Enjoy Life!!

I have moved

2007-01-24T20:10:00.000-05:00

Why study?? --II

2006-11-22T09:05:00.000-05:00

OK... so assuming we agree on that fact that we go to college to get a job and make a career...let me put forward my other concern. I see this world as a having 2 kinds of people. Those who are good at solving solved problems and those who identify/discover new problems and try to solve them.

Whatever they teach you at school/college is usually aimed at making you a member of the first group. We learn how to do math, science lab work , languages etc...and all the exams/tests etc are around solving the standard set of problems...no wonder people pay so much attention to SAT/GRE scores . Its like how good are you at fitting in...but fitting in the first group of people.

The future cannot be built by solving the same problems again and again...and whether you like it or not...we all know thats a fact you cannot deny.50 years ago having a B.E. meant you were knowledgeable, 30 years ago a M.E/M.S and/or MBA. 10 years ago a PhD. You see that having a particular degree could get you a high paying job depending on what year you are in but it doesn't look like that anymore. So we do need people who can solve the same problems again and again but we don't need them badly, they are disposable and most importantly technology can always substitute them in some way.

What has ruled all the time is creativity and ideas. The 2nd kind of people...the problem identifiers. No matter what domain you are in we all have to work with resource constraints, time constraints and often conflicting needs. Its the smartest solution in such situations that address our needs and help us move forward. This is what is the most important talent that needs to be harnessed, that needs to be brought out in us. Its not uncommon to hear people say "I am not creative" . What they really should be saying is "I was born creative but no one helped me use my creativity. No one told me it was ok to make mistakes, to try to see if things work/break , to be stupid at times"

The only way to make money is a job. Get over this stupid idea!!! This could have been true 20-30 years ago but not any more... not in today's age of high speed connectivity and information at finger tips (felt like using a few buzz words :D). What the dotcom burst showed us was that people we very creative at coming up with new business ideas... ya many were not at all well thought but whatever were lead to dramatic changes in the way we manage information today.No wonder Microsoft faces so much competition in the software world today than what it faced 5 years ago.

Take efforts in enhancing your creativity, your idea generation process. Whether you brainstorm or meditate or find some other way to bring it out but don't think you are not creative. Be willing to make mistakes, think like a kid. What would a 5 year old do in the same situation as you...and you will see how thoughts come in a rush...thoughts you never thought you could think :).

Studying is not important. Knowing why to study is. And then you decide what to study. But no matter what...make sure you do something creative.

Coincidently today's quote of the day: You must do the things you think you cannot do - Eleanor Roosevelt

Why study??

2006-11-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

We have been through college...3-5 years of "education" depending on what degree you enrolled for. When you join and while you are at college... everyone talks about how education makes you a better person, get you perspective to things etc... Now look at your course work and this is the last thing you can say about it. Ya we have read a lot and heard a lot about how the education system needs to change, needs to allow us more options etc... I was wondering why did the need for this change come...How did one fine day this same system which has been in place for decades get rusty and outdated.I don't want to talk about "how" the system needs to change, but "why".

The one reason and the only reason why you want to go to college, why your parents want you to go to college and why anyone wants you to go to college is "To Get A JOB". Thats the bottomline whether you accept it or not, whether your dean says it or not on your face. Now look at your course work and see what it tells you about getting a job. Absolutely nothing!! You accumulated books on 30 subjects over your 4 years of education and yet none of them address the primary reason why you went to college. No one taught you how to find a job, what qualities to look for in your employer, what qualities they look for in you. At best , you had an hour long "orientation" about this on the day before your campus recruitment started.

All those books talked about was what all you could do "once you had a job"...in my field you could be a database professional, a systems analyst, a developer etc...but all that is worthless if I miss the primary requirement..rite!!

The fundamental flaw in the system is the assumption that the planet's population is the same as what it was in 1920. What!!!...how are they even remotely related. Let me explain. Our education system took a major leap when the industrial revolution began. Industries were popping up all over the place and suddenly we saw that with machines we could accomplish anything. Soon we saw that we had more work and less skilled people to work those machines. Schools opened up and taught us the skills we need to work machines and let us go to industries with a stamp that we were skilled. If you had skills... you had a job, companies would hunt for people with skills and hire them. The world had less people and far less skilled people.

Everything since 1920 is the same...we have revolution in different domains, schools teach many courses/programs and people study. Except for one thing... now there are numerous skilled people...more on paper than in real but still lots of them. So now if you have a B.E. and an MBA... you are not elite...you are what they call at the restaurant "the usual". No one teaches you how to sell yourself and so you end up buying "Idiots guide to resumes and interviews" etc... Hence education fundamentally fails at what it needs to do today. I was taught "carpentry" and "blacksmithing" when I had enrolled for B.E. in Computer Engineering. And to this day I have found no one who can justify the "torture" done to me. It was like I paid to be realized that I am bad at something. This shows that what was true in 1920 for education is true no more.

Some tell me it builds character. If you do field survey (part of Civil Engineering) as a team then it build teamwork skills. I say that is the side effect. If your aim is to build teamwork skills design a course which addresses that instead of having it as a side effect. Don't try to come up with a stupid excuse when you know teaching civil engineering to a computer engineering candidate is plain stupidity. I believe my engineering was only 3 years not 4, the first year was an utter waste of everything. The only benefit out of it was I made good friends...we all shared the same frustration after all :)

Enough for now... will post more thoughts on the next one. Enjoy Life

One of those days

2006-11-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

when I want to go back to sleep and start the day all over again...too bad I can't do it

For christ's sake...let the bad guy win!!

2006-11-11T18:13:00.001-05:00

Thats what I loved about Swordfish... the appreciation of smartness. John Travolta was shown as someone who was one step ahead of you all and hence finally he survived as well as everyone got fooled.

I watched The Departed today...and all went well until they ended the movie. The last 10 mins...they messed up everything... Ok she wasn't getting good sex from him...so why still be the girlfriend when you have already cheated on him, why move in with him. Just walk out....whatever.... in here she is the "heroine"...same scene in another movie and she is a whore.

And he pulled his act well enough to fool everyone but no....no we can't leave him alive..he is the bad guy...so we got to kill him....I believe mark wahlberg was in the entire movie just so he could kill the bad guy in the end...otherwise you don't really see his need. Come on... if someone is good at something..whatever be that...show some respect, will ya.

Great acting...predictable and pathetic ending.

Back

2006-11-10T09:50:00.000-05:00

No.... this is not another post about how I have been away from blogging and now I will more frequent and all that crap.

Was in Canada in the beginning of the week and came back. Had a grueling 6 hrs drive...raining all the way from Montreal to Rhode Island and it was dark too. Took no breaks and kept the avg speed to 72 as I was like the slower I drive the more I have to stand this weather.

Why was I there.... to get my H1B stamped...so good to be done with it. Got a chance to visit the underground malls in Montreal and enjoy some really spicy thai food...yummy!!!

A Truman show in the making

2006-10-28T13:10:00.001-04:00

The generation of internet, wi-fi, tablet pcs and handhelds. Information at your finger tips as they say. You can check your email from 20 different devices while you are on your way from work to home. Stay update to date with whats happening around you, the latest in showbiz, the latest in politics... blah blah blah.

So we all seem to believe this notion of "Information Overload". How do I keep up with all thats going around in this wild wild world.Ya as if I really care who is the next child to be adopted by Pitt and Jolie, where was the last time Paris Hilton was seen with someone, studies showing cheese can help you loose weight etc...

Suffering from information overload...gimme a break. We suffer from "crap" overload. So much of crap constantly being dumped on you. Ya you have 20 different ways to check your email while you are on your way home, but you know and I know...the emails you will get in that span are "SPAM". Some arab wants to share his wealth and someone wants to help you improve your sex life... that pretty much sums up all that I care about, right, ....free money and great sex. I feel bad for the spammers..there is nothing else for them sell. I still wonder don't they know...if they are working so hard to sell you something ( sending billions of email each day)...probably their product isn't good enough. Come on guys..try something a little more challenging than the same old spam...just more of it.

News is no different. It's been a long time I spent more than 2 minutes on a news website. A quick scan of any news site page tells you the amount of crap thats being reported. 1) And the graphics used to demonstrate data. The assumption that user cannot understand plain statistical data leads them to put fancy graphics around "information" to turn it into "glittering crap" does so much help in conveying the right facts. 2) Getting the intricate details of what people are doing in their personal lives is not news, its a truman show in the making. The price you pay for being a celebrity, the price I pay for having a news channel which think you are a celebrity. So they went on a vacation to this farmhouse, the locals greeted them in traditional dress... they went to see this and that...hello is this what I pay $60 a month for...to find out they are on a vacation where I cannot be. Hell NO!!!

Remember, a search engine gives you links and you have to pick "information" out of it. Its not the age of information overload. Its an age where the smart ones have the best chance to separate themselves from the naive and easily fooled. Look beyond the obvious and dig a little more deeper.

Pissed off!!!

2006-10-17T20:58:00.000-04:00

So I plan, I plan to the last detail... carry out my plan as I planned it...and I don't know why but end up in a situtation where I AM NO LONGER IN CONTROL. I am so pissed today. I miss one thing and the price I pay for it outrageaous. Make one assumption and everyone except me is fine. I...i am screwed. and ya..I CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT IT.

Someone makes some decision and that never reaches me...why coz I never knew that I should ask for every small thing, i should not make ANY assumptions at all...and now ....now all hell is loose...and m right in the middle of it.

Don't give me hope and patience. It's not about that. It's about being helpless. Hope and patience have nothing to do with helplessness. Say it in my face I screwed up rather than chocolate cover the problem. I am man enough to accept it. Ya I thought if everyone else I know gets it, me too... but nooooooooo..that is the most regretfull assumption I ever made...and now I will pay. Pay by being put back in time....for 2 f@#$ing years.

Man proposes, God disposes...and I am his favourite player in this f@#$ing game with.

Moral Flexibility

2006-09-24T19:15:00.000-04:00

It isn't uncommon for us to run into situations where we have to choose between "right" and "wrong". The very basis of the entire society is on the basis of categorizing a particular act in one of the mentioned classes. That is how we judge almost everything around us. And I believe we all agree to disagree on what we consider should be in either classes. That forms the basis of virtually every argument you ever had and every war you ever read about.

Sometimes when we hear disturbing news on the TV or read about it in papers, it makes us wonder "how could someone do that". Sitting in the comfort of our rooms we try to judge/analyze the situation based on the limited and ,often if not always, biased information presented to us in what appears to be a very detailed study. Sometimes we think in today's world we suffer from information overload or is it the case that we are not so tuned to finding "relevant information" from all that is around us.

Moral flexibility is what you are experiencing when your judgement is very much situational. You know about a hedious murder and you believe the criminal should get death penalty. Now you are told the charged person suffers from multiple personality disorder and you feel he should be not in a cell but in a hospital. And what if you now come to know that the charged person faked this disorder.

