2 Pineapple juices, 2 Appl Juices, 1 kacchi Keri Sherbet, 1 Plate Samosa, 2 plates of Finger Chips, portions from Paneer Fingers, and Gobhi Manchurian, 2 Masal Papad's, 1 dal tadka with Jeera rice, 2 Naaz ki Jaan's, 1 Sweet Lime soda and a sweet lime juice (which someone else ordered but disappeared before the order came). Majestic ;), ain't it. This is by far the first time that I've eaten (or over-eaten), since my old batchmates passed out last year.

So here's wishing,
Mittal's Brother who's getting married on 23rd,
Monu Bhaiya, (Jain's brother) who's getting married on 23rd too,
Sachin and Ankita, who are going to tie the knot on 27th,
and Ram and Hema, who'll be doing it on 30th of this month,

as they take their first common step on the long journey of life,
Bon Voyage ! ^_-

cheers'
Thakkar

Orkut: the better half

No one's birthday today.. otherwise it would be an hat-trick. Well, the good side to Orkut is, its sort of batchmates.com too... I am finding old school and college seniors and seems like they remember me too... which is kinda good.

Interesting thing to note is while the communities are dead, if people find you in most of their interest groups, they join you and play scrap-scrap. Apart from messaging, scrap book is seen being used for spamming, and blogging too!

only this today, (and ya, I built a web page for SINE, if its gets selected, I'll post a link. over and out!

-Thakkar

Happy Birthday Sindhu

Sindhu's Birthday today.. We went for a coffee treat @ staffC and people are just talking about passing out and leaving this place... I remember the days when my batch used to make comments like that. Well, I feel like the guardian of IITB, letting people in, spending time with them and then letting them go...

Anyways, Sind's birthday report... Since she's a lady I wont delve into whats her age today, but we did give her bumps , just becoz she gave it to every1 on their birthdays :)
The cake splattering it seems is the same every where...

nyways! Here's wishing sindhu a great day!

-thakkar

PS: For those who missed it, it was Venus transit today .. and was being telecasted live on many websites like this. Now go and search for recorded videos... It was beautiful.

Susu's Birthday today!

Just returned from Saurabh Saxena(fondly known as Susu)'s Birthday and it was quite a feast to the eyes. Let me give you a bit of background before continuing to the main story.

Prelude:
Saurabh Saxena is a man who has the power to make anyone sentimental in minutes, and he has this girlfriend (serious, going steady etc if you are wondering) Jagruti Kirloskar who resides in Pune. The Dame wanted to give the Duke a surprise and hence she requested us to get a Cake at the stroke of midnight. Well, this is what we usually do, so there is no such thing as a surprise here. Instead we told her about all the gory details about the ritual that happens to be the IITB Birthday Bumps. She, hearing this for the first time then requested to witness such a display of affection by her own eyes.

What Happened today..
We all, Me, Pica, Munji, Mamu etc gathered in Asif's room and eagerly awaited the birthday boy's arrival from Chakra where he was having dinner. The fellow stayed there till 11:50 and then went to pick the Dame up from Ghatkopar. As a result, he got 58 minutes late.. and at IITB, one should never come late on one's birthday. Also, since the dame requested earlier, we had to put up an show worth remembering. To avoid looking at the Duke's sentimental face, we hid it with a bedsheet and then to top it off, Dopa poured Hot water instead of the usual chilled water. And then the kicking started with Pika in full swing, Asif backed after the first round, while Munji in fact overstepped his usual limit of 3. Okay, there were less people today so we had to make up for all the missing ones :D
The dame got frantic and all sentimental (ofcourse, please note, its her first time to see susu's sentiyapa and a bumps ceremony) Unable to watch her hero getting his ass kicked off. She went away only to return in time of cake later. Poor dame, how is she going to live with this fellow if her heart melts so easily... But since we got used to it, so will she, we hope!

All the same, I do think he'll remember his last birthday in IIT. Once again Susu dear, Happy birthday to you!

-Thakkar

A BOY & HIS FIRE TRUCK

Read this joke yesterday, found it quite funny...
------------------------------------------------------
A fire fighter is working on the engine outside the station when he
notices a little boy next door in a little red wagon with little ladders
hung off the side. The boy is wearing a fire fighter's helmet and has
the wagon tied to a dog and a cat. The fire fighter says, "Hey little
partner, what are you doing?"

The little boy says, "I'm pretending to be a fireman, and this is my
fire truck."

The fire fighter walks over to take a closer look. "That's sure is a
nice fire truck," the fire fighter says with admiration.

"Thanks mister," the boy says.

The fire fighter looks a little closer and notices the boy has tied the
wagon to the dog's collar, and to the cat's testicles.

"Little partner," the fire fighter says, "I don't want to tell you how
to run your fire truck, but if you were to tie that rope around the
cat's collar, I think you could go faster."

