InsanityWeTrust | Insanity is a frame of mind.

Horror.

By Raghunath | May 5, 2008

Reality is the essence of horror.

What scares you more: the concept of a strange, glob-like monster that might eat you up or the fact that there is a human someone who can destroy everyone and everything you love and not even blink an eye?

What is it that makes the thought of such normal activity that scares us more than the unknown? What is it about these random acts of violence (often planned and well executed) that send shivers down the spine when things like the ghost of an elder nether world creature hell bent to eat humanity just becomes another 1970s japanese horror flick?

I think it is the possibility of what you can become as a human that makes us scared of these “abnormal” people and deeds. I think it is the reality that you and I could have been the one doing these things that scares us more …

What do you think?

Posted in Musings | 2 Comments

Got Tagged!

By Raghunath | May 4, 2008

So I got tagged by Bharat a few days ago.

This event was brought to my notice today thanks to the new wordpress dashboard (which rocks, btw!). This set a chain of events in motion which included me wondering what the hell a tag is and how one responds to a tag, since my only understanding of a tag stems from my days as an avid wrestling fan when I was in school (for those who don’t know - getting tagged in wrestling is a way for one big, ugly muscled man to get his partner ugly, huge guy into the ring to beat on the poor unfortunate soul who tends to be their opponent. This was a source of constant delight to me - I know. I am weird). Therefore, after a few minutes of recollecting such greats as the Road Warriors, the Steiner Brothers, the Minnesota Wrecking crew, etc. and a few minutes of disbelief at the amount of time I used to spend on that, I decided to find out how to respond to the same.

SO … here goes the result (for potential employers/ management school board members, this is not a comprehensive depiction of my personality - the actual meaning not the Indian one ):

Last movie seen in a Cinema hall?

Ironman - Doesn’t live up to the hype. The robotics and effects are out of the world though!

What book are you reading?

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake and Tsun Szu was a Sissy by Stanley Bing.

Favourite board game(s)?

Battleship! and Monopoly

Favourite magazine?

Not sure if I have one.

Favourite smells?

The smell of home brewed coffee and the smell of fuel.

Favourite sound?

Bass Guitar solo in E minor

Worst feeling in the world?

The feeling you get when your mind suddenly reboots and you can’t think or hear anymore.

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?

Sleep.

Favorite fast food place?

Not a big fast food person but Nude in Dublin was amazing (even though it is not fast food :D).

Future child’s name?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

Finish this statement. “If I Had A Lot Of Money I’d…”

Travel to all the places on my list, buy a lot more books, make a lot more money, hmmm … that reminds me …

Do you drive fast?

You mean there is another way?

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

…

Storms - cool or scary?

Cool, although I have heard that the temperature actually rises when there is one.

Do you eat the stems on Broccoli?

Oh yeah!

If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?

No hair questions please!

Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?

New Delhi, Bangalore, Allahabad, Mhow/ Indore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Palakkad, Cochin, Trivandrum, Darjeeling, Dublin, Galway.

Favourite sports to watch?

Football, F-1, Cricket, MMA!, Tennis

One nice thing about the person who sent this to you -

Bharath: Damn cool guy. Has probably done more things that I have thought of.

What’s under your bed?

Nothing. My bed touches the floor.

Would you like to be born as yourself again?

Of course! and if u could sign my petition …

Morning person or night owl?

Night Owl (work makes me get up early)

Over easy or sunny side up?

Scrambled!

Favourite place to relax?

Between my bed and the window preferably with a nice breeze coming in.

Favourite pie?

Apple!

Favourite ice-cream flavour?

Hmmm … Chocolate and Strawberry mixed.

You pass this tag to -

Chaitanya, Anubhav and Priya.

Of all the people you tagged this too, who’ll respond first?

Whoever reads the blog first, I guess.

Posted in Musings | Tagged blah, me, tagged | 1 Comment

Vicious Circle …

By Raghunath | April 20, 2008

We are who we are because of what we do
We do what we do because of who we are

How do you judge people?

Posted in Musings | 6 Comments

Theo Jansen in an amazing commercial

By Raghunath | February 13, 2008

Theo Jansen is an artist and kinetic sculptor from the Netherlands. He builds large works which resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the wind on the beaches of the Netherlands. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering.

Jansen is dedicated to creating artificial life through the use of genetic algorithms. These programs simulate evolution inside their code. More here and here.

Posted in Interesting stuff | 1 Comment

Rediscovering the web with TED.com

By Raghunath | February 12, 2008

After a long time, I decided that I needed to press the reset button on my feeds list. Mostly because I had too many blogs that I was tracking and ended up not reading everyone of them, negating any and all advantages that using feed readers would have anyway.