Moral flexibility is also an expression of personal benefit. It puts you in a lighter more manageable position and allows you to "get away" with something that you could not were you a very principled person. It allows to you create "truth", "right" or atleast the illusion of it, your version of it. It is not a compromise...a compromise will keep you dissatisfied at the back of your mind. This is calm...you know you do it, you agree to do it and you don't complain about it.

You can do because you choose to believe in things in a different way, you gather a new perspective and most importantly because , atleast for you, it solves the problem at hand.

Just a thought :)

Desparate to win

2006-08-08T18:32:00.000-04:00

So someone today started an argument....and when I joined in to comment and he had nothing to defend himself what did he do....

1) Bad mouth me
2) Make fun of whomever I am supporting
3) Act Cheap

Nope..all of the above ...cheap bastard

MAC Spoofs

2006-07-29T15:09:00.000-04:00

Sometime back Apple came up with some "innovative" ads to promote the new MAC. See them here. What looked cool and funky in the begining soon turned into something people started calling high headedness from Apple. And Today I found this good collection of spoofs which are worth watching. See them here.

Whats going on!!

2006-07-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

Won MSDN Universal Subscription, enjoying rasgulla and petha, visited a zoo to refresh some childhood memories, had a few long scenic drives, spent some time enjoying the beach, watching lots of movies, having some good good food....thats pretty much what has been going on :)

Everything at stake!!

2006-04-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

I usually don't talk about it to anyone. Rarely have I even mentioned my opinions about it in any discussion. But this is something that concerns me more than any issue on this planet. And that is the planet it self. I am talking about Global Warming.

A term most of us weren't aware of about a decade ago. A term most choose to ignore even today. With oil and terrorism on our minds, this is the primary thing even a news spokesperson wants to talk about. He anyways does not expect much audience with it.

However, someone has taken a bold step to talk about it and talk about it with facts and figures. Al Gore. The man who calls himself the "would have been ex-president of USA". He has come up with a documentary "An Inconvinient Truth". I am waiting for the movie to come out, meanwhile the trailer looks impressive.

What can you do as an individual...check out here.

For the "safety" of your child

2006-03-29T08:17:00.000-05:00

" Your kids are everywhere, but you cannot be. To better protect your child from bacteria and germs... use our XYS Spray. Spray it anywhere and get the feeling of a fresh clean home. Safe for your child and yourself. If you love your child and care for his health, XYS Spray is your one stop solution"... And the crap goes on.

It wasn't this way earlier. Kids still used to play everywhere, get dirty and sometimes sick too. But this obsession with the safety of kids is now getting out of hands. Such ads sound so caring and concerned. But little do they talk about "human immunity", "dependence on external products" etc... and to add to it they want to create the feeling of a fresh home...using chemical sprays...gimme a break. Its nothing more then scent to your nose. And who told you that you already dont have a fresh home.

We all have an immune system. And it can get stronger for us only if faces the different organisms which can make us sick. Such products are doing great in creating the illusion of "healthy kids" but are actually working great on making "weaker humans" for the future. To promote the very thinking that your child should never fall sick is the very first step to making him a dependent on the various chemical sprays and cleaners.

I donno about the companies but for others I think I have an advice. Use this when you have already sick people in your home to help them get better or when there is flu etc all around the neighbourhood. But if you make this a part of your daily life, you are working hard to make your kid weak.

Long Time No See :)

2006-03-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

A new place definately keeps you busy like you never imagined. On top of it if you are not allowed ims/emails at work... its easy to get out of touch. Well have been here for 25 days and got quite a few things done.

Shifting into my new apartment at the end of the month. Setup that place quite a bit... got some furniture, utilities for my kitchen/bathroom etc... Really looking forward to a home of my own. Got a special so that saved me some money too.

Learnt that if you are 24, just got a license and (hence) don't have much of a driving history in US, then the car insurance companies are going to slaughter you like anything. Ever heard rates like 3400/6 months for a brand new car. I bet your worst nightmares have been better.

Got a brand new BLACK Honda Civic Ex Sedan. Here are a few pics

Btw, it has Satellite Navigation with Voice Recognition... now ain't that cool!!!!!

Last week has been hectic...Dinner at 10 in the night or later...why...coz I return from work at 5 and am off to shopping at 5:30. Walmart is a just behind my new apartment... all the more reason to shop more :P

Today plans to relax, relax and relax :D

The headlines for today are....

2006-02-22T00:51:00.000-05:00

Stories they tell on the news channels today are drastically different from what news used to be about 5-7 years ago. Apart from the fact that you have news 24 hours a day so that you are "on top of things", news has a different appearance today.

Today every story they tell is so much more "complete". Yes they have the time and the resources to dig up anything and everything they can about a person/incident/location etc... For example when they are talking about a person, its not just his immediate role or stand about a particular topic that is considered important but his past too. From the number of broken marriages he has had to his sexual taste, his favourite sports and his hobbies, the reporters have every bit of information they desire to tell you. The result is very simple....they paint the picture with the colors they like not the colors that are actually in there. So if you really want to get a person tainted, its much easier, faster and effective. You exploit his biggest weakness and that is that he is human. Every small wrong he has done, every foul word he ever used can be brought to limelight in a matter of days. All in the name of "complete coverage".

Few take the time to stop and realize that many of the things being brought up from his past have nothing to do with the situation he is in right now. 24 hours a day when the media person hits you with the same piece of information again and again stressing on it more than it needs to be, then your brain no longer wants to analyze and read between the lines. If you see it the other way around, that can also be the very reason why you would want to dissect and read between the lines.

Personally, I am one of those people (and I believe there are very few like me) who least care about the news. I can't remember the last time I watched CNN or Fox News or BBC. And here is one of the reasons. I watch documentaries. And in there I see a much more detailed and balanced look at a situation than I see in news. Documentaries about 9/11, Enron, Corporate World, Oil, War etc... have shown me a lot many perspectives which the news either forgot to bring forth or just slipped under the carpet. Another reason is Internet. I am a net addict and that helps me get multiple versions of the same story from a number of places to cross check and verify information. A third reason... news have nothing good to tell you....daily its a list of people who got killed somewhere somehow by someone... when was the last time you heard some news that cheered you up. Its always about problems and problems and problems. They rarely have something nice to share. Personally I find it damn depressing to begin my day with a news feed from CNN talking to me about floods, wars, oil crisis, terrorists and what not. Would rather prefer Dilbert or Calvin and Hobbes.

Maybe coz I am more of a fun loving person or maybe coz news nowadays just suck big time. But I believe there is not so much bad happening as much is being reported. There is evil in the world today and it was there yesterday too. But the frequency with which it is being reported today makes us believe as if evil is all that is around. Our perspective to life in general will end up becoming more and more negative due to direct exposure to such information. I believe it is important for us to choose what news reaches us and more importantly what effect it has on our daily lives. So that next time you see a black guy, the vandal they showed in the news should probably not be the first thing that comes to your mind.

New Blog

2006-02-18T16:53:00.000-05:00

Starting a photoblog.

http://eyesofmylens.blogspot.com/

On Conditioning

2006-02-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

Was talking to Jay yesterday and he was talking about his experience of being empty stomach the whole day. The good news being he did not really feel a big lack of energy in his body nor any headaches etc... I was telling him about how I have done that a lot many times and soon you dont realise that you did not have your daily share of food. You have that strong hunger feel for the 30 mins around your daily eating time but you are occupied with work..that feel wont last long. Atleast thats the case with me. Ofc, not something to be practiced/tried on a long term basis.

But the topic we got to discussing after this was the conditioning of our minds. A daily schedule makes the mind so accustomed to expecting a few things at the standard time and probably in a standard way. So when you try out something like I mentioned, more than your body it is your mind that is complaining. And you get in that state where you are like...naah stuff like this aint my cup of tea. For example, my mind tells me very often that meditation aint my cup of tea. And in many ways it has found ways to keep me or rather say itself busy that I dont end up doing meditation.

See how control is such a beautiful illusion. No wonder Matrix was such a hit movie.

Employed!!!

2006-02-08T13:43:00.000-05:00

Yes....finally I have secured a job...ending the long and boring job search. Got hired at Fidelity Investments. Will be working at the Smithfield campus in RI as a Software Developer Engineer. Interivewed with them in the last week for a couple of days and things finally took shape this week. Damn happy about it....well that you have guessed by now :). Hence will get back to regular blogging too :d

Indebted to Venkat for all his advice and guidance...he is one gem of a person. Indebted to my friends to for all their support and advice.

Also got a drivers license yesterday...so another headache over. Got to get a new car now ;)

Just wondering

2006-01-22T10:21:00.000-05:00

What is it that makes us crib so much in life?? Complaining about every damn thing around. Wanting everything to be just the way we want it to be.

Sometimes we forget to realize that if things around us were all perfect and just to our taste...life won't be much fun. It would be the most dragging routine possible. Its by dropping those small stones in our calm lake that life gives us a little tingle and says "Now you didn't see that coming...Got ya"

A lot of company is also what makes a cribber out of you. If you know you have someone or many such someones who can listen to you... well then there is nothing to stop you from getting started. Every small rant you can come up with...you will throw them right in their face. Morning, Evening and Night. And if you reflect back...you might realize you weren't such a cribber long time before.

What has gotten into you? Were you always a cribber but the lack of company the only factor missing to bring it out of you? Or have you caught a new disease?

I donno. I probably can't differentiate between sharing your lives with someone and cribbing.

Origins of the Da Vinci Code

2006-01-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

Woke up at about 5:30 in the morn today and didn't feel like doing anything. No job search, no padhai...nothing at all. So what did I do then. Saw this documentary I downloaded a few weeks ago.

Awesome work....yes brilliant. And you don't have to really read that novel or know abt christianity in any detail. It does not talk about christianity or was christ married and all. Does not bother you with any religious issues. Rather it's about something u would not expect to be about at all...it's about Geometry.

Yes...pure mathematics in the different codes hidden in various messages, the mysteries that existed before the book was published and how the book used parts of those mysteries.

Here is a link to download the torrent for the movie and then u can use some torrent client to download the movie. I use BitComet.

Interesting Links of the Day : MovieThings, Einstein

An "interesting" chat conv I had today

2005-12-09T19:57:00.000-05:00

One of U: which movie?
Enjoy Life: revolver
Enjoy Life: abhi aayi hai
One of U: achha
One of U: sahi hai..movie se inspire hoke blog post aa raha hai naya.. ?
Enjoy Life: naah... ppl wont be able to appreciate my appreication for the movie without seeing it
One of U: wah wah
One of U: kya thought hai
Enjoy Life: thoughtful thought
Enjoy Life: thoughtfully thought a thoughtful thought
One of U: thoughtfully thought a thoughtful thought in thoughtless world..
Enjoy Life: thoughtfully thought a thoughtful thought instead of thoughtfully thinking a thoughtless thought
One of U: now give ur thoughts a break otherwise this thoughtful process will get thoughtless
Enjoy Life: wow... another thoughtfully thought thoughtful thought
One of U: i m thoughtless now

Yo baby, my sweety has arrived!!!

