I'm not dead. Thank you!

I'm actually writing a blog post.
That must mean one of two things. I might have met and must have been dumped by yet another woman and I have come here to whing about it or I must be trying to write a term paper. Sadly, faithful readership, it's the latter. Most of this exalted readership is already a part of my friends' list on Facebook (yes, I have no one but me to blame), so they knew I was alive. Anyway.
Here I was innocently, actively procrastinating and I land on youtube and in a process that is as inexpressible as time-warping, I land on a couple of videos of Demetri Martin. I just had to say a couple of words about his dry sense of humor that is (thankfully) not overtly sexual. Instead, his jokes are the intelligent kind. And he does all this with the accompaniment of a guitar and sometimes a harmonica, which he also merges beautifully with his jokes. I have actually seen him come up on The Daily Show, but that doesn't exploit all of his excellent potential. And according to his wikipedia article, he's quite smart too. Hoping for the best for him Definitely recommended.

HP7

Got the book on Saturday evening. Finished it by Sunday night (with church and a dinner for two made by yours truly included).
I haven't read so much at a stretch since, oh I don't know, HP 6. It was fun nonetheless. Not my favorite of all but still pretty good.

Seriously, Ahmadinejad what were you thinking?

I hope you've heard about this. Iranian president comes under fire for kissing the hand of his former teacher who--they make sure to mention--was "wearing thick gloves, a headscarf, and a long black coat".

My Obituary

This was my assignment for this week for my positive psychology class. Writing your own obituary is kind of humbling... I decided to be a jerk and post it online. Here goes.

Always smiling, he could brighten anyones day. His never-ending quest for knowledge made him a walking encyclopedia and a source of endless trivia--roles he clearly cherished. He loved everyone and loved to be loved by everyone. After a successful but unsatisfying stint at the Wall Street, he moved to a career in which he was close to the greatest things he loved--books--where he brought knowledge and information to everyone who asked. Through all these years of work, he hopes that he has made a difference in the life of at least one person. In the age of specialists, he was clearly a generalist and loved to have a finger in every pie. He has done everything from tree top camping, to maintaining a successful blog, to writing the novel "that was always kicking around" in his head. A patient ear, an indomitable spirit and an unflinching grin were his trademarks. He was just one big shoulder, on which anyone could shed their tears, lean on and move ahead. He went out very much like how he always lived--in style-- and we will all miss him.

A birthday gift....now???!?

Whoa!
My dad just sent me a Blackberry!
Being the party-pooper that I am, it got me thinking that he might actually be reading this blog. I clearly remember mentioning it here.
Whatever dad, I'm just going to incidentally mention here that a MacBook Pro is going to make me stupendously productive.
*carelessly whistles while staring at nothing particular, acting totally nonchalant and tapping foot*

हिंदी पोस्ट!

अरे बाप रे!
This ROCKS!
As you can see, I just typed in Hindi. This was not done using ultra cool software or anything. This is a new feature just rolled out on blogger. And get this... I typed that in ENGLISH and it transliterated itself.
I typed in "Arre baap re!". Seriously, how coolisdat?
So, let me just steal find the words of my favorite Ghalib Ghazal to celebrate this occasion.

Here it is...

दिल-ए-नादान तुझे हुआ क्या है
आख़िर इस दर्द  की दवा क्या है

हम हैं मुश्ताक और बेज़ार
या इलाही ! यह माजरा क्या  है ?

मैं भी मुँह में ज़बान रखता
काश !   पूछो  की   "मुद्दा क्या है" ?

जब की तुझ बीन नहीं  कोइ मौजूद
फिर ये हंगामा, 'इ खुदा ! क्या

Note: If the ई matras are kind of mixed up, it's your browser's fault.
Here's an exhaustive list of things to do.

NMUN, SIDS, Project PEACE and other obscure acronyms II

Meltdown Tuesday:
{Tuesday's child is full of grace;}

On Monday, I wasn't able to get as much sleep as I'd love to have, for Tuesday was going to be a long day.
The committee was scheduled to begin at 8 in the morning and continue till 11 at night, with about an hour and a half for lunch. We, being hyper competitive, needed to be there and "place our placards" by 7... so we got the seats we wanted and the break was supposed to be a "working lunch" so that we work with people and develop our reports.
I began the day with a five shot venti caramel mocha. I knew I'd need it.
It was officially the second day and we did not have any supporters outside a select group within the AU (African Union) which was mostly garnered by my partner alone. So, technically, I did not have anything to show for being in the committee. And the committee as a whole was going nowhere. It was divided among various blocs all of which focused on the region's specific issue. The delegates from Iraq led a group of Middle-Eastern countries focusing on desertification. Russia led a group of Eastern European nations focusing on a UNWTO certification, (which is a good idea but too specific).
That's when I decided to go overdrive. I found out that my partner was among the first speakers to speak that day. I quickly developed a broad framework within which any country could function and develop their own ecotourism project. Mauritius happens to have one already. [By the way, I can find no definitive website/wikipedia article on this project.... I think I will need to write one]. Even using our Uni's databases I wasn't able to find much on it. During research however, I came across this one book that was a publication of the UNWTO itself and it had articles on several eco-tourist facilities in a whole list of countries. Mauritius was among them. I realized how important this book would be and tried to get it.
I couldn't get it anywhere.
I found through worldcat that there was a copy in Texas A&M University. Bingo. I have a friend there who agreed to email me those 7 pages (that is fair-use). At the Conference, these seven pages were worthier than gold.
Anyway, I built a framework and called it the PEACE project
(which stood for
Poverty Eradication
Environmental Conservation
Awareness of existing projects
Conservation of local heritage/culture
Education of natives, tourists and personnel
My plan was to make everyone connect Mauritius with the PEACE project. Taking a page from Goebbels' notebook, I wanted every member in the AU to talk about this project in their speeches. During that first session, 12 speakers spoke about the PEACE project how Mauritius came up with it.
I know. I know. This is way too competitive even for MUN and the whole educational aspect of it is lost. But our University has been getting the outstanding delegation for the past 14-15 years and they might lose it if any team loses in even one committee.
The effect of the PEACE project was phenomenal. The director was very happy with our work. He wanted a consensus and we had the broadest framework of all.
Mission Accomplished.

Coming next:
What about Tuesday night?
and would the lack of sleep finally take its toll on our delegate? Or will Nitin brave it all and give a scintillating performance even when he's dead tired?
To catch this and more... stay tuned for the next episode: Ash Wednesday