good ol' ice

Time to say goodbye

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:12:00 +0000

This blog has been an integral part of me growing up in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Since then, things have moved on and I have moved on. I do miss the conversations that the posts on this blog had sparked in the past, but I think its time to finally let go of it. If interested, you can keep in touch with my ramblings at these places:

http://sameerahuja.com/blog

http://twitter.com/sam33r

I still actively blog at these group blogs:

http://rabbism.blogspot.com

http://maayne.icedlabs.com

I�might never blog as regularly or on the same stuff again, but I'm guessing that's a part of growing up (?)

The web host for the blog will be shutting down the hosting sometime soon, I would let it be there until that happens. Thanks for all the discussions, and have a good day!

e = mc^2

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:07:00 +0000

It's been just about two months now that I've been in the US, and today was the first time in all this while that I heard this song:

"Jind mahi je chaleyo... Jind maahi je chaleyo pardes, kadi na bhulli oye
kadi na bhulli apna des... ve apni boli oye... apni boli te apna des"

And well, it's no masterpiece. The music is well composed, but if you listen carefully, the lyrics are broken into two separate threads of context. Which is interesting in a way, but somewhat distracting for me. In fact, I remember ridiculing the lyrics at one of our regular ridiculing-stuff-while-bunking-class sessions at college.

But if you are a punjabi at heart and it's your first time being 17000 miles from your home, and your ipod playlist shuffles out of the blue to this track - at that moment - you think that there could be no better musical masterpiece on this planet.

And that, in short, is the theory of relativity.

This is what happens when...

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:01:00 +0000

...Indians join Google.

Read more here.

And for the records, I love it!

Help me decide

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:07:00 +0000

I've been trying to answer a difficult question for the last few days- whether to change this blog's template or not. The reasons for that are that blogger.com, the blog engine for this blog, has moved to a new XML style template architecture that allows for easy widget addition to the blog without too much of HTML fuss. However, changing over to that architecture is a pain for a laggard like me.

So I thought I'd ask the people who matter. So, if you are a regular visitor to this site (I know you exist. Yes you do.) or even if you landed here from a google search for "the hottest damn blogger in the world", I encourage you to answer this poll and help me take the decision:

Get Free Opinion Polls

If there is something else in your mind, or a feature you'd like me to add; please mention the same in the comments below.

What we fundamentally are

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:32:00 +0000

I love this video.

Of course, use headphones or don't bother.

Congratulations! You just got Thomas Hawk-ed.

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:42:00 +0000

Canon Powershot S2IS picked up after a month of research: Rs. 16,000
512 MB Memory Stick when you realize that the camera doesn't come with one: Rs. 2500
Brand new tripod from the narrow lanes of some old wholesale market in Delhi: Rs. 750
Getting favorite-d by a legendary photographer: Priceless

Gen X

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:43:00 +0000

In general I'm quite at ease (And let's face it, a little proud) in calling myself a geek. Come to think of it, I was the only kid with an Internet connection in ninth standard at school, and I was the first guy in college to start a blog, or, you know, make a website.

But occasionally, you run across a guy like this: http://blog.yuvisense.net, a "15 year old wannabe geek from India" and well, it just somehow makes you feel a little like a 15 year old wannabe geek from India.

And the other thing it does, is force you to to ask yourself, what was I doing when I was 15 years old, geek-wise? Proudly sharing Indian Bollywood Wallpapers downloaded from your 10 KBps connection with a 3.5 inch floppy, that's what.

I feel old already.

The Rendezvous

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:22:00 +0000

the starry sky
the empty road
the whispering woods
the silent car

the fallen drink
the ghostly fog
the abeyant time
the seeker of life

the dripping shirt
the falling blood
the numb wounds
the aching heart

and the moment of truth
that finished it all
SA

Jeena kya hai?

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:58:00 +0000

Shaher ki is daud mein daud ke karna kya hai
Jab yehi jeena hai doston to phir marna kya hai

Pehli baarish mein train late hone ki fikr hai
Bhul gaye bheegte hue tehelna kya hai
Seials ke kirdaaron ka saara haal hai malum
par maa ka haal puchhne ki fursat kise hai

Ab ret pe nange paw tehelte kyun nahi
Ek sau aath hain channel phir dil behelte kyun nahi
Internet ki duniya ke to touch me hain,
lekin pados mein kaun rehta hai jaante tak nahi.
Mobile, Landline sab ki bharmaar hai,
Lekin jigri dost tak pahunche aise taar kahan hai

Kab doobte hue suraj ko dekha tha yaad hai?
Kab jaana tha shaam ka woh bahana kya hai?

