Wednesday, October 17, 2007
I get pained with...
... these one-line blog posts I see all around ( :D Man, I just love this irony).
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Of Food and Money
This is a recent decision I made - I don't want to take up a finance job whatsoever. The story is about 2 weeks old.
After a disaster-averted kind of GRE, I returned hurriedly to Madras (to avoid the bandh called regarding the Sethusamudram controversy). From my experience with the DMK's modus operandi, I wouldn't want to take a risk with them. Not more than a month and a half back, I was on my way home on train (going home for Onam, and that was something I was looking forward to very much). But to my utter misfortune, the DMK had called a railway block for Salem depot to be formed (and that too, to favor a decision that was in the personal interest of a minister, obviously, of the DMK). A set of highly uncivilized people blocked the train at six in the morning, held it there till 10, and then entered the train and forced us to exit. And then, they ask us to go find some other way of transportation, saying there's buses to Coimbatore, and that's all they can arrange. Thank god, the central government agreed (not exactly very positive, but at least it helped us get out of trouble) to the demands, and the train was released around 1 o'clock. The train was pretty much vandalized when some of us (who were left not taking the bus) re-entered the train. But since many people had indeed taken a bus, there were enough untampered seats left. After this incident, do you think I'd have the guts to be traveling on a day there's a bandh by these chaps? (Note: I don't support any political party. In fact, I'd like to oppose them all! I'm not venting my anger on a particular party alone. It's just the sick system of politics we have here)
Oops, I'm digressing too much. Anyway, back to the "story". I came back to Madras, and fell terribly ill; so bad that I was completely bedridden for 3 days. In this state, I had a friend buy me some food. It was 7 in the evening. I was trying to get eating something. I hadn't eaten for 24 hours (my last meal was dinner on the train the previous day). So I was in this dazed state. I had been sleeping most of the day. And I dream very intensely. So there was this huge intersection set of dream and reality where the border was heavily blurred (or at least, appeared to be). I tried to get myself to eat a bun. As I slowly moved my hand toward the bun, I saw 2 guys enter my room, breaking the door. They had laptops, and were dressed in formals. Anyway, they began doing something on the computers, and they were intensely involved in it. It looked as though nothing could deter them from simultaneously observing my every move, and doing whatever it was that they were doing on the computers. At some point of time, I asked them and they told me they were "running an automaton to see how my eating/not eating would affect the market and the value of the rupee". At first, my attention was diverted to what they were doing. I saw the value of the rupee changing from lots of other things. The parameter being plotted had 8 digits of precision beyond the decimal place! Now who on earth had imagined that somebody is spending all their time on calculating the 8th digit after the decimal for the value of a currency? My pupils dilated at the thought (I was just awestruck, and I hadn't taken a dose of this, I was just dreaming!). I had to squint to avoid the light from my rooms fluorescent lamp for a moment. The effect subsided very quickly though. Soon, I found this 8th digit calculation very repulsive. It did remind me of what's happening in parts of computational engineering, but then I found this more repulsive. It even reminded me of a plot element in Ghost in the Shell: StandAlone Complex: 2nd GIG (which is something I like a lot - not necessarily the plot element). But somehow, I was being irked by merely the process. Things got worse - every single step towards eating that I took, seemed to make this calculation ever more complex. Further, the analysts were beginning to comment on whether or not I must eat. They began taking the food away from me. These experiences, contrary to most dreams, weren't time-stretched. Note that most dreams last mere seconds, although it might seem like a long time to us. But this was happening in realtime. There were bursts of determination telling me it's a dream, telling me to break out of it. But the visual and auditory signals were extremely compelling (then). This continued for a fairly long time. There was nothing more strenuous, especially when I hadn't eaten for quite a long time, and was weak and sick. The whole thing lasted 4 excruciatingly painful hours. It was 11 o'clock when I finally had a bite of the food.
I am very much into abrupt endings. So, this dream's why I decided that I don't want to take up a finance job.
