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Anshuman Rath

Anshuman Rath


Last Updated: 5/5/2009

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Gender: Male
Age: 21
Sign: Pisces

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Sunday, April 22, 2007 

Category: Games

  This is the second of the two articles I talked about in my previous post- my personal favorite. So go ahead and enjoy if u can. But I warn u, it's not the sort dat all people will find funny-so if u think it's not-don't blame me!!Here it goes:

 "I'm quite pally with the guy upstairs due to my regular outbursts and I just got a divine intimation of sorts. No one over the age of 12 is going to deny that life sucks. Apparently, complaints to that end have been flooding the mail servers of the Big System Administrator on the Sky©. The solution? A point upgrade to the game called Life™. 90% of you are going to shrug and turn the page; but to the 10% who continue to read this article in the hope of experiencing 30 seconds of joy, we present:

10 Features That We Want Included in Life™ v1.01

10. Skins/Models: Nobody likes the way one looks. While a John Carmack skin is sure to cause a troubled childhood, using a Skaarj model will mean that the teachers will be less inclined to bother you with menial tasks like homework which they can very well manage on their own.

9. Better NPC Interaction: Currently NPC Interaction (also known as small talk) revolves around the topics of cricket, Unreal Tournament and prospective mates. While we donot know what girls like to talk about (see point no.3), we feel topics like the importance of smelly socks and the practical results of using a deodorant must be included.

8. Tutorial: While no self-respecting gamer will be caught playing with a tutorial, the game called Life™ demands a tutorial level. This should cover the basics of survival like getting away with cheating, lying and easy(cheap) ways to get a date.

7. Better Documentation: A comprehensive manual covering all the nuances of Life™ should be provided. The manual should cover topics like:How to Win Friends and Influence People without leaving your chair, and Zen & the Art of Surviving Marriage.

6. A Save/Load Feature: Rumour has it that incompetent programming and a fast approaching release date, forced you-know-who to release Life™ without a save/load feature. Another bad move that must be addressed in the patch.

5. Replay Feature: About 90% of our brain us unused, (98% in the case of men). This wasted real estate can be put to good use by including a replay feature. The feature should include the ability to watch a scene in slow motion, and from multiple angle camera angles, for those special moments.

4. Skip-able Missions: Missions such as Attend Uncle's 15th Wedding Anniversary and Study for 23 years to spend the rest 30 years in an asylum are quite unneccesary, and one should be able to skip them conveniently.

3. Source Code: Although we understand that the source code for Life™ cannot be released to the general populace, the one for women should be made public. We promise not to laugh and point out obvious flaws, but cannot rule out the possibility of coming up with an improved version of the same.(Note: The source code for men consists of a single three-letter word and is universal.)

2. Flying Mounts: Cars and bikes are for lamers. We want giant, fire-breathing dragons (available in red and black options). We want to fly them to work everyday. We want them as of yesterday.

1. Demo Version: All games are hyped up; it's a marketing ploy. We would like a demo version of Life™ to try out before rushing out to buy it. A demo will also help us determine whether Life™ is compatible with our hardware.

  As we write this, Life™ v1.01b is already making the rounds for a closed beta testing. Needless to say, the game is plagued with frequent lockups and nasty bugs. Some things never change."

(Sorry I'm not sure who the writer is,so cannot credit him. The article appeared in July 2001 issue of Computer Gaming World)

              

7:07 PM 
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Sunday, April 22, 2007 

Current mood:  calm
Category: Games

   Well well nothin original over here!!I was going through some old game magazines which I chanced upon today and discovered two articles which I found to be an interesting read. So here I reproduce one of them titled "Symptoms of Playing Too Much Diablo"

1. You start calling you annoying 4-year-old nephew/cousin "Devilkin"

2. You start visualising a certain spell when net techies talk about firewalls.

3. You throw away your gold ring because its just a gold ring.

4. You wonder how much of defence budget goes to stocking of healing potions.

5. You start kicking your pet to gain experience points.

6. You ask your boss for the next quest.

7. You have a new habit of selling your belongings before buying new ones.

8. You search for an automap when you get lost.

9. You ask a mechanic if you could see his magic items.

10. You throw your unused belongings in a box marked "stash".

  I must give it to the writers of this amusing little piece Arun & Diwakar which only the truest of Diablo fans will appreciate. 

