clog

This is not a movie review because I am not sure how I felt about "the social network" as a movie. It in fact didn't seem a lot like movie to me. While watching it, I was reminded of the documentary "The pirates of silicon valley" and a book I read on Steve Jobs (iCon). I always thought Steve Jobs as the (relatively) non technical guy (Wozniak being the tech muscle) who by virtue of his other qualities got to run the company as his own. I am talking of the beginnings and not about his eventual departure before he was called back again. Facebook had the tech guy holding the reins whereas the business guy was sidelined neatly though with help from dubious avenues. So, it seems, the tables are turned for better or worse.

A little more clarification on Jobs vs. the business guy comparison. Honestly there is none. I think Jobs was way too hands on to be compared with Saverin who in all earnestness said he didn't know how to change his relationship status. Also, Jobs has far redeemed his image in last decade or so and needs no more justification to his value add.

Now, I don't intend to pass any judgment on any of the guys as I am a believer in Karma and I think "over a period of time" you will get what you deserve. I don't deny the presence of outliers to this rule, but like I have many times said earlier, if you are out of luck, you are just fucked. So no rules apply to you any more.

One thing is for sure, the aura of Mark Z will grow enormously with the movie, possibly an almost facebook-like expansion. It might actually give a big boost to the eventual IPO if it happens soon. On that front, I am of the opinion that they should do that within next one year. With the rapidly changing world of internet, it doesn't take a lot of time for things to go downhill and faster will the reaction of investors who tend to anticipate these things. It is the time that they en-cash their "equity" literally. It is already valued at $25b and I am not sure if their growth trajectory is steep enough to make the risk worth it. I can come back a year later and check on how my analysis fared. I have a terrible record at it, but thankfully most of it is undocumented.

This was one of the movies that I knew I would like even before I saw it and I did. The trailer showed glimpses that the backdrop of the movie was somewhere in the Hindi heartland of India, the area where I come from. The movie turned out to be shot in Raisen, even closer and the state is called Mukhya Pradesh, a not so subtle reference to the state. Well, this post is not about the movie but about my experiences here which I always wanted to publish.

Every once in a while I make journeys in buses and trains there, more specifically these are non ac buses (the only ones we have there)  and general compartments of trains. I do it with minimum of liabilities (i.e. no luggage, no company) because I believe I can’t do it peacefully anymore with luggage. Every single time I do it, I feel fortunate that I don’t have to do it as a need or as a regular part of life.

MP is unique in the sense that there is as much poverty as most other popular poor states i.e. Orissa, Bihar etc. but it never makes any news for it. The invisibility is what defines it; nobody knows about it and doesn’t care about it either.

Peepli live paints a very real picture of how majority of the villages are. Abject poverty, overfilled tempos (locally called bhatsuars), a real huge market for desi thurra, an abundance of time and acute lack of work. Now at the verge of labeling folks here a total loser, a comfort is there in their own condition and no real effort to get out of it. Highlighted by the fact that Nattha’s plan out of his misery was not to try harder but to give up and die, the only possible state more laidback than his current one.

A major part of the state is immune to shining India’s GDP growth of post liberalization era. The state is somehow against emigration to other places (mostly true for unskilled labor which forms the major part of the population) in search of jobs unlike Bihar which is accused of spiraling out everywhere. In fact one of their pet peeve is people coming from outside and spoiling their state of being (if that is indeed possible).

It is stuck in some kind of treadmill time, it keeps slipping by your feet, yet everything stays as it were.

Every time they enter a queue to buy a train ticket, I think they are prepared to have a fight; the next one would be when they enter their compartments. Classic case of scarcity of resources! It is easy for me to be patient since it’s not a daily routine for me but for them showing any kindness is damn too difficult if not impossible and yet you see them doing that quite often.

The buses here still play the music of 90s like the songs of “Dilwale” or Altaf Raza. I found this similar to the fascination a few friends and I share for the songs popular during my college years. May be it is indicative of our desire to be in that time, like my state’s desire to still remain in 90s, a time they are comfortable to live in.

While a lot of places have issues due to increased traffic, we are facing the same. Only difference is that we have it because of lack of roads and not due to any increase in traffic which would be a nicer problem to have.

In one sweeping analysis, I am inclined to label the problem is a lack of vigor/life. Indifference, idyllic drinking, drugs and endless and mindless discussions about everything around yet without any desire to ‘do’ anything even for their own good.