2005-12-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

Had been waiting like a kid waits for Santa to bring in his christmas gift :) ... This thanksgiving it was all about me. Shopped to my heart...so many clothes and some electronics. But thats a thing of the past, thanksgiving is long gone.

Well but the best thing that happened this thanksgiving was the lappie I ordered for myself!!!.... A Sony Vaio FS790....and the only word to describe the 2 Ghz Pentium M machine with 2 GB Ram, 80 GB Hdd, 15" Sony XBrite screen, NVIDIA 128MB Graphics card, DVD Writer.......... is SEXY.

Fell in love, the moment she arrived. Have been customizing it for the last 2 days with all the necessary software and my personal look and feel plugins. Some photos for you all to have a look and be jealous :P... By the way, spent a fortune on it but ALL worth it, every cent!!

Time to take it to the next level

2005-11-18T18:01:00.000-05:00

Thats a popular movie dialogue... if you are a English movie fan :)

Submitted my THESIS today. Done with it in all respects :D Its been a long process. And ya everyone is right when they say doing ur thesis is one thing and writing it is a completely different ordeal.

I had my defense scheduled for 2nd Nov but it got postponed to 7th due to some travel plans of my advisor. However even on 7th I had to defend without him as he ran into some health problems. Well the defense went ok, was kinda nervous without him but the other commitee members did acknowledge the fact that I was defending without him. Suggested me a few changes which I did the very next day. Got their signatures but advisor showed up on 14th and so had to wait till then before I got to submit to NSM for review.

NSM goes over the entire thesis again for grammatical and spelling errors. Thankfully they did not find many mistakes and on 16th they gave me back the review copy. Took abt 5 mins to make those corrections and they said the thesis is well written and carefully proofread :).

Today submitted the final copy. 5 of them printed on 100% cotton paper. Yesterday morn in 35F went to school at 7 am. Printed it in abt 1.5 hrs as there is no one in the office. But I was like no matter how cold it is, I am doing it and doing it today. Today reached NSM office and showed the corrections. Paid for the binding and when she said "Congratulations" I was like ...FINALLY I AM DONE!!!!

And now the next level is a JOB. Got a couple of interviews coming but nothing really big so far. Hope things change soon :)

Mannnnnnnnnnnnn, I am so happy to graduate.... its been a good MS. I had a nice time.

What Actually Love Is?

2005-11-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

Got this beautiful forward yesterday

Why do we close our eyes when we sleep? When we cry? When we imagine? When we kiss?
This is because the most beautiful things in the world are unseen.

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness
is compatible with ours,we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.

There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind,
but keep in mind that letting go isn't the end of the world, it's the beginning of a new life.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched and those who have tried. For only they can appreciate the importance of the people who have touched their lives.

A great love? It's when you shed tears and still you care for him, it's when he ignores you and still you long for him. It's when he begins to love another and yet you still smile and say I'm happy for you.

If love fails, set yourself free, let your heart spread its wings and fly again. Remember you may find love and lose it, but when love dies, you never have to die with it.

The strongest people are not those who always win but those who stand back up when they fall.

Somehow along the course of life, you learn about yourself and realize there should never be regrets, only a lifelong appreciation of the choices you've made.

A true friend understands when you say, I forgot, waits forever when you say, just a minute,
stays when you say leave me alone, opens the door even before you knock and says can I come in?

Loving is not how you forget but how you forgive, not how you listen but how you understand,
not what you see but how you feel, and not how you let go but how you hold on.

It's more dangerous to weep inwardly rather than outwardly.
Outward tears can be wiped away while secret tears scar forever.

In love, very rarely do we win but when love is true, even if you lose, you still win just for having the tingle of loving someone more than you love yourself.

There comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we let go.

It's best to wait for the one you want than settle for one that's available.
Best to wait for the one you love than one who is around.
Best to wait for the right one
because life is too short to waste on just someone.

Sometimes the one you love turns out to be the one who hurts you the most,
and sometimes the friend who takes you into his arms
and cries when you cry
turns out to be the love you never knew you wanted.

If you really love someone never let go, don't believe that letting go means that you love best,
instead fight for your love, that's what true love is.

Laugh to your heart's content; you cannot go through life without it.

And you are the Cheat!!

2005-11-05T13:04:00.000-05:00

Had to go for exam volunteering Friday evening. For a change, enjoyed being on the other side... not having to worry about how much time is left and what are the answers. I was more like...man these are really long long long 2 hours :P

Anyways, while the other proctors were sitting in the front, I prefered to sit at the back and read some articles I had printed. And when I would want a break, I would just look around the room and see what are these people upto. And there is this Indian guy (probably a gujju) who is having a hard time with the paper. Trying to see what his neighbour is writing. In a Multiple Choice Question paper, that turns out pretty handy.

Suddenly he notices I am seeing him. And now the fun part begins. I am just staring at him and he is getting uncomfortable like anything. He looks around, scrathes his beard, his head. His eyes are rolling. Drinks some water. Looks around in the room, tries to see what I am upto. And I am calmly staring at him. Ya literally staring.

He gathers his papers and pretends to begin rechecking his answers. Trying things on his calculator, looks at his watch with an urgency in his eyes. I smile and look away. M back to my articles. That was a nice entertaining break. Enjoyed studying the body language of a cheat. Enjoyed it throughly. You may call me a sadist. And I call you a softie.

Honestly, do I care if you cheat!! Absolutely not. This jerk used to sit next to me in the Machine Learning exam and copy every answer. Scored the same as me, what is wrong in my paper is wrong in his. But do I care. Such people have a nice excuse...what are friends for?? My ans: FO

Note: Among other things, FO = Find Out but I guess you had something else in mind :). Did I also have something else in mind as well...well..FO :P

HD Everybody :)

2005-11-01T08:29:00.000-05:00

Enjoy Diwali!!

Maybe your Thoughts??

2005-10-28T08:18:00.000-04:00

Remember Jerry Maguire??? He wanted to say something and he thought he could say it in a page....maybe 2 pages....went on to become a complete document. Read by all... praised by all and finally laughed away only to be trashed. And he's fired in a couple of weeks.

I am not one of those intellectuals who have an opinion on things and people give importance to those opinions. Nor am I one of those thinkers who can discuss philosophy with you from dawn to dusk. And I am definately not the one with a good choice of words when trying to put something on paper or blog for that matter.

I am lazy. I postpone. I procastinate. I cheat. I am jealous of you.
I want to win. Every single time. I am selfish. I lie.
I love luxury. I want money. Lots of it. Yours too.
I cant see you in the eye. I don't want to die. NEVER!! I am unreasonable.
I find faults. In everyone!! I am never satisfied. I want it all and I dont want to pay for it.
I want to be all powerful.

And yet, I have no clue what would I do with it. I am, only, a human.

Sometimes....
I love. I miss someone. I care. I cry. I laugh. I feel. I sing. I smile. Maybe coz I am a human.

And no matter what I say... you will forget it. Like you have forgotten everything I have been saying all the time. Like I keep forgetting myself. And I will be dead...in a couple of ....who knows when.

And now you are wondering, what the hell is going on. What is this all about. I have no clue. I am as lost as you are. I am just another guy and I just wanted to say something.

Interesting Links of the Day: ComeClean, Jerry's Photographs

I believe

2005-10-23T10:04:00.000-04:00

Was watching Comedy Central last night and there were this bunch of 4 comedians who decided to do an "I believe" song. Here are some of the lines from that

I believe Britney Spears should be one of Baskin Robinns' 31 Flavors.

I believe that sometimes you have to rent your truck to make money to pay for it's insurance.

I believe guns don't kill people, husbands who come home early do

I believe if you show me a 3 year old kid running around in a grocery shop in his underpant, drinking coke out of his baby bottle, I will show you a future nascar fan

I believe the worse thing than having a diarrhea is trying to have it quietly in a public restroom.

Here's mine:

I believe........ nevermind, I forgot :P

Thank You, Come Again :P

2005-10-21T20:16:00.000-04:00

Walking back home, 3 black dudes coming my way. As I pass them, one of them says " Thank You, Come Again". I was on the phone with someone but just could not stop laughing at it. He must have turned back to be surprised by my reaction. Good to know even they joke about us its not just us making jokes at them all the time :P. Loved the experience :D

Btw, you got to be a desi in US or should have seen "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" to really enjoy the joke ;)

Some ppl just don't learn

2005-10-19T11:22:00.000-04:00

This guy is old enuf to work in a reputed company, has done bachelors in engineering and writes articles which have been published in newspapers. But look at what he forwards me on the messenger

"I'm really sorry for this, but couldn't help being superstetious..Have u ever liked someone sooo much, that u just couldnt tell them? have u ever had a sleepless night because u couldnt stop thinking about them? have u ever felt so lonely that u cryed urself to sleep? have u ever lost someone u loved and prayed every night for them to return? have u ever felt the need to hurt urself on the outside because u couldnt stand the hurt inside? if u have ever felt like this then send this to everyone on ur list and with in one week someone u love will tell u how they feel. if u dont send this u will never fall in love again and the person u love will hate u,,,,,,,,,,,,, ] "

Grow up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-10-09T22:23:00.000-04:00

Picture Time :

Hiking Around:

Big Bear Lake :

The Road Ahead:

The Turn Ahead :

Sunset Reflection :

Hollywood Lessons :P

2005-10-07T22:21:00.000-04:00

1. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts: your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one, dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.

2. Honest and hard-working policemen are traditionally gunned down three days before their retirement.

3. All beds have special L-shaped sheets that reach the armpit level of a woman, but only the waist level of the man lying beside her.

4. At least one of a pair of identical twins is born evil.

5. Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communications system of any invading alien society.

6. All grocery bags contain at least one stick of French bread.

7. Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their arch enemies using complicated machinery involving fuses, pulley systems, deadly gasses, lasers, and man-eating sharks, which will allow their captives at least a half-hour to escape.

8. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

9. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating, but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

10. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.

11. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear.

12. Even when driving down a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.

13. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off, but luckily you'll always blindly choose to cut the right wire.

14. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.

15. Police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

New Twists in Life... Thanks to RITA

2005-09-24T08:05:00.000-04:00

Coming back from London I had plans laid out for a number of things. Got a list of things to do... this that this that. And here I am in LA at my friends house. Btw, this was not part of the plan.

The hurricane has drastically changed so many parameters in daily life. One moment I am thinking about my meeting with my advisor, next moment m packing my luggage to get out of town.

Half of the city headed to Dallas/Austin/San Antonio etc... We all must have seen the clogged roads and the sad state of the highways connecting these cities to Houston. However I was in no mood to get out to these places.

