long time coming

Well hello! I didn't expect to see you here after such a long time. Yes, I know.. it is more my fault than anyone else's. But to my defence I was really busy. Doing what you ask?

I went to Corsica for the Solas Summer School 2007. Corsica is this lovely island in the Mediterranean sea off the southern coast of France. The island is fairly large with mountain ranges running through the centre of it. Very beautiful to say the least. The two weeks there were spent studying different aspects of atmospheric chemistry, air sea exchanges and other subjects related to my PhD. But the two weeks were also spent making some really good friends, meeting people from all over the world and enjoying from mad mad moments with new friends. The local bar BDA was the nucleus of all spontaneity and craziness. I also got the chance to go hiking around the island with Sarah-Jeanne, the crazy Canadian.

After getting back from Corsica and stopping on the way in Paris for a couple of days with Alex, I had very little time to get used to Leeds again. I had to rush off to India for my sister's wedding. As you can imagine, an Indian wedding is worthy of a PhD thesis. It was great to meeting family whom I did not even know existed, to spend days organising three days of wild partying and finally to enjoy the most special moments of my sister's life so far. I had a really good time. There are lots of pictures which need to be shared and tonnes of stories to be told. All that in good time. Right now I have to rush as other travel plans are on the cards and work will not get done on its own.

Hope you are all doing well and preparing for a festive season where-ever you are.

go to space?

Do we really need to go to other planets to ensure survival of the human race?

At first this seems like a ridiculous idea what with us not able to a good job here on the earth itself. And the minute you mention this possibility to someone, you either get a straight scoff out of them, or a convinced look that you have officially crossed the line and become a star trek nerd. But beyond what I would label as 'imaginatively constrained' minds, should we really think of pursuing this thought?

Steven Hawkins is convinced that this is needed. And the more I think about it, I do agree. And please do no consider it as a case of us leaving this planet after it has been trashed. When the early explorers started leaving well known lands and travelled by foot, horses, boats to places unknown, I am sure they were thought to be very stupid too.

Exploration is one of the main reasons that mankind has evolved so much. The more places you go to, the more you learn, the more you see, the more ideas you get... and all that. But some times ideas from you own home come along with you... like money.

bombs away!

A recent article on BBC reads: The UK has built up a stockpile of 100 tonnes of plutonium - enough to make 17,000 nuclear bombs, according to a Royal Society report.

This is just shocking news! I hope they find a way to get rid of all this mess before there is a new war around the world. I think it would be best to send all this waste out of the world so that no one can gain access to it. The moon as a dumpsite for the earth... sounds like a science fiction story, but might soon be needed if this goes on. I feel very guilty about getting our power from N-Power. I think its time to change a little bit.

wind energy!

Over the past few years, wind energy has picked up a lot of attention. Wind turbines are coming up in dozens all over the world and there is talk of entire countries switching to wind energy. So much so that the first zero emission scientific base in Antarctica is coming up which will be powered entirely by wind energy.

I think the idea is not that bright. There are talks of entire convection systems slowing down due to the use of wind energy, reports of almost extinct birds getting killed by these demonic turbines and of course, the ugly picture of going out into the nature and seeing hundreds of man made turbines which provide energy. Wonder how much energy is used to just make them and transport them and finally put them up. When do they break even? What about maintenance?... and all that jazz.

Are they really a solution?

As always, when you criticise some idea, you should be ready to present one of your own. I do have one, which might seems as ridiculous as the original wind energy plan.

I call this 'Wind Energy'.. yes yes, the name is the same. But the plan isn't.

Each and every person in the world passes wind. And if you do some simple calculations and use your knowledge of chemistry you come up with the following conclusion: If you pass wind for about 6 years and 9 months you would have enough gas to produce the same energy as an atomic bomb. I read about this on Null Hypothesis... very interesting reads. So when you further the calculations, assuming that when a person passes wind, its for an average of one second and assuming that everyone in the world passes wind at least once a day, then you can conclude the following: If you capture all the gas from all the people in the world once a day, then you would have enough energy for 600 atomic bombs in a day. Just one time event... over a year you will have 219000 atomic bombs worth of energy.

This is much more than what the world uses right now. Yes my people, wind energy could be the real answer here!

black is back

When I changed the face of my website recently, a few friends asked me why I decided to use black. Black looks great according to me but that was not the main driving force behind changing the colour of the website.

It was Blackle.