Like every time you cite a problem you should have a solution, I don’t think I would like to do that because the problem seems to be more basic than systemic. At the bottom of it is probably laziness or some such silly reason. The morose attitude once replaced by a little enthusiasm can take care of most of the issues in due time.

This is what you do when you are generally pissed off. No, I am not talking of creating graphs, that you do when you just have some time to kill. I meant posting that crap on blog. Here you go, make some of your own, its fun






PS: As usual, this is a fun post and is not intended to be a reflection on my past, present or future employer and not to forget employers from my past births.

I thought it would be fitting to write a post about colors after a week from holi, but well this isn't about holi colors.

Colors is the most promising channel as cited by some popularity stats. In less than one year it has become a threat to stalwarts like star and zee. It took a series of regressive saas bahu sagas to take star to new heights. Not surprisingly, it is even more regressive saga of child marriage that is helping colors. What's wrong with us?

I also felt pretty pissed off after watching their new (or may be not so new) series called Utran. Every episode is punctuated after every 5 minutes by a sad tune where a poor girl is made to feel the pinch of her poverty. I doubt if any poor kid would self pity himself or herself as much as she does. I think most, if not all of them would have made their peace to not complain or think about it every 5 minutes. Its good to show efforts of getting out of poverty, but they could have spared the unnecessary self pity.

They have a talent hunt competition for stand up comedian kids who perform well beyond their ages in every sense of the word. To top it all, one of the judges is a wife beater and drug addict. Some role model, way to go colors!

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more of the "talks" or jargon, I decided to attend PAN-IIT Global Conference 2008. As surprising as it may sound, the talks didn't bother so much this time. I went with the intention of bunking most of the sessions save the really good ones.; ended up spending all my time in sessions. There goes the Go-karting trip.

The theme of the event was Inspire, Innovate, Transform, a much better expansion of IIT than the ones we created while studying - Indian Institute of Torture or Institute of Infinite Torture.

Here is a starter on what IITs (courtesy Dilbert) are for the uninitiated (if there are any)

and I particularly like this quote ;-)

"Per capita, IIT has produced more millionaires than any other undergraduate institution." (Salon Magazine)

This is not meant to be a coverage of the whole program, there is plenty of that on internet. I have attached some of them at the end of the post. Here, I am trying to recall things that stuck after a marathon of talks. Here is my list of the top 10 at PAN IIT 08.

10. Prasad Ram (Head R&D, Google India) talking about social entrepreneurship. The way to move ahead is to take everyone with you.

9. Rajiv Grover talking about the need to have more open book exams. As such IITs have a culture of open book exams and contrary to what common sense suggests, they used to be brutal. But, he emphasized that moving away from rote learning is important, after all life is not a closed book exam.

He also had a comment or two about the recent trend of coaching institutes becoming an assembly line for churning iitians. IITs now, instead of getting smart people, get people trained by smart people. Food for thought?

8. One of the speakers (won't disclose the name here), who went on length about some facts and figures, got applause at awkward points which he duly acknowledged. After a few such instances one after the other, he got the drift and was quick to get away. No matter how old you get, some things just won't change.

7. Watching Viswanathan Anand play against 14 teams. He is the greatest sports icon I have seen live. He is the only player in the world to have won the world chess championship in all the three formats (Knockout, Tournament, and Match).

While traveling, once an intrusive stranger asked Vishy, what he did for living. When he got "playing chess" as the reply, he rephrased the question multiple times and got the same answer. Exasperated, he told him to be practical and start doing something worthwhile because everyone is not Viswanathan Anand who can earn money playing chess.

6. Innovators vs Ideators: The panelists, instead of putting innovation on a pedestal, demystified it to be anything that improves. Pointing out difference between ideators who bring out great ideas and innovators, who can take an existing idea and turn it around a bit to make it better. Taking example of Japan that seems to be doing a great job delivering great stuff using ideas originated in the US.

5. Amartya Sen: If you hear him talking, it would appear he is reading stuff out of a book. Went on length talking about the issue of Neeti and Nyay in India that struck a chord with one of my pet peeves - Process vs Execution. He was trying to point out that our issues, not so much lie in the Neeti part as much as in the Nyay (the application). An interesting piece of trivia I got to know was that he got appointed as the head of department, Economics at Jadavpur University at the age of 23.

4. Stephen Cohen and K Mahbubani on India Pakistan issue: This session was eye opening because of the way they conveyed that the crisis between India and Pakistan needs a span of 40 years to resolve starting now. And, how the conventional knee jerk reactions may not help. Some of the suggestions they had were to improve trade and education in Pakistan and try and make the moderates strong. Once empowered, they will fight the battle against terrorism from within and will be more effective.