Asked Venkat if I should really take Rita seriously. When he said he is taking his family to Dallas and asked me to head to a friends place too...I got going. When I decided to get out of Houston it was 21st and I believed I still had time.

Instead of looking up as to whos leaving for these cities, went online and looked up for deals for LA. Reason is pretty simple. These places could keep me safe...even my uncle's house in Houston could keep me safe... but could it not provide me the natural way of my life?? Once the hurricane hits... we all know we are going to loose electricity, communication systems will fail and there will be utter chaos. In this midst of all this...what do you do. Absolutely nothing, you are rendered so helpless without these systems in place that all your work is just stuck up. All I needed was Electricity and Internet to carry on with thesis and job search.

Rather LA has Vraj and I can be here as long as I want to be. All systems in place and I can get back to my life here. It was a matter of finding a good deal and I got down to hunting frantically. Finally orbitz showed me some hope and got a return deal in 270. Returning on Oct 2nd... the entire week in LA. No point in getting a return after 3-4 days if I spend so much. Consulted with Vraj and immediately got the deal.

The flight was 23rd morn 6 am. I had decided I will reach the airport 12 hrs in advance...dont want the traffic to trouble me regarding this. Had asked my tauji to drop me there and I seriously owe him one for this. For someone who manages a Gas Station, to be able to get out of the city, find a way to avoid the highways and reach me in 50 mins on the 22nd, and drop me to the airport in another 45-50 mins, no matter how much you thank him for this... its less. Hats off to you for this.

I am at the airport 4 pm on 22nd. America West my airline. Reach the checkin and they tell me all flights for tmrw cancelled. We are flying out 2 planes, putting you on standby there... if seats are empty.... it's your lucky day. 25 more standby's ahead of me. Next flight 5:35. Last one at 8. All tensed up...what is gonna happen!!! Will I have to call tauji again and finally seek refuge at his house.

They started boarding at 5:05. And after all the regular passengers when they started calling out for standby's .... I could begin to have some hope. Another 10 mins and she calls out my name. I happier than anyone on the planet for the next 5 mins. Grabbed my boarding pass and ran off into the plane. Phoenix in 2 hrs and finally LA at 9:20 in the night!!!

One moment I was like will tauji be able to make it, next moment m having dinner at Denny's in LA. After 2.pm on thursday, things kinda started falling place. But still...there were surprises here and there. And the mixed set of feelings, the backup plans that change every 5 mins, the way new things unfold in your face every 5 mins... it was a tough day... a thrilling day I would say. Glad I had savings to afford the flight. Lessons learnt long time back from dad... always save for the rainy day.... stormy day in this case :P....ok ok theres rain too :)

A week in UK, now almost a week and a half in LA... hope after that it's just Houston. Got to get done with things.

My best wishes to everyone suffering from this trouble and hope you make it out safe and sound. God Bless You.

Buckingham Palace

2005-09-17T14:45:00.000-04:00

The Web Link : Buckingham Palace

The Palace:

The Garden outside:

The Royal Guards:

The Monument outside:

The Royal Gates:

The Road infront:

Lots of pics :d

2005-09-15T16:40:00.000-04:00

So the presentation well :d... answered their questions too....that made me happy :) Then left the conference to visit the Ashmolean museum. Its too big a museum and I had just one hour. still made the best of it. Check out the pics :)

Today was the final day. Visited Botanical Garden and Museum of Natural Science and History.

Botanical Garden:

Natural Science and History Museum:

Finally in London now :)...Will plan things tmrw.

Bletchley Park Visit

2005-09-13T14:54:00.000-04:00

Today was half a day of lectures and post lunch was the visit to Bletchley Park. Though the link will give you all the details about it, here is a brief summary

Had this place not been there, the 2nd world war would have waged for another 2-3 years and may be the world would have seen Hitler win. This was the heart of codebreakers in England. People like Alan Turing have worked here and broken codes of the famous "Enigma" machine of Germans. Though the Americans claim "ENIAC" was the first computer of the world, COLOSUS made here was the first one but kept unknown from the world due to obvious reasons.

The Park :

The Guide :

The home of a middle class family during world war II:

The source of all trouble : Enigma

The Turing Bombe : Used to assist in cracking Enigma Codes

The Colosuss: used to assist in breaking Enigma Codes

A Naval Ship and Aircraft outside the Mueseum:

A Statement praising the Polish in helping with information about Enigma:

The Rolls Royce of the first owner of the Beltchley park :

Overwhemling!!!

2005-09-13T02:34:00.000-04:00

I could talk about the 3 course English Lunch, the visit to the Christ Church Meadow, the beautiful collection of musical instruments at Bale, the Oxford Story experience or the Gothic Architecture which, till date, I had only seen in history books but all this falls pale when I remember the evening I spent in Hollywell Concert Hall yesterday.

Alexander Sitkovetsky played the violin while Kumiko Ito joined him on the piano. And for two hours I was in a world where nothing but music existed. Except for the brief moments when we applauded their work there was nothing else you could concentrate on but the violin and the piano. And when someone who has played before the Queen herself is there to entertain you, you know there is some quality stuff you are in for. And to add to it, the concert hall is one of the best in the world, as pointed out by one of the organizaers. Such wonderfull acoustics, really bring every piece of music to you in just the right way. An evening I will cherish for years to come.

The Artists at Hollywell Concert Hall

I was done with the conference by the afternoon. Decided to make the best of my limited time. The first thing to do... went to a near by oxford information center and found what are the good places to visit andthe cost invovled.

Waiting for the Lunch to begin

I began with the Baliol College, right opposite the information center. Saw a beautiful cathedral there.

Attended a wonderful animated and interactive event "The Oxford Story". That was a beautiful journey into the making of Oxford as it is today starting from the 13th century. It talked about how, from the very begining, Oxford has been the center of learning. It has produced some of the finest men and women this world has seen, 13 of all the British PM's etc. Sadly they wont let me take pics in there so got just the one at the entrance.

While enjoying The Oxford Story, I met a french girl Virgine. She is here for 3 weeks for some English classes. We both had been here for just a day and so wanted to visit the city. Chalked out a plan of the places to visit and started. Finally some company :)

The first place we went to was the Bale collection of Musical Instruments. They had a huge collection of various musical instruments from the last 2-3 centuries. Below is a picture of the different kinds of flutes that have been used by people over these many years.

Next in line was the Christ Church Meadow. Absolutely beautiful garden with a huge road to walk through. It also has a river through it. Got a little late for the boat ride so had to skip it.

An "interesting" sight near the end of the meadow :P

The meadow ended with a beautiful rose garden :)

Virgine had to go home so she took the bus from the nearest bus stop and I was now with some of the most beautifull architecture I have ever seen.

Evening... got back with my friend Andres from Manchester Univerisity. He is a phd student in particle physics who has come to attend the conference. His afternoon was all about meeting the prof's here as he is looking for a job. Now we decided to go to a nice place for dinner. Nice = Expensive!! but I had a budget. We went to this Chinese place "Peninsula Chinese Restaurant". Beautiful ambience and tasty food... served in the chinese style...but when it came to chopsticks..I gave up and they kindly got me forks.

Finally... the evening was filled with music by the two artists. Heard sonata's by Bach, Tartini Schubert etc... 2 hrs down the line... all I wanted them was to keep playing. So much so that I got back to my room and played Yanni for whole night. Ya sometimes I sleep with the music on... try it out...I have enjoyed it over the years.

Btw, the camera is taking on an average 200 photos per day :)

Finally at Oxford :)

2005-09-11T14:41:00.000-04:00

Before I left, few people who have been to Europe told me... there is nothing like this place on this planet. I have been here for almost 12 hours now and m begining to see what they mean.

Oxford, people here say is generally hot or warm but since last few days has been cold and drizzling too. After the heat of Houston, this was a welcome change to me. Landed at Gatwick in the morning and then took a train to Oxford. Long time I sat in a train... and this was a lovely experience. I came here in the afternoon and by 2:30 was already dressed to check out the place. Me and my camera...what more do I need :) Below are some photographs of the Jesus College where m residing as well as some shots of the city.

Train :

Jesus College:

City :

Long time no blog :)

2005-09-08T19:06:00.000-04:00

Almost a week I wrote something here :).... well have been busy busy busy. Getting set for the trip...flying saturday afternoon.

Man... so many things for the international travel. And on top of it when I saw the list of participants...everyone is a professor or a doctor and me... a Master's student. These guys are gonna rip me apart in the presentation. Well...I am gonna speak so much... won't give them a chance to ask something :P. Rehearsed with my prof today... he's happy...gives me some confidence. Got to add a few more slides.

Gonna go to Rice tmrw for a meeting with the physicsts there... then will rush back home and start packing. Don't think there will be a lot of stuff to pack but who knows. When it comes to packing I always prefer the earlier the better. Planning to take one big bag and my backpack.

Thanks to the organizers, yesterday they sent a long email with a list of lot many things, maps etc... so took a bunch of prints of the same. Gonna go to oxford from gatwick airport via rail...but Venkat adviced not to buy tickets online. Even I was thinking the same... so will take a look at the gatwick airport and off to oxford.

The goona provide free internet at the apartments too, all i need to do is take the data cable. Thats a big relief for a net addict like me.

They finish all the stuff on 15th evening... so lets see....might leave for london that evening or if m bored.. 15th morning itself. 14th afternoon is presentation so cant leave before 15th morning...even if m bored :P

London got in touch with mom's frnd so accomodation is taken care of.... thats a relief...believe me. Got in touch with Jasraj too... incase of change of plans will stay at his home but right now I guess m pretty much set. He's free on the weekend so I guess will visit the city with him. Camera is on the top of the list of things to take :D

Lemme get back to work now ppl... cya from UK ;)

Interesting Links of the day: Things you do when you are bored, Bad Designs

Welcome Weekend :)

2005-09-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time I saw some handwritten stuff from Vraj. Yesterday got a cheque from him and I was like... this is how his broken letters look like :P. All communication is typed nowadays... so now "Bad handwriting is a sign of the lack of a computer, not of imperfect education" (Hope Gandhiji doesn't mind me screwing up his quote :P)

This morning he shared some pics of his beauty...here's one

ISSSO assured me today that I don't need a new I20 to travel to UK. Otherwise mroe paperwork is a whole new ordeal. Even to take my lappie to UK I have to get a bunch of signatures.

Afternoon was some free pizza at B school with cookies :D followed by some nice music from a bunch of cool stations I found thanks to Winamp Media Library and the links Vraj gave me. Ok, I did some work too :P

Evening I had plans for a coffee with Claudia, she is an Academic Advisor for the Dept of Political Science. As her office in PGH is next to mine, we meet quite a few times and had started an interesting discussion sometime back. Today was the day to carry on that one. From topics like Israel and Palestine to 911 to India Pakistan to the PolSci Dept and graduate education in the PolSci Dept...man we talk about a hell lot of things. Oh ya by the end of it... also about playing pranks on people. Btw, while on one side she is the Academic Advisor, on the other side she is a Graduate Student too in the same dept. Working on her thesis... like me and planning to graduate in Dec.

