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When shakespeare said Best laid plans of mice and men I don't think he realized that a few centuries later someone in a movie would say -

Slartibartfast: The best laid plans of mice, eh ?
Arthur: I think it goes "best laid plans of mice and men"..
Slartibartfast: I don't men had anything to do about it

If there's one joke worth seeing in the movie it was this. Unless you consider the part where Arthur walks into the shower and finds Trillian. Of course, the first thing trillian says is Can you hand me a towel ? - for which Arthur is well prepared (h2g2: Towel).

I mean how many times in life are you going to walk in a pretty girl (pretty, not sexy hot) bathing and expect her to ask YOU for a towel. But it does prove one thing - know where your towel is.

And the Book UI just rocks !. You have to see how the menu works like a unfolding ladder. The twin tone thumb logo is just too cool for words - somehow it reminded me of the NASA logo. And the part of the book which explains about vogons is amazing, I've never actually pictured how the triplicate and the lost in peat part works - nor the grandmother and bug blatter beast in the background. It's like those old disney movies where goof learns dancing from a book. The same blueprint background with alice blue lines. The part about the hyperspace, the respectable physicists living below the party floor. It JUST ROCKS !!.

The rest I've got to say is less than complementary. Zaphod has only one head.. trillian is not even faintly arabic .. marvin looks like a stupid kid. Marvin's voice is good, but the point about marvin was that he was a supremely capable robot who was wasted. Always thought of Ford as an actor wannabe - good looking, smooth talking ... in short so NOT Mos Def. Maybe Chris Tucker could've pulled it off.

The part about trillian wanting to go madagascar, the heart of gold being a sphere (it was oblong, never a sphere). Zaphod knows about magrathea and Deep Thought before they reach there. Sort of writes over the hidden compulsions joke that Douglas had worked so hard on. And Deep Thought was in a room with a deep male bass voice, not a BBC announcer female voice.

The Pan Galactic gargle blaster was murdered ... being served in tiny cocktail glasses. I always imagined a long island iced tea approach to it - so much so that you can't finish one easily. The towel was also grossly misused, with the part about running under laser gunfire with a wet towel. The vogon spaceships weren't yellow enough. And here's the Killer

* Arthur gets a cup of brown liquid like team
Arthur: Ugh !
Trillian: I should've said it resembles tea.

Totally destroyed that joke. Of course it wouldn't have carried well into the film - but at least the Share and enjoy could've made it a lot more fun.

Also some random stuff like the citrus juicer on a cap - who the hell thought of that. Zaphod signing the destruction of earth, with no mention of Gag Halfrunt.. ZB could've been persuaded to destroy Earth. Not Loves and Kisses approach. And why the hell did they fill out a form to save Trillian, why not take the usual rush in and get captured approach.

There were some reedeming points as well. For example, the ayers rock being painted red by a guy or the John Malkovich wiping his glasses and how the eyes are only painted on (wow !!). A space ship escape pod which looked like a Mini complete with windshield wipers. Vogons actually smashing jewelled crabs and sitting on gazelles with broken backs. The Idea swatter field protecting vogosphere was a very original idea (*smack*, ouch..) . The portal which Arthur fails to jump through (typical british indecision joke) makes more sense than just leaving him to guard the tunnel. But I always imagined Slartibartfast as a nordic dude rather than as a muttering briton - who messes up the Are you happy ?. No, that's where it all breaks down by repeating it in a monotone rather than true misery.

Lastly, why the hell did the dolphins come back ?. I thought they were missing in Earth Mk II totally ?.

All in all, I'm glad I saw it .. but I can almost hear Douglas Adams saying Bet you miss me now ! .

Very recently I read a small quote about how educational discipline makes people think differently.

Physicists see equations as a reflection of reality.
Engineers see reality as a reflection of equations.
Mathematicians haven't made the connection.

It somehow struck me as being coincidental that I always thought of range of a projectile as an equation rather than the equation belonging to the range of the projectile. In fact the equation is an approximate prediction minus all the effects of wind, friction and totally ignoring bernoulli's principle. In other words I had just realized that I am an engineer.

