Deepanjan Nag's Magnum Opus

I'm probably surfing for the very last time in Ranchi. It seemed highly improbable, but I did finally fall for this place!

The situation is very serious, but my folks at home won't delve into the details as they fear it will be pernicious to my studies. I pray and shed tears for the person I love the most.

A quick trip to the Training & Placement Department sufficed. Parts of this image file have been deliberately diffused to preserve privacy. The hype had been gradually building up over the past 4 months. The big day finally arrived! History ought to be preserved.

Dad received my speed post. His constant queries on the status of my project sometimes irk me. Well intentioned, but awfully irritating. No offence meant, Dad!

I had sent a speed post to my parents on the 30th of last month. Still no trace of it. I love India!

Saurabh and Ashwini are desperate for a project. Aren't we all?

My Diary needed a wall paint. I love the new color! Gives my pages a masculine and vintage ambience.

Lord, save Microsoft! MSN has come up with a poor immitation of Blogger. Come on, Bill! You can do better. Blogger can throw tantrums at the most unexpected of moments. I wasted a whole hour trying to upload this image (via Hello)...with futile results. Perhaps it was the Microsoft factor that condemned me to that miserable hour! Intimidation at its sinister best!

Yahoo! Messenger...playing my radio station.

Had a paper on System Simulation and Modelling. It modelled hell and simulated me living thru it. Hope there is no deja vu !

I'm zealously evangelizing membership of our BIT group. People seem to be clueless about the procedure.

Granted Gmail accounts to Saurabh and Ashwin. Everyone seems to be getting enamored by Wikipedia!

Our lab quiz was postponed for the second time due to a strike. Politics is the occupation of the unoccupied!

Called up Abhishek in Jampot. The bugger is tying the nuptial knot on the 27th. I was shocked to learn that Balraj is now a divorcee. Sudip met with a similar fate. His case was apparently more vitriolic.

Making last minute preparations to abdicate this place. Shifts are a bit unnerving for me. Samir visits. Finalizing contact with TataTechnologies.

This time, it's Wikipedia. Here's the deal: I intend to be a lifelong contributor to it. Wikis had me perplexed for a long while, and in some ways they still are pretty enigmatic. But they are very much like blogs, really! Wikipedia is the best manifestation of wikis.

I'm now a contributor to Wikipedia!

This was most certainly our last Diwali in Ranchi. So we celebrated with fireworks! Had a feast. Lots of visitors. Very memorable. Gr8 day!

Why has WayBack Machine forgotten my site? After archiving my blog for a few times in 2001, it conveniently proceeded to forget me! Yesterday, I submitted my URL for archiving. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Wikipedia is my discovery of the year!

My left arm still hurts. I hope the pain doesn't become chronic.

I'm currently listening to a song with the same title...and I can't help agreeing with Louis Armstrong. I heard exactly the same song a little earlier today, although it was sung by someone else.

Santosh is uploading his photos en masse .

Isn't it funny that Gulmohar High School, Jadavpur University and BIT,Mesra are all celebrating their Golden Jubilees in the same year? I am an alumnus of Gulmohar and BIT Mesra. Jadavpur Univ is just a stone's throw away from my parent's place!

...in 2001

Sameer is too temperamental. Even the most frivelous of things can throw him off gear!

My towel is in shreds.

We placed guys are throwing a party on the 15th of December. We have to fish out Rs300/- each.

Had a chat with Arindam. He is one of the few friends from Pune I'm still in touch with. I miss the halcyon years!

Music is the best company one can keep in solitude. Yahoo! Radio is doing a fine job towards this end. I fear getting addicted to it!

It's for the very last time that I'm accessing the net via the BIT lab. What a harrowing experience it has been for all these years! Here's what surprised me: We now access the web via IE 6. I was sick and tired of version 5, since many sites were off-limits. We actually manage to change...sometimes!

I'm really worried for Dida . She's in a nursing home. Hope she has a speedy recovery.

Reclining is in vogue, at least for me. Dare I be vertical, out seeps you-know-what from the exit!

Gurdas in Nainital circa 2k. One of the naughtiest of my batchmates in Gulmohar School, this fellow has made it big in life. He was a baby-faced guy back in school, but now he has turned into a turbanated and bearded fellow. This image is a shocker of sorts for me!

Bhuwaneshwari Temple in Jamshedpur Railway Station in Jamshedpur.

