To sorrow, I bade good morrow....

These are the opening lines of the new book that I started today- The return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy. I liked them so much that I put them on my orkut profile today. Finally, I have something meaningful on the "about me" field of my orkut profile.

Anyways, nothing new. More cooking, more orkutting, and more chatting...that's how life has been. Thursday was a holiday but I didn't go outside since the weather is not good for travel. True, i love rains but its foolish to go around cities looking at old churches and castles holding an umbrella and running the risk of cathching a cold.


For this same reason, I cancelled the Heidelberg trip yesterday and didn't go to Triberg today..although I did suggest those guys to go check the timings of the last train to Tuebingen- after the debacle last year.

Anyways, so yesterday Gentoo had two of his friends coming over from that INRIA in Sophia antapolis, where Bhagal interned last year and where Shobit is currently interning. Enterprising guys, they sure did wanna have fun. I had cooked food for six people but Tanmay didn't eat. So there were 2 cookers full of Rice, a mixed veggie( made with Aloo, cabbage and Red and Green capsicum) which the guys called Bhaji, Egg curry(those guys really liked it) and a huge bowl of "moongi dhuli dal." As expected, there was a lil mess but we guys had everything under control. WE made as little noise as possible, and cleaned up the kitchen as well as i could.

But, not surprisingly, Erica had problems with it. I knew that she would say SOMETHING after looking at me cooking meals for 4 people daily, and i was prepared for any kind of warning. But what infuriated me most was the way she sent her message across-via Isabelle.

So, Erica had her dinner around 9:30 and we guys had sat down to eat much later. It was 10:50 pm and we had just started our dinner when Isabelle arrived. She heard the sounds, entered the kitchen, expressed her amazement at the little party that was going on. Meanwhile, Erica had come out of her room and as soon as she saw me, she went inside. Then there was some chat in Italian between the two girls, and then Isabelle quietly came inside. To my delight, she sat at the empty seat on the dining table and started eating.

Evidently, she was very hungry and didn't have the courage to cook anything. And so began the taunts. From "You should open a restaurant" to " You cook such big meals everyday" to " Why these potatoes on the shelves" to " You cook, and they clean-that's right". I took them all in jest. But to calm her down, I told her that I ll be moving out pretty soon. I sure saw the look of relief on her face.

Isabelle thinks of we indians as we used to think of Spanish and Brasilians in Lyon- that we mix only with indians, speak in Hindi( or Hinglish) all the time , and don't make friends outside. She calls it the Indian MAfia. I wish I could explain her that we do only to save money coz eating the European way would make every meal worth 4-5 euros and not because we don't like Europeans. Infact, only today, we invited Julia and Birte to lunch and had a nice peaceful meal together. Only difference being that it was a little bit too formal, and the girls ate "Paranthas" with fork and knife.

Anyways, i think I am sounding like a house-wife now. I am not at all worried about household affairs but just that I wanted a good relationship with my flatmates but they undermine all my efforts to clean the kitchen by not appreciating our way of living.

Another good thing happened today. Being Friday evening, Erica was going downtown with an Italian friend of hers. So I noticed the typical make-up which girls do. I haven't seen this much in India, and I personally don't dress up REALLY well for parties, but this thing in Europe never fails to amaze me.

Firstly, she took a long shower and came out all fragrant. She applied a little make up, removed her glasses and wore lenses( I commented her on that, and told her she looks cute in glasses) and then she wore an amazing dress. It was just a lace sweater over, well, nothing... Pretty see through, ha. And I must admit that she was looking beautiful, in a ...well...desirable sort of a manner.

I haven't had a crush on anybody for a long time now, and have kept myself pretty numb for any kind of infatuation. So I looked at her, smiled, complimented her and forgot her. But the truth is that she was looking amazing in that dress.

Well, she is throwing a beer party tomorrow in the house for her labmates, and although I ve been invited, I think I'd rather pass my time in the lab surfing the web or reading my novel.

I ve heard the anti-reservation thing is growing in India. I just came to know that the senior residents in the hospitals have gone on casual leave and have refused to recruit new doctors. Recruits, in the meanwhile, are being manhandled by agitating students. Although I strongly advocate meritocracy, a little voice inside me still thinks that this might provide a lot of benefit to those students, who would otherwise have remained neglected and devoid of any oppurtunity. I know the hearts of thousands of general category students will be broken, but something tells me that they can fare well in the smaller colleges as well. But reservation WILL provide some kind of an oppurtunity to lakhs of people from who are socially so backward that contemplating of an admission in an engineering college is a distant dream for them. Cummon, look at the plight of a 18 year old Jat in A small village in Rohtak who drops out after failing +2, who comes to the city to become a bus conductor, just because he is a backward caste and that's what he has been told to do. At least now he can take admission in a nearby polytechnic and be employed as a technician or be the service agent for the local aqua guard dealer. Or maybe he can open his own spare parts shop.

But then I think of how hard i prepared for IITs, and I become sad when i know that the indian government is going to implement this law in September 2007. This means that budding engineers- young boys and girls who are thinking of going to KOTA or subsribing to FIITJEE correspondence notes now, will be highly disillusioned. After all, how many of them actually think they can make it?? Many IITians are droppers. Now, very few students will take JEE twice. I am being a little bold by saying this but SC/ST/OBC students do little in terms of extra-curriculur activities. And statistics show that they are not very good at academics either. Somehow, I am afraid that IIT will become such a dull place to live in.....

But then, are the General category students, really doing what IIT trained them for, when they spent 15-17 lakhs on each student. The Nehruvian ideal of IITs are lost. Atleast, till a few years ago, Brain Drain could be justified by saying that with better oppurtunities, these students are serving science. The presence of Indians(read IITians) influenced Silicon Valley so much into becoming what it is today. But by going into i-banks and making softwares for banks to predict the rise and fall of stock markets, aren't these IITians really DECEIVING their country.

I know reservation is a touchy issue. I want no arguements. I myself support and strongly criticize the afore-said statements, and therefore it is enough that i argue with myself. And after watching the police beat up those students so mercilessly, I am strongly, openly and vehemently against any reservation laws.

And ya, before i end...a cartoon to amuse you. I liked it as it involved a lil bit of genetic engineering and patents, things which have been troubling me for quite some time now....