I guess everyone has to try and do their bit for conserving energy, though it might be a very small bit. Energy conservation is becoming more and more important in the world. I am not convinced that we need to use less energy for the better of the environment, but what I am convinced about is that if the developed countries do conserve energy, then the resources can be used to provide for the poorer nations. I am not talking about climate change but reducing poverty and bringing the entire human race to a certain level.

I don't mind starting with making sure I use a dark background. Want to know how else you could do your little bit while exploring the world wide web? Check this page

Also, Ben Harper is great.

influx

The students are coming... run for your lives, the students are coming...! No more empty corridors to walk in, no more finding a place for lunch where you want, no more quite environment, no more seeing only badly dressed PhD students who haven't seen the light of day in ages!

I had to shave today.

Besides that, there is some good news, our instrument which was in Cape Verde for such a long time might be arriving today. The instrument is a very well travelled piece of kit which has gone to the Arctic, Antarctic, Australia, the Americas, around Europe and recently to Africa. The only place remaining is Asia where it will be going next year. But the Africa trip has turned out to be a bit of a nightmare with it being delayed on the way here by more than two months. But finally it might be here now... we can all breathe with relief now that the baby is alive and hopefully well.

In other news, sometimes two is not better than one.. check

burning salt water

After years of people trying to invent new forms of fuel technology, most of which are less than convincing, there seems to be one which has caught my interest. A inventor trying to cure cancer stumbled upon a way to burn salt water which could act as the most abundant fuel source in the world. The physics behind this is pretty simple..

He heats the water using radio waves, which make the bonds in water weak. This causes the hydrogen to be released from water which can then be used as a fuel to burn any time you want. Also the process of hydrogen emission seems to be instantaneous and so you need not store the explosive hydrogen but only salty water and enough energy to fire the radio waves. There are still a few questions to be answered such a; how much radio energy will you need to produce the hydrogen? How much hydrogen is emitted? Is it a commercially viable technique and such.

But exciting for sure..

Burning salt water

the NHS experience

Oh hello!

All well? I wish I could say the same too. The weekend has been a pretty mad experience here. What happened you ask? Well..

On Friday evening I went to watch my very first Rugby game. We went to the Headingly stadium to watch the Leeds rhinos take on the Hull team. Th game was fantastic but unfortunately Leeds lost, and as a result they lost the league too. So we decided to go home and drown our sorrows (one day of intense support) by drinking some beer. As we were having a few gulps, I got a call from Mik, my flatmate, saying that he wasn't too well. When I got back, I found him violently ill and unable to keep anything in his stomach. So after speaking to the NHS direct on the phone we managed to call the ambulance just to be safe. Now this was a case of food poisoning due to a 'dodgy kebab' from Liverpool.

Never have a kebab at 3 am in Liverpool.

After getting to the hospital, the nurse did an initial check on him and asked us to wait for a few minutes before a doctor could see us. We waited for about 5 hours! During this time, no one came to help, check or tell us how long it would take. There were about 4 other cases in the waiting room hoping to get some treatment. Two drunk guys who had got into a fight and had deep gashes on their head, one girl who had got a deep cut on her cheek and was bleeding continuously and a guy with a heart attack. The last guy was seen to immediately but all the others had to wait at least 4 hours for any service. I do understand that most of the cases there were not too serious, but to wait for 4 hours through the night when you are not well is just not good enough. It did remind me of people saying that the NHS is a really good service and people in India would have had a much more difficult time. But if it is not serious, couldn't they just send you home and come in the morning when there is more staff around as they would in India? My opinion of the NHS has definitely changed through that experience.

In other news, they arrested a neo-nazi group in Israel. As opposed as I am towards the Nazi regime, I couldn't help but laugh at this... neo-nazi group in Israel.. they were definitely not too bright, were they? I mean, Israel is the home of the Jews! There is no chance they can get out of court easily with this. Its hard to imagine which lawyer would even help them. Even if they escape punishment for this, which they shouldn't, they should be sent to jail for being stupid!

triplets of Belleville

We watched the Triplets of Belleville yesterday. It might be the best movie I have ever seen in my life. You must watch it.

feel lucky?

There comes a time in everyone's life, when you ask yourself whether you feel lucky. If you do, then it's time to use the never used button on this

a weekend gone

There has been so much happening over the last 5-10 days! Where do I start off talking about all the nonsense?