The little boy says, "You're probably right, mister, but then I
wouldn't have a siren."

Dynamic Duo to the rescue-true story!

Today 5 pm, Abhishek Thakkar (Batman) and Kshitij Hinger (Robin) started from their cave in IIT Bombay to watch the adventures of Harry Potter in R-mall. Without tickets, they were going to show mercy on those poor souls who have gotten extra tickets by relieving them of the Burden. Suddenly an Uncle comes with this cute Kid and also starts looking for two tickets. It was a race against eachother.

Before long, Hinger the robin's eyes found a prey and he approached, meanwhile this uncle who was lurking in background budges in between with cash in hand and takes the ticket away, while robin was in middle of transaction!! Furious, the dynamic duo started hunting more vigorously!! After all, we were ditching the gorgeous Rani Mukherjee for (equally gorgeous) Hermione Granger!

Time: 6:25 pm
Status: Uncle(Mocking)1 Dynamic Duo(Angry and determined) 0

Soon, Hinger the robin's keen eyes find another prey, and this time we get the one ticket which is extra! Now the fight was again equal. Meanwhile an evil Vampish female, who apparently came to see the movie all by herself, came and started giving the deadly duo a piece of her mind. "Tumke us Uncle to ticket de deni chaiye thi!" when she herself was looking for a prey. The uncle now approached us and then:

Uncle: Ohh.. to tumhe bhi ek ticket mil gayi!
Robin: Jee haan, pichli baar aap beech mein aa gaye nahin to hum under hote abhi...
Uncle (with condfidence): Arey dekhna, tumhari yeh ticket bhi mein hi leke jaaonga.
Batman: Nahin uncle ji, humein ek aur ticket nahin mili to hum mein se ek akela hi dekh lega aur ek ghar chala jayega.. aap aisa nahin kar sakte to hum aapki ticket le ke under jaynge.

Time: 6:45 pm
Status Uncle(Desperate) 1 Dynamic Duo(determined) 1 Evil Bitch(hunting) 0

Time: 7:10 pm Five minutes to the movie

The Dynamic Duo are still hopehul and are looking for the next victim, when Uncle gives up and approaches, "Beta, tum log he le lo yeh ticket.. mere ko nahin milega doosra.." Seeing this, the evil bitch comes in with money in hand. Abhishek "Batman" Thakkar's eyes meet Kshitij "Robin" Hinger's eyes and a mutual decision is taken. We sold our ticket to the Uncle and let that kid see the movie, we were more of an LOTR fan anyway! Afterall, Liv "Lady Arwen" Tyler is anytime more gorgeous than Hermione Granger. Beside, the kids smile was worth it. The small kid went to see the movie of his favorite character, the Dynamic Duo had a ball of a time eating at various food joints recorded in Thakkar the Batman's Database and the evil bitch went home w/o watching the movie!
Time: 7:20pm
Status: Uncle(Happy) 2 Dynamic Duo(Happy) 0 Evil Bitch(Sad) 0

They all lived happily everafter.
-Thakkar

Old friend seeks accomodation

One of my old friends, Dame Shweta Puri, needs accomodation in San Diego, probably she got a job there. Anyway, if there is a way that you can help her out you can respond to the ad here.

This is one more reason why I love Google. Even if you loose contact with someone, and if they ever make an appearance on web, you can trust google to index it and present it to you at a later stage. About her, google told me the projects she did, the thesis she wrote, and the fact that she still uses her same email id.

I suppose you can run, but you can't hide. This one is for old times.
Thakkar

Orkut - a review

In google's attempt to take over the world, there was one weapon called Orkut. Whats unique about it ?? Well, at orkut, one cannot just join, one needs to get an invitation. One really waits for it and then joins, much like Gmail. Unlike Gmail, many at orkut are there just because someone invited them. These lurkers wont even fill out their form correctly, their profiles have nothing to read in them. most of the communities are slow or dead. For some reason, each interest has 3-4 different communities with same memebers!

All communities follow the same template which takes all the fun away. I would recommend everyone to go for Ryze which is somewhat built along the same lines but is free to join. Since everyone there has come because he/she wants it, its much more active and happening.

Thakkar

Of Ceilings and Floors

The Irony with the human world is that everyone looks forward to something or someone ...For example, I look forward to someone, she in turn looks forward to someone else. In this fast moving life, no one looks down to see whos looking up to you. Just like the ceiling of one room is the floor of the room above. In a rare few cases, when you know that the ceiling you are looking on is looking down on the floor, A happiness occurs which cannot be described in words. Sometimes, the ceiling is so far up that its impractical to think even that one could jump up and grab it in one go. But, that is another human nature, even knowing the limitations, one still wants to go ahead with the task. To be able to do is something, to want it is something else..