An interesting point that was mentioned was the fact that the nuclear weapons in some convoluted way have ended up restoring peace in the world for the fear of collateral damage.

3. Raghuram Rajan: As economic adviser to PM, watching him speak added some confidence to our government. He was extremely articulate talking about primary education and about the cyclical nature of capitalism. He mentioned that capital markets are crisis prone and have a tendency to move ahead a bit and come back some, but the net result is usually positive. He indicated pumping money in infrastructure and try to somehow keep the growth wheel churning. Good news for market watchers?

2. Tata CEOs doing India's swot analysis with C K Prahlad

1. The Hospitality: The arrangements for delegates were awesome to say the least. I had the best South Indian breakfast ever. Every day ended with parties or musical nights.

Cocktail party was reminiscent of the days of yore. IITs are like gurkuls, take the old Indian ones or the new one run by Amitabh. The common theme between the three is lack of girls. The cocktail party had a 1000 odd people. DJ in his excitement called on all the girls in the room to get together. Some 12 people in the room responded to the call. The only one who came forward to dance was a kid still in her school. And you know you are in an IIT party.

There was some shouting also by different IITs to mark their presence. Overall it was fun, the next one will be held in Chicago.

News Coverage:
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/23sd1-pan-iit-2008-a-star-studded-affair.htm
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/18iit-madras-director-on-iits-and-pan-iit.htm
http://news.chennaionline.com/newsitem.aspx?NEWSID=6bc056b1-74b7-4317-97e0-dd87755070e0&CATEGORYNAME=CHN
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=344004
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/23slide1-an-engineer-from-iit-now-a-farmer.htm
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/13pan-iit-meet-is-all-about-nation-building.htm
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/19sld1-images-from-the-pan-iit-extravaganza.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/Hema_Malini_steals_march_over_Manmohan_on_Day_One_at_PanIIT/articleshow/3864666.cms
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/09pan-iit-meet-an-attempt-to-make-a-difference.htm
http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1768008
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/12/20/stories/2008122052200500.htm

Any iitians reading this blog, here is your chance to listen to the movers and shakers and possibly a great networking opportunity.

To give you an idea, some of the speakers are:

PM Manmohan Singh
L N Mittal
P Chidambaram
Amartya Sen
Orkut Buyukkokten

Here is the link to register

It's exactly an year since we first saw the last of Harry Potter (in books). Without doubt it is the most amazing book series I have ever read, I haven't read too many but have read LOTR, Bourne, to name a few.

It all started on a train journey when J K Rowling conceived the idea of a boy wizard. Little did she know that her stories will become the one of the most sold/read books in the history of mankind.

Well, it was a 24 hour train journey for me as well when I picked the second installment of Harry Potter series (first HP book for me). It wasn't bad, wasn't great either. It seemed a lot like a pot-boiler, the kind you won't regret going through once but that's just about it. Sometime later I picked the first one since I couldn't find anything better to read and then I read the third one. And as they say third time is the charm, this time I became a complete convert. It no longer seemed an ordinary series to me and I started waiting for the release of the next ones with quite eagerness until last last year.

There are countless fans of Harry Potter and a good number of detractors. Some of the arguments that I hear to justify the hate are:

1. It is regressive
2. Harry Potter is gifted, a trailblazer of sorts in everything and just cannot go wrong
3. It is childish
4. The series is dark! (Indeed it is)

I don't intend to blame any of those people to have that point of view. What I have noticed in most of the cases is that those guys have read 'about' the books but not the books themselves, may be because they never considered them worthy to be read. However, reading about them may actually give some of the ideas mentioned above as central to the book's theme. But stopping at that will be an injustice to yourself if you enjoy good story telling.

I took my time to start appreciating the series and its characters and mind it, the sum of parts is indeed greater than the whole. Even though each book can be enjoyed as an independent piece, the difference in the scale of enjoyment will be huge when they are all read. To an outsider the book may seem kiddish, they are not. Some of the gems in the book are age old wisdom and are so clearly enacted that it makes them permanent in your mind. Some of my favorite ones are:

- Power should not be given to those who seek it.
- It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
~Professor Albus Dumbledore

This is the central theme of what makes Harry Potter what he is. He isn't the most powerful character, isn't the smartest, may be one of the bravest but with his own share of doubts. He may be the best flier, for sure one of the best. But these are not his defining characteristics. This isn't why he is the hero. He is hero because when it comes to choosing, his natural instinct is to 'not harm' and protect whoever is involved. Sacrifice isn't something that comes naturally to him, but given a situation, if that is something that can make everyone else' life easier, he would do it willingly or unwillingly.