Wendy house: I went for my very first wendy house. These places are completely nuts... everyone was dressed in black, goths were the most common types of people around, people had glow sticks and all that jazz. One of the things which struck me was the use of leashes on people. Boy friends had it around their girlfriends, and vice-versa. A totally different world but still pretty exciting. We danced all night long, and I learnt how to do the head bang properly!

Leeds festival: Insane fun..! I had a really good time over the weekend. I left early from work to go there on Friday itself and that meant that I had a nice and extended weekend. Th festival itself was just about perfect with lots of good music, some really good company and lots of alcohol. We managed to watch the Nine Inch Nail, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Kings of Leon, Eagles of Death Metal, The Shins and several other smaller bands. I have just put up the pictures from the festival on Facebook so please do log on to check them! But the most insane part of the weekend was going to what is called a silent disco. I really like the idea where everyone has ear phones to listen to music instead of really loud speakers which shatter your eardrums. Also when you take them off, you see everyone dancing without any music and also singing along. HIlarious!

After getting back, I have been sleeping for along hours and am finally back to some work now. Reality bites!

good luck

Venkit shared this song some time ago.. check it - intoxicating!

new look

Apologies for being absent from any kind of contact! I have been really busy with work in the lab. Things here are moving pretty quick, two of the campaigns we did in the past are nearing completion slowly and the next two are creeping up at an alarming rate! So as you can imagine, this involves some long hours and one hand on the panic button.

Yesterday I decided to take some time off and email a few friends after what has been several eons. After doing that, I realised that the main site hadn't been updated in a very long time either, hence a new look was thought of. As you already know, I love my mac, so I decided to make use of some of it's features to write the website. I have to say that I am pretty impressed with the results. Have a look for yourself!

Tonight we are planning to go and watch 'As you like it' by Shakespeare. It is held in an outside arena near the Kirkstall Abbey. Should be a good night out... the only problem being the rain. Summer seems to have eluded us altogether.

boundary layer halogens in coastal antarctica

our first science paper is finally published!

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/317/5836/348?etoc

need myspace?

One good thing that came out of the social site myspace is a very clever idea for a website.

Need myspace

inbox for the web

This is a very useful tool. I like it.
Google reader

Mars rover beginning to hate mars!

What a hilarious article!!

Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars

"Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behavior," said Project Manager John Callas, who noted the rover's unsuccessful attempts to flip itself over and otherwise damage its scientific instruments. "And the thousand or so daily messages of 'STILL NO WATER' really point to a crisis of purpose."

when do you know that you are way too fat?

Study: Many Americans Too Fat To Commit Suicide

pritated music

For long the battle between music company and illegal downloaders has been going on without an end in sight. There are millions of sites from which you can download music illegally, and similarly there several site where you can buy music. I understand why this is turning out to a very important battle with most of the songs being sold online. CD sales in the UK have dropped over the last few years and several stores have also stopped selling them since they do not make enough profit. HMV, one of the largest music retailers in the country also had to shut down many of their shops due to the same reason. But it's not that everyone is buying this music online, they are mostly downloading it. that's why the music companies are mad. Napster was shut down, but there are many other places where you can download music illegally. The fight to stop all these sites is not going to be easy and the system is going to have a difficult time trying to stop file sharing.

I have to admit that though I regularly buy music off itunes, not all my songs are legal. But then you can't hold that against me considering that I am just a poor student trying to get by.

There is a site called We7 that I came across. This idea makes sense to me where you download the songs with a little advertisement, of about 10 seconds, at the beginning of each track. So you don't have to pay for it, but the advertisers do.

Is the main reason I am excited about this model the fact that you can program itunes to skip the first 10 seconds of all songs? It works for me.

werewolf in us?

Apparently the legend of the werewolf is not completely wrong. A study done over the last few years has indicated that there is a rise in crime and violence during full moon or on either side of the full moon day. Why this happens is still unknown, but could be due to the way the gravity affects us.

BBC article

is it friday?

Is it friday?

new things

On the 24th of April I had put up this video sent to me by Kunal, a cousin of mine about the new exciting microsoft product. It has been launched today.

Microsoft Surface, the Future is here. I have a strong feeling that this is going to change the way we do things in the near future. I say give it about 5 years.

no blogs?