(Article appeared in the September, 2001 edition of Computer Gaming World)   

    

 

6:41 PM 
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Friday, April 20, 2007 

Current mood:  cynical
Category: Blogging
    Go ahead..make a wild guess as to what i'm writing about!!I'm sure you will be wronged by the time you finish reading this. How do I presume you will read this entire piece??Well it's very simple-you decided to read on despite the title of the blog. (People who think i'm pessimist this is in your face because I'm actually hoping that somebody has managed to read this!!) So without further ado I shall proceed.
    Let me start by saying that law school in an interesting place. There are hundreds of fellow students who will nod in approval. Personally I have seen the highs and lows in just one year!!More importantly I have come across different people previously unheard of and different thoughts and idealogies previously unthought of (By me ofcourse!!)But by far the most interesting persona has been a certain Karl Marx. Love him or hate him you just cannot ignore him or his ideas which are radical to say the least. Although I never thought I will deal with him or his thoughts after the end of a dreaded second semester, I ended up doing so.
    It all began with me cursing and rambling about how unfair the work culture in the MNCs is. I mean the tiring and mechanized work and schedule, very little time for self-entertainment, for family and relations, for sitting down and doing nothing for a change, for basically living your own life. I sure detest this life but I know I will be drawn into it for some or the other reason. And then an interesting thought struck my mind. We are made accustomed to this sort of a life right from our college life- engineering colleges, B-Schools or Law Schools for that matter. Before we actually start working, we know that this is how things will be and we fall into the routine. Some justify it by saying that the pay and the associated perks are huge. But is the schedule really necessary??Is the pay so much that we can forfeit certain pleasures of life??
    As I brooded over these questions, Marxist ideas began to make sense like never before. We are working tirelessly and relentlessly, but for who or for what broader goal??The answer is the MNCs. The MNCs earn unimaginable amount of profits at the expense of our hard work. A normal 6-8 hrs work schedule would suffice to get things going, but people in these MNCs are subjected to 12-14 hrs work and many of the times in the weekends. Oh yes and they supposedly compensate us adequately with high pays and perks. But aren't we getting paid just 1/10th or 1/100th of the profits that these MNCs earn because of our work??This somehow reminds me of the Marxist Theory of Surplus Labour. The MNCs are the modern day bourgeosie and the hordes of Engineers, Managers, Lawyers and other people working in them are the new age Proletariat. We are being made to think that the untiring schedules are a necessity and that the high salaries compensate for the sacrifices we make and the entire structure is made to appear justified to protect their interests.(Another of Marx's ideas)There might be many other stark similarities which I may have overlooked. Now if one is to continue along Marxist thoughts, it may be safe to say that we are currently in a state of alienation i.e. we are unaware that the system is actually exploiting us and we are assuming that it is beyond our power to control it while in reality it is not so. The logical step would be to create an awareness- only when the people know that they are being exploited can they do something about it. I donot subscribe to the ideas of a mass revolution- this is where I beg to differ Mr. Marx. I just hope that the the awareness would ensure a fair bargain whereby a balance may be brought about between work and our social obligations. Else we might witness massive social isolations and mechanization of human beings. I'll close my thoughts with this.

Bless Us All.

   
7:41 PM 
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Sunday, March 18, 2007 

Current mood:  amused
Category: Blogging
    Well, well, well....look whoz bak...yes it's me!!It has been a terribly long time since i last posted.But then wat else do u expect frm yours truly??Lazy i m nd lazy i shall b but....watever. Let me come to the point.
    This is sumthing which i hav been wondering since a really long time.But it was until 2nite dat i felt like writin it down.(ohk...mayb not writin it down but typing it out, who cares??)I've been wondering how conveniently people turn to interpretations rather than taking sumthin on its face value.In fact its amazing dat wen u say sumthin to sumone, the first thing dat he/she wud do is try to decipher its 'true' meaning.No doubt understandin human beings and relationships is a difficult task.
    From the moment we are born to the moment we die, we interprete sumthing or the other whether it be words, actions or symbols..for dat matter nething nd everything.We interprete our parents' mood frm the expression on their faces, we then learn to interprete poems by the gr8 poets, who, for reasons i m not able to comprehend as of now, try to convey a message by hiding it behind words nd expressions.Reading between the lines is sumthin which we learn over time. Then come the ppl who think they kno better abt relationships than the ppl who are in them.They tell us that a 'no' doesnt mean a 'no' nd a 'yes' maynot b a 'yes'. It's all about correct interpretations, they say. As for me, it's quite frustrating..infact it gets irritating at times when u say sumthin or do sumthin nd rather than takin it on the face of it, people start interpreting.I kno sumtimes words hav two meanings, but does it mean dat we need to interprete all the time??