To doston shaher ki is daud mein daud ke karna kya hai
Jab yehi jeena hai to fir Marna kya hai?

Lage Raho Munnabhai, 2006

And this is where it meets the sky

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:58:00 +0000

And this is where it meets the sky
Originally uploaded by Dohh.

Okay, it's been a long time since i last blogged; I've actually been busy with my new Canon Powershot S2IS (and the sleeping). I've been fairly impressed with this camera; it exceeded my expectations in almost every department. The bonus with this one is its 12x zoom and exceptional video recording.

Now I'm not exactly a professional photographer; but I've been ridiculously devoted to giving this camera atleast one deserving photograph. You can have a look at my efforts on http://www.flickr.com/photos/dull

Pyrexia

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:52:00 +0000

The best thing about fever: Getting mom to cook the hot ginger tea.
The worst thing about fever: Cooking the hot ginger tea. And missing mom.

I'm bored

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 06:28:00 +0000

Sometimes I really don't have a lot on my hands. Except for my digicam.

Aside: Zoomr has some quite useful tools in its arsenal; but I'd really like them to:
1. Change the color scheme. Those Greens could kill somebody.
2. Put in the photo area-based comments aka Flickr. Associate such area comments with people aka Riya.

Sidenote

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:36:00 +0000

There is so much in the world that hasn�t been touched by man. From my window seat 24F; I can see this beautiful series of clouds all around the aircraft, going on for infinity. At infinity they meet an equally stunning looking sky that is colored in a vibrant gradient of blues. It seems like you can actually walk on them. That would be great, wouldn�t it? We could jump around and say hi to passengers on aircrafts and bathe in the sunlight. At night we could look at the thousands of lights originating from the places that man has been able to touch � those droplets of civilization spread across the vastness of the third planet of a moderately sized solar system of a smallish galaxy.

And probably there are places within our hearts and minds, places just like these infinite realms of clouds, that are away from our grasp, that defy our commands and are untouched by the impurity and practicality of civilization. They live a life of their own, concealed by the hardened shell of urban existence. But every once in a while they take over our actions, so overwhelmingly so that our regular conscience is left as a bystander wondering where did that come from.

In that way, there is some innocence in all of us.

Macs do Windows!

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 10:29:00 +0000

Apple has announced its public beta of Boot Camp; a free software that allows users to install Windows XP natively on their Apple machines. It is for the first time that Apple has publicly opened its arms to Microsoft's operating system, and I've never been as sure of a prediction as I am of this: Macs will one day ship with Windows. I'm not saying that they would say goodbye to OSX. They may, or they may not. But what I am sure of is that Apple would one day give their users the option of buying a mac running Windows out of the box.

And that is absolutely cool. I recently bought a laptop; and out of pure office work necessity, I had to buy a PC Notebook, even when I had my eyes set on a Powerbook for a long, long while. OSX rocks, but Windows rules the corporate desk; and in going for an open software platform, Apple is doing itself no harm. There are so many people like me, all around the world, who would want this to happen. Sure, the exclusivity of the Mac gets a blow, but this isn't exactly the time and generation for software exclusivity.

On another note, this is the last 'exclusive' Technology post that I'm posting on this blog. I've setup another 'exclusively geek' blog for all my technology rants and musings; you can visit it here. This blog, it's for prose, it's for movie reviews, it's for posts on music, those boring ultra-detailed posts on what goes on around me, and a Tech post here and there.

Run Fatso Run

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:37:00 +0000

This is what the world needs right NOW. RunFatBoy.net

All this is quite meaningless, really

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:47:00 +0000

Over the past few weekends; myself, AJ and TA, the happening creatures that we are; have found out the perfect way to spend the weekend in a manner that is both productive and relaxing at the same time: We watch movies.