I know i know... I haven't writted in a long long time. But that is coz I have been busy... with Face=Book!!

if you are on facebook, add me on : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=572495560

we are thinking!

lost

Oh hello. Long time no see? I know, I am terribly sorry for not writing in the past few days. Things have been a little busy in the labs with some projects coming to an end and some new ones starting off. I will update you guys on all the happenings soon, but till then hope you are doing well.

And since some of us are trying to get their driving licenses over the next couple of weeks, I would like to remind them not to celebrate getting a license by drinking. Apparently some instructors do not know the ill effects of drink driving. Check

And the US manages to better itself. Check

what's on in the lab

In the last few days, this lab has heard a lot of Pink Floyd. I am getting back to some basics in the music department. I haven't heard any Led Zep in a long time, so that might be next on the list. Listening to Pink Floyd brings the memories of university years. Floyd, Doors, Led Zep, some smokes and Vodka, life was pretty good back then.

Besides music, which I used to listen to all the time in India, I am listening to some Kooks... they are pretty good. They go along pretty well with Matchbox 20.

When things are going a little slow we tend to listen to some funky beats by wild cherry, eagle eye, orson etc.

There has been some really exciting developments in the past few days. Will put up more about that soon. Hope you are all doing well.

I just had to add this in. As you might know, the queen is on a state visit to the USA. President Bush was there to welcome her and as you might expect another Bushism was bound to happen.

Check: http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6630000/newsid_6633000/6633095.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm

lost a plane?

I like India. For those of you who have been there, you would realise the reason why I do. The others, well... India is alive. There are so many things which you would fail to comprehend but take place each and every day. An example of this is shown in the articles which showed up on BBC a few days ago. I have to say that there are not too many countries that make you gasp in astonishment and laugh at the same time.

The first article: Residents of the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) are wondering how long it will take to remove a disused Boeing 737 that has been abandoned in a busy road.

The second article: The plane was taken overnight from the Chembur district where it had been left by a driver who was taking it by trailer to Delhi. It is not clear who has moved it or where it has been taken.

How does nobody know whom this plane really belongs to? I mean, it must be pretty easy to notice someone stealing an airplane, or so I would have thought!

dungeons to dungeons

After staying in Leeds for more than a year, I finally got the chance to go to York with a few friends of mine. York is a beautiful city and as a tourist there are several things that you can do over there. We walked around the old city walls, went to a few towers to click a few pretty pictures, had some lovely lunch, some chocolate and went to Betty's Tea House for some tea and scones. Overall it was a lovely day out and the weather being almost perfect did help a lot.

Oh, and how can I forget to mention that we also went to the dungeons of York. This is a little ironic because we spend our days in the labs in the basement of the chemistry department, i. e. Dungeons of Leeds, so you would have though that given a chance we would like to see the sun. But we went for an hour long tour of the dungeons of York and I have to say that it was an experience. I would definitely recommend going there.

It is really good to know that the weather is starting to clear up, the spring is more like summer and suddenly global warming doesn't seem all that bad.

math

Most people hate math. I do understand that it can be a pain at times, but math is a subject that everyone needs to know. No one can get by in life without doing math.. you go to a shop, you have to pay, to pay you need to know some math. There would a million such instances when you might need to know a little math. But one of them, which I agree that most people will never see, is a chemistry lab. You need to have a little control over math for all sciences. When you are adding chemicals, you need to careful and quick with your math because if you are not, the massive cauldron of chemicals will explode since you couldn't add 1 + 2 without a calculator. It can be pretty frustrating at times when the students can't really do math well. You also know that it is not their fault... the education system is failing somewhere.

Anyways... how are things with me you ask? I have been doing ok... a little work a little play. It has been a busy week and I am looking forward to a relaxing holiday. We might end up going out of the city for a walk or so, but lets see how things plan out. But besides that it is more of getting used to staying in a city for more than 3 months.

If you don't understand the following joke, then you really need to start doing math. And if you do... you have done waaayy too much math!

computers: friends or foes

I have had a really hectic time over the last two days. I had to hand in something to Alfonso, which I had been putting off for a long time and finally decided to get it all done. I managed to finish it and then lo behold, I replaced the latest version of my file with an old old version. All was lost.

Yet again I started to hate computers even though I would never be able to live without one.

Also, if you guys have facebook, add me on! Its my latest addiction and I love it.

microsoft

So the people who know me, would know that I am not too fond of windows. I do realise that it is the most important OS in the world, but I still don't like it. And along with windows, I have a slight aversion to all microsoft programs, which I think are just stolen and not made by them.