It is said that having a thing is not as pleasing as wanting, and I totally support it. The sweet ache in my heart when I see something even in a showroom that I cannot afford right now, or probably will never be able to do in life, accompanied by that feel of determination that its just a factor of time, sometime in life I will be able to do things I want or get something I like now is the best feel of all. I know that most likely at that time, I'll be wanting something else. I think that even that is a good thing, to know that there might be a better model available!

This post goes out to everything I want but cannot have right now. I love you all ...
Thakkar

What people will do for Gmail

Mike Cassidy of the Mercury News reports, that Gmail has become a status symbol and people are going crazy over it. Me, I am happy with what 30 MB quota my beloved IIT provides me..

O dear Gmail , I do want you, and in no case I am going to deny your offer for the 1`GB quota, its just that I do not lust after you the way these people are doing.....

Full story follows (all copyrights with Mike Cassidy)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not cool. And if you don't have it, you're not cool, either.

Gmail. As in Google mail. As in Got-to-Get-it mail.

Everybody wants it. OK, not everybody, but those who do want it, want it really bad. How bad?

Bad enough to name their babies after you, if you can provide them with a Gmail account. Bad enough to set you up with their own girlfriends. Bad enough to write a song for you.

Has the world gone crazy? Well, yes, but you already knew that.

Never underestimate the value of a piece of scarce hipness. Gmail has become the modern-day Beanie Baby of the geek-erati. (OK, Beanie Baby. Not so hip, but you know what I mean.)

So far, Google has limited e-mail accounts to a relative few insiders, as a way of testing the service. Along with the account, the insiders get five invitations to give to friends who can then set up their own accounts.

``I really think that Gmail is the thing of the moment,'' says Sean Michaels, 22, who has become the expert on just what people will do for a Gmail account.

(He got his by simply asking for one on his Weblog.)

Michaels, a recent college graduate living in Ottawa, launched gmailswap.com two weeks ago. It's a way, he says, for nice people to offer goods and services in exchange for a Gmail account.

``I've been totally flabbergasted,'' Michaels says.

Yes, the site has taken off. In the first week and a half there were 18,000 postings.

It is on Michaels' site that you will see the lengths to which people say they will go to become somebodyhip@gmail.com.

``A rosary blessed by the Pope.'' ``Two nights out in Belgium.'' ``Your online girlfriend for a month.''

Those hunting for accounts talk about the 1 gigabyte of storage and the cool features, but we know it's the cachet they want.

In trying to help, Michaels was not after fortune. The site is free.

In fact, he was inspired by a good and decent friend who desperately wanted a Gmail account, but who was not in with the in-crowd. Sure, accounts were available for cash on eBay, but that seemed so cheap, so dirty.

``Here is someone who is original, creative, a really nice person and the only recourse he had to turn to was eBay.''

Yes, another recourse would be to wait until Google releases the free e-mail service to the public, perhaps this summer. But by then, the early adopters say, the e-mail addresses they want (mikecassidy@gmail.com, for instance) will be taken.

Besides, where's the coolness in having something anybody can get?

``It's a status symbol now, especially in my circle of friends,'' says Brian Glick, 24, a computer science major in Canada.

Glick first offered a boxed set of Springsteen CDs, but nobody was biting.

``I guess I couldn't keep up with the offers of free sex and $60 from Paypal and that kind of stuff,'' he says.

So, he said he'd send a birthday present to whomever would hook him up with Gmail.

``I actually had a response within a minute,'' Glick says.

In fact, the invitations are still coming. He's got extras.

``It feels like I wield a lot of power right now,'' he says. ``My girlfriend is jealous about some other geek girls throwing themselves at me.''

She needn't worry. His love is true.

How do I know? You know those extra Gmail invitations Glick got?

The very first one, he gave to his girlfriend.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Abhishek Thakkar

Will you marry me..

At U.C.B., Mike Chen, Ph.D. in Computer Science '04, popped the question on stage to his girlfriend and moral supporter for four year's, Ling-Chih "Jackey" Wang.

Needless to say, she said yes.. (Aww comeon!, I wouldnt be posting a failure here, would I)Anyways, I found the story very romantic !! Read the full story here. I wish we could do something like that here... See, If you are an IITian and are reading this post, I can hear your laughter all the way over here. :D :D

-Thakkar
Ps: Thanx to Rizvi for passing on this news!

Of Games and Education

Just came back from a decent discussion with Kiran Kulkarni, a Senior IDCian, who is making SatProbe, an explorer for artificial satellites. With the restriction that it should essentially be an educative device and then a game, it was very tough to put in FUN element inside the system.

My question is, "If gaming becomes educative, will it remain fun anymore?" With plans to become a game developer in the far future, I will stick to the fun and entertainment, well if it does educate someone side by side, I think its fine. After all, Deep Space Nine and U.S.S. Enterprise (both from Gene Rodennberry's Star Trek) kick Aryabhatta and INSAT 1-A's ass anyday.

Thakkar