Got loads to do this weekend...well got loads to do this semester :P...But right now m lazy...will work tmrw :) Have a nice weekend ppl...and if u got some money...happy shopping too :d

Interesting Links of the Day: Traffic, Firefox Plugin for Yahoo Mail Customization

Yuhuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!

2005-08-30T21:05:00.000-04:00

Today's mail made my day :D... checked in the morning and a packet was waiting for me in the Macgregor Office....a packet I was expecting should come anytime this week :)

UK Visa office from LA sent me my passport with a 180 days Category "C" Visitor's Visa for my London Trip. That was the last bit of uncertainity about my trip and it got resolved too :D Mailed my Prof and the Dept about it. Venkat gave me the UK power adapter for my laptop... and man... this thing looks like a gun...it is almost as long as my palm.

August is ending and now have a long list of things in queue. Sept 1 onwards... m gonna be busy like hell. Thesis...London Trip... Job Search...Writing Thesis...the list is endless. Hafta really get going now...the first and the last semesters are the busiest. And I sure wanna be done with things now...got to earn some moolah ;)

Interesting Links of the Day: Frying Eggs, SleepTracker

Finally the trophy :)

2005-08-26T09:30:00.000-04:00

Months back We won the Regionals of MS Imagine Cup and made it to the top 9 Nationally. Finally yesterday I got a chance to take a pic of mine with the trophy. We will be keeping the trophy in the CS Dept Showcase next week sometime.

Just a passing thought...

2005-08-23T19:10:00.000-04:00

Ever noticed how everything around you follows a pattern...is bound in a system. Some of these patterns are incomprehensible to us, we might not even notice the existance of some patterns while some are much more clear and evident.

Human nature has always been that of a curious one. That is one of the most prominent reasons for the current state of the art technology and lifestyle. At a basic level our primary needs of food, water and shelter made us figure out a few things and begin our life but above that, it is the inherent nature of wanting "to know" that has made us invent/discover things.

Though there are extensive courses on "Pattern Recognition" in Universities, observing and finding patterns is almost so natural to us that we don't notice it as a separate activity. Here is a simple way to find out how much is it in ur nature....just observe how many times a day do you use the word "LIKE"... how many times you compare things?

The reason I got thinking all this is the following quote I received in an email
"Courage: You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore" It makes you think beyond the obvious... beyond what is visible to basic senses.

The same is with systems.. man made or nature's systems. It is based on a set of rules...a sequence of actions lead to achieving something. And while one genius comes up with one system... there is always another one somewhere trying to figure it out and bend it or break it. And the battle goes on and on. Its a delight to watch... more so to be a part of it. Hacking, bribing are the prominent forms of how you try to get a way around the system and still achieve the same thing or a version of it. But they would be like too serious terms...in our daily life there are many times when we work around the system.

I have always been a curious guy when it comes to systems... computers or paperwork or whatever. And there have been countless times when I have bent the rules... stretched the limits...pulled strings everywhere I can to achieve something. My rule is "Don't break it... but if you can bend it...might as well". Well that applies to this rule too ;)

My personal belief is every system is flawed... its only a matter of time...nothing else till you figure out the loophole. Life is a constraint satisfaction problem... whats the best you can do within these limits. And everyday... someone raises the limits...wants more...is willing to go that extra mile. Hence new systems...new lifestyle. Every problem has a solution and every solution leads to a new problem. You can't escape the cycle... but to think of it... rather enjoy the cycle. It's fun... challenging... a joy ride. You why...coz..."LIFE MEANS MORE!!!"

An Interesting View ;)

2005-08-20T08:56:00.000-04:00

F**K ... Good or Bad???

2005-08-14T23:10:00.000-04:00

An Interesting Forward today:

Perhaps the most interesting and colorful words in English language today is the word "F**K". It is one magical word, which just by its sound can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. "F**K" falls into many systematical categories. It can be used as a verb, both transitive (John f**ked Marry) and intransitive (Marry was f**ked by John). It can be an active verb (John really gives a f**k) or a positive verb (Marry doesn't give a f**k) an adverb (Marry is f**king interested in John) and as a noun (Marry is a fine f**k). It can be used as an adjective (Marry is f**king beautiful). As you can see there aren't many words with the versatility of "F**K". Besides the sexual connotation, this lovely vocabulary can be utilized to describe many situations. For example: -

FRAUD: I got f**ked by my insurance agent.
DISMAY: Oh f**kit!
TROUBLE: I guess I'm f**ked now.
AGGRESSION: F**k You!!
PASSIVE: F**k me !
CONFUSION: What the f**k.
DIFFICULTY: I can't understand this f**king business.
DESPAIR: F**ked again.
PHILOSOPHICAL: Who gives a f**k.
INCOMPETENCE: He's all f**ked up.
DISPLEASURE: What the f**k is going on.
REBELLION: Oh, what the f**king hell.

It can be used in descriptive anatomy: He's is a f**king asshole.
It can be used to tell time: It's five f**king thirty.
It an be used in business: How did he get this f**king job.
It can be nautical: F**k the Admiral.
It can be political: F**k the President.
It can open the door to a wonderful relationship: Let's f**k.

The mind fairly boggles at the many creative uses. How can be anyone be offended when you say "F**K". Use it in your daily speech. It adds to your prestige. Today just go ahead and tell someone, "F**K YOU".

Interesting Links of the Day : 404, Aerial Photography, Store Wars

Long Day :)

2005-08-12T22:49:00.000-04:00

Had a list of things to do for today and still some work is pending... but what the hell... I am done for today.

The top priority today was meeting Dr. Lawrence Pinsky, Chair of the Physics Dept at UH. Wanted to have him on my Thesis Commitee. Had an appointment for 10 but had to wait till 11. And when I get in, he was expecting me to ask him some fundamental questions on Particle Physics. Well... I said all I want is a yes from you for my commitee and he is like sure... where do I sign. I am thinking ....I prepared this proposal for you to read and thought you might ask me stuff but this guy is damn cool. Still gave him stuff to read and he is like... m interested. Well Thanks a bunch...I was wondering if it will be easy to get him.

Had thought of getting done with my paperwork for waivers but no luck. They have changed some rules and no one has a clue how to do the new paper work. This I find out after running around the campus for freaking 2 hours. Sucks big time!!

Evening was home and set the kitchen again as Shrinand, the other new roomie got a lot of stuff from India. Had invited my neighbours for tea... spent sometime chatting with them. Made nice dinner today... Aloo capsicum, Moong dal and rice. Hearty dinner and m a happy man :)

Btw, got a good news :D Oxford conference has accepted my paper. Got the email in the afternoon :). And its a talk this time...not some poster. Will be fun to talk in Oxford University to those guys... ya excited and nervous at the same time. Lets see what happens :)

Got some plans for the weekend, hope I get done with some work. You guys have a nice weekend.

Interesting link of the day : Water Balloon

They are already here !!!

2005-08-10T22:35:00.000-04:00

Ya it's that time of the year when you see a lot of new faces around you. Brings back memories... makes me nostalgic :). All the more so as I talk to the freshers. Talked to a few guys and helped them a bit getting adjusted to UH. From signing lease and bank accounts to cougar cards and job hunting...have answered quite a few questions. Feels nice to do my bit for these guys.

There were days when I used to go around the campus in the scorching heat looking for jobs...sometimes forgot to have my lunch too. Confused about courses, projects to do, teammates to make... ended up meeting a whole new bunch of people and believe it or not...each one taught me something ... for good or for worse. Met some I would never want to see again... met some I would never want to be away from. Reminds of what Venkat wrote once in an email to the class: It takes all kinds of people to make this world :)... so true.

I landed here on 11th Aug evening. Tmrw it will be two years :). Look back and I feel a sense of achievement. Have earned a few laurels, grabbed a few opportunites as they came my way. Have a good number of people to thank for that....hmmm which means the "Acknowledgement" section in the thesis is going to be a long one. Hope to graduate this december... want to increase the bank balance now :)

Interesting link of the day : Spirals

Touching words :)

2005-08-07T16:43:00.000-04:00

Friendship grows out of chance...
Meeting a mere glance and then a smile...
and touches the heart in more ways than one !
Isn't it great how we have grown...
From being perfect strangers
to who we are today !

I am so fortunate to have found
a wonderful friend like you !

--From a beautiful card by a close friend :)

Thought for the day

2005-08-04T13:28:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it's good to keep from giving words to whats on your mind. Perspectives vary more than you can imagine and everyone has their version of a story which is both right and wrong.

And now for some INSULTS!!!

2005-07-30T10:32:00.000-04:00

1) If I had a Face like yours... i wud sue my Parents

2) Do you always sound this stupid or Is today a special occasion?

3) Oh How did you get here...Did somebody leave your cage open??

4) Hey you! You know what ..you are mentally backward, physically awkward and dentally forward

5) If I threw a bone... would you leave??

6) If you can't laugh at yourself leave the job to others.

7) Have a nice day but don't have it here

8) Do you look like that or is it Halloween today?

9) I ask: "Hi, Are you a model"?
He/She(gushing and smiling):"oh, no no...."
I say:"Yeah, You dont look like one also"!!!!

10) Your voice is out of this world...why dont you follow it and stay there..??

11) I cant seem to remember your name now.....and please dont try to help me out!

12) I am not shy... I just don't like you

13) He is dark and handsome......when its dark, he is handsome

14) I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception

15) Your brain has two parts .. a left and a right ... the left has nothing right in it and the right has nothing left in it.

16) Dont smile..........It scares people !!!

17) Let me help you out... which way did you get in????

18) It's ok to be an idiot... just don't overdo it!!

19) Everyone is entitled to be stupid but you're abusing the privilege

20) Hey, I don't know if you're aware but, there are these two things you can put together and use everyday to make people around you smile... they're called, SOAP AND WATER!

21) Do you practice to be stupid or is it inborn.

22) GOD loves u...everyone eLse thinks dat u r an ASSHOLE !!!

23) You should have been born in the Dark Ages; you look terrible in the light

24) I hear you changed your mind! What did you do with the diaper?

25) I'm busy now. Can I ignore you some other time?

26) You have an inferiority complex -- and it's fully justified.

27) Everytime I see you, you make me want smile ... then point n laugh !

28) Do you know how to play dead ? ... will you ?

29) Mirrors can't talk and luckily for you they can't laugh either !!

30) I really want punch hard on your face but .......that might improve your looks

My Favs:

1) When u r Born, Cloud parted
God appeared b4 all mankind and proclaimed
"Sorry, No Exchange Or Refund available for the defect"

2) He is so short that he is the last one to know its raining.

3) You are hip hop,tip top,non-stop, and now please full stop.