Now, we don�t have a Television at home yet (Subliminal Hint: Donate us one) so every Friday as the sun hides under the horizon, the three of us land at Shekar Video Library, 9th Block, Jayanagar. If that name looks interesting to you, well, it is. It seems nature has played the name �Shekhar� to all its permutations: I�ve met Shekars, Sekhars, Shekhars, Sekars and Seekarses. Okay, not the last one. But there are times in my usually hectic Bangalorean life that I look at the skies and wonder if this is just a normal vocabulary mess-up, or are there some vested interests that have consciously brought about these variations as a part of some grand plan of theirs. Personally, deep down, (17 inches to be precise) I think that they are all clandestine alien military, and they distinguish their ranks by the innocuous alterations in the position and frequency of H�s in their innocuous names. Smart ass aliens.

So, every weekend, we land up at our neighborhood alien video library, looking for movie VCD�s (Subliminal Hint #2: We don�t have a DVD player. Get us one.) from a list of movie titles that we painstakingly compile that very day, before our excursion. I feel that this process of compilation needs some elaboration. It is not just any compilation; it is a complicated multi-step process that has several input dependencies. Movies are rated within Genres based on several parameters (Such as; and this is just one of the parameters, by no means the most important one; the number and attractiveness of attractive women featured in the movie.) These ratings are then normalized across Genres based on the relative rankings of the genres; which is again a measure obtained by careful analysis of several parameters. (Such as; and this is just one of the parameters, by no means the most important one; the probability of having a good number of highly attractive women featured in the movies belonging to that genre.)

And that is where it begins. As we reach the place, all of a sudden, the milieu of that library (And probably that Shekar Alien�s super-psycho powers) change everything. As if under magical influence, we pick up a movie which is, hmm, what is a good, non-abusive way to tell this� a movie that we would miss if we were to sit down and choose a billion movies out of a billion and one. But we are standing when we are at Shekars�; and I�ve always found it fishy how his recommended movies are always without past-rental records. So anyways, we take the movies, we go home and watch them; and have a gala time; and just then when TA takes off his pants and swings it in the air (while having a gala time) and THE list falls out; at that exact moment in space-time continuum; all three of us generate the same collective brainwave that would mean in English: �Gwaat�. In brainwave-terms, it means that we forgot the list again.

And it is that exact moment when Shekar�s innocuous smiling face and his innocuous name with its innocuous placement of the H letter and our innocuous memory blackout flash across my head, and in that one moment of arguably brilliant insight, the now-obvious conclusion that follows through in my brain, is that TA needs to wear his pants.

Side note on name variations and misspellings: All across the world, and especially in India, there are many variations of names. Such variations are the cause of a level of confusion that arises while spelling some typical names. Such confusion and the consequent unintentional mistakes are the cause of much anguish for those who unfortunately happen to have such typical names. Every one of us treasures his or her name and would not like people to misspell or mispronounce it. I myself have a name that is easily misspelled as �Samir� instead of �Sameer�. This used to cause quite some frustration for me in the past. Fortunately, I have found a solution to the problem that is not only fulfilling for me as a person; but is also forward looking in the sense that it prevents people from repeating that mistake again. If you face a similar problem, I suggest you try this technique out: Whenever someone misspells your name, instead of rudely pointing it out there itself, just make a note in your personal diary; and then, whenever you find that the person has some time available and is ready for a frank dialogue; ask him for a few minutes of his time, take him someplace that is quiet and vacant enough, and kill him.

Side note on my roomies: I innocuously mispronounced their names.

The 2005 Wrap-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 16:53:00 +0000

So another year has passed and 2006 has come along. There are quite a lot of things that I'm planning for this New Year. I hope to get that done soon, so that I can start planning the things to do in 2007.

In retrospect, 2005 was a reasonably good year. For starters, it's the year this blog got this new design. And it's the first year the blog clocked 50,000 annual hits. It's the year that saw the Web2.0 paradigm emerge, the year when we witnessed aggressive acquisitions by the leaders of the Internet industry, the Googles and the Yahoos and the rest.

Macromedia went out to Adobe this year, something that doesn't matter a lot, yet signifies an end of something. Probably the end of a minor-era. How much it affects the huge community of developers and designers using Macromedia products is what we'll know in 2006 and beyond, but its sad to see Macromedia, one of the foremost web media innovators, die as its flagship product reached true maturity as a UI alternative. I had always believed that Flash's true calling was the rich interface. Well, this year, we saw a mishmash of new startups, some that used Flash truly innovatively ( Pandora.com, Gtalkr.com , Goowy.com). Yet the easier-to-develop, easier-on-the-browser and more-hyped AJAX ate into a substantial UI future-share of Flash on a permanent basis.

