The beginning of the end

The end is nigh.

Yesterday, I dropped TCA (he's off to Xavier's Mumbai) off at the airport, said Good bye and it suddenly started to sink in. He's first to go; one down. Those days are over. And this is just the beginning. One-by-one, all of us will be gone. Dispersed. The good-old days are gone forever. Those vodka-fueled mornings have come to an end. It was fun while it lasted.

Sadly, this "realization" is always a little late coming. By the time I realized that school was kick-ass fun, it was nearly over. Same thing with class 12-H.

I'm leaving this lovely city on the 14th of July. And now that my exile is about to begin, I've even started to "miss" New Delhi, even the most despicable places in town. Such is life; life is like custard.

At this point, let me also say that dropping off another guy at the airport is kind of awkward. Embarrassing, too. An awkward handshake and an awkward 'it was nice knowing you' and a slightly-less awkward "don't forget the vodka" sealed it.

On a brighter note, I have a series of posts planned in which I plan to blow the lid off DPS MUN, the CBSE and explain why DPS RKP is the biggest scam since... (well, something, but it's a scam). As an insider to all three of the aforementioned, I have a good deal to say.

Ah yes, I'm back. And I'm not "living in the past"

The inevitable is here

The results are upon us. The 25th day of May (sounds funny) is judgment day. At 8:00 AM, we shall have our collective asses kicked.

I knew the results would be announced some time, but I didn't figure it'd be so soon. Time flies, as they say (I don't know who 'they' are, so don't ask me)

It's like being jerked out of a restful slumber. You're snoring your butt off and some weirdo comes and jabs you in the ribs and says "AHA!".

Recently, I've noticed that the most of my posts are labeled "Random". It makes me wonder whether I'm an extremely random person or awful at writing descriptive labels. Maybe both, but I'm going to change that w.e.f the next post.

P.S. Why is judgment spelled without an 'e'?

Don't name your dog 'Robin'

Call your dog Robin Hood. Or Robin Uthappa.

No, I'm kidding. Those names are plain stupid (for a dog, that is). But you can still be creative in naming dogs.

For instance, podcaster Mohit Taneja named his dogs Mac and Ubuntu (for those who don't know: they're both names of Operating Systems).

Food for thought.

What do you think?

Quick question: Which URL do you guys think is better?
1. slurpin.blogspot.com
2. slurpin.clan.in
3. dhruv.clan.in
4. dk.clan.in

Assistance will be greatly appreciated and I shall forever remain in your debt, eager to do you a good turn (seriously, guys, help out a confused guy!).

Five strangely named websites that made it big

Finding a great domain name doesn't necessarily translate to a popular website; quite often, strangely named websites have struck gold. Here's a list of 5 such companies

1. Google
It doesn't get any stranger - or bigger - than this. This Mountain View-based search giant's name is seemingly based on the word 'googol' which, btw, has as little to do with search as google does. But who cares? It's the world's most popular search engine.
2. Yahoo!
Once again, what has the name 'Yahoo!' got to do with any of its services (or anything at all)? Nothing.
3. Youtube
Probably one of the world's most popular websites, this video-sharing site. Another strange name, but who cares? (I repeat myself, but that's the whole point behind this post: the name doesn't matter!)
4. Digg
Although Digg is often used as both a noun and a verb on digg.com, the word itself has no inherent meaning nor does it serve any purpose, as such.
5. Flickr
Okay, arguably flickr does mean something (i.e. Flicker) but it's totally unrelated to the site. And that's the list. 5 weird names. Extremely successful, despite the names.

The success is ofcourse due to something: innovation. All these sites brought something new to the table and established themselves, their brands and got away with some strange names. But then, that's life.

The list of such companies/sites is endless. Reditt, Odeo, Kanoodle, Zoomr, etc.

Google doesn't think too highly of female inventors. Search for "she invented" and Google says "Did you mean He invented?"
Link.