To sum it up, he is essentially a good guy and that is his biggest strength.

- He could not use a dark spell effectively against his godfather's killer because for dark curses to be effective you need to mean them
- He didn't kill the guy responsible for his parents' death even when he had a chance (that paid in the end)
- In his final showdown with Voldermort, Voldermort casts the death spell on him whereas he casts only the disarming spell.
- He chooses to die since that was the only way to stop Voldermort.

Therein lies the difference between the one who won and the one who lost. It is not the most powerful one (Voldermort) who won, it was the good one. That I think is the defining part.

Voldermort, probably the most gifted wizard in terms of capabilities (may not be in terms of knowledge, Dumbledore was far more intelligent and knowledgeable than anyone else) had one mortal fear, of death. He sought throughout a way of being immortal where Harry embraces his death for 'the greater good' and becomes the master of death (and the possessor of Deathly hallows - you will need more context to understand what they are)

There were many times when Harry was saved by his friends and there were times when Harry was responsible for the death of his well-wishers. All because he is normal and makes as many mistakes as anyone else.

Coming to the second most important character in the series, the character is one of the purest villains, interestingly, for no fault of his. For he was conceived under temporary love induced by magic and hence was incapable of love. Barring this he was exceptional in his capabilities magical or otherwise. However, in the final showdown, it wasn't his power that fell short, and caused his downfall. It was Harry's goodness that caused Malfoy's mom to cheat him in the end and something unknown to Voldermort and knows as love caused Snape to do the same throughout. Combined this with his lack of knowledge caused his downfall.

There is a whole bunch of characters equally interesting and with a lot of history in the series that makes it such a compelling read. It has its own parallel world with different rules and laws.

Each book opens up a layer of understanding about what is going on. Remarkably there are references in the books early in the series which get clarified when you move further down and that is what makes the sum much greater than the parts.

It's exactly an year since I last picked a Potter book and now writing this post brings out my withdrawal symptoms. For those of you haven't read the series, try it. As Jeffrey Archer said while he was in India this year, every now and then he discovers a remarkable new author to read. I consider JKR to be as remarkable as the best ones I have ever read, so if you are looking to expand your options, go for it.

(To know more information on the series and characters, you can visit HP Lexicon)

This is inspired by(in response to) an article written by Shashi Tharoor in his regular column in Times of India. He hailed the court verdict acquitting M F Husain of all the accusations related to his painting nude pictures of Hindu goddesses. Here are a few 'gems' of his articles.

Why is Indias Picasso staying away
Its time to stop harassing M F Husain

First off, I don't agree to the point he made but that is not the point of this blog. He made a reference to Kamasutra as traditional Hindu text and using it as a defense to drawing pictures of goddesses in nude.

Transporting ourselves to Bollywood, "Mumbai Salsa", a C-grade movie (IMDB rating 3.7) about Mumbai's urban life. There is a foreign character who 'kind of' defends one night stands because we have a history that features Kamasutra and Khajuraho in it.

Looks like, Kamasutra can justify almost anything remotely related to sex or nudity or even pornography. I have nothing against these things, if it were not for the context in which these things are done.

Now, personally I have nothing against one night stands, but I took exception to the reasoning behind justifying it. They are justified in their own right - Kamasutra or no Kamasutra. Just because some sage wrote about sex doesn't mean you use it as a justification/reason for having one night stands or painting gods without clothes. It is akin to saying that it's ok to kill your siblings because we have had some serious sibling rivalry in Mahabharata.

Kamasutra may have been written as a book that touches all the aspects of relationships centered around sex, It wouldn't be prudent to use it to decide about extra-marital affairs or one night stands. Also, I am not entirely sure of the contents anyways.

To Tharoor,
I expected better reasoning from you. May be you are extremely liberal, may be even to the point of letting your family members get painted in nude or caught up in acts which most of the less-liberal people intend to keep indoors, but it is harsh to impose your own sense of values on a society as a whole just because someone decided to write a book about sex centuries ago. It was anybody's guess as to what the reaction would have been to those paintings.

