Blockhead??? Yes... thats me :)

yeah, i am on a roll here too. singaporeans got the first taste of the phenomena that Sumit Bakshi!!!
it all started when i was sleeping peacefully after having a beer that tasted more like a horse's sweat. suddenly i wokeup with a jolt! oh shit! mom was waiting to chat! hurriedly i started the comp and phew! shilpa and shivani both were still there. wetried skype and must tell u it works great!!! so will talk to mom tomm morning.
okay ... so what to do next? and then this divine idea cropped into my pin-sized head of going to lab. then at 3 in the morning i was heading to lab. came here (i m writing this post in the lab), chatted with father, saw a really stunningly beautiful girl on orkut, tried playing stickcricket, and then decided to go out for some fresh air. so what did i do? what else, i just got up and went outside, breathed the cool early morning breeze, heard birds chirping and ... went back? heeheehee ... nyopp ... i'd left my access card inside !!! cool huh? thats not all, my roomkeys were also inside X-( so my holy ass was now left in the middle of the NBS building wondering WTF!!! what the hell is this! what am i to do now!! i did three pradakshinas of the lab looking for any sign of anyone inside. then i found a window that was open, so i shouted inside, but no one was there to answer (but i am sure i heard keyboards tapping when i was in!!!).
anyways so i started of in another direction looking for the security ppl but not a fuckin soul was around. then thank to the 33 crore Holy Gods i saw someone walking in the parking lot. it turns out that he was a student going home. he found the security office number, called them, and helped me out of the situation. he was an undergrd engg student and when i asked him if he was coming from lab he said ... he was sitting on a bench near the library and studying !!!!!! now wait a min ... in the middle of the night that was the only place u got to sit and study !!!!!! boy these ppl are crazy!!!!!
well now that the security has opened the gate and has jotted down my name and roll number, i am in the lab again and now going back to my room and sleep. enuf adventure for today. but i am sure its not over yet ... more will be coming !!!!!! till then good nite :)
and i dont know why but suddenly the doors unlocked and then locked again !!! really this place is CRAAAZY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kya-mera liya maine !!!

finally i bot my first camera. its a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix L1 with 6.2mp, 5x optical, 4x digital zoom. it cost me SD470, with a 256mb card and a case thrown in free. but actually cameras are cheaper in US. the same thing i wud'v got ther some 15-20% cheaper.
it has very sophisticated automatic features. red-eye reduction, anti hand-shake, automatic exposure and flash control. it has Best Shot Selector facility that takes 6 shots and then selects the sharpest one. this makes it slightly slower but for novice users it actually helps a lot in taking dificult snaps. its a drawback too. i want to learn fotography but this camera leaves very less scope to learn. but indeed the results in fully automatic mode are really good. today i tried tweaing a little by adding shorter/longer exposure (the camera doesnt allow u to control shutter speed, rather an Exposure Equivalent scale -2 to +2 is provided). i tried some white balance settings too and colors also. i dont know why but i really like B/W snaps. the different modes, like portrait, landscape, sport, night, etc are extremely good. today i only tried some night experiments, tomm i'll try the camera in harsh lighiting.
the best part is the panoramic feature. in this mode the screen is reduced to half, and the remaining half is used to show the last picture taken so that the continuity can be easily maintained. but u must get a tripod for this. i tried but the hand invariably moves, either the angle or the inclination changes. the CD i got with the camera carries the s/w that merges the pics thus taken. its a nice piece of code. quite effective and very good results.
some snaps are shared at photos.yahoo.com/furasati
do chek and comment ... on my fotography skills too !!!

Survey-llance

The Indian defence minister Pranab Mukharjee has asked the armed forces to conduct a survey of all the muslims recruited and the postings they'v been given.
Now as a researcher I'd say that the data coming out of this survey will ne absolutely invaluable. Proper analysis if this data can shed light on many things that happen but go unsaid or the things that are much spoken of but are never done. This is not in relation to castism/favouritism rather about the overall working of the armed forces.
But on the other had, this data is a potential nuke! This data can blow into pieces one of the last standing bastions of true professionalism in India, others are the Election Commission and the Supreme Court. Armed forces have always clinically performed their task aiming only at defending the country. Any tampering with the armed forces can have very serious and far reaching implications on the mere existance of our country.
First of all why is this survey needed? Did the ministry recieved any complaints of gross injustice to some specific group of people? Is the minstry planning to have special recruitments on communal/religious grounds?
Secondly, coming to think of it, what is intended to be the outcome of this survey? How would this data be used? Whou will use this data? Will this data be given to the armed forces heads with recommendations from the ministry? Can it be ensured that the data will not be used for political purposes?
By my experience of watching the politicians, I would be wary to had over this sensitive data to the politicians of our land. This data might be wrongly analysed or might be analysed out of context to support certain perspectives. And I am damn sure that those perspectives, coming from our politicans ARE dangerous.
Thirdly, where would it stop? Today muslims, why not parsis tommorrow, of the OBCs the next day, and so on. Can anyone assure that this survey is one time, that there aren't going to be any more communal surveys? For this reason too the survey MUST be nipped in the bud.

God please help.