I'm sitting in my car when I see a magazine salesman coming up to the window, trying to sell me a copy of "Good Housekeeping". Another of their lot was trying to sell a copy of "Maxim" to my mother.
We didn't buy either. There was nothing wrong with the products; both are excellent, world-class products (I can certainly vouch for Maxim ;) though I'm not too sure about Good Housekeeping).
This is what happens when you've got a great product but you don't identify a target audience: no sales. Period. Marketing your product is thus as important as having a great product. Maybe even more important.
Contrary to popular belief, Marketing is not just about making awesome ads. The first step is to find a target audience and then create a campaign that will convince it. Just having a great campaign probably won't result in a sale either (unless the customer is an idiot).
You can't sell a garage-lock to a guy that doesn't have a garage, even if you've convinced him that you have the finest garage-lock in the market.
Take a look at some successful products around you. Most of them have done well because the marketers identified a target audience and worked to sell it to that very audience by developing a great sales pitch.
This applies as much in the online world as it does offline. Websites (blogs included) have to identify a target audience and sell themselves to it. Of course, this stage comes only after you have something worth selling (please note that I am not using the word sell literally). For a website that something is either great/unique/quality content or a great services.
The reason that most blogs (mine included) aren't too popular is because:-
1. they don't have anything unique (most are personal blogs)
2. they don't have great content in addition to being non-unique
3. they don't have a target audience
Who are you writing for? Why should people read your blog/website? Will it make any conceivable difference to them if they didn't read it?
The answers to these questions most often are: dunno, dunno and no (these are also my own answers). And the result is obvious.

P.S. I have no idea why I wrote this. It's a strange post, admittedly, but quite relevant to most bloggers. And I'm not writing this to discourage anyone from blogging. And yes, I have written a rather meandering post where I've been moving back and fort between marketing, target audiences and great products.

Update

I've updated my link bar, check it out for some more blogs that I've started reading recently (and some not so recently)

A Punjabi Wedding

Last night I found myself scarfing down tender seekh kebabs at a Punjabi wedding and it struck me that there's something special about Punjabi weddings, which sets them apart from the rest. The reason is obvious: a large number of Punjabis.
For one, if an invitation card to such a wedding says "7:00 PM" it means that the guests (i.e. you) should not arrive 10:00 PM. No wait. 11:00 PM. (I do admit that this is often true of ALL Indian weddings, events, etc.)
Punjabis like to eat. Obviously, food is of paramount importance at a punjabi wedding. It is, undoubtedly, the centre of attention. Even more significant and important than the wedding ceremony itself which begins painfully late.
(It would also be worth noting that Punjabis like to call chicken "murga". Their refusal to call it "chicken" is not without reason. Apparently, calling this delicious form of poultry "chicken" reduces its appeal to the tongue.)
Punjabi weddings also have a large number of punjabis (am I stating the obvious?). And Punjabis laugh. When Punjabis laugh, they like the world to know that they find something funny. Their laughter is loud, clear and resonates in the hall. The word "Hearty" is apt.
Relatives. When you're at such a wedding, and you're related to one person (to the best of your knowledge) a domino effect is observed. An entire battalion of relatives appears, and also knows you quite well, seemingly. The remark "Kinna vada hoga ya!" is often heard during the introductions to this seemingly endless regiment of Punjabi relatives.
Another essential part of the wedding is the Bhangra (forgive me, but I'm not too sure about the difference between gidda and bhangra). No Punjabi wedding is complete till a large number of relatives raise their fingers (pardon the expression, but if you've seen anyone do the Bhangra, you'll no what I'm talking about. "Shake their legs" just didn't make the cut.) to Punjabi music. This is by far the most enjoyable (and hilarious) part of the wedding.
Try and visualize a large group of fat men and women (full to the brim with food and drinks) trying to shake a leg to "Punjabiyan di Shaan Wakhri". A sight to behold.
The ceremony itself is short and sweet although it takes place at about 1:00 AM as the "baraat" has too arrive. It's not very important either.
Punjabi weddings are about food, drinks, dancing, music and Punjabis. The bride and the groom are hardly seen. Ironic? You're damn right.

NOTE: Any inaccuracies in protocol and/or procedure that might have crept in are inadverdent and deeply regretted.
And yes, I am a true, hearty, fun-loving, kebab-scarfing Punjabi.