To Husain,
You have done very well so far in not painting anything absurd for your own religion, that would have probably put a full stop to your career and life (and a lot of people will find it justified after all India has a great tradition not only sex but violence as well). Next time when you put your brush to use, do the same with your common sense else as a not-so-liberal art admirer, I will be inclined to think of it as a gimmick for cheap publicity, which I know it is.

To a blogger,
who swears by the line "opinions are like assholes, everyone has one". Most of his opinions certainly are. He has written way too many controversial posts with a good number devoted to the Husain controversy, feeding on his controversy for his own publicity?

http://sujaiblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/shashi-tharoor-on-mf-husain.html
http://sujaiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/mf-husain-nudes-judgment.html?showComment=1215694860000

To All,

Use your common sense before doing something controversial or reacting to it.

Disclaimer: I don't approve of the acts of vandalism that happened against the artist in the wake of this controversy.

• Sudden Slowers: Cars suddenly slowing down on the middle of roads apparently for no reasons form the first category. They are people who fiddle around with their headsets/phones in an attempt to take all those urgent calls they need to take.
• Rajesh Khannas: They are people on two wheelers with their heads strategically tilted to support a mobile phone. It also, implies that they don't wear helmets. The ones with helmets are mellowed down RKs needing a lesser tilt for the cushion of helmets makes it easier to support phones.
• Loosely coupled cars: This is a pair of two two-wheelers going parallel like Jai and Veeru would have done if their bike didn't have a sidecar.
• Head Turners: This happens when the pillion rider is a girl. Not willing to lose even a moment of conversation with the pretty girl at the back the rider would perilously turn his head to listen to her every syllable. Love knows no fear.
  

An interesting talk by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" about hiring processes in various professions. The one about University of Michigan lawyers is the one that surprised me most!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/gladwell

A little long, so watch it when you have time at your hand. Enjoy!

As a guy having an experience of more than two decades using public restrooms, I have come to understand (long time ago), the unwritten rules of men's restroom. However, it isn't uncommon to find people violating some of those rules giving rise to a variety of aberrations which are listed here as restroom personas. The aberrations can fall in more than one categories and in extreme case where they fall into too many such categories it may give rise to an extreme situation like this.

I have been thinking for and against publishing this post for quite some time because at some (or may be every) level it sounds too silly. But, lack of any other post (my job change blog is taking more energy and time than I thought it would) is making me post this one. Like Theodore Roosevelt said

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing

So here are the categories, in no particular order, in which I have broadly divided people found in bathrooms:

The diligent ones: This the most common category of all. These people come quietly, pick the right spot (this is important), do their due diligence in getting in the position, follow all the rules/steps of the chore, deliver the result and go back quietly, oblivious to anything happening around them. As focused as Arjun while shooting the bull's (fish') eye.

Auto-pilots: These guys break one of the most fundamental, unwritten and rarely discussed rule of peeing, they go auto-pilot. I hope you know what I mean. Now this is quite risky and makes you wonder what is it that is making them take this risk. Well, there are a few more categories that might help demystify their motivations.

Communicators: These guys don't shy away from accepting calls while doing it. Implicitly they are also auto-pilots most of the time or at least partially all the time while they talk. The extreme ones even initiate calls, may be in an attempt to save time. Talk about multi-tasking.

Balancers: This is a very rare category but since I have seen more than one such case, I am making it a category. Generally, this category will be found only in India, because it needs separators around the urinals to come on to their own. These guys love to put both of their hands (elbows) on the partitions for support apparently 'hanging'. Obviously they are auto-pilots too.

Socializers: Talking while peeing has the same equation as drinking and driving. One must eliminate the possibility of the other. In worst case scenario, if people have to, they just smile or make a small talk. In short they try and minimize it. However, not the case with socializers, they not only get engaged in animated discussion but sometimes even stand in the urinal longer than required waiting for the other person to finish and continue the discussion.

The Curious Crows: They look around to see who else is there in the area, sometimes turning their head sideways and even backwards. If they are socializers too, they might even strike a conversation with an acquaintance.

Invaders: This is again a very rare category rarer than the balancers, but again, since I have seen more than one such case, it gets listed. It is more evident in Indian restrooms where there are separators between urinals. For these James Bondish guys, one urinal is not enough, so they spread their legs wide (I tried unsuccessfully to think of an alternate phrase for this), sometimes reaching the neighboring urinals, making the fellow pee-ers uncomfortable. In an ideal world, you won't have anyone in your adjacent urinal, but let's face it, we don't live in an ideal world.