A couple of years ago I wrote a rather controversial (well, at least for the people who read it) commentary about Engineers in general called Now, that's odd. According to most people who read it, it sort of describes me - not a generic engineer. Read it, if you are not my parents, sisters or co-workers. And weep.

Anyway, one thing is true - Engineers usually have lots of solutions in search of a problem. For example, I want to do something with FireFox - but I have no problems with the way it works right now. We're all full of solutions, we just need somebody's problems.

Cue the engineer, physicist, and mathematician jokes.

Do you pack your bags ?. I sure as hell don't. I just push in an extra jeans, a couple of tees and a toothbrush into a backpack and I'm done. For this particular reason, I maintain a small wardrobe at my grandparent's and at my parent's. Technically I could show up at Cochin with just a toothbrush and have everything I need. Considering how many times I've forgotten a toothbrush while visiting shows how much care I put into packing.

To put things in context, I showed up in Delhi on friday night with my backpack. Unpacking, I realized that gee toto, I don't think we're in kansas anymore. I barely had anything to wear at night, only one change of tee shirt, an ironed full-shirt, two polyester pants and the clothes I was wearing. On the other hand, I did have my toothbrush, charger, USB hdd, a simputer, mp3 player and 4 AAA batteries. I'd have felt naked without those - clothes or no clothes.

The long and short of it is that I showed up on the second day of FreeDel wearing a tucked in white shirt and blue jeans. I'm not that conscious of my clothes, but when everyone around asks Gopal !!.. ironed and tucked in ?. What happened ? - you can't ignore it that easily. Anyway Yahoo came to the rescue with a T-shirt - so I looked even more corporate but at least nobody was saying anything.

On top of all this, my talk was post lunch. I was talking compilers while half the audience just sat there gaping. But I didn't actually go there to just talk - my other hidden agenda was also satisfied. I can now put faces on all those nicks on IRC - OldMonk, BigBeard, shaitaan, viyyer. Cool customers all, especially OldMonk (he doesn't drink now, but he is called OldMonk for a reason). I crashed at BigBeard's place and had discussions about all sorts of stuff. I even got a bunch of them hooked on Coupling.

Another person I met, but didn't really talk to was Anjuta. A quiet woman who barely spoke. But we made fun of Naba with stuff like : What's the name of your next project ? ...

All in all, one weekend I won't forget ... There is nothing dry about ILUG-D, humour notwithstanding !!

As one generation moves slowly into adulthood, another one is sneaking back into the dust from whence it came. Last few years have not been kind on my family - a few deaths couldn't be said as unexpected. But on this thurdsay, my grandfather's younger brother suddenly decided to bid us goodbye - breathtakingly suddenly.

My first encounter with death was the death of my great grand father. We sort of shared a special connection, I was the first great-grandson he ever had. He was a teacher by profession and a perfectionist - one thing he never demanded from me. He'd initiated me into writing and always maintained that none of his had ever gone wrong - even when I was a failure in all eyes but his. He died one fine day in 1992, I didn't even reach cochin in time for his cremation. His arm-chair still remains, for me to sit on as the eldest of the family once more - in a few decades maybe.

Next to vanish was my great grandmother. I always remember her as being always hunched back, sharp tongue and amazingly intelligent. The sort of wispy woman who seems to walk around purely on the basis of will alone. Her death was the first time I realized what death was - she's not coming back. Walking into a courtyard seeing my uncles cut out her golden bangles before cremation was almost carved into my memory.

A few years later, my paternal grandmother makes a distinguished exit from the world. She was one of the strongest women I have known - mentally. Our family is blessed with women who have been known to step up to challenge and take it head on. Anyway, she had pretty much brought me up since I was 3 and I didn't know what to say when she died. I couldn't even cry. I understood why and hows of her death - but still couldn't believe that someone like her could be replaced. She is mourned - but I remember her for what she made out of me. I still carry her fire and brimstone, though my sister carries the most of it - the cold determination which make any parent cringe or any child obey.

For the next few years, I never even thought about Death. You are young, in your teens and just getting to terms with yourself, hardly any time to philosophize about Death. Then I got a job, became a responsible Son and just lived from day to day, never thinking about what I did the next day, nor rememeber what I did the previous.