Of strangely-named place and DKPAC nomenclature

Before I begin, let me point out that I hate the title of this post but I couldn't think of anything more succinct and crisp, so just ignore it (and now that I think of it, even succinct and crisp don't convey the meaning perfectly; not the mot juste I was looking for).

Ever noticed how Basant Lok Complex is called Priya?
The shopping arcade in Saket is called just Saket.
DT City Centre is often called Lifestyle.
And, Metropolitan mall is called Metropolitan.

I have a better idea. Saket should be called tetraPVR-McDonalds-Subway-Pizzahut hexasaketarcade. Read on and I'll explain.

It might not seem strange until you examine each of these names carefully. In some cases, the place is named in accordance (I hate this word, too) with the name of a movie theatre, the adjoining colony, the anchor store and, in the final case, the name of the mall itself.

The name is thus meaningless, random and arbitrary (this time, I've found the mot juste). Also, often confusing.

Those of us who have studied chemistry know that this is precisely the problem with common names, and to circumvent it, IUPAC nomenclature is used.

So, I propose DKPAC nomenclature for this very purpose (the name DKPAC, itself, has no meaning).

Rules:
A DKPAC name consists of two parts:
1. the adjunct
2. the root

The root itself must specify the number of shops, the location and the nature of the place. A prefix to the location is used to convey the number of shops and a suffix conveys the nature.
eg. hexasaket conveys that saket has six shops.
Acceptable prefixes include meth, eth, prop, buta, penta, hexa, etc.
Suffixes are as follows:-
1. arcade, if it is an ordinary open-air shopping complex
2. mall (the name is self explanatory)
eg. hexasaketarcade conveys that Saket is an arcade with six shops.
decametropolitanmall conveys that Metropolitan is a mall with 10 shops.

Now we come to the adjunct. The adjunct can have an infinte no. of parts depending on the number of groups to be considered (like substituents in IUPAC nomenclature). Stores/movie theatres/eateries with more than 1,000 footfalls a day make the cut (i.e are considered).
For example, Priya has two adjunct with fall in this category. PVR and McDonalds.
Thus, the adjunct for Priya would be PVR-McDonalds

Naming the adjunct for multiplexes is slightly more complex as the number of halls within must be specified. The same rule also applies for food-courts where the number of distinct eateries must be specified using a prefix such as bi, tri, tetra, and so on.

Thus the adjunct for Metropolitan would be: pentaPVR-tetrafoodcourt-Shopper's Stop

To obtain the complete name, we combine the word root and the adjunct.
The complete name for Metropolitan mall would be:-
pentaPVR-tetrafoodcourt-Shopper's Stop decametropolitanmall

Priya
PVR-McDonalds Octabasantlokarcade
Saket
tetraPVR-McDonalds-Subway-Pizzahut hexasaketarcade

Note: I have randomly assumed values for "the number of shops", as I don't know the exact number. These values, however, suffice for the purpose of illustration.

Google does it again

Come April 1st, 2007, and Google has yet again managed to pull one of the coolest pranks ever. It's called Google Print. Check it out
I almost believed it - and frankly, it would've been an interesting service (also free).
Dhruv
Oh and btw, I'm back.

Yesterday

I had my computer science practical yesterday. The viva totally sucked. The external examinor asked me stupid questions which I couldn't answer.
I just have this knack of appearing stupid (and unbelievably dumb) whenever I'm in the company of other people. People think I'm the kind of person who has a hard time understanding fractions and decimals. Same thing happened yesterday. The external examiner thought I was the kind of guy who wouldn't be able to write a hello world program in C++.
Anyhow, I finished my practical by 12:30. I roamed around in school for a while as I had to say "something" to "someone" till I figured I was making a fool of myself. And I couldn't locate "someone". So, I left for Priya by 1:00. By 1:30 I decided to go back to school. Reached back by 1:50, just when the buses were leaving and managed to make a fool of myself again.
So, then I went back to Priya again. What with St. Valentine's day and "love in the air", it was pretty nauseating. I didn't stick around too long.

Today I also got my SAT - I result. I must take my subject tests again.
SAT I- 2380 (780 in Math)
I won the bet.