The web proliferated with applications for almost anything you'd want to do with it. And almost all of them were free with no or very limited advertising. And ALL of them were beta. That is pretty sensible too, for pardon my economics, but I do not see where they are going to get their millions in profits. Maybe the revenue model was in alpha all year round. Or maybe far too many ventures are betting on getting acquired by the Richie Richs of Internet. However, looking at it from the user's perspective, I do pray to god they have something up their sleeve.

And there is a strong probability that they may. For Web2.0 is the wave of 2000 ( Web1.0 ?) minus the hype and plus the innovation. Applications on the web are truly changing the way people use the Web, and the changes are quite fundamental in their nature. Now when people find a great page, they tag it on their delicious or make a digg. When they have to share with their family or friends, they do a flickr. When they want to listen to music they like, they open Pandora. And when the sharing bug truly strikes, they blog, vlog or podcast. They collaborate their calendars, their documents and their projects online. And when they need to find, they search the web and they search the blogosphere (Technorati, Feedster). They read all their regular sites at one place and IM on the web (meebo, gtalkr).

Okay, so everybody on the web is not using these tools. But then, not long ago, the only people using google were Stanford students. Its as if the world wide web is shedding its skin, and these applications are going to be the new tegument.

Personally, the year was good enough. It was the first full year of my life without any sort of academic courses. I spent the entire year in Bangalore (Or Bengaluru), and fell in love with the city. Okay, I can't write that with a straight face. I hated the city for the most part (As is evident here and here). But probably I've been unfair to the city. [NOSTALGIA ALERT ->] Probably the 1 AM coffee at Barista's when it rained 10cm/min outside and manager wailed for us to leave; or the occasional survey of the clear night sky; or the incredible achievement of a 75% discount from the friendly neighborhood book-wallah; or the Traffic Jam hours spent reading most of what I read throughout the year; or maybe Aunty's food at Tasty-Bites; or perhaps the multi-cultural soul of the city; the failed Maggi-Kurkure combination; or the successful Pizza-Coke alternative; the Christmas spirit and the Plum Cake; or the In-House New Year bash� probably, just probably, these compensated for all that went wrong with Bengaluru apart from its name. [END OF ALERT, YOU CAN BLINK NOW]

Finally, the list of Ice-Thanks-You's for 2005:

� Sean J. Partridge : For his humor and hosting space.
� Amanjeev Singh : For carrying a link to my blog on 75% of his posts. Thanks AJ, I hope you have a great time changing all those links when I change my blog url this year.
� Jennifer : For calling this blog "The ultimate and best blog I've seen on net so far."
� Regular Visitors : For all the pageloads.
� One-Time Visitors : For the pageload.

PS: If you're wondering why I'm posting this 6 days into 2006; its amazing, because, believe it or not, so am I.

Running

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 11:26:00 +0000

One of the custom-made wallpapers that I keep for my desktop. I like the image, adore the words, and love running. This maybe of value to anyone possessing a similar set of interests.

Pandora Rocks! (Er.. Ghazals!)

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 11:38:00 +0000

Quite a long time back I had talked about a comparison of Rock v/s Ghazals. Obviously, they are NOT the same. Well the point was that Ghazals provide ready-made lyrics for anyone having trouble forming his or her Rock composition. Apart from that, we're talking separate universes, and I know that. Except for thematic connections. I mean, I think Rock's general theme matches those of Ghazals. Okay, so the Ghazaler is not hitting out (or throwing goat blood around) but essentially, he's the same guy, the man against the system. He�s like, the poorer cousin, the one who doesn�t have the guitar and is a rather emotional fellow, so goes out to the neighborhood bar and churns out his frustrations while enjoying a few drinks on the house. he feels the same, and consequently, writes the same.

Now, Pandora.com is a nice site wherein you feed their engine with an artist or song that you like, and they figure out music in their collection that matches the musical qualities of your artist/song. You can give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to songs that can help increasing the engine's precision. If you're the finical fellow, you can get to know exactly why a specific track was played ("We�re playing this track because it features pop rock qualities, repetitive melodic phrasing, extensive vamping, a clear focus on recording studio production and groove based composition."). As you can probably guess from that, it's quite accurate, and much, much, much better than conventional radio. I think it's the single most important conceptual innovation in the field of streaming music.

