First stride towards being a MANGAKA (manga artist)

Half way through this awesome summer break, which without doubt seems to be the best summer of my life, I took a few small steps towards becoming what I always wanted to be...an animator. Having said that, animation is a vague term and can be easily misunderstood. For me, animation is the power to create, create things/situations that are otherwise impossible or unimaginable in real life. This is the only place where imagination can fly high and is not withheld by logical boundaries. Plus, you don't have to be Einstein to animate, yeah you definitely need to undergo an expensive course and do need some toiling but that will bother you only if you are doing this without any primal interest.

Now, WHAT IS MANGA? Well,MANGA=JAPANESE COMICS. Why write manga and not just comic artist? Pretty simple, manga is very different than regular comics that you come across. This is due to their unique drawing style and pattern. Most distinguishing facts are that they are read from right to left and are mostly black and white, plus they are mostly drawn by hands and no computer imaginary is used. (Ironic to the fact that I am more into animation than hand made arts). Not going into further details as they can be found on the Internet.

Taking the lessons of the Internet, it was quite an experience drawing manga characters. I have always been a BLEACH fan and used to draw its characters quite often. However, oblivious to the fact that there is a particular way to draw them, my drawing didn't get the same touch. Not

saying that I have broken the ice now, but its satisfactory to begin with. Here I have uploaded the pics of my first attempt to an organised drawing of a factious manga character. The drawing is free-hand but its planned and I was not running the pencil everywhere. The initial parts did look a little absurd but as I was rubbing off the pencil dust, the final outcome was very delightful. Some improved shading skills would have definitely made it more appealing. But I am happy with this much insanity!!

Though one might think, its quite late to start taking animation seriously and once the college reopens, I might not get enough time for this. But future is uncertain. These might very much be my first and last steps towards being a mangaka but it can equally go the other way round. :)

Argentina gets their asses handed to them

Gearing up to watch this monolithic encounter, I had my doubts about the team I was supporting. Germany, my all time favourite, looked a little weak on paper. The highly jubilant Argentina seemed to be gunning for yet another all out victory. The German youth brigade did contain the firepower to pull off a stunner but it seemed improbable considering that they were up against the likes of Lionel Messi, Tavez and other blah blahs. But, good old uncertainty that rides every game of soccer. Germany annihilated Argentina 4-0.

The first shocker came in just 3 minutes into the game. A quick header from Thomas Mueller found its rightful place into the nets and thus Germany where 1-0 ahead in the game. Though ahead, it still seemed that Argentina would beat the lead to a victory. But alas, Argentina's power house failed to capitalize when it mattered the most. They were threatening throughout, no doubt about that, but threatening isn't enough. You need to score to win. The second goal, by Miroslav Klose at 68 minutes, made it even hard for the Argentinians. At this stage, it seemed it was all over for them. And it seemed right, coz just a mere six minutes later a third goal was scored against the "top contenders of the world cup", sealing the deal. A forth in the 89th minute just added an insult to the injury. Thus, GERMANY KICKS ARGENTINA OUT OF THE WORLD CUP 4-0.

I must say, I felt a little bad for the Argentinian fans and also their top guns, but putting your faith into a loud mouthier (Maradona), isn't going to give top notch results. Well, it was very pleasing to see, the big-mouthed coach, getting his ass whipped. Maybe if you had spent more time with planning than blustering off about your bench strength, results might have been in your favor, Mr. Diego Maradona. With all due respect, FUCK OFF!!!

Into Cars...and now driving 'em!!!

Guess what??? Now I can drive a car!!! hehe, this summer is turning out to be one of the best. Not even half way through the holidays and I have learned (not mastered) a handful new skills. Driving a car being one of them. My pals know my love for cars, so its only them who can completely understand how I feel about this.

Although it does seem quite unusual for a person to adore cars and still take such a long time to learn it. Well, I was willing to learn this skill but my commitment towards it wasn't absolute. Why? Primal fear maybe. I did sketch out plans for the learning lessons but would find one excuse or the other and put it off. Either dad's driver would fail to show up in morning hours or I would deny myself the pain of waking up early. Whatever be the reason, this was going on for the past two fucking years.

But this time around, maybe it was in the stars. Dad's driver totally showed up at the decided time of 0600 hrs. I had recently gotten over my gigantic addiction of computer games(not completely though :D) which used to keep me up till 5 or sometimes even till 8 am. Getting up early was no big deal now. Yo!!! and thus my driving lessons started....

Must say, driving a car in Patna, even as early as 6am is something. If not vehicles, then people start flocking the streets and trust me, a road full of speeding vehicles is much better than an unruly crowd, ready to jump out of nowhere in front of your car. However, nothing weird happened, apart from one small incident when the car bumped into a guy at a snail level speed ~ 10 km/h. Heh!!!!

My learning chart somewhat progressed like this:

Day 1: Controlling the steering and driving in the first gear. (steering was a piece of cake.... don't forget I am a hardcore gamer :P)

Day 2: Adjusting the gears and getting used to some speed....yey!!

Day 3: Gears done, now handling some crowd.

Day 4: The Reverse Gear!!!! Fuck!!! :(

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Day 8: Driving the car in heavy traffic.

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Day 10: Posting a blog about it. Hehe...

That's how it all went. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Peace Out.

Starting java....

Back home, after a grueling semester, its time to blow off the steam. Partying with friends, movies and getting hammered was going on for the last ten days. It was hard to get over it but work cannot be ignored.

Speaking of work, we are given a two and a half month break. Its time for the summer training that the Punjab Technical University(PTU) students undergo at the end of their 4th sem. I'll be covering Java during this break.

Searching for an institute wasn't much of a problem. My uncle knew a certain Mr. Aamir Johnail, who was, kindof, famous for Java coaching in Patna.

First day was pretty formal. Casual talk about target for the summer and how much I wanted to complete. He seemed pretty knowledgeable, very confident. He did ask something really amusing, "Aapko Java, certificate ke pov se karna hai ya padne ke?" My answer was a confident,"Padne ke".

I did get some heads-ups from my seniors that taming Java won't be easy. It takes time and definitely, a lot of effort to get a grip on the mechanism. I didn't give it much though coz I had sufficient programming experience gathered from QBASIC, C and C++. Unfortunately, it turned out that my seniors where right. Though not difficult, its grueling. Small print commands are extended to long case-sensitive strings. And as we proceed, the syntax becomes unbelievably huge. Tough or not, the single fact that makes me cling to Java is that its interesting. I am able to pull-off jobs that seemed impossible in C and C++. Making frames, table, building forms, user interactive softwares with a very little amount of effort. I can say that it will be fun till it lasts.

Sunrise Encore

Ahhh!!! Blogger.

Must say it feels nice to be back to blogging again. Its been almost two years. As far as I can remember last time I was here when I joined IITT. New college, new hopes, renewed determination to bring the world to your knees, total concentration on studies, no gaming or music or any other of my digital addictions...huh??!! It worked wonders for me in the beginning, it really did!!! But work done without your heart in it, is just trying to deny an inevitable failure. Well, lesson learnt. On the brighter side, now I am really good at maths :p

Ok! enough with all this. So, now I am back and will keep posting on a regular basis.

P.S. I am in IITT now...not VIT!!!!

3rd year. CSE.