As of now, I'm up to my chin in organic chem. Also, I'm figuring out how to NOT look like an idiot in front of other people.
One of these days, I'm going to buy a mountain bike.
Let me take this opportunity to tell you about this rather awesome lines:-
All generalizations are incorrect.
My advice to people is not to dispense advice.
I know they haven't been written verbatim, but this is all I can remember.

I also request two minutes of silence. Yesterday was St. Valentine's day. The day P.G. Wodehouse, the greatest author of all time, died. I shall never be able to enjoy V-Day.

Anyhow.

P.S. I hate it when people say "anyways". For god sake its "anyway", without an 's'.

What's with the world?

250 applicants, out of the total 5000 (approx.), were accepted and admitted to the nursery school of DPS. The acceptance rate is about 5%.

5 %.

Wait. Do you know what Harvard's acceptance rate for undergraduate students is?
Ans: 9%

Conclusion: It's harder to get into the Nursery School of DPS than Harvard.
Ridiculous.

Cheers,
Dhruv

Farewell

So, school life has officially come to an end for us. DPS RKP bid us farewell yesterday in the aptly named Greenfields on a hot, sunny day. It is now, officially, over.

Its sad. The school has been like a companion that we've been walking with. At the start of this "journey", our "companion" walked right by us, hand-in-hand. It made sure we didn't fall or wander. It guided us around obstacles and led us ahead. As we moved further along this path, the grip loosened, until it (our companion) finally let go. It started to walk besides us, shoulder-to-shoulder, with a proud look on its face. Encouraged us, pushed us forward. We started to believe in ourselves and moved forward. We thought it'd always be this way. Walking ahead, but never without our companion. But it was not to be. Suddenly, we realized our companion wasn't walking with us anymore; it had left us. We turned back and could see our long-time companion waving back at us, sad, holding back tears, yet proud that we were now MEN who could go out in the world. But there was no going back, we could only look back and say "Goodbye. And thank you."
Yesterday was that day. We finally realized that school life has come to an end for all of us. The end was bitter-sweet.

This is the kinda stuff I'd write in an essay. But as this is a blog post, I'll change my tone.

The farewell was an interesting event which, due to the formally attired students, resembled an Indian wedding. At this point it would be worthwhile to point out Akshat and Gursartaj were somewhat "standing-out". Akshat Verma was totally "pimped-up", dressed in a white suit and a Hawaiian blue shirt. Gudi was dressed so informally, he made everyone else feel rather jealous.
In terms of the timing of the event, it was supposed to start at 2:30 and end at 4:30. However, most people arrived after 3:00 and left by 5:30. The only exceptions to this were Aniket Roy and Gudi. While Gudi arrived at 3:15 and left by 4:00, Aniket walked in at 4:30.
The so-called cultural event was quite ordinary and rather annoying. The skit was a shame, the songs were pathetic and no one was interested. I still don't know why they even tried.
And, yeah, it was hot. Blazing hot. It cooled down a bit by 5:00, though. Like last year, Sid and I tried to fool the guard, who was making an idiot of himself. Last year, Gudi helped us with this task. However, this year, Mohit Taneja and Pritish Malik assumed his position and ably helped us dupe the guard-who-was-making-an-idiot-of-himself.
The food was also pretty ordinary. Aloo tikki and Chaat is not the ideal thing to be served on a supposedly formal event. The food only added to the Shaadi-like atmosphere.
It was also quite hard finding other people. There were close to a thousand students in a football field, after all. It gets quite crowded so basically its a pain trying to find anyone else. Cellphones to the rescue!
By 5:35, we were asked to leave rather curtly. Heck, if they hadn't literally pushed us out, we would've stuck around till god-knows-when.
Then we left. It was over. And let me say its been nice knowing all of you. Thank you.
Farewell.

Check out the pics below.

Jasmeet Khosla, me, Rohit Arora, Tarun and Akshat

Me and Mihir Dutta.
Mohit and Pritish are also visible in the background.

Sid, The Cow, Gudi and me

Live long, my son.

A lot of people.
Me, Raghav Khullar, Mohit, Ankit Srivastava, Pritish, Sid, Akshay, Vibhu and half of Adarsh

Siddhant, Akshay, Gudi, me and Sid

Aashish Manchanda, me and Rasagy.
Two really smart guys and the President of Exun (me).