P.S.>>If this didn't make any sense, keep interpreting.You will definitely reach somewhere.Till then..
Bless U.
8:47 PM 
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Thursday, November 23, 2006 

Current mood:  exhausted
Category: Blogging
    I just hav 2 admit it....i m just too gud at givin lame titles to watever i write. honestly...the perfect example is the present piece.but then its the content dat matters doesn' it?
    Now let me narrate 2 u a little incident that i experienced quite recently. While returning home (after a dreaded semester of studies), on my way, i found somethin wrong. I had been through these roads like a zillion times...literally all my life. But this time it looked different to me. I couldnt figure out wat was wrong. The shops were still there, the roads were as bumpy as they had always been- in fact every important place 2 me (that i cud think of) was still there.But it seemed so different.It took me a while but i finally figured it out-the trees by the roadside.Yes i m not jokin.The trees were not there nemore-neatly removed and replaced with billboards n hoardings.It is then that somethin stuck me.For years i had been movin up n down this road, i never ever noticed them-but they wer there all along. I never really needed them but now that they are gone, i miss them. Never cared for them when they existed, now that they r 'dead' i miss their presence.A little more brooding and i cud relate it to life and the people.Our lives are filled with so many people.Friends, family, n other ppl around whom our lives revolve.And then there are some more ppl whose existence we rarely acknowledge.These r the trees by the roadside.While they remain a part of our life, we never feel their presence until they r gone. Isn't this a paradox of life?

8:19 PM 
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Thursday, April 27, 2006 

Current mood:  sleepy
Category: Religion and Philosophy
    This can be termed as a continuation of my last blog.Well...well my first sequel. Not exactly though. Karma is yet another of my personal beliefs. It's more a way of life than a law or a rule.In a way it is infact a derivative of Law of Equanimity.It basically says that there exists a universal balance. Our actions have a direct impact on this balance and each time there is an effect on this balance, a balancing reaction takes place. Simply put, each of our actions has a bearing on us in some form or the other. When we do good, Karma finds a way to reward us. Similarly, each of our bad deeds get punished. Such a reward  and punishment is at times direct and prompt while in many cases indirect and delayed.Sometimes it comes in instalments and at times in lumpsum.(After-effect of the study of commerce!!) Since i believe in Karma, i'm a non-believer in luck and destiny.Bad things never happen because of bad luck nor because it was in our destiny. These are just the effects of our actions. Similarly, no course has been written for our life to follow. How our life turns up depends on the decisions that we take at each crossroad of our life. Life gives us several options-We must decide what is right for us and this ultimately leads to many more options in future. So Karma tell us to do good if we intend to live happily. Some might contend the theory by claiming that doing good always doesn't necesarily give happiness. I agree but it's not a contradiction to Karma. Infact it is the act of Karma. That's bcoz the term "good" is highly subjective. What is "good" for one, maynot b so from another person's perspective. Similarly, we maynot hav intended to do bad to someone, yet may hav done so unknowingly- how remote our intentions and actions mayb to such an act. Ultimately the balance needs to b maintained and each individual is accountable for his/her action.

Bless U.
6:32 PM 
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Sunday, April 23, 2006 

