Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

(Note: 2nd August, 2011: This tale has a happy ending! From Ashwinwins.blogspot to AshwinFTW.blogspot)!


So, to set the ball rolling, What would you call an adhesive-laden piece of yellow paper on which you can write secrets and pass along, especially in office?

Coming to think of it, say one starts writing something; not typing, mind you, I mean putting ball-point -pen to paper kind of affair. Then the first sentence would always set the ball rolling, right? You know, the tip of the pen, rolling and tumbling along on the paper? So there, it took me a whole paragraph, but the ball is coasting along now at a merry pace. So, let's roll.

Returning to the vexing question posed above, there's a clue waiting for you at the end of the next para. Yes, this is a cheap, old trick to increase the likelihood of your reading the next bunch of sentences, but you have been conned, my friend, so read on. (I say old because, as regular readers of my blog might remember, I have pulled this same one a few posts ago)

So I want to share with you the fact that I have spent hours on trying to come up with a sensible name for my blog. I mean the hyperlink. If you hit Alt D right now, you will certainly agree with me when I say it has been an effort in vain. In vanity, you might even say. "AshwinWins? Loser!", you might say. However, as I said, it's not that I haven't tried. In fact, right now while I am meant to be studying for my CFA exam which is 5 days away and for which I have taken a whole week off and for which 6 months are recommended while I had 2.5 weeks when I began...ok I stop. That pollutes the air of genteel levity which I am trying hard to create here, and I will not stand for that.

So, my work on the blog name can be categorised into two buckets:

1. Generic word play (for which I didn't need to be Ashwin).
2. Specific word play (capitalizing on the singular fact that I am Ashwin).

Under 1,

Oh wait. Here's the clue you have been waiting for anxiously: It's made by this company called 3M.

So, under 1, the prime sensible contenders are MindBlogging. And Blogic. Self explanatory and lame, both of these. Also, this one's a deal-breaker- they are already taken. At this point, I put on one of the more vivid of my thinking hats. A spectacular red straw sombrero, say. So there's Pogsblot.blogspot.com. Pogsblot being an anagram of blogspot. I envision this hobbit-sized, wise, green-colored, wrinkled character with big ears like a hare called Pog, who's Blot (or Blog) this is. The description was such because I was thinking Pog could be like Jedi Master Yoda. I mean to say, Like Jedi Master Yoda he could be. However,what business does Yoda have to talk about Tablet computers and the market caps of Apple and Microsoft and Google? Pog, door that is, out you may go. So, now that we have hit upon "blot", let's further explore the potential there. Topblot.blogspot.com. Alliterative, but not enough. Splotblot.blogspot. An ink drop falling splot on paper and creating a blot, which stunningly spreads and takes the shape of letters, forming a cogent argument on, say, why Dravid should be back in the ODI squad (3 posts ago). But wait, I thought we were out of kindergarten? Spilling ink on paper and using words like Spotblot which sounds like baby-talk?

2) As you saw, that line of thinking was unsatisfactory and unsavory. Left a bad taste in the mouth. So, we come to the second category. The first major stream under this line of thinking would be ARK for Ashwin Ravikumar. Let's drift for a while down this stream on Ark. So, Blogger's Ark. A home for the best posts of all kinds- news, satire, sports, art, books, fashion. Only room for one of each kind, though. Naa, there's too much sports in here. A funny blog-
Hoha's 's Ark. Sounds like Noah's ark. No, the posts- many aren't funny, numerous aren't humorous. Or Gleaming Ark, Incisive Ark, but those are all Arcs. We are going around in circles here! So let's turn away from this (Arc reminds me of ARCH. The coolest term I have learned as yet in my CFA studies- Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity. Hah. Say that 10 times when you are angry, it helps. ARCH the concept is also interesting. When the error term in a time series regression is..umm..er..correlated with the error term of of the past time period. I cheated: I opened the book. I really should get back to studying! It's interesting, though. Look it up on wiki, like right now. No? This is better? Reaally? Awww...Thanks!) Then there's the standalone Ashwinner- which sounds like Ashwin R. No good. And of course, there's always the old faithful, which has already been in the public eye, tried and tested, pucca material. It has taken the stage at various online forums- Rediff, Yahoo, Google. It has its critics, though. Yes, I am talking about the old faithful, Ashwinwins. Ok, but is there absolutely nothing else? How about Ashwin_Ravikumar_1986.blogspot? Prudent and simple? No? Ashwin.rk3...nice and easy?

Finally, there's a deadly combination of 1) and 2). It's RorschAshblot.blogspot.com. Inspired by the Rorschach ink blot test. You only see what your eyes want to see. You're frozen. Mad, no? Na...no good.

So at the end of it all, I told myself: to hell with it. Stop wasting precious time. Just stick with Ashwinwins. And get on with the Fluid Mechanics assignment. The Placement Preparation. The B-Tech Project. The Quarterly Earnings Report. The CFA studies....

If you can think of any name nice and witty, please do contact me at, you guessed it right, ashwinwins@gmail.com. Or dial ASHWINWINS on your phone. That's 27494-69467: my google phone account. 10 characters, and I created the id some 7 years ago. What farsightedness. Despite being my optic being myopic.

Finally, ashwinwins may draw flak but I draw inspiration from the wonderful lyrics of a fab Johhny Cash number "A Boy named Sue", (from an equally wonderful movie, "Walk the Line").

And he said "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."

So Ashwinwins it is!

Answer to the vexing question: Psst it.

P.S. I was kidding about the google phone number. I ain't got no google phone account. However, ladies and laddies, I am dead serious about requesting for suggestions on the name. Send in your entries, and the not only will the winner's creation be preserved for prosperity on the servers of google (see previous post for more), but he/she will also be treated by me at Sammy Sosa, which is a fantastic bar in Andheri. Near Infinity mall. Haven't seen a place in the whole nation which serves more varieties of beer than Sammy Sosa (I call it Samosa for short). Sorry laddies, but reg. winning, the conditions are slightly relaxed for pretty ladies. If you are a pretty lady, you really need not send in a name. On the subject, just put in the date and time for when you want to be treated at Samosa. Don't bother about the body of the male, i mean mail, in question. Just the subject: "DD/MM ; HH:MM". That's all, nothing more. I'll be there, pronto. I mean yeah, only if you win. Of course. Don't worry though girlie, you have a great chance, I'm tellin' ya. Just the subject, don't bother with more, hit send, and hope for the best. Yeah, we're all good, ladies?

Note: Technically the ball slides on paper and does not really roll, but poetic license, yeah?