PS: the days that followed were full of action. A recovery, Shaastra, TOEFL, an exam - man, it's been a roller-coaster ride!
After a disaster-averted kind of GRE, I returned hurriedly to Madras (to avoid the bandh called regarding the Sethusamudram controversy). From my experience with the DMK's modus operandi, I wouldn't want to take a risk with them. Not more than a month and a half back, I was on my way home on train (going home for Onam, and that was something I was looking forward to very much). But to my utter misfortune, the DMK had called a railway block for Salem depot to be formed (and that too, to favor a decision that was in the personal interest of a minister, obviously, of the DMK). A set of highly uncivilized people blocked the train at six in the morning, held it there till 10, and then entered the train and forced us to exit. And then, they ask us to go find some other way of transportation, saying there's buses to Coimbatore, and that's all they can arrange. Thank god, the central government agreed (not exactly very positive, but at least it helped us get out of trouble) to the demands, and the train was released around 1 o'clock. The train was pretty much vandalized when some of us (who were left not taking the bus) re-entered the train. But since many people had indeed taken a bus, there were enough untampered seats left. After this incident, do you think I'd have the guts to be traveling on a day there's a bandh by these chaps? (Note: I don't support any political party. In fact, I'd like to oppose them all! I'm not venting my anger on a particular party alone. It's just the sick system of politics we have here)
Oops, I'm digressing too much. Anyway, back to the "story". I came back to Madras, and fell terribly ill; so bad that I was completely bedridden for 3 days. In this state, I had a friend buy me some food. It was 7 in the evening. I was trying to get eating something. I hadn't eaten for 24 hours (my last meal was dinner on the train the previous day). So I was in this dazed state. I had been sleeping most of the day. And I dream very intensely. So there was this huge intersection set of dream and reality where the border was heavily blurred (or at least, appeared to be). I tried to get myself to eat a bun. As I slowly moved my hand toward the bun, I saw 2 guys enter my room, breaking the door. They had laptops, and were dressed in formals. Anyway, they began doing something on the computers, and they were intensely involved in it. It looked as though nothing could deter them from simultaneously observing my every move, and doing whatever it was that they were doing on the computers. At some point of time, I asked them and they told me they were "running an automaton to see how my eating/not eating would affect the market and the value of the rupee". At first, my attention was diverted to what they were doing. I saw the value of the rupee changing from lots of other things. The parameter being plotted had 8 digits of precision beyond the decimal place! Now who on earth had imagined that somebody is spending all their time on calculating the 8th digit after the decimal for the value of a currency? My pupils dilated at the thought (I was just awestruck, and I hadn't taken a dose of this, I was just dreaming!). I had to squint to avoid the light from my rooms fluorescent lamp for a moment. The effect subsided very quickly though. Soon, I found this 8th digit calculation very repulsive. It did remind me of what's happening in parts of computational engineering, but then I found this more repulsive. It even reminded me of a plot element in Ghost in the Shell: StandAlone Complex: 2nd GIG (which is something I like a lot - not necessarily the plot element). But somehow, I was being irked by merely the process. Things got worse - every single step towards eating that I took, seemed to make this calculation ever more complex. Further, the analysts were beginning to comment on whether or not I must eat. They began taking the food away from me. These experiences, contrary to most dreams, weren't time-stretched. Note that most dreams last mere seconds, although it might seem like a long time to us. But this was happening in realtime. There were bursts of determination telling me it's a dream, telling me to break out of it. But the visual and auditory signals were extremely compelling (then). This continued for a fairly long time. There was nothing more strenuous, especially when I hadn't eaten for quite a long time, and was weak and sick. The whole thing lasted 4 excruciatingly painful hours. It was 11 o'clock when I finally had a bite of the food.
I am very much into abrupt endings. So, this dream's why I decided that I don't want to take up a finance job.
PS: the days that followed were full of action. A recovery, Shaastra, TOEFL, an exam - man, it's been a roller-coaster ride!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