4) AAHHHHCCHHHOOOO ! sorry I'm allergic to bullshit !

Unwell

2005-07-28T20:24:00.000-04:00

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be

Entire Lyrics here

How about these on your T-Shirts :)

2005-07-27T21:23:00.000-04:00

Innovative statements on shirts have always been something that have caught my attention.

Some cool ones I found on orkut:

Do you beleive in Love at first sight or should I drive past you again?
I talk to myself because I like dealing with a better class of people.
Of all the things I have lost ... I miss my mind the most
I am the person your parents warned you about!!
BORN FREE : My dad is a Doctor
I wanted to kill the smartest person in the world but then i realised that suicide is a crime.
Mind if I stand here until it's safe where I farted
Smile is the second best thing which You can do with your Lips
I am not opinionated... I am just always right
If I want your opinion I'll give it to you!
I got my looks from my Father.. He's a plastic surgeon!
Most ppl are alive only because its illegal to shoot them.. and you are one of those lucky assholes
I'm a lesbian trapped in this man's body

My fav: I'm busy,You are Ugly,Go Away!

Cleaning and Party Time!!!

2005-07-24T11:14:00.000-04:00

Friday night saw the departure of my roomie, Pavan, to his new apartment. We stayed together for a year and now he got a car... hence wanted to shift to a better place in town. M still with my old apartment in macgregor... this august it will be two years!!

So saturday morning I was completely in the mood to clean. Friday night was a great combo of some good coding, a conference call with Jay in india and yahoo pool with Bhumi. Had dozzed off at 4 but here I am up at 9 in the morning and wanting to clean up my place. Two hours later my room, the living room and the dining space are spik and span. Rearranged some of the furniture too. Amit will move out next week and then will shift to his room. So the next batch of house cleaning is next week when he moves out. And then the whole house will make you question if I live in Macgregor... some ppl already are asking me :P

Brinda was leaving for india in the afternoon. Called her up before she took her flight, donno when will I get a chance to talk to her next. Done with her MS in Pharmacy Administration, she now plans to work in India. When I had first met her and she had told me this is what m here for.... I asked her ... and why do you need all that... aren't you guys supposed to open up a medical shop. And she was like... dude!! there's much more to pharmacy... not just shops as the Indians know it. Good luck Brinda for the future endeavours :)

Had a great Saturday Night!!! Madhuri invited us all for dinner at her place. And boy... did we enjoy it.. u bet!! Saurabh picked me, Bala and Bhargav. We took some nice Flowers and German Chocolate Cake for Madhuri. Reached there at 7:20 and pakoda's, nacho snacks are already awaiting us. In parallel saw the recorded version of some nice "Sa Re Ga Ma" episodes on theri TV. Madhuri's son Anmol showed us some magic tricks from his magic box. Later on played with him and his battery controlled car. Would have won but he cheated :P....ya m a kid once u get me such toys :P. Soon was dinner time and what a menu :d. Mattar panner, muschroom beans, dahi vada and chole. For the non veggies.. she had chicken too. And soon someone made the comment...Madhuri the food is great... how do we know that... Puneet is eating silently :P. Ya m everyone's benchmark on tasty food. Her husband, Atul, was also great company. Cracking jokes all the time and he just jelled with us in a few minutes. Dessert was Blue bell Vanilla Ice cream, apple pie and the cake... wow what a closing to such a great dinner.

Later on... she packed us some food and tonight we four are gonna gather at my place and party again :D.

Why Geeks and Nerds are worth Dating!!!

2005-07-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

Before you read further... two things : 1) Got this as a forward and 2) The right pane shows my nerd score to be 94/100 ;)

1) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.
Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so
skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards
the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind...”

10) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...

14) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...

15) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me."

A Rant about Linguistic Morons

2005-07-18T18:58:00.000-04:00

I am from the land which is a potpourri of languages. From a few similar sounding ones to some which are utterly incomprehensible to me. And this is the outcome of that.

Sitting in the college shuttle... someone gets on, talking on their cell phone. It was a calm atmosphere but no more. Suddenly we have to hear.. at the highest possible volume... someone rattling off god knows what. The headphones m wearing are no good to "protect" me. I see the look on the faces of my fellow shuttle mates...and the smile we exchange says it all. Ya, m as blank as you are. And ya.. m as pissed off as you are. I pity the person who was next to this "moron". Utter lack of decency and regard for other people around you. That is the only explanation for this. Either lower your volume or hangup for a few minutes. PGH to Cam oaks is not more than 3-4 minutes.

Shuttles are not the only locations where m a victim of this. Sadly there are phones at my work place too. And my fellow colleagues share this pain with me. It's one of the most irritating experiences to sit next to someone and hear them blabber , what is rubbish to me, for more than an hour-- ya you read that right MORE THAN AN HOUR. What better way to ruin your Friday afternoon.

Shifting gears for a second, the american way of saying that you dislike something or don't quite agree with something but would not want to comment is "That's an interesting view". So quite a few "interesting" things happening in the Indian community at UH in the last few days.

A message for both the linguistic morons and few members of the Indian community:
"Growing old is mandatory, growing up... well that's optional!!". And you guys are the living proof of it :P

Ab ke saawan jam ke barse :)

2005-07-14T16:40:00.000-04:00

Today is the 4th day when this has happened. It strikes 2 in the afternoon and all the clouds begin their party. And it pours like anything :)

Was in PGH when it started raining. Decided to spend sometime with the rain. Went to the breezeway and found a nice corner to enjoy the rain. Stood there seeing its beauty. Washing away everything around without a 2nd thought. No biases. And spreading the feeling of freshness. But memories it did bring and thoughts too. Can't seem to escape them, haven't spent anytime in learning the art of controling my mind. Hence it's inevitable.

Even when alone just with the rain, m not alone. Thoughts of places I have seen, people I have met, battles I have won and lost... they all come to meet me. Some nice ones, others not so nice ones. But the rain helps me wash it all away. Cleanses me, Embraces me, Plays with me without asking me who I am or who I want to be. Does not look at me with someone else's eyes.

Aur jab kissine mujhe se kahan ki dekho yeh badal kaise jor jor se baras rahe hai to main bola "badal bhi insaano ki tarah hote hai... jab tak aanson rok liye tab tak rok liye... phir jab nahi raha jaata to bas baras padte hai"

Us ek hi baarish ke baare mein 2 kitne alag khayal :)

Wassup ppl!!

2005-07-12T21:47:00.000-04:00

Hey ppl, some time since my last entry :). Had a nice weekend.

Sunday Purva treated us with lunch in Madras Pavallion and then coffee in Crossroads. She is leaving for Sprint this week. Got another good news. Heard that Abhay has been called for Ph.D interview at Virgina. It would be great if he makes it there. Best Luck dude!!

Have booked my tickets for Oxford. 9 days program :). 5 in Oxford, 4 in London. Jasraj is gonna be there then, also got Vishal from my school days. Should be a fun weekend in london :). Had to fax them a credit card authorisation form. To fill it up, used an electronic typewriter for the first time today :)

Since 2 days hooked to the remix of "Pyar Zindagi hai". Find it here. Just love the beats and the DSP Effect.

For ppl who want to some good movies, here are two good ones. 1) A Fish called Wanda (Hillarious British Comedy) 2) Any given Sunday (Al Pacino...need I say more)

Btw, hows this for pulling someone's leg : Your handwriting is so ugly, that even your printed work is illegible :P.

Ya I got nasty brains :D

Musings :)

2005-07-08T21:59:00.000-04:00

Ever watch a movie based on a novel and (unfortunately) bump into some guy who read the novel. He with all the attitude on the planet will blabber "The book was much betterrrrrrrrrrrrrr than the movie. You should have read it...yada yada yada". You know what...I enjoyed something much more in the movie...NO READING!! :P

Reading reminds me how sometimes we end uo buying books we think we will read but never really get a chance to read them. And the book is gathering dust in your book shelf when someone drops in and this is what happens:

Guy: Hey dude, hows that book, the title seems interesting?
U: Haven't really read it.
Guy: Oh I guess someone gave it to you as a gift or something, not your kinda book haaa??
U: I bought it in my high school
Guy: Hmm it's been here for long, anyways can I borrow it for a few days
U: NO!!

And then you might reconsider depending on the guy else the book stays there gathering more dust :P. And your mind is talking to you : "I ain't reading but don't you dare ask it :P"

Enjoy ppl, have a nice weekend everyone :)

Going to Oxford, UK :D

2005-07-07T19:24:00.000-04:00

Yo ppl... My advisor confirmed it today. He is sending me for a week to Oxford in September for this conference. We are working on a paper for the same. This one deals with my thesis. So that should help me graduate this december :). Shared the news with a close friends immediately and then sent a mail to my undergrad class.

It so happens one of my classmates, Jasraj, is going to be in London for some training. I will probably plan the trip so that can meet him too.

In the thrill and joy of the news that I got at 11:30... whole day = no work :P. Had work but then all mood gone :D The first thing after this news is celebrate :D. Well in my world that boils down to (or may be melts down to) ice cream and cake. Now the ice cream in vending machines is an insult to the very word "ice cream". Starbucks closed else would have taken some cake from them. What to do..what to do...???

Called up Saurabh and said take me somewhere, m sponsoring ice cream. Got two Haggin Daaz from Kroger and shared with all at office. Rest is lying in the fridge on the 5th floor , PGH ;), donno for how long though :P

Afternoon saw some movie, browsed etc... I just can't work today. The feeling has yet not sunk in that in a single year life has given me a second chance to go Europe .... all expenses paid :D

Child's Play

2005-07-05T10:09:00.000-04:00

1: teli chai to khatam, meli coffee to galam galam hai, dingo dingo

2: main to machaale wali chai pi dingo dingo

1: main to french vanilla pi la hu dingo dingo

2: Now I am jealous

1: mails ka kaam khatam , main first main first... dingo dingo

2: tele ko koi bhi mail nahi likhta.....mujht itneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee salee log kalte hain ...dingo dingo..lekin main thak jaat hoon..chab ko check kalke...

1: main to nahi thakta, meli to enelgi bach jaati hai... phir tu mere saath khelegi na to main tujhe hala dunga...kyon tu to thakeli hai

2: apan langdli kehlenge...tab main teleko dhakka malungi

1: cheatel cheatel... main tujhe pele hi hala dunga na, tu kya dhakka maalegi

2: main naa...teleko bhagne hi nai dungi....tere ko lassi she baandh dungi dingo dingo

1: kitni bali cheatel hai.. main teli complain kal dunga sab ki mummy se, sab tuje na bahut na daantege

2: sabki mummy ko main pachand hun....main to achchi bachchi hoon na...tu to gandu bachcha hai...main to homewok bhi kalti hoon...tu to shaala din tv dekhta hai..main bol dungi sabko ....dingo dingo

1: tu aachi bacchi tholi hai... tu to dhakka maalti hai... cheating kalti hai... main sab ko bata dunga na phil tujhe koi pachand nahi kalega... phil sab tele se katti kal lenge

2: main shab ko apni chokkate deke fil she batti kal lungi..tele ko nahi dungi ...