Back from Kolkata after DP. Sprained my arm in the bus.

It was supposed to be one of those trips to the barber's, but I got in return a lot more than what I had bargained for. The barber, the thorough professional that he was, managed to persuade me for a massage after the haircut. What I suffered during the next half-an-hour or so, which seemed like an eternity, still sends a chill down my spine. I was reduced to a hapless chap at the mercy of a messenger from hell! Never again will I volunteer for a massage!

Badri (in blue shirt). One of my best buddies in school.

Tata Motors (TELCO). This is where dad worked.

Golden Jubilee celebrations at the Gulmohar School.

Met Sameer in the lab. I'm very fond of this fellow. A gem of a guy!

Downloaded Free Reader 2.7 from Sourceforge. It's for the very first time that I downloaded anything from there. Free Reader is very simple. The virtues of Open Source are many! I can read this blog from the RSS reader.

Ujwal, thanks for the treat!

I never thought I would be saying this, but a part of me will be a wee bit sad when it's time to leave Ranchi for good.

I survived the ordeal of wrestling a nominal education from an Indian institution.

I miss Jamshedpur, Gulmohur School, my buddies and most of all, my home.

Hey, I can't believe myself! Why am I giving away Gmail invites so freely to these BITians? Shame on me!

Few people are as abominable as Kublai Khan (name changed for obvious reasons). I ran into that piece of junk in the lab. The scum should be buried alive in the deepest pit.

Yahoo! now allows RSS newsfeeds to be added to the My Yahoo! page. A novelty for any web site.

A visit to the Reliance WebWorld outlet in Ranchi left me rapturous!

Yanni . A contemporary composer of rare stellar magnitude.

ClassicalArchives is the classical music aficionado's must-have in cyberspace.

I plan to leave for Kolkata on the 15th of next month.

We had our lab quiz today. Need I say anything about how it went?

Santosh has lost a lot of sleep over his opportunity to participate in an RD draw. Poor soul, he can't differentiate between a brower window and a mail-client window. Dashing emails to the editor proved just too futile!

Badri's in Dubai!

Yahoo! LAUNCHcast happens to be the most popular internet radio station in the world. I'm head-over-heels in love with it.

A week without blogging is like an hour without oxygen!

I'm addicted to the Internet. Someone please help me out!

WOW! This thing is fantastic! I just can't fathom why I hadn't tuned in earlier. Well, better late than never!

Bertrand Russell Nirad Choudhury Beethoven

This was my very first CD. I had bought it in '97! This was even before we had a CD player!

A lot of wannabe Miltons from BIT are opening Blogger accounts. Will they be posting regularly? No, they won't...and you could bet my pants on that!

I just discovered how to send multiple photos to a single post. This is great. However, Hello still has too many rough edges.

Someone has anonymously sent me a message via my blog. Who the hell is it? Is it Sebastian? If yes, please reply.

Mars! This is as beautiful as beauty can get. This is yet another view of our celestial neighbour. My love affair with the heavenly planets and stars continue to this day. It's a tragedy that I didn't have an IQ commensurate with my love for the heavens.

This is a self-imposed moratorium on my excessive web trawling. I won't be surfing the net for more than 2hrs per week until the end of this year.

Ujwal's covert accomplice in his shoddy business is here. The whole gang is upto something very sinister!

Ujwal is smelling money! He is spending most of his time surfing the net(even though he is not an addict) simply to mint some quick money thru some shoddy deal via cyberspace. The whole affair looks too fishy to me.

Went to a movie hall in Ranchi for the first time! Run-of-the-mill movie. Rowdy crowd.

This is my coveted Gmail account!

This is a snapshot of my Blogger account as it was a long time back. I deleted the contents due to some reason I can't recall now.

Alltheweb still happens to one of my favourite search engines!

Aishwarya Rai, the most beautiful woman in the world.

Planet M in Pune. Their selection of music CDs is simply not enough to satiate me.

Portal to Fergusson College, Pune. The most happening college in India!

In Lonavala

In Lonavala

Snaps from Pune and Lonavala.

Yeah, that's me way back in December '97.

IUCAA, Pune University Campus, Pune. I visited this place on a few occasions. Fabulous place to persue a career in Astrophysics in India. I had also attended a few lectures by some of the scientists from IUCAA, including its director Dr.Narlikar.

Mutha river, Pune during floods.

Mutha river, Pune. Flood affected.

An aircraft model lodged in Kamala Nehru Park, Pune. This is where I had my first romantic rendezvous!

Laxmi Road, Pune. The middle class family's shopping haven, this place comes alive @ night with it hoardings and neon lamps.

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. Very close to my place of stay in Pune.

Good Luck Chowk, Pune. This is the junction between Bhandarkar Road and Fergusson College Road.

Food World, Bhandarkar Road, Pune. I visited this place very often.

Fergusson College Road, Pune. This is how the most hustling and bustling road in India looks like during the day.

I can't forget this place. Fergusson College Road, Pune. The life infused by nature into this place has to be seen to be believed. This most vibrant place in Pune.

MG Rd, Pune. I was wowed the first time I came here. I especially remember a very chic babe accompanied by her beau. She was wearing a black mini skirt.

Path leading to the main ground, Fergusson College, Pune. Our institute could have better utilized the ground.

Kimaya, Fergusson College, Pune. What this weird structure was actually meant to do I don't know.

Fergusson College, Pune. I walked thru the hallowed portals of this institute.

Senapati Bapat Road. I used to frequent this place while in Pune.

Can I forget this sight? I was in Jamshedpur which unfortunately only enjoyed a 92% eclipse. Diamont Harbour would have been a better spot to witness this marvelous view. October 24 1995

Again, I can't recall the exact dates, but I guess this comet was visible in the year 1997 Hale Boop

I don't really remember the exact dates when I witnessed this comet. I was in Jamshedpur. Hyakutake March-1996

Didi has bought a computer.

I feel like a loser.

Q : What's the biggest advantage of having a career in computer science? A : Most people aren't aware how illegible my handwriting is!

Called up aunty today. Shrirang bhaiya is in Scotland. Uncle is preparing for a conference. I hope to be in Pune in January.

Santosh is caught between the Devil and the Deep Sea. Trapped in the apocalyptic floods, the poor dunce is faced with Hobson's choice.

Placement season is hotting up and I am having sleepless nights ! I am actually experimenting with the new rich-text interface of Blogger. I am getting tired of keeping up with prolific Blogger upgradations. It's a futile effort!

My phone number, what's left of the hair on my head, my seven-digit IQ, my eternal gratitude, a nice and cute kiss, your name on a cloud, the address of any celebrity, amazing music, my mother-in-law... That, and more, is what Netizens are willing to swap with anyone who'll give them a Gmail account. Take a look at gmailswap.com for a longer list of bizarre offers. I got mine after three lunches with my boss - plus a promise to not bother him the rest of the year. We'll have to see about that one, won't we? However, in the meantime, I'm now a member of the G Club. Not a small exclusive set but a rapidly growing flood of people who've managed to get themselves 'invited' to the great big Google party where webmail is free and you get a whole 1 gigabyte of space, if you only know what to do with it. The 'Google approach' is, apparently, that you must never have to bother deleting your mail - it can just sit there for all you care. Free email s

Accessing Gmail is proving to be a pain in my ass. The ubiquitous but antediluvian IE5 does not support it. Opera helped create the account, but accessing Gmail was still impossible since Opera did not support ActiveX. I finally managed to gain access to it via Mozilla Firefox today.

Yesterday was Pinki's b'day, but the celebrations were postponed by a day to make way for more guests.

Ever since Faust made his pact with the Devil, many have longed for things they could would willingly trade their souls for. The Holy Grail would have worked, but nobody could find it. The Philosopher's Stone was a contender, but gold lost its shine. Marijuana had promise, but couldn't make it past the sixties. Trendy dotcoms that served free latte to employees came close, but didn't last long enough. The lost tribes of the information age needn't despair anymore. Move over Faust, Google is here. An account with Google's email service, Gmail, with its 1 GB of storage, fantastic search facilities and innovative storage options is something every Net user has been dying to get his hands on. Till now only a chosen few have been invited to sign on. But they, in turn, can invite three more to sign up. So high is the demand for these invites that a whole marketplace has come up around it. Sean, a Canadian, has started a website, www.gmail-swap.com, which lets people w

This must be one of the best movies of all time. It made me cry.

Blogger flaunts a new look and it just blew me away!

Santosh and I were witness to this heavenly sight from Ranchi. Semester exam was impending, but we managed to squeeze in some time for the visual fiesta. Total Lunar Eclipse