Mom or Dad?

"Who do you like best? Mom or dad?"

I came across this question a day or two ago in the form of a posting written by a 10 year old girl on her blog http://www.bandmanagerlife.blogspot.com/.

The answer to the above query is this phrase which my sister and I had concocted some years ago - "both are better".

Whenever I would return from school and later on from college I would give my day's report to Mummy. If I went out with my friends to watch a film then she would have to listen to my complete scene by scene narration. I once made her hear out my whole project report on the work that I'd done during the one month holiday (after my second year of graduation) that I'd spent in NCL. Only when I came to the end that I realized Mummy hadn't followed a word of it but she never stopped me from going on and on.

I am very close to Daddy now. Its just him and me at home what with my sister settled in Bangalore and Mummy watching us from the clouds up above.

Daddy is my friend, philosopher and guide all rolled into one. I enjoy going out to see movies with him and even shopping. If I am in nabad (the IITB slang for a nervous breakdown/great tension) then I just have to pour my heart out to Daddy. He always manages to give me the correct advice which solves my problem right at that moment.

Putting all the above in a line: I have had and am still relishing the best of both the worlds. :)

To wait or not?

Here is another "weight" problem :p

My take on IITs

Today on MTV's show Kya Baat the topic of discussion was "Are the IITs Overrated?". After watching the show I went into a flashback mode. I remembered that when I was in class 10th only two streams were considered as worthy to be taken up, namely, engineering and medicine. And for those who wanted to become engineers getting into IIT was their ultimate goal. Students literally burnt the midnight oil so that they could clear the JEE.

My route to IIT Bombay was different. I first did my graduation in Chemistry from St Stephens College and then joined IITB for pursuing MSc. Until then I had thought that students at IITs must be having their noses buried in books all the time. To my utter surprise I found among the IITians great sportspersons, managers, leaders, actors, voice over artistes, music composers, singers, costume designers and even some amazing set designers. I was left completely speechless when I saw this huge waterfall which the students had built at the OAT all by themselves for a play!!

Today many institutions offer degrees in engineering but IITs are one of the few places where one can do good research in pure sciences. All my MSc batchmates and even some of my friends from engineering departments are currently doing PhD as a result of their first brush with research here.

One of the points raised in the MTV show was that all IIT labs get good funding. This would be true if the comparison was with other Indian universities. But the picture would be very different if one were to size up the situation against the American and German univerisities.

So there is still a long road ahead that needs to be traversed. There are still many conquests to be made and many laurels to be won. In time the IITians will do all that and much more... this I am sure of.

Secrets for a Happy Marriage

With a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary at a churches marriage marathon, the minister asked Brother Ralph to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he managed to live with the same woman all these years.

The husband replied to the audience, "Well, I treated her with respect, spent money on her, but mostly I took her traveling onspecial occasions." The minister inquired trips to where?

"For our 25th anniversary, I took her to Beijing,China."

The minister then said, "What a terrific example you are to all husbands Ralph, please tell the audience what you're going to do for your wife on your 50th anniversary?"

Brother Ralph: "I'm going to go and bring her back."

Think Big!

Saddam Hussein was sitting in his office wondering whom to invade next when his telephone rang.

"Hallo, Mr. Hussein!" a heavily accented voice said, "This is Gurmukh from Phagwara, District Kapurthala, Punjab. I am ringing to inform you that we are officially declaring the war on you!" "Well, Gurmukh," Saddam replied, "This is indeed important news! How big is your army?"

"Right now," said Gurmukh, after a moment's calculation, "there is myself, my cousin Sukhdev, my next door neighbour Bhagat, and the entire kabaddi team from the gurudwara. That makes eight".

Saddam paused. "I must tell you, Gurmukh that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command." "Arrey O! Main kya.. " said Gurmukh. "I'll have to ring you back!" Sure enough, the next day, Gurmukh called again.

"Mr. Hussein, it is Gurmukh, I'm calling from Phagwara STD, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!" "And what equipment would that be, Gurmukh?" Saddam asked. "Well, we have two combines, a donkey and Amrik's tractor."

Saddam sighed. "I must tell you, Gurmukh, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armoured personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my army to 1-1/2 million since we last spoke.""Oh teri ...." said Gurmukh. "I'll have to get back to you." Sure enough, Gurmukh rang again the next day.

"Mr. Hussein, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne.... .. We've modified Amrik's tractor by adding a couple of shotguns, sticking on some wings and the pind's generator. Four school pass boys from Malpur have joined us as well!"

Saddam was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. "I must tell you, Gurmukh, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighterplanes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!" "Tera pala hove...." said Gurmuk, "I'll have to ring you back. "Sure enough, Gurmukh called again the next day.

"Mr. Hussein! I am sorry to tell you that we have had to call off the war." "I'm sorry to hear that," said Saddam. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Well," said Gurmukh, "we've all had a long chat over a couple of lassi's, and decided there's no way we can feed two million prisoners of wars!"