What I'd probably like is for them to consolidate with the already heavily-researched area of Music's connection with emotions and build unified algorithms to give me an interface that asks me just one question - "How do you want to feel today?"

Or, maybe they can change the question to something that does not remind people of Microsoft, because I figure they wouldn't want to.

It's quite intriguing, however, the effect of music on humans. Probably the day we figure out the exact neurons that are hit by exactly what type of music; maybe then we�d be experimentally able to prove my hypothesis correct. Also, maybe that day we�ll be able to prove exactly why songs such as this exist.

Wink does it well

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 09:53:00 +0000

Wink recently released itself from private beta. It's a cross between web search and social bookmarking. I've been fiddling with it for some time, using some benchmark search phrases I've evolved over a long period of browsing and searching ("monica bellucci"), my personal verdict is - people do make a difference.

Not always, but quite a number of times, yes. Community-based searches, I feel, are particularly useful while making bizarre or recondite searches, typically searches where the search phrase could have a lot of different semantic interpretations. The difference in such cases is between the interpretation(s) people consider important v/s the interpretations a search engine considers important. For a search engine, "importance" is generally the number of inbound links. Hence, a web page with minimal such links yet great content (such as this blog) is bound to be a loser in conventional terms, unless a lot of webmasters wakeup to it and link it on their sites. That, even if it does happen, is a slow process. Now, in the new scenario, a normal web user can help in increasing a page's importance overnight from the engine's point of view, simply by tagging it. And voila! Content is the winner!

Gmail goes mobile!

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:42:00 +0000

I've been waiting a long while for this. Gmail now has an interface for mobile devices: http://m.gmail.com

What a shame

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 03:22:00 +0000

Q: Who would want to?
A: I wonder if those superman undies go with my Red-colored pants.
Questioner: For the sake of humanity's opthalmic well being, you need to die.
[ gunshot ]

The guardians of our way of life

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 10:58:00 +0000

This post is dedicated to Bangalore city�s Autowallahs. I have no doubt in saying that had it not been for Bangalore city's Autowallahs, Bangalore would have been a city without Autowallahs.

How is that important for us Bangaloreans, you ask? Well, for one, take the traffic situation. Do you think the half-drunk BMTC drivers, adrenaline injected pre-teens with bikes twice their size and the frequent collisions between these two are enough to ensure the blazing speeds of 5 km per hour or less that one can easily achieve on Bangalore�s major routes? Do you know how much tourism revenue would be lost if Tourists were to reach the airport on time and not miss their flights, and not miss them again, and again, until they realize that they need to be in a 50 meter radius of the Airport to reach on time? Do you understand the consequences of decreased sales of roadside handicrafts, if that were to happen? And, did you notice that the third sentence in this paragraph was 46 words long?

It would be an economical disaster. But do not let freckles of worry appear on your face yet. Fortunately for us, Autowallahs exist. Not only do they ensure smooth blockage of traffic through mid-road cylinder changes or random-lane-bypassing; they have, in no uncertain terms, taken the meaning of safety to another level. Through their skilled maneuvering and timely expletives, they�ve ensured that three out of four people that take an Auto trip get to the destination; and more significantly; two of them reach alive. Now that is a healthy situation, I say. Especially since three out of four people that get into an Auto are evil regicide-plotting, money-minting Software Engineers from far away lands, commissioned by some very evil people to destroy the city�s CULTURE.

Now that is a very serious issue and Bangalore's Autowallahs believe that serious issues require mature, responsible solutions. Hence the Bangalore Autowallahs Association for Solving Serious Issues (BAASSI) has come out with its mature and responsible solution - "Kill the pests."

Apart from protecting the city�s CULTURE and ensuring pedestrian safety (You can�t run people over at 4.8 kmph); Autowallahs serve another often misunderstood purpose � they limit the average Software Engineer�s CULTURE-destroying capacity significantly by charging them the net worth of Greenland for a trip to Koramangala. Going a step further, they restrain movement of CULTURE-destroying elements by randomly disagreeing to go to anyplace other than Thipssandra.

And additionally, they are cute. They steal your heart with their polite commandments for 3.5 X 1010 times the meter reading when it�s too late (After 2 PM) or too early (Before 1 PM) for them to be driving their Autos. And when they explain in mid-journey why they�ll need 40 extra bucks from you as a compensation for the traffic�s speed, you just can�t resist CUDDLING the CUTIE-PIES.

