A Brighter Day Will Come

The most powerful political ad I have ever seen.

Jeff, John and Joe

Jeff


John



Joe
Wait for the solo. You won't be dissapointed.

A Flash of Inspiration

I haven't blogged in a long time. I, quite simply, haven't had anything worth blogging about and I have been far too lazy to blog regularly. Blogging is far more demanding than I had anticipated.

Once you lose steam, it becomes all the more difficult to start blogging again because you think you need to jump-start it with something that's worthy of your blog and that's a hard thing. It's like a Kamal Hassan movie movie after a gap of 5 years. It better be good.

The urge to blog needed a flash of inspiration to get the ball rolling again and I finally found it here. It worked like a century by Sachin Tendulkar at Lord's. It makes you want to start playing cricket again, in the middle of the night. Check it out.

Music

Three scorching versions of 'Belief' by John Mayer.

Version 1:


Version 2:


Version 3:


I can't believe that 'Belief' didn't win a Grammy this year.

Nostalgia

A couple of days ago, I was drowned by this sudden deluge of nostalgia. Memories from the early 90's, when I was in my 6-9 classes. Memories of a time when I was still an innocent kid going to school with my schoolbag, lunch box and water bottle. I remembered the rickshawman, the feverish street cricket every evening, the summer holidays, the festivals... How could I forget those!. Diwali, Navarathri, New Year were so much fun. The sweets, the days spent bursting crackers and visiting relatives(in particular, the bijili throwing sessions from the terrace in the afternoons), the fun events organized in the apartment complex. The History exams, Amma's tuition classes at home, the 'cable tv', the vacation every year (thanks to Appa's LFC). I could go on and on, but I won't. For my own sake.

Those were good times.

Slowly, you grow older and age brings with it all the things that make one's life what it is, competition, worries, relationships, money etc and you are left with nothing but memories of a time when things were better and you feel good about it.

I can't believe that none of the things I recollected mean anything anymore. I wish they did. I want to relive those days. But this time, knowing fully well that those were the best days of my life.

I know I can't. Or can I?

Grad Life at Urbana - Part 2

I finally passed my qualifiers. The MatSci dept at U of I has a system where we have to pass oral exams in 2 chosen subjects before the completion of the second year of graduate study. After a frantic last minute effort and lots of luck, I managed to clear the exams in Electronic Materials and Solid State Physics. I am glad they are out of the way now.

Thus it begins. Take two of my grad life. With lesser courses, more time for myself and an increased salary. My old problem on vortex physics hasn't been making much headway, thanks to my laziness and my advisor has promptly withdrawn the project from my desk. I will be working on symmetry breaking in unconventional superconductors for the next few months. I have no clue how its going to turn out, since we don't have much experience in superconductivity. But p-wave superconductivity is very hot thesedays and we think we can make some cool measurements with our new He3 monster. I am taking only one course and am a TA this sem. I think I'll enjoy the relaxed life that awaits me. Lets see.
I am ready.

Fake

I've met them ever so often. Fakers. People whose opinions are formed by popular trend and whose knowledge on most topics is upper bounded by wikipedia. Still they would proclaim authority on everything, have something to say about every issue and belt out jargon with such fluency that a casual observer would easily mistake them for a walking encyclopedia. Why?
Why do people claim that the Theory of Relativity is the crowning achievement in science or that Quantum Mechanics is very non-trivial (and worse still, false) without ever studying beyond the Newton's laws? Why is Carnatic music the most purest/best form of music even to people who know less about music than a wise Orangutan? Why is Jimi Hendrix the best guitarist of all time? Why is Starbucks always worser than the local coffee shop? Why do people never like a movie if they have read the book from which the movie has been adapted? How is it that everyone loves pre 1965 classics that are highly rated in rottentomatoes/imdb? Why is it that everyone hates Coke, cheese and oil? I could go on forever.
Why? Why do people always want to sound to politically correct? Why do people get confused with what they are and what they wished they were?

I am obviously not referring to the people who know what they are talking about. They are a pleasure to converse with and learn from. I am referring to the pretenders, the guys who don't have a clue how much they don't know and make an ass of themselves among non-wiki company. I am talking about people whose preferences and opinions are so boring and stereotyped that beyond a point you couldn't care less for what they have to say.

As much as I despise such individuals with no personality, I still enjoy their company once in a while. I can have some fun and at the same time remind myself how I should never end up. Ever.