One major benefit of doing this that I found was rediscovering TED.com, an amazing website that provides some really interesting stuff to listen, read and watch on the web as opposed to the degradation of the “celebs” that most other sites that provide entertainment provide.

If you haven’t been on TED.com ever before, I suggest that you do so as soon as you are done reading my site

Posted in Interesting stuff | Leave a comment

Of Traffic annoyances and Idiocy on hyderabad roads.

By Raghunath | February 11, 2008

Driving on the roads of Hyderabad was never a fun experience. The fact that as infrastructure changes so do the annoyances that are a part and parcel of driving in Hyderabad is a subject for a lot of research that I am sure some behavioral sciences student should undertake on their path to suicide.

What really irks me about the traffic in this city can basically be boiled down to two simple points:

Idiots talking on their cell-phone while driving/ riding.
Idiots who do not know the usage of the high beam and constantly try to die and kill at the same time by driving without any discipline and in high speed while talking on their cell phones

But this would not be any different that any other blog’s rant on the same subject if I didn’t add some violence and brutal methods to subvert these practices now, would I?

Well, here it goes: For the idiots talking on their cell-phones, the answer is quite simple - Get traffic policemen to carry packets of hands-free devices (the simple ear piece) for most popular models of cell phones and as and when the idiot is caught, the policeman/ police woman not only charges them for violation of the law, but also forces the idiot to buy an earpiece for twice the normal amount. As a way to ensure that this method works, the policeman gets to keep 75% of the money involved (god knows most of them are underpaid) with every charge as personal income and the idiot gets a receipt for the purchased item (of course).

For the second annoyance, I personally am contemplating carrying a sling or a “swingable” chain that I can swing and cause damage to the offending vehicle.

Any other ideas that anyone reading this blog might have, are of course more than welcome in the comments

Posted in Rant | 5 Comments

Metalocalypse rocks!!!!

By Raghunath | January 26, 2008

Dethklok!! dethklok! dethklok!!!

Metalocalypse is an excellent animated series from Adult Swim that chronicles the ravages and musical shenanigans of the ultra-uber-metal-death-sick death metal band ever - Dethklok!!!! which comprises of band members:

Singer: Nathan Explosion,
Drummer: Pickles,
Lead: Skwisgaar Skwigelf
Bassist: William Murderface,
Guitars: Toki Wartooth

Metalocalypse takes you through the band making an album underwater called Murmurder, Dethklok awakening a death troll in Finland, William Murderface’s Birthday among many many other monumental episodes in history as the illuminati-style group called the Tribunal tries to thwart the band by calling in experts like “military pharmaceutical psychotropic drug manufacturers”, “celebrity depression specialists” or various psychopaths that attempt to infiltrate the group.

An amazingly funny series that is a must watch!!

Posted in Funny!, Music | Leave a comment

Laziness and blogging.

By Raghunath | January 21, 2008

Yes, I haven’t been updating this space for some time now. Yes, I have been lazy. It has been one of those spells of boredom interspersed with procrastination that cause me to deviate from my set routines and purpose in life and thus, I don’t blog. There has been a lot that I should have blogged about: my trip to a lovely coastal town called Murud-Janjira, the nice people I met there, the ridiculous bus “service” that is Jabbar Travels, reviewing a movie called Taaren Zameen Par (Stars on the Earth (sic.)), reviewing an amazing restaurant called Little Italy, etc., etc.

I don’t promise to cover all of these in the coming weeks but I am going to try.

What I want to tell you is that I am listening to an amazing band called Gorguts! If you are even slightly into extreme music and don’t mind a little growl-scream with your music, take a listen to Gorguts to listen to some of the most amazing riffs, tempo changes and out and out musical brilliance that is Gorguts (try the Obscura Album!).

Till the next post then!

Posted in Music, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Working with Dad!

By Raghunath | December 13, 2007

I finally went ahead and did it. Worked with my dad. He is a trainer (leadership, teamwork, etc.) and had a rather large and important client who needed a team building workshop. Told me to help him with the whole thing and I did, and let me tell you it was awesome! Working with your parent wherever possible is something that I hope everyone does, simply because of the sheer exponential learning and surge of confidence you get from the experience.

The program that we did was spread over three days. We had conciously decided to make it a no presentation, no classroom lecture training. Instead we had games that simulated real world learnings in a very non-descript and fun atmosphere. What is different about our program is that unlike a lot of the other programs out there, these games are neither extremely challenging physically nor are they classroom based strategy sessions.

The major challenges for me were creating the environment, getting 26 total strangers who were older than me and more technically capable than me to respect me and trust me. These things come naturally to my father who had total command over the audience as soon as he started. To me, however, this was a first

What this also means is that I will be taking up more of these programs as and when they come with my father and can easily say that I am really confident in taking these up now.

So personal pat-on-the-back for me

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments