Vikram Chatterji's Weblog

Drift

vikramchatterji — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:25:14 +0000

Drifting along beside you, unknown.
Beside the filth and the magma of an impure motley of niche imperial-ness.
Beside the hopes for different
Beside the hate for the school, the home, the ambience
Fading into the folds of the shroud laid down by time
Voiding into a whole, beside you, unknown.

- From the collection of thoughts spewed on paper when the surroundings make more sense, or none at all. Of how life can drift by us, surround us, leave us anonymous.

To our Star.

vikramchatterji — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:04:54 +0000

From snatching those GI-Joes from each other, to learning to share them. From racing and wrestling together, to letting the other win when he’s feeling down.

From growing up and living far, with life happening to us.

From realizing each other as an inspiration in our own ways, to knowing that no matter what, the love of a brother would transcend all distance and is above all else.

As you grew, you only made me and everyone else around you more proud. I would show you off wherever I would go..For your music, for the handsome young man you were growing into, for the maturity that you were beginning to show for your age..And for more.

You will always live in my heart and I will always be as proud of you as I have been. I miss you my little amazing brother, and I hope you are at peace wherever you are.

A 100 patents a day, keeps the Apple awake.

vikramchatterji — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:28:30 +0000

It’s crazy that there is a post on this site almost everyday claiming about 100 new patents for the company. Too many people have written and joked about it, but it still hasn’t matched how ridiculous this is! This cartoon might just be from a real court-room somewhere near Cupertino:

Source: http://www.bonkersworld.net/obvious-similarities/ (By Manu Cornet)

Can only feel bad for whoever the patent attorneys are for Apple. Overworked and with a turtle necked autocratic ex-boss, they must look a lot like Ted Buckland by now

Facebook sucks.

vikramchatterji — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:17:42 +0000

Facebook sucks, no really, it sucks you in. It plays with your brain and lures you into not being able to do without a little peek into the white and blue for a sign of some red on the top.

The world of Facebook is like a hypnotized parade of familiar faces walking by on the street while you stay focussed on your work indoors. Their movements and existence is of common knowledge to you and hence that one peep out the window to look at the mundane parade is inevitable.

If Buddha were to know of man’s craze about Facebook and inability to detach, He would be grossly disappointed in the lack of self control.

Facebook is great for a lot of things, but it being an inadvertent alternate for an ‘effective’ utilization of time, is pure unhealthy and sad.

Schadenfreude for the outliers.

vikramchatterji — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:29:48 +0000

They wanted to extract information. There must be something I knew that was valuable to them. Something that demanded they keep their black masks on and XM8′s loaded. I’m glad for the nebulous memories and fuzzy logic that filled my mind after the hit. I had nothing to say.

Everyone has information within them, don’t they? A path taken and a specialty learned. All so that it can be spewed and applied upon for the benefit of a few men in suits, the reservoir of everything green that lures, and I don’t mean nature. My information however was different. With the muzzle pointed at my temple,I couldn’t help but feel momentarily privileged. I must have utility beyond the common realm of man’s imagination. I was a threat and an enemy for stereotypes. As I stared I could see the golden bullet leave with an aim to eradicate the outliers. I was it’s aim and prey, and was privileged.

I woke up. A strong ache in my head. I had to leave for work, joining the rest, to please the men in suits, to stay alive.

_________

Schadenfreude is a German word meaning ‘pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others’.

Far too many talented individuals have had trouble going off the beaten path in the past. It seems like there are so many examples of these successful entrepreneurs today, but having recently read about failure stories (Which are far far higher than the successes, as one would imagine), it’s sad how many super talented people had to succumb to pursuing a life of following the herd instead of their dreams. It’s tough and amazing to have a dream, distinct from the norm, and I can only imagine the grit and talent that people who manage to actually execute them, possess.

Goal, set.

vikramchatterji — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:32:51 +0000

4 years from now, I hope to be in a place I have no knowledge of at present, but with the same people and a stronger head on my shoulders.
That would be an interesting experience of everything old and new.

States, the roadside mochi..Or the lack of it.

vikramchatterji — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:36:33 +0000

“A dollar for a dime” he said, expecting a foreigner in his land to be lured by the seemingly profitable barter and those antiquated wrinkles that told stories of his poverty in the most ‘powerful’ country in the world.

I walked on. I had crossed the world and flown back in time to arrive and walk upon another piece of land where, for some still inexplicable reason, people say dreams come true. Or so they used to in Anurag Mathur’s book(s), Kal Penn & Jimmy Mistry’s movies and some other equally erudite sources.

You have to hand it to the red, white and blue though. Never have I come across such abundance of resources, such determination to move ahead, such a motley of people existing together despite having migrated from almost every country there exists, such a push and nudge from educational institutions to only allow for better interactions with some incredibly brilliant minds.

If there’s been anything I have frowned upon here, it would have to be the lack of a skilled roadside mochi to fix my Jacket zipper, the local buses halting where the passenger stands instead of sadly, vice versa.

The noise and the bustle is missed. So are the simple smiles on the rickshaw wallah’s faces while they rest among friends in the calm shade of the Banyan tree, just passing away the afternoon criticizing the government, praising the lord, with Radio Mirchi providing the perfect background score to the noon.

The differences are stark, the cultures are unique and separate, the jacket zipper still remains broken and this experience is like none other.

2010 in review

vikramchatterji — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 06:03:17 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,000 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 3 times

In 2010, there were 3 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 18 posts.

The busiest day of the year was January 4th with 58 views. The most popular post that day was The mind of the compulsive blogger.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, navdeepjk.wordpress.com, sadhwi.wordpress.com, orkut.co.in, and WordPress Dashboard.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for vikram chatterji, rohan rathore iit guwahati, thanks for being around, rohan rathore iit g, and vikram chatterjee.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

The mind of the compulsive blogger January 2010
3 comments

Damn….Thanks for being around… September 2008
1 comment

I see….. January 2008
1 comment

Fundae and people…. September 2008

Summer bummer July 2010
2 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

El Ten Eleven (?)

vikramchatterji — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:59:56 +0000

For a while now I’ve been searching online for the full documentary “Objectified” which is a great watch for designers and general lovers of simple minimalistic designs. I finally found a link which has the entire movie in a video taken from what I think is a Korean website. Here it is : http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/objectified/

While I was at it, the documentary’s trailer (Which is pretty impressive as well) had an awesome background score ! Turns out it’s from a band called El Ten Eleven. Never heard of them before (But have been, for the past 4 hours now), perhaps due to my own ignorance or maybe due to the lack of their music style being as popular as some others of the louder variety. Here’s a link to the background score I liked.
the song’s called “I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool” .

Summer bummer

vikramchatterji — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:20:46 +0000

An elaborate plan for the summer is as ~~pointless~~ fruitless as trying to ask a Delhi autowala to charge using his shiny meter. As I boarded the flight back home from the hills, I mentally checked my list of things to do. The joy of having an entire summer ahead to accomplish every bullet point on that list was like none other..Finally I would get to complete The Fountainhead (Fat book…small print..Takes time), travel to Leh with friends and go to those places we Googled, get my drum set down from the attic..oil and shine it up.. and again attempt to perfect every song by Guy ‘Shades’ Patterson (For the uninitiated, watch That Thing You Do)….and learn the butterfly stroke !

But as it turns out each of the bullet points in my list shot itself down leaving me with compulsive online courses, apartment hunting, traumatic trips to that ugly SBI building(Aka Babu paradise) in CP and other such adrenaline rush creating, soul refreshing stuff ! (Sarcasm weight = 1 ton) …Job-joining dates grossly strode over that Leh trip and the annoying 12 yr olds have taken over the pool..Making it warmer and yellower by the end of the day..Bah !

So much for the summer of 2010 !
In the words of Master Yoda

“Reality bites…such are”