1: Mummy Pappa ne baant baant ke khane ki aadat daal di

2: barish ki photu mili?

1: pehle se thi mele paas

2: mujhko jala laha hai

1: to tu kyon jal li hai

2: aur mele paas na burnol bhi nai hai

1: ice cleam laga le... thandi thandi hoti hai na

2: Nai...main uski sambhal ke lakhti hoon..khatam ho jayegi...to..

2: roomie..nai lane deti jyada

1: kyon nahi laane deti

1: katti hai tujhse?

2: woh bolti hai...shaldi hogi

2: mele to pelhe se khanshi hai...aur main to glycodin bhi leti hoon...fir bhi nahi khane deti

1: tu chinta mat kal... main khilaunga tele ko, apni waali ice cleam dunga... apan bestestest flnd hai na, main tele ko khila dunga

2: yeaaa....main naa..fil tele ko apne shaale gleen stals kal wale dungi

2: Tela teacher..to teleko mail hi nahi kalta..

1: tela to tele se paleshan hoke baag gaya

2: woh to ghumne gaya..meleko nai le gaya

1: tele ko koi nahi lejayega

1: tu sab ko paleshan kalti hai na

2: katti

2: tu gandu...bachcha

1: tu bhi gandi gandi gandi bacchi

1: sabse jyada gandi bacchi to

2: tu gestestestestestestestestest bachcha

1: tu gandi raise to infinity bacchi

2: main tele she baat nai kaungi

1: kyon

2: kyon ki tune mele ko infinity gandi bola..

1: mene to tele ko ice cleam di thi, tune pele mujhe gandu bola

2: thik hai...apne dono ka gandu gandu..cancel

2: apan ki batti

1: yeaaaaa

1: batti baati

2: daal baati nahi

2: batti

2: tujhe shab...khana dikhta hai

2: hehe

2: tu bhi mele jaicha hai..

2: bas thola sha lamba hai

(I bet there were two children in different voices talking in you head :) )

Fun and work :)

2005-07-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

Ya both going on hand in hand during the weekend :). Almost done with the first chapter for my thesis, gonna show it to prof on tuesday. At the same time saw a few movies, and had a fun trip to Galveston today.

Pavan wanted to take a long drive in his car and so Amit, Me and Parmav joined him in a trip to Galveston. Though the traffic was too bad while going but we managed to reach in about 2 hrs. Went into sea water after a long time... I can't even remember when was the last time I was there. Though the water isn't that clean and has a lot of weeds, still spent about 30-40 mins in it. Then took a walk on the beach...went back to the car and drove to the east beach. Spent some time there too and finally headed back home around 6. On the way I picked up some Gatorade and a Snickers bar while these guys got Coke and Beer. We were too exhasuted and thisrty and really needed something to fill us up.

Woke up today morning with a very scary dream, very very scary. Woke up with such a jolt that my head was aching till 11-12. Just rushed to the restroom and sat under the shower for a while. M glad it isn't true :) I guess thats why when these guys decided for Galveston, I immediately joined in, wanted to get out for a while and breath fresh air.

Saw Get Shorty. Be Cool is it's part 2. Both movies have great subtle comedy and I like it. Its a nice see. Have a nice 4th of July ppl, hope you make the best of the sales :)

The Way I See It

2005-07-01T22:48:00.000-04:00

"The Way I See It" is a wonderful series of Starbucks. Their coffee glasses have quotes from eminent people. I had gone for lunch to Taco Bell yesterday and they had run out of glasses for soft drinks. So they were using Starbucks glasses to give drinks. The one I got had this on it:

"The world bursts at the seams with people ready to tell you you're not good enough. On occasion, some may be correct. But do not do their job for them. Seek any job; ask anyone out; pursue any goal. Don't take it personally when they say "no" - they may not be smart enough to say "yes" ."

I guess Nike sums it up in 3 words - "Just Do It" :). Or one of the dialogues in some movie I was watching "In this Life, there are nothing but possibilities."

I like the last sentence of that quote a lot...they may not be smart enough to say yes :). Many a times, it's our tendency to look for faults in ourselves... what's wrong with me, what did I do wrong? I donno why we are so sure that the other person is correct. Is it a strange feeling of Insecurity in us?? Is it the lack of knowledge of one's own potential? Reminds me of The Oracle's words to Neo in Matrix I : "Know Thyself" :)

Take my Hand... Take my Life... Just don't take Forever

2005-06-27T00:14:00.000-04:00

That's from the song "Climbing the Walls" by Backstreet Boys in their new album "Never Gone". Last week I saw a Behind the Music about the band. Sometime back the band broke apart and everyone just went their own ways. This Jan they reunited and June 2005 saw them make a comeback with this album. As always, the did not fail to impress me with both the music and lyrics.

My favs : Climbing the wall, Never Gone, Siberia and Unloved.

Came across this wonderful speech by Rajat Kumar Gupta, the former managing director of McKinsey & Company.

Yesterday made kadhi for the first time, turned out great :). Had a hearty meal, enjoyed it so much that I forgot to blog :P. Aaj ki afternoon spent in starbucks. Got a Mocha Frappucino and spent some time watching a few videos.

Btw, I have actually tried this... (on a few ppl, not just one or two)

Me: How was the day?
Guy: Alrite :)
Gal: Oh, you know what , you won't believe this.... (45 min conversation)

Well not much of a conversation as all m saying is "hmm, ok, ahan, oh, r u kidding me...." :P

Btw, you know what's worse than Tax...Insurance. They should not have called it Insurance. Rathe should be "InCaseShit". Ya, that's what its all about. You give them money so that "Incaseshit" happens you will probably be taken care of. But did someone ever tell them that incase shit did not happen, ain't I supposed to get the money back. Guess the difference between an insured and uninsured guy is the first one gets to die on a matteress :P

Light Romantic Mood :)

2005-06-26T20:40:00.000-04:00

Playing sweet music by Yanni :). The current song : A Love for Life. Brings back memories of a music presentaion Vraj and I made for our undergraduate class by the same name :).

Today afternoon made this beautiful collage using Picassa.

Combined two of the most beautiful roses I had :)

Has been a nice weekend. Completed a .NET Series I had been learning for a week. And started another :). Ya Learning never stops. And it never should.

Bhumi just called, she got her self a new Sony Laptop from CompUsa :). Congrats!! And she si already in the software installation mode, yeh daalu, woh daalu :P

Pavan got himself a 1999 Chevy Geo Prism car. He is yet to get a license so the car should be here in a few days. Congrats to you too!!

Having pasta today, after a long time...

In the true spirit of White Castle!!

2005-06-24T19:31:00.000-04:00

It was another regular Friday. Not much work at Bauer College. I am listening to Backstreet Boys album "Never Gone". Chatting with a few friends etc...

Strikes 12 and Saurabh comes to office. I am planning to go for lunch in a while as am damn hungry. I ask him , how about Bennigans. Well he got a speeding ticket sometime back and so has to go to the Municipal Court at 1. We decide, we will get done with the court by 1:30 and then head for Bennigans.

1 we are the court. Before they let you in, they almost strip search you :P. Anyways, we go and sit in court 12. Never having seen a speeding ticket, I just ask him to show me his. I am like, this looks like a grocery bill. Anyways, I am scanning and it says the trial is in court 11. So m laughing at it and we get out of 12 and head to 11. 11 is closed and there are a bunch of people sitting outside. The next thing I see is , the trial is scheduled for 25th, today is 24th. I am like dude, is this really your ticket. Saurabh is like, I got a few appointments tomorrow so I want to be done with this today. A lady informs us that go to the information desk, they will schedule it for you in another courtroom.

So we come back to the basement and she send us to room 139. Now this room looks like a courtroom. So many people, a judge and some of his assistants. I am like, so for the first time I get to see how is a real court. Anyways, it 1:20 by now and all we have done so far is find a courtroom for ourselves. A lady announces that everyone take your seats, the judge will call your names as he receives your documents from our database. Cool, well what can you do but wait. Wait on a hungry stomach, now that's too much to ask for. Well finally the judge calls him at 2. Gives him a probation for 5 months, some fine which is refundable etc... But it ain't over yet. Please go back to your seat while my assistants process your application, then you can take your paperwork and pay the cashier. Another 30 mins gone while I play minigolf on my cellphone.

2:30 we are out. Meanwhile I have left a message to Paul that we are going to be late for office. Anyways, done with the speeding ticket issue and lets eat now. So there is a Bennigans at I-45 and we head towards that. In the traffic we miss the exit and the next exit after it is about 1.5 miles. God alone knows where have we landed ourselves. As there was a lot of traffic on 610, we decide to take inner routes to reach back to Bennigans. Going through those roads, we reach a railway crossing with a train there. No sign of it moving. Turn back, lets goto I-45 some other route. On the way we see George's Pizzeries. Saurabh is like I have had food here and it's good. Park the car only to find out, it's closed. Why, coz now its over 3. Btw, Saurabh hasn't had anything since morning while I had just some milk and cornflakes.

No probs, lets find another way out. Drop into a gas station to ask him. Turns out the guy can speak just urdu. Well still I get what he says. So we are on our way to I-45. On the way , we see the exit for Scott Street. I am like, lets just goto school and on the way grab food from Taco Bell. Ya, we are so hungry now that we anyways wont be able to differentiate between Veg primevera and a Chalupa. So we are on scott street but we don't know whether to go right or left, which way is school. We take left and keep going. Suddenly notice it's 10000 Scott street and finally it comes to an end. Ok, so we had to take right. Well turn around and keep going. Finally reach Taco near the HEB. Suddenly, Saurabh is like, no we ain't going to Taco. I am hungry since morning and m in no mood to eat some taco stuff.

So the new plan. Lets pack our stuff from school and goto Madras Pavallion. We reach school at 4 and leave in 10 mins. I am skeptical about Madras as by the time we reach there it will be around 5. Our heads are aching like anything due to the heat and hunger. And the entire journey from school to MP is silent. We are too tired to talk. Well, anyhow we make it to MP only to find the restaurant open but the kitchen closed. Jezzzzzzzzzzz, the expression on my face makes the waiter realize that I could eat a man now. Ok Hilcroft now. Its already 4:50

Hilcroft it is and finally the first place we find is Bombay Sweets. Ya, it has the ugliest buffet in the entire Hilcroft area but today it tasted like Chappan Bhog. Order the buffet with Mango Lassi. 5:10 and we start eating. Finally Saurabh drops me home at about 6:30.

Since last few days, I had been craving to have something interesting to blog about. I guess God heard me. I guess Richard Bach was right when he said "Be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it!"