2004 April, I fly home to celeberate Vishu. Of all the people I meet on my usual rounds, only one has changed beyond recognition. My mother's aunt was unexpectly bald and eyebrows greying. She was under chemotherapy. As I bid goodbye to her, I told her that I'll be back for Onam.. and she sort of non-comittedly said that "I don't know.. I just don't know". July third week, the unthinkable happened - I got news in Hyderabad that she had just died at around 2 PM that day. I jump on Bangalore bus at around 5:30, reaching there in the morning - the next bus to Cochin at 12:20 and reaching there at 3 AM. I was utterly shocked by the suddeness of the death, I had seen her happily making pookalams the previous Onam, looking at her grandchildren and playing with them. And a year down the line, she's just gone. She was in a lot of pain from the cancer that death was probably a merciful release - but I cannot still deal with the fact that someone could just disappear like that.

And then came another death, but that was almost expected. She was 91 years old and has been blind for 20 years now. She was lingering on just due to a sort of desire to stay alive - I wouldn't call it will. Anyway, that didn't shock me.

But the latest one has shocked me, mainly because of my memories of this particular person. I remember seeing him hold a flowerpot in his hand and light it or a rocket launched by holding it. Never a man to shy away from any risk. We always went around to him, because he always had lemonade in his fridge. A literary master, who spent his time tutoring students in malayalam. The sort of guy who sits in a chair and talks mainly. Unlike my grandfather who was constantly walking and still at the age of 74 prefers to stand rather than sit.

All this made me wonder about how I will die. I spent my last night (no.. no.. not in that sense.. AAAAH !) dreaming of being chased and killed in around 23 different ways. But at least I didn't just give up and die - at least in the dream. It is quite interesting when you realize how being poked in your left belly by a pickpocket you chased feels like - in a dream. It's no less painful nor is it foolish when you think of what you had to give up in the chase for 397 Rs in cash and a company ID card. But I must live, because - and here I quote ..

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

The grim reaper takes no prisoners - or at least we hope he treats the dead with more respect. The circle of life continues - a new generation has entered and it's exit left for the older. All world's a stage and all that - let me play my role till the fat lady sings.

Two years out of college and I've not really left it behind. I'm still pretty much the same - unshaven, wrinkled shirts, jeans, late mornings and hanging out after. I'm still so much in college, except that I get paid every month and I get an exam once a month or so. But the life of some of my classmates on the other hand has changed dramatically.

A bunch of them got married and now two baby girls to show for that. And then we had this poll which said "who would be the first Daddy in our class", as all of those who are married/engaged are girls. There are two types of guys who get married young - the kind that rides mom's apron strings and the kind who are in a hurry to make it official. Most mothers want to get a girl to look after her boy, as if twenty odd guys aren't capable of looking after themselves (maybe they do have a point, but I'll be dead and buried before I admit it on the record). If you can't trust your mother to pick shirts for you, would you trust her to pick a wife ?.

Russell Peters: I know she's a little big for you right now, but you'll grow into her.

Jokes aside, I have almost always hated my mother's picks on shirts - while she has loved (or at least had the decency to pretend) that she liked my picks. I'm not too creative, I just pick a blue saree with florals - not much could go wrong that way.

You know what the problem is ?. I have too many cousins sisters. Before you laugh out loud, let me explain. In my world view from the times I was knee high to almost everything around, girls have been something that incessantly makes noises, bites or kicks you if you sleep late in the morning. Eighteen odd years later, my newest cousins - they still have the habit of punching me in the face, sometime around 9 in the morning.

Anyway, I do respect and care for girls - but I'm permanently in Big Brother mode. Most single children and even those who have a sibling have no idea how strong this compulsion is. This makes me do a bunch of stupid things, which is usually interpreted by girls as coming onto them - which leads to very uncomfortable and difficult situations.

Life isn't so bad - I get free coffee, bandwidth and wrist pain for doing almost nothing but sit around and code. It's something I already do for free, it does feel cheapened when you get paid for it. You can't put a price tag on satisfaction, like that eight-ball in the corner pocket.