Translation key to English:
CULTURE: *&^@*#^
CUDDLING: @*##&*^
CUITE-PIES: *&@^#%$@ @*&$ #$ $*&#$^#

The power of silence

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:46:00 +0000

I know what you�re thinking. You�re wrong. This post isn�t about philosophy.

It�s about Bollywood. It�s been quite a while since I saw my last Bollywood movie, �Iqbal�. Any decent observer of the Indian movie industry can tell you that one of the defining characteristics of a Bollywood movie, is its extravagant usage, or rather, dependence on music for expression and ambience. Now in general I feel that there is nothing wrong with such dependence. Music is critical to any form of commercial cinema anywhere in the world, and is one of the most powerful tools available to the creative vanguards of movie-making.

Any tool�s existence is a necessary and sufficient proof of existence of an ill-use of the same. Bollywood, I think, sometime in the past, went hyper on music. And then it did that again. And then over and over and over again. Do Indians have some special psychological connection with music that the rest of world doesn�t?

My explanation for the overweening excess is two-fold: Creative inertia and stunted cinematic growth. Bollywood has had a very uneven growth from its initial roots - while SFX and editing technology is constantly approaching western standards, aspects such as utilization of music hasn�t quite followed the transformation of Hollywood music from the musicals of �70s to the present day�s poignant soundtracks/backgrounds. Creative inertia, however, is a typical Indian phenomenon, a fear of the new and the bold, the much-ridden concept of the �formula�.

Anyways, the central topic is a repercussion of the above, it�s the loss of silence. The most talented of movie-makers have shown the world how silence can be the most soul-entrenching form of expression. That moment of complete vacuity before the deciding penalty kick; or that eerily silent search for grit in the face of certain terror. Or the moments of charged emotions where the talking is done by dripping eyes or grimacing face.

Today�s Bollywood is garish, loud and vocal in comparison to its own past image. When I think of silence in cinema, I invariably remember a particular enactment in �Kaagaz ke phool� where Gurudutt and Waheeda Rehman are just standing and looking at each other from almost 2 meters away. I�ve seen people cry to that scene. Saying nothing sometimes says the most.

Kuch baat hai ki hasti...

noreply@blogger.com (Sameer) — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 14:33:00 +0000

I was in New Delhi when the serial blasts that rocked India took place. As a passive spectator, I observed the city and its denizens, as they went through random emotional stages of utter shock and disbelief, anger, dismay and fear.

I saw with silent concern as the state government deployed more than 2600 special services personnel all around the city within a day of the terrible event. News channels were agog with stories of anxious relatives searching for their dear ones. The fateful day�s events we deconstructed innumerable number of times in all forms of media. Delhi Police launched the biggest manhunt ever in the National Capital for the perpetrators.

And then Diwali came by. And it was subdued. Delhiwallahs are known for their sometimes preposterous extravagance in burning firecrackers at the nation�s foremost festival, and they were no different this time. But if someone were to say that the blasts didn�t affect the average Delhiwallah�s general impudence in firing enormous amount of firecrackers, he�d be wrong.

He�d be wrong again if he were to say that the blasts left an indelible scar on the minds of the residents. For the next day, I was witness to innumerable pushes and shoves and expletives and arguments at a popular local marketplace. The crowd was back, and so was Delhi. The 2600 special service personnel disappeared, making way for the loud fruit vendors, shrewd shopkeepers and bargaining aunties. Almost as quickly as the doom had set in, the clouds evanesced.

If introducing fear and anxiety into the hearts and minds of the city-dwellers was the motive of the terrorists, then they chose the wrong city. There were three heroes in the episode � Two of them being the driver and conductor of the bus which had the third bomb planted in it, who saved more than 100 lives with their common sense. The driver tragically lost an arm, hearing capability and an eye while trying to throw the bomb out of the bus after they had emptied it of passengers. And the third hero was the Delhiwallah, the man on the street, whose bravest deed in the times of terror was to do just that, be there on the street.

I�m not a chauvinistic nationalist, if that�s what you�re inferring. But there are certain things that make me proud to be an Indian. And the character that the city of New Delhi showed in the face of extreme terrorism, is one of them.