But a few days ago, I came across something which a cousin of mine, Kunal, working in Microsoft sent me. The future seems to have arrived, and microsoft is getting it here!

Check : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muibPAUvOXk

a drinking problem

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

a small update

After months of not being in Leeds, I am going to spend a good few months without traveling anymore. Maybe look around the city a little now that the weather is looking up. Also there is a lot of work to be done so this is a good opportunity to get down and finish things at hand.

But as with most of my posts, there is some really big news! My sister is getting married!! This has been on the cards for a long long time, but now it is really happening. They are getting engaged on the 19th of this month, and looks like I will be missing that. But the marriage is in December this year, and there is no way in this world that I would miss it. It is going to be a legendary event.

Little Pauravi (aka Purbi) is growing up! (I can't really say little Purbi since she's older than me, but you know what I mean)

back in leeds

Oh hello! Where have I been, you ask?

So I am back in Leeds after a marathon of a journey. I ended up flying from Sao Vicente to Sal in Cape Verde, from there after a 4 hours late flight, we went to Dakar in Senegal from where we went to Banjul in Gambia. From there finally we flew towards England, where we reached in the middle of the night and then after taking the train in the morning I was back in Leeds.

Fun?

Just to give you an idea about where I was, here's a picture of the site and one taken from the site looking towards the road going to the city. The last picture is Luis, the main man at the site and I.

cape verde update

Picture this.

A lonely lab at least 20km away from any kind of civilisation known to mankind. About 3 in the night with the only sounds one could hear coming from the ocean which is laughing at you in a loud thunderous voice and the gentle, calming but really irritating hum of zillions of instruments in the lab. All of a sudden you hear a loud shriek... and it was not an animal which has been stupid enough to wander into the lab (or was it?). It was Anoop Mahajan, pulling his hair off since a software which had been working perfectly for the last few eons decides that it needs a change from the routine of capturing vital information. At times like these, your sense of humour is tested!

The next night I was there again, toiling away trying to figure out a way to make things work, trying to reason with the computer, a machine which is based solely on the idea of logic. I spoke to it, petted it, even tempted it by offering more ram if it did work. I was desperate! Then about 12 in the night, when I was convinced that I was going crazy since I was talking to a computer in a lab far away, starting to doubt my very existence, the computer listened. It took the first measurements in a few days, and I wanted to shout, to jump with joy and even run around naked (not much of a difference since there was no living thing for miles). I had definitely gone crazy, but this time round I was delirious with joy and not hopelessness. The end product was pretty much the same, a mad Anoop. But an hour before, when things weren't working, and I was listening to the most appropriate music I could find, which in this case was the sound track from 'full metal jacket', the meaning of irony seemed crystal clear to me.

Next day when I went to the beach in the evening and sat there with the warm sun on the warm sand before going into the warm water only to come out and drink a really cool beer, life seemed fair again.

Oh I love my work, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

off again

I'm leaving for Cape Verde about midnight. We decided that one of us needs to go around mid day today. So, with only 12 hours to plan everything, book tickets, and put myself into the mindset of traveling again, I am now set to go. The reason I am going is that the instrument in Cape Verde has stopped working due to a camera problem. This means that we need to sort things out soon, so that we can get more data before the instrument has to come back.

So my next posts will be from the not so green Cape Verde.

private lawns: Angus and Julia Stone

conversion to indianism

It had to take place... and this is the week when it does!
Scott, me and Antony

The first class

It just gets crazier!


But unfortunately every night has to end.... but it was LEGENDARY!

attack of the indians

Its time for Holi! Now what exactly is holi then? Holi is the festival of colour where everyone in India gets out of their houses and plays with lots of colours and water balloons. In UK it is a little different. If we were to play with colour, we would have to fill in a health and safety form about the colours. So instead we are all planning to go for an indian night here in Leeds. It's going to be legendary.

Along with that I am planning to do some cooking for my close friends and work mates here. That should be interesting, a full 7 course meal to end the week on a good note. Let's see how that goes. The plan is to cook some of my favorite dishes and of course enjoy them once they are ready. Hilke is planning to contribute with a lovely cake.

its all going wrong

In Iraq, things are turing worse: Sabrine Al-Janabi a 'Sunni' lady was raped a few days ago. Justice doesn't seem to prevail. I read the following on Riverbend's blog.

"Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile."

quiz

So, after a long day of work we went for a department quiz... pretty interesting an affair. We got branded as the department idiots, a very prestigious title as you can imagine. What am I to say to my defence? It was a british quiz, and being brought up in a different country does not help you too much! Aaah well...

Otherwise I found this really hilarious work. Let me just say it in Juan's words:

Having worse weather during weekend than on weekdays is what I would call "trivial science". Anyways, now it's a peer-reviewed, scientifical fact:
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0703/2006GL028559/

IPY

From Friday, one of the largest international research programmes at least in the last 50 years is about to start. This program is going to concentrate on understanding climate change and will be focusing on the remotest locations on the globe, viz. the Antarctic and the Arctic. This program, code named 'International Polar Year (IPY)', will last over the two years with more than 60 institutions from all over the world, involving thousands of scientists taking part in more than 200 projects and will try to understand the role of mankind in causing climate change. The main points it will focus are: Changes in Snow and Ice, Global Linkages, People in the North and New Discoveries.

The University of Leeds is of course going to play a small part in this by being involved in understanding the atmospheric chemistry in the arctic. The role of our group is going to be limited to the role of halogens and nitrate radical in the lower atmosphere. This involves a field campaign in Hudson Bay, Canada where we will be making measurements using the DOAS technique.

website launched!

Our group website is now online. If you have been wondering what I am doing in Leeds, the this is the place to find out.

http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/JMCP/

vamos!!

Hello people!

So.. what has been going on ask you? A crazy weekend in London (the big city) and socialising with the real world people... which basically means people who are not in any way affiliated with the universities. Want proof? Here you go..

Happy birthday Ani...



And... let's sing... ignore the main voice...look at the lady sleeping through the noise on the sofa!



And finally... everything is great.. but welcome to the PhD life where the computers rule your world and things just get more interesting with time... I love my work, but associating it with this pic is just way too funny!!..

vagina monologues

Last evening we went to watch the vagina monologues. It is not a porn flick.

It was really interesting to hear women talk their minds freely. The plot is simple, there are about 8 different women who talk about their life growing up. About wha problems they had, something which made them happy, but all this from the perspective of their vaginas. It was a little gory at times with the women describing the bad experiences they had. But nonetheless the play was pretty good. The actresses were from the school of drama in the university of leeds, and were simply brilliant. I suggest you go an watch it once if you get the chance.

Day before, we went and watch 'the last king of scotland'. Now this is a movie I would definitely reccommend. It does not get boring at all and again is a real life story which makes you think about your own life a little bit. Is a serious film, so not ideal for a first date, but a must watch.

kitty's kitchen cleaning rota

I am alive. Doing well... working a little bit these days. So what has been happening? Well, my house is turning into a military camp. We have drafted new rules for getting everything done. This because things weren't being taken care of as they should have been. The house was dirty (which was convinienty blamed on us) the dishes weren't being washed, the shopping was not being done. Not a nice place to stay as you can imagine. It is amazing how people can ignore their own living place. And I am at fault as much as everyone else I guess. Lets hope things improve with time. I have never had problems regarding cleaning, cooking and shopping with any of my flatmates in the past and I hope not to start now.

Besides that I had been designing the website for the group. Which has been conveniently rejected by the web administration here. The reason being that it is 'too similar' to the university guidelines. Sites which are way different are not a problem, but coming closer to the norm is not a good sign. Frustration is reaching new levels these days.

look who's back

Oh, hello!

How have you been? Life been treating you alright? So you want to know what I have been upto ever since I last wished you a very happy new year then?

I am back from India now and on coming there were two things which were draining out my brain power. Rather, two main thoughts apart from the everyday mundane worries such as what to eat, what to drink, when to sleep and all the jazz. The first thing which was keeping me busy was India. I was there for a short time (4 weeks) and had a fantastic time with most of my friends. It was a complete holiday with lots of sight seeing, relaxing by the beach, drinking tons of beer, eating even more food and of course spending a lot of time with my family and friends. But now what is troubling me about this trip is how do I show you all the things we saw and how do I convey the total madness which was a part of my life for those 4 weeks. The pictures should be up soon, so that should help a little.

The second thought was about all the work that is to be done. Lesser said about this the better.

So with this short post, I am going to welcome myself back to the internet, which was pretty difficult to get back home. And while doing that, I am going to leave you with this video, turn up your speakers and wait for the guy in the middle to start. I guarantee it will get you in splits.