Mohit, Sid and Pritish

RG, behind a couple of cameras


Akshay Johar and Akshat Verma.

Part of Class 12-H.
Mohit, Shomi, Akshat Verma(the pimp), me, Arpit, Rishabh and Sanchit.
Deepak's head also visible, right behind Akshat.

Vibhu, TDG, Siddhant and me.
Seemingly Siddhant and I have won something. (Notice the "V" signs.)

RG, Adarsh, Vibhu and me

Siddhant saying, "We're grown-ups."

Some strange words

Some strange, real English words:-

bailiwick
boondoggle
brouhaha

Really funny sounding words, if you ask me. English is a strange language.

Federer wins again.

Roger Federer beat Fernando González to win the Australian Open for the third time - also his tenth grand slam, in all. Man, this guy is unstoppable and if he continues winning at this rate, he might become the greatest tennis player of all time.

Featured Geek: Sid Nangia

In the first part of the "Featured Geek" series, Slurpin' Editor-in-Chief Dhruv Kumar interviewed Sid Nangia. The complete transcript of the interview is reproduced below.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Sid Nangia is the Editor of Under_Score, a Member of Exun's Core Group, Director of the ECOSOC at DPS MUN 2006 and Chief Executive Officer of Madras Gin. He's also the man behind Under_Score's Cover (literally, Varun Khetarpal is the man behind Under_Score's cover) and the smashing Exun 2006 Intro Video.

1. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hopefully running my own company somewhere out there.

2. Describe your idea of heaven.
Mac Book Pro + Gisele Bundchen ( youll get this one by the time your reach Q. 8)

3. Linux or OS X?
OS X

4. iPhone or Aeon?
Aeon looks awesome , but its just a concept. I'll go with the iPhone. (okay apple fan here)

5. Best thing about 2006 ?
we thought up MADRAS GIN

6. Best thing about 2007 (so far)
i got accepted at CMU

7. Salma Hayek or Gisele Bundchen?
Gisele Bundchen

8. What would you rather have in bed next to you: a Mac Book Pro or Gisele Bundchen?
Gisele Bundchen , cant bring my self to say macbook pro regardless of the way i spin it.

9. ZFS, HFS or NTFS?
ZFS, Max file size 16 exabytes - gotta love it

10. One word to describe Slurpin'
Sweet

Keep your eyes peeled for the next "Featured Geek".

Today is the 26th day of January, so, Happy Republic Day.

Exun: EXUN Unlimited

Wouldn't it be cool if Exun stood for Exun Unlimited? Recursive, like GNU, PHP and WINE.

After the Boards

Heres what I want to do (among other things) after the boards:-

1. Ride a bike all the way to Chandigarh.
2. Sleep at 8 PM and not wake up till 8 PM the next day
3. Eat 2 dominators (or 4 footlong subs)
   
4. Get totally sloshed
5. Watch the entire LOTR trilogy back-to-back
6. Re-read Hitchiker's Guide
7. Watch each episode of Star Wars, in order
8. Watch every Bond movie ever made, in chronological order
9. Start Madras Gin
10. Visit Goa and run along the coast in my nothing but my boxers
11. Do Bungee Jumping and Zorbing (Added later)
    

Nothing very crazy or wild, but its just some stuff I'd like to do after them boards.
What does the Times Person of the Year (i.e. you) want to do after the boards?

Nokia's Aeon

Okay. I know this is just a concept phone, but nonetheless it is beyond doubt one of the coolest phones that I have ever seen in my life. Orgasmic is the right word to describe this phone.

If this phone is ever made, I'm going to drop my K790i like a hot potato and buy this, even if it doesn't have any features (Heck, I'd buy it even if it didn't make phone calls).

And this is an image from the official Nokia site. Skeptics, click here.

All that glitters is not gold

Message to Apple fanboys: All that glitters isn't gold.

Take a look at the resemblance between LG's phone and Apple's iPhone.

It was obvious that Apple wasn't going to manufacture the iPhone themselves, but now it seems like one of the following occurred:-
1. Apple sub-contracted to LG
2. LG and Apple both sub-contracted to the same manufacturer
1 is likelier.
LMAO.