Farters: Without sounding discriminating, this category seems to enjoy a bigger population outside India, at least in the circles in which I go around. They come to restroom on the pretext of pissing, though they have an ulterior motive which understandably doesn't remain private for long. Well, its still better than doing it at the place where you sit. If it sounds unbelievable, I have heard of such people from a first hand victim. The case in point comes within US jurisdiction.

Having written about these categories, the next logical question that may come to anyone's mind is what category would I fall into. I sure, wouldn't like to be called a pee-ping tom because I clearly am not. To all my fellow men who are ardent believer of men's room rules like me, let me clarify my position. All these observations are not a result of any act of active curiosity or invasion or socializing in restroom, but comes from in-your-face-couldn't-help-but-notice (not literally) experiences that the writer has been through.

Here is a funny little take on life at Microsoft.

http://on10.net/blogs/tina/Life-At-Microsoft/

I think I liked it much better than so many of those self important life @ google videos where googlers claim they are gods and live in heaven.

Microsoft may be one of the most hated company by technologists, but I, for one, have been a Microsoft fan. My introduction to computer was with stuff that was all developed by Microsoft. If it were for only Apple, I would have never been able to touch a computer (not so any more though) in the first place. And if it were for linux (or any OS with characters [u|i] n i x in any order), I would never have dared to touch a computer.

PS: Don't let this post convince you that I don't like google because of the comments above. Its because of google that I have a job, not because I work for google but because google works for me ;-)

If you haven't visited this wonderful website yet, please do so now if you like to hear great people talk about ideas. I chanced upon it a year back or so with this video, and then on I just keep looking stuff on and off whenever I feel like.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

The great thing about the talks is that most of them end within 20 minutes barring a few exceptions which are still less than 30 minutes. If you are a first time visitor and you find the number of talks overwhelming, here is an easy way to get initiated. You can search by talks, themes, speakers; I guess, that isn't actually a lot of help. So here you go further, you can search by - rated most "inspiring", "funny" and so on to get the cream first and then move on to other stuff if you like.

Here is another one (which I thought is quite interesting) to end this post.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/199

For last few months I have noticed a trend; a rather disturbing one. A lot of my batch mates are getting married and quite a few juniors too. Well, that's not exactly the disturbing part. In fact, in a way it is also disturbing, because it reminds me of the fact that I have grown quite old. However, that is not the point of this blog.

All the guys after getting married will start posting pictures of them honeymooning in all sorts of places. And then you can see their pictures in all sorts of romantic poses on their orkut albums. This wouldn't have been disturbing at all, only if I had not known those guys. All these guys used to be rather cynical and unemotional. Romance and sentiments were the last thing they would have mentioned when talking about girls (barring a tiny fraction of them who were exceptions of course). There was no place for mushy talk. There were very few times when it was considered permissible and that was never before half dozen pegs had gone down your throat. The fact that the girls to boys ratio in my college was rather abysmal (it was on the wrong side of 10%), further helped the trend.

Looking at all those poses now, suddenly it seems all my friends who used to be angry, stern and non emotional like Nana Patekar of Prahar have turned into Sharukh khan of, well, take any of his films barring a few non-romantic ones.

As much as I would like to mourn the loss of my cynical friends the way I knew them; I am happy that they didn't remain the way they were back then :-).

Here is wishing all you guys marital bliss and a great life of togetherness ahead.

The subject reads - "This is a quiz" reversed. Steven Kryskalla got 3 (and almost got the 4th) and jsn got all of them with few insights on the questions as well :-).
Here is the deciphered post with comments inline in italics and clues in bold.

If you got the subject of this post and if you are able to read this then you would have guessed what this post is going to be about. Well, to clarify just in case, this is going to be a ciphered quiz. The cipher can be different for all the questions. So make no assumptions. Here you go starting with the rotten one

1. What does PDF stand for? If you could read the specific one, get ready for a more general one, key lies in my name
Answer is "Portable Document Format" and the next cipher is Caesar's cipher with Key D (4)

2.Who said this - give me a lever large enough, and I will move the earth? If you could read this your TRAIN is on track for the THIRD one.
Answer is Archimedes (jsn made a comment though about this not being true). The next cipher is Rail Fence Cipher with 3 rails

3.Which animal is the vehicle of lord kamadeva (God of love in Hindu mythology)? The last one is a trip back to where we started.
Parrot. The last question is just reversed

4. What is the name of Stephen Hawking's medical condition
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

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