Centrestage Clown

How can you see me and turn away
How can you tell, that it's not your day
Well, Delilah in a dream, she came to me
And the barber in the wings cut me aimlessly

You're the one who's got to go
And play the clown at the circus show
I'll be there watching intently
I'll be there, but it'll not be me

Come one and come all
Come and see me getting small
Getting whipped and all teary eyed
My mom's here, but she doesn't mind.

She's the one who said to me
Don't fall in love so hopelessly
But its all done, and here I am
Wham, bam and thank you maam.

She's gone, but she's left some proof
Like a cat on a hot tin roof
There it is, if you want to see
The hair's still lying in my dormitory.

She's the one who's playing the role
City's empty and the circus is full
Centrestage, what a clown is she
But everyone's --
just laughin' at me.

2nd choice

This happened at the GD/PI training I was attending today. Basically each person is interviewed as others watch - so that you learn as you watch.

So this is what happens to this generally sensible, likeable sorta guy. His major achievement is that he has a 100 percentile in the CAT, effectively topping it.

Interviewer : "So, what do you think about gay people?"

100 percentiler (thinks a bit) : "I would like to say sir that they have the second most popular sexual preference in the world."

Is that a story or what!

Answer to Sci-Tech

Here are the answers to Scitech - the online quiz conducted as a part of the elims for Techfest 2008. I do not know the answer to q7 and q12 for sure. Please to use comments and point out if you're wiser than me. Pdf can be found here.

DISCLAIMER: This is what I think the answers are. I qualified, so chances are most of them are right ;)

1. Nicholas Flamel.(The alchemist finds mention in all these works.)

2. That is Freyja, also called Vanadis - after whom Vandium is named.

3. Super Glue (Dr Harry Coover)

4. Carl Sagan

5. Logitech (this seems to be from here. )

6. Nike+Ipod

7. We wrote, People from Bell Labs winning the Nobel Prize for physics. (This is mostly incorrect. All of them have won the Nobel Physics. But 97 guy is not Bell.One or two others also I think. Also some groups are mentioned completely, some are not. Weird. Shockley is the most famous by a mile though.)

8. Radio Shack and Issac Asimov

9. Camera works on smile detection.

10.Guitar Hero Controllers, company is Gibson.(Pretty sure, though not 100%)

11. Google Doodles (Burning Man Festival - first doodle, Dennis Hwang who draws them, Dali and Miro paintings were also Google doodles once.)

12. (Thanks to V) People after whom craters are named.(Bunsen etc)(Volt, Galvani, Diesel etc. Dunno how diesel can be "lab equipment")

13. Project Gutenberg (Declaration of Independece, Gutenberg, Michael Hart)

14. Alan Turing

15. Schroedinger's Cat

16. Butterfly Effect(Bradbury's book made it popular, Ashton Kutcher starred in the movie and The Lorenz Atttractor named after Edward Lorenz is where term is applied to Chaos theory.)

17. Nikola Tesla - Gas Ignition(Spark Plug for automobiles)

18. Locations of the 5 Jantar Mantars. (Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Ujjain and Mathura(?) )

19 Screens of Death

20 Algorithm and Algebra

Can't remember last when ...

It really pained me on seeing India lose. In fact, I don't think I've had this feeling since Manchester United lost to Arsenal in the FA Cup final - and really can't remember the last time I felt something like this with respect to cricket. Maybe it was when we didn't win the series in West Indies. Anyway, from a personal perspective - I'm amazed at how much I care, and how much it pains!

Firstly, there is no excuse for not drawing. True, Bucknor and Benson are idiots - but still, losing 3 wickets in 5 balls! That is not justified. RP looked more miffed than really pained, and Ishant Sharma should be told better than to leave his bat hanging like that. True, they are tail-enders, but sometimes when misfortune befalls - you've got to to stand up and be counted. And it was the situation which got to them, not Michael Clarke.

I think India should NOT complain about what happened. The questions will be raised - by the media and by a whole lot of other people. Nothing will change the result though - and India's main aim from here on should be a) Not to lose any of the remaining tests, while trying to win at least one. We've won the last one at Adelaide, and drawing at Perth would be as good as winning.

No doubt, the Aussies behaved inappropriately - Harsha Bhogle euphemistically calling it "an imperfect victory". Though that might console a few, fact is - India's two down, and things are looking pretty dire going into Perth. Rather than cry and whine and complain over spilt milk there are a number of pressing issues India needs to think about

1. What to do with Jaffer? Should Sehwag be inducted in?
2. Same with Yuvraj. Really seems to be struggling, Padukone or no Padukone.
3. The batsmen, especially Ganguly have struggled against Hogg. They've given too many wickets to the Hogg/Symonds combine. They're not really of that class, that they should be troubling the experienced Indian lineup.

That is my two-cents. I smirk at the joke Gaurav makes here. But needless to say, totally disagree.

Some movies you should check out

It always irks me when I'm not at the forefront of discovery. Most of the stuff I read/ watch / hear do is recommended by friends - and so there remain very few people I can tell, "you know what, this movie is really excellent, you should really watch it sometime."

But with the aid of a few internet reports, and plain hunches - the last three movies I've seen have all been really really excellent. So here we go, please allow me to introduce them to you. (No Spoilers therein. Safe reading)

1 Atonement



I'm just realising that I'm a big fan of Ian McEwan. I've read only a couple of books (Amsterdam and Saturday) - absolutely loved Amsterdam. Atonement apparently is the piece de resistance of his oeuvre. It has been named in huge lists like Time's All Time best 100 Novels. So when the movie came out, I HAD to watch it - even though it has Kiera Knightley.

The movie at first glance reminds me of The English Patient. Another work that I wholly consumed (as book and movie). Visually it's splendid - and hopefully I'll catch this movie again when E-Square and co wake up to it when it wins the Oscar(that's what the talk is anyway). James McAvoy is decent, Kiera Knightley is much better than expected. The star is undoubtedly Saoirse Ronan as 13-year old Briony Tallis. Her acting is absolutely delectable!



The movie is not flawless. It suffers from an identity crisis in the middle amongst other things. But on the whole it will satisfy you visually and intellectually. Definitely worth a watch.

2. I'm not there

The movie inspired by Bob Dylan's life - is not another biographical tracing someone's life. Bob Dylan's life is just a basic framework for the movie to work on. There is so much thought that has been put on top, so much creativity and so much execution - one would have thought impossible! Again, I like this movie for the sheer feel that it creates, the ambiance of the film is brilliant, visually sumptuous! No more giveaways - go watch.

3. Sweeney Todd



I accept that the original intention was to watch, Johnny Depp's musical Sweeney Todd : The Demon Barber of Fleet-Street, but I ended up watching the 2005 BBC adaptation for TV - Sweeney Todd, starring Ray Winstone. But, no complaints at all! I had no idea of the old story, excellent adaptation indeed - and what's more my interest is piqued - about how a story of a barbaric maniacal killer-barber (yes!) could be made into a musical. Rest assured, I will not rest till I watch Mon. Depp's adaptation. Tell me if you've watched it / if I could get my hands on it somehow.

I believe this ...

Woman: If I die, will I go to hell?

Man:Hell is an invention to frighten us.
There is no hell...

Man:...except the one we make
for ourselves on earth.


Woman: What is there, then?

Man: Oblivion.

Woman: What if you're wrong?

Man: Then we're all damned.