I returned a while back from a one-day symposium organised by CHES (CHemical Engineering Society), IIT Delhi. It's probably the first time something like it is being organised by our department, and while initially the students wanted to organise a tech-cum-cultural fest, because of shortage of funds and time we had to make do with a small one-day affair. It'll hopefully grow. After seeing the poster a few days back (I have stopped interacting with almost any other student from my department nowadays, so I couldn't have got to know from any other source), I decided that I'll be attending it for the entire day, especially if the seminar and paper presentations were good. But I lost the little interest I had for attending this event when a day later a notice was put up mentioning that it was compulsory for all students (UG and PG) to attend the event, and strict action would be taken against those who don't. I hate this autocratic manner of functioning that our profs seem to enjoy so much. And even though I did go for the inauguration in the morning and listened to a few speeches (the one by IITB's Chem Engg HOD was really nice), I left the venue soon afterwards. Anyway, most people in our department don't know how to make a presentation, and could turn the most thrilling topic into a morose affair. Most other Dual Degree students and many BTech students hadn't bothered to turn up either. The Seminar Hall was fairly filled up though and I hope they don't actually create a fuss about it.

I finished reading Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis yesterday night. It's Ellis' first book, and though I liked his American Psycho better, this one's a good read too. A couple of blurbs at the back of the book:

'Bret Easton Ellis is undoubtedly the new master of youth alienation. With spare, seamless writing he tells us a tale of collegiate Christmas in LA that makes Jack Kerouac and his Beat Generation seem like pussies.'

'This is the novel your mother warned you about. Jim Morrison would be proud.'

This novel is similar to American Psycho in many ways, mainly in the manner in which it is written (first person, short lines), but also in the complete disregard it shows to a person's identity and also to political correctness. Everyone sleeps with everyone else, drugs are more common than food, life is an endless stream of parties, family members are persons you meet incidentally on your short trips to home. There isn't any gore as in American Psycho (AP), but there is a strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction that threatens to turn violent any time. Probably AP could be termed a sequel to this book. Do try and read it, if it doesn't put you off.

I began reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the morning during a particularly boring lecture being made by the Chief Guest at the inauguration. I have read parts of it before, and of course have seen the movie. The author Hunter S Thompson was a colorful man, who shot himself recently. I had heard the term 'gonzo' in relation to him so often but I wasn't sure what it meant exactly. As usual, Wikipedia came to my rescue.

And lastly, I have realised that there are far too many people who know me personally who read this blog. It gets embarassing when they discuss stuff from the blog when we meet. But I'll try to let that not affect whatever I write here. I have written a whole lot of rubbish here earlier, and will continue to do that, a lot of which people who know me personally won't expect from me. Meanwhile, I have also come across a few nice blogs by some interesting people. I'll be updating the blog-roll soon. But two that I can think of off the cuff are blogs by Anjul and kAy (I came across this one through Anjul's blog).