Current mood:  artistic
Category: Religion and Philosophy
    It's been long since I posted something.(Then again... who even cares to read what i write?)Well here i am back to Blogosphere with something new. Today i have decided to write something on philosophy (if it qualifies to be so).So here i go.
    This is a law that i believe in immensely. No, it's not a law of economics. You can call it watever u want, i call it THE LAW EQUANIMITY(didn't that create a dramatic effect....ok mayb not). The law goes something like this-everything in this entire universe,irrespective of whether big or small, must maintain a balance of the two opposing forces. The two opposing forces being good and bad.So to simplify it further, we can say that there must be a balance of good and bad for the survival of nething in this world. It is applicable universally, no EXCEPTIONS.(That was for the economic students) And how dow i prove that? Simple. I will use the example of the most basic unit- Life. Our life always maintains the balance between good and bad. Each one of us has faced bad as well as good situations. Because of this we are content with our life. There may b times when we think abt being able to swap lives with other luckier individuals.But in the end we r quite satisfied with our own. That's because of the law of equanimity. And when either of the two forces get stronger and cause disturbance to the balance, the end comes. A prime example is suicide commited by individuals when the balance tilts in favour of bad.(I wonder wat the excess of hapiness will do?) You can apply this law to ne phenomena in this whole world. Take the world for an example. There are good people and bad people, thus allowing the world to exist. The day the balance breaks, there will b end. That is exactly the reason i dont believe in Utopia. For every day there must be a night. For every black there must b a white(Hmm..now i can rhym) and so on. And it is from here that i derive another belief of mine- Karma (Thats another topic i will talk about later).
    I guess i hav made my point (though not in the best possible manner). Well that is it for me this time. Till next time.........
Bless You.
7:39 PM 
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Sunday, April 16, 2006 

Current mood:  cynical
Category: Life
This is a theory which most ppl wouldn't agree with.Then again...do i care?I got this idea from The Matrix.(Yeah the film!!)There was this scene where Agent Smith has Morphius(or was that Morpheus) tied up, and he talks about how the AI uses humans.He goes on to add that humans r parasites. At that point of time it seemed abhorent. Later when i really gave a serious thought to it, the question came to my mind-aren't we really parasites? Atleast our activities resemble that of the parasites. The great person up above built a unique planet.Filled it up with greenery, water, animals and ofcourse his(or is it her?) greatest creations-we the humans. And what did we do? Brought down his trees, killed his animals, burnt and scavaged the earth which he built with so much care. He gave us enough facilities to survive, but we went several steps forward-for our luxury. A parasite finds a host. It uses up the resources of the host and multiplies manifold.It then gradually consumes the host and leaves it in completely withered. Subsequently it leaves the host in search of another. Compare that to the humans. The earth is our host, we r the parasites.We consume all the resources of the earth,multiply manifold,and leave it 2 ruins(which is quiet visible). Now tell me how r we better than the parasites?
7:48 PM 
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Saturday, April 15, 2006 

Current mood:  amused
Category: Life
No...I am not talkin about the song although the inspiration to write this came from it. We all are in love with something or the other. But i am talking about love in a more specific sense i.e. the emotional attachment between two individuals(not neccesarily lovers).This is to all those who are(or atleast think) that they are in love. WHAT IS LOVE?How do u differentiate between love,like and lust or even a crush.I think i'm in love but each time i say those magical words, somewhere in my mind i think whether i really meant it.This leads me to the question: what qualifies as love? Is the essense of love the same irrespective of who the person is?Each time i brood over it, i get strange ideas. Yet i am never fully convinced. I've seen some ppl who claim to b in love for years, yet one fine day feel that that wasn't indeed love. Then there are people who defend by claiming that it wasn't "True Love"!!!That is something i will never understand. If there is something called True Love, then there must b a False Love too which makes it even more complicated because u never know if ur love is true or false.I just hope i unravel the concept of love soon.Till then....Bless You.
7:40 PM 
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Friday, April 14, 2006 

Current mood:  blah

    Now that I hav finally arrived on blogosphere of the internet, what better way to start than by writing about yours truly. Me ofcourse is the angel, myself the devil and I the peacemaker. I vacillate among my three alter egos from time to time. Because of these alter egos i am capable of being good and bad at the same time. I am a loner and a total introvert. I speak only when i need to or when i feel like. Yet i hav so many things i wanna share ... so many ideas i wish i could bring forward to this world. I'm a paradox that will take years to understand. The most important attribute of mine is that i prefer to take the road less taken. I do only that which i am convinced about- explains why i am an agnostic. Yes an agnostic. People consider me an atheist but i try to explain i am not. But thats a totally different matter. Being the complex human that i am, it's really difficult for me to explain my point of view to others which is quiet frustrating. Ever felt the frustration when u know ur right yet no one is willing to accept it? That's what happens to me on most occasions. That's also why i have found solace in loneliness. For some loneliness is repulsive, for me it's a kind of pleasure. Maybe it's the company of Me,Myself and I.That's it for now.

Bless U.

5:46 PM 
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