And She's Buying a Stairway To Heaven...

The past few days I have been quite depressed with the developments on the "cultural" front in my life. Initially I was selected to sing a song, Creed's "My Sacrifice" on the Hall Day, the day where your hostel celebrates the feeling of togetherness of its memebers and commemorates the 4th year guys about to pass out who sometime in their lives contributed to the hostel. All that is fine, and I was finally feeling like I had got an opportunity to express my "other side".

The song was going well... till a senior comes and changes the song, and my part ends there becuase, now I am frankly disinterested.

By the wasy, if you read the original post, which explained a lot more, I postively am sorry for what I had written early. That was all written in a fit of anger and .. just forget about it.

So, very frankly, I am most dissapointed with these developments. And so, I turn back to that age old song of hope, that guides me when my chips are down , to be reimmersed in the feeling of musical liberation of body, mind and soul, to experience what only faithfully can be described as a musical orgasm. And She's buying a stairway to heaven....

The sheer exhuberance and passion in the voice of Robert Plant; the slow building up of the satirical tune that grows into the most wonderful of guitar climaxes, courtesy Jimmy Page; Stairway to Heaven is song like no other... just god-sent. Since the first time I heard this song in my 11th class, I have never had one day pass that I havent heard this song to accompany a bad day. It just lends that mystical impression of well-being, maybe Marijuana cannot even give ( Please Note, I do not testify the capcities of Marijuana, because I have no intentions of ever trying it. Its just those sort of things you have a hunch about, but you're sure you're absolutely right.

Continuing, I have also heard about all the rumours, suggesting it sends out satanic messages when you reverse play the song. I have testified, they are most certainly exceptionally clear and directive. It goes... " Hail the great Satan... he gives you 666.. Oh great Satan.. but he made up us work in his toolshed". And in forward play... it goes " There is still time to change the road you're on". If that isnt the most remarkable thing you've heard, what is? But, here, I want to clarify, that I strictly keep faith in Plant's statement that this is all fake, or simply an "American sorta thing to do". LOL... way to go, Jimmy!

At this point, I end this post with a photo with the lyrics... And She's buying a stairway to heaven....

Hmmm... finally there!

So finally, the day is here, and I am 18. Although there is some inconsistency in this, which is based on the fact that I am still 19 and a half hours approximately form reaching that magical age. Well, if that really mattered, and I was so fussed up, I would rather take into account even the months spent in my mother's tummy.

All that aside, today was a very different birthday; away from my parents for the first time. Away from the cradle that I was being brought up in. I am reading the birthday card my parents' sent me, and I am beginning to realise that now is totally a diffenrent period of my life. I am finally an adult, I can be voted for ( yeah, well thats just a little out of the usual ' I can vote' funda) but more or less my equations in life have transformed incredibly the past year.

Even if this might seem too philosophical, I would want you to understand the enormity in our daily lives of the following few lines.
For the first time in my life, have I experienced such a society of people (yes, in IIT Kanpur), who judge people on the basis of their academic prowess, who disrespect the simplicity in science as much as they appreciate its complexity which they cannot dare reach; who ridicule people on their intelect and who like to maintain a gung-ho image (yes, that's what was repeatedly coming into my mind) and dwell in the upper strata of the social hierarchy here on the basis of their "superior knowledge". If you are starting to feel, that I might be having an inferiority complex, let me gaurantee you that I dont becuase I completely believe that the force is within me (however funny that might seem), and so will people tell you who know me well. What I do believe in is "simplicity of philosophy". You could say that simplicity in itself is a subset of this larger set. The point is, where is the simplicity in thought, in relationships, in social image, that Einstien and Newton so beautifully demonstarted when developing the Theory of Relativity and the Principal of gravitation in this society? These people who do not believe in simplicity are simply amateurish philosophers and scientists.

On a lighter note, this was a very interesting birthday, simply becuase I blew candles after, what, 13 years. Hopefully, this year is going to be a very interesting year, and for all the right reasons. I look forward to spending these summers and I have charted a few areas of interest that I would like to pay attention to in these very exciting summers just a month away.

1) Thermodynamics & Relativity
2) Non Linear Optics
3) Visual C++, Windows programming, assembly language programming, hacking for fun
4) Guitaring

And ofcourse, these are not in any preferential order.

Just wanted to publish this poem..

Ok... its a poem I wrote long back .. when I was in the 9th Class I think...

WHAT IS GOD........ An Introspection...

Why is our life confined to birth and death?
When we were to die, why were we born?
And mix in such epic proportion of bonds
with those who we love; to leave them to mourn
when we pass away; or get shredded and torn,
to see them fade away into the past, casting away
such gloomy spells of our life that however hard we try,
ebbing them away makes us strong but rather cry,
and seek for breath in the prolonged stifling wound,
and seek for breath in the prolonged stifling wound...


Does God not seem to realize, if He were so wise,
to be able to understand us, get us rid of our demise,
Is it something to do with our previous birth, our past,
the mistakes of our youth- do they still last...
engraved as our sins, threatening us, choking us ?
But isnt God forgiving? Isn't He always right?
Then why did he create us ? - rummage this earth,
steal from it, devour it, and................ ignite,
its woods, its animals, its birds and its soul and life
leaving it to burn; turning a deaf ear to its plight!

Hasn't He then committed a sin; it makes me sit up and think,
if He is actually anything more than a mortal;
and then suddenly, it all rushes into me,
travelling from one end to the other as if He,
has tried and succeeded in communicating with me,
And with this I continue to introspect and think -
If God has ever been more than a symbol of protection,
a figure of paramount hope, the gift of perspiration,
a key to all answers, but a puzzle in Himself,
a reason................. for all reasons.

Kartiek Agarwal (Yeah... and thats me)

Is that a Trojan... really??? Awesome!

The title might suggest that I am extremely desirous to create a Trojan and its absolutely right. I wanna hack you! Wait, no.. thats not why I wanna do it. Its because of the educational benefits, isnt it? What the heck, I still wanna hack you.

But, wait, before that I need to learn the abc of hacking. Just recently, I attended this lecture by a guy called Ankit Fadia, who wrote a bestseller at the age of 14, The Unethical Guide to ethical Hacking.. or so it goes, and I got all inspired.

So, I know that I have a criminal mind, so thats one step forward! Good, and I know some good C++. So all I need is some MFC/VC++ and a detailed knowledge of the working of the XP system and maybe, I can do this. COME ON!!!

Techkriti...

Midsem breaks are on, well technically from tommorrow, but I am already out of Kanpur. Tommorrow, hopefully I will be united/empowered with my lappie. But anyways, this blog is on Techkriti, the IITK tech fest. So I will continue with my report on the event.

After spending countless hours meticulously measuring wires and tapering them on to that breadboard, working hoursssss... on developing nice logic, I swear that I am the godsent messiah blessed with inbuilt wire cutting mechanisms and soldering abiltities. Ok... on a non-sadistic note...., I really experienced frustration and very precisely agony. And yes, that was the sadistic side of me again . This was not due to just the breadboarding and some sleepless nights, but because of the very fact that my team members were nowhere to be seen when I needed their help.

And now, finally , after all , I feel that it was all loads of fun and more than that, I learnt that theory and practice dont always go hand in hand. I mean you could probably describe them as two old firends meeting after a long time and one says I know you and the other refuses. Even if that wasnt really the best analogy, I hope you got what I meant. Anyways, so I came third. That was sort of a dissapointment although the contest was open to all colleges. We lost not because of our logic, but because our presentation wasnt the best.
Hmmm... WHY??