Have a nice weekend everybody :)

Laugh a bit :D

2005-06-23T19:01:00.000-04:00

I have always been a lover of comedy. Turn on the TV and the first channel I flipped to, in India, was Cartoon Network. Ya, who the hell cares if Pakistan proposed another meeting for Kashmir or the stock market went down by 100 points. News is not my cup of tea and politics is not even the last thing I would want to talk about.

US TV network turned out to be a nice collection of comedy series for me. Seinfeld, Raymond, Friends etc.. I can just go on watching them one after the other. So I thought how about sharing a few of the dialogues from these series today :)

Seinfeld:
George -> dermatologist, what kind of profession is that. A doctor for skin!! , You don't need a doctor for skin. Wash it, dry it, move on...

Kramer -> Oh this slicer, it cuts so thin slices, sometimes I can't even see them....(How do you know you cut them)... I guess I just ASSUME!!

Elaine -> I met this lawyer, we went out, I had the lobster bisque. We went back to my place, yadda yadda yadda, I never saw him again... (You yadda yadda'd over the best part) ... No I didn't. I mentioned the bisque.

Raymond:
Frank -> (Marie is talking that she wants to go out and work, not be just another trophy wife)... Oh ya, you don't want to be another trophy wife!! And what contest in hell did I win??

Marie -> (Debra starts cleaning vessels)... Oh leave it Debra, I will do it... (It's ok Marie, cleaning is cleaning, here or at my home)...That's what you think!!

Friends:
Phoebe -> They don't know that we know that they know that we know and Joey you can't say anything. (Joey -> Even if I wanted too :D )

Phoebe's Song -> Smelly cat, smelly cat.... What are they feeding you :)

Joey -> Hey I got my big break, I got it!! (What role did you get)...I am playing in an Alpacino movie... (Oh Ya!!!)... Ya there is this scene where he is bathing and I have to play his butt!!

Hey, I could just go on and on and on :). These are evergreen series man. Jokes out of daily lives, real humor. Any bollywood directors, LISTENING!!!

Btw, as you must have noticed, added some background music to blog. If you wanna do it for yours, add the following lines in the "body tag"of the template. Replace the mp3 link with something you like. This music today is Rainforest :)

On Death :)

2005-06-19T23:54:00.000-04:00

I bet you have wondered about it quite a few times. About how would it be, when and where? What would be left pending due to your demise? Who would mourn about it and who would rejoice? Would anyone even mourn? What would people say in your obituary? Or no one would even find your body? How painful would it be or would it come in a flash and you wont even notice?

I don't want to get in the list of questions as the list is pretty much very personal for each of us and albeit a long one too I guess. But want to talk about something else.

I kind of like that Life will end some day. That there is an unknown (at least to me) into which I will dive in. Maybe rebirth, maybe something else. Who cares. But it will be something new, a fresh start. Its not about whether it will be better or worse, that's not a concern at all. For that matter even if you know it's better or worse, you can't do much about it. So chill!! :) But it definitely will be NEW :). I am not concerned with the religious or spiritual aspect of it, at least not right now. Rather just love the idea that no matter what you do today, tomorrow you can be some place in some form you have no clue about. And that tomorrow can be 5 minutes down the line!!!

That gives me the chance to think what if today is my last day. And I do think about it a number of times. But practically. Yah no point in sitting down and thinking oh I got to do this for my parents, this for my friends etc... Live life one day at a time. Live it Right Now!! This very thought puts a lot of things in a different perspective. About the value of things you are doing on a daily basis. About the effort you put and should put in there. The value of the different people in your lives right now and those who no longer are.

On one side this can bring in a careless attitude in our lives as to who cares when finally one day we are going to burn to ashes anyways. The "in the end it does not matter" attitude to almost anything in life. Though I can't be like that, people make it big with ideology too. I guess things do fall in place at the right time for some of us.

On the other side, you can be all about giving your best for today. Yah, its not practically possible but the effort is worth the very idea of Death. Again , that's the perfectionist in me talking :D. But for me, at the end of the day I should feel good about the things I did. Sometimes that doesn't happen and the feeling carries itself to the next day. But again am not like those who see themselves in the mirror and say "Today is your last day, what are you gonna do about it". So ya sometimes am pissed off for a few days or occupied with the same thing.

(Just struck me, I guess am one of those who always divide things into two :P)

In a way a combo of both the above ideas work out well. Like there is no point being pissed off with people all your life. Forget it about, who cares. Walk a new path, start a new journey. They are anyways strangers now. In such cases, it does not matter in the end. But when it comes to your work, your passion, the people in your life right now, family, friends etc..., well then I don't go with that attitude. It has to 110% or more :D. I look at myself as an artist. And hence each of things I do have to be a work of art. With beauty, elegance and technology blended in an awesome form.

Stephen Covey summed up the idea very well in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" when he stated one of the habits as "Begin with the end in mind" :). Love that thinking and try to live by it.

At the end of the day, its Cool that there's Death. You need to shutdown or reboot no matter how good the OS is!

Identify a child's talent :P

2005-06-16T16:43:00.000-04:00

How would you know if a child is a born to be a software developer and nothing else. How about looking for a clue in his alphabets notebook :

A - Abstract
B - Bill Gates
C - Class
D - Design
E - Encapsulation
F - Functions
G - Google
H - Heap
I - Interface
J - Java
K - Knuth
L - Localhost
M - Microsoft
N - .NET
O - Objects
P - Polymorphism
Q - Queue
R - Runtime
S - Software
T - Testing
U - User
V - Variable
W - Windows
X - XML
Y - Yahoo
Z - Zip

Looks like this guy is going to be working on the Microsoft's Windows.... naah Longhorn Platform.

Got a few catchy lines in mail, posting my favs among them:

1)Many terrorists come to America legally and hang around on expired Visas (some for as long as 10-15 years). At Blockbuster you're two days late with a video rental and those people are all over you. I think we should put Blockbuster incharge of US Immigrations.

2)Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?

3)Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you don't see him excited, make him a sandwhich!!

4)Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Enjoy!! :)

The Enlightenment before Exams :P

2005-06-15T16:57:00.000-04:00

Ever talked to a bunch of students a few hours before their exams. And you will see how enlightened all of them are. (Ya even I have said almost of these :D)

"Yeh sab moh maya hai"
"All ppl who made it to the top are high school or college drop outs"
"I am to smart to have to prove it in exams"
"There's more to life than books and exams"
"Practical knowledge is what matter, what can answering a 100 marks paper get you"
"These exams stop me from working on my ideas"
"This education system is incapable of measuring my talents"

Exams over... Lets go watch a movie :P, all enlightenment lost :). I guess exams are there so that we may those short moments of enlightenment in life:P

On Opinions

2005-06-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

It is probably a talent, maybe even a blessing for oneself and curse for others, to have an opinion. But what is more so a talent is the ability to stand by it, defend it and justify it. People who have an opinion of their own are probably a rare but frightening species. And the rest of the planet is the one that has "the general opinion". Ya, mostly its always easy to classify people into two sets.

There have been a million occasions when I have worked like anything to keep my mouth shut. People try to drag you into a topic and then ask the most dreaded question "What do you feel about it, whats your opinion?" I am like, lets not even go there, that is not the path you want to tread. Reminds me of a quote"Before you ask the questions, do you really want to know the answers?" Most of the times, the question asked is not what they have in their mind. What they really want to ask is "Do you agree with us?"

There is a very subtle difference between the two. The intention behind the first one is to see the other persons view point, whether you agree or disagree. You want to see the other side of the coin. Maybe you will see drasticly different, probably hostile views. But then you asked for it. The mind is like the duck. Calm on the surface but pedalling furiously underneath. Similarly if you judge a person on face value and then ask for his thoughts, dont be surprised to be surprised :)

The other one is like an election candidate's question. He is out there to gather all like minded people. And if he does not find enough, he will go to great extents to change your mind. People have probably forgotten the very meaning of words like "discussion" and "listening". Its all about proving my point, showing I am correct. Its like a race between two people or two sets of people as to who talks more. Listening to the other guy, why would you do that? I am out of my breath so let him speak for a while.

To have a mind of ones own is the worst thing that can happen to a human being. Or the best thing!!

You have heard all your life people complain about "wearing faces". When you meet X, you are something, when you meet Y, you are something else. And then rants about why cant we be "ourselves"... When I hear them say so, sometimes I can't control my laughter. How can someone ask for something so implausible, utterly impractical!! We all have grown up in different environments, seeing life in our own way. How do you expect me to be the same guy, when I meet all varied kinds of people. Life has given each of us our own set of prejudices, likes and dislikes. And, fortunately or unfortunately, we hold on to them pretty tightly. So how do you expect me to deal with all these varied people using a single face, a single personality. Earlier, again thanks to the bombardment of thoughts on me by others, I used to think I am flawed in doing so. I should not wear faces etc.. but the way I see it now, forget living, even the bare minimum existance is impossible without that.

Other people are an inevitable part of our lives. And we have to deal with them. And hence comes the part of wearing faces. However, you always know that there is the "person" in you who is only a part of that face, there is much more to you. The "Be Yourself" part. You fear losing it or maybe you already have lost it. But if you haven't, then you always want the chance to be that person sometimes. The sour truth, ya its sour (truth generally is), is 99% of the time you can be yourself just with yourself. Remember the last time you were home alone for a while but with not much to do. Before even going further, just think about this "Are you even comfortable being just with yourself?" Can you spend sometime just with yourself? Do you look forward to spending time with yourself or is it your worst nightmare come true? Can you even BE YOURSELF?? So how did it feel to be at home like that. And what are your immediate reactions when you are home like that. Ponder over this for a while and answer them for yourself.

Some say when you find your boyfriend/girlfriend/soulmate etc... whatever, you can open to them. You can be yourself to them. Really don't think so. Atleast not immediately. Probably will take you some years to get close to someone to voice your opinions as they are without any sugar coating. That is if they stick with you till then :). I believe a personal discovery is much more important before you think you can open to someone. People generally can't handle the truth, rather your truth. Ya we all talk about honesty in a relationship etc... but how much of that honesty can you take. Anyways, relationships is a different story. The point I am trying to make is before anything else, "Know Thyself". And then decide if you can open to someone at all?

Thats why everytime someone tells me "Just Be yourself, everything will go well etc...", only I know how I control my laughter :D

Lazy Friday :P

2005-06-10T11:23:00.000-04:00

I read a hillarious account of travelling in the Mumbai local train,you can find it here.

Aaj lunch was at IHOP. Saurabh and I decided to go somewhere outside the campus. Had Grilled Cheese Sandwhich with Onion rings, Pan Cakes etc.. In almost 2 years, went to IHOP for the first time :). Not a bad place but I guess there are better options for veggies.

Came back and Madhuri had some work related to RSS. Got done with it quickly but got into looking for good RSS Aggregators made in Flash. Found web versions but looking for a good one as a desktop client. If anyone knows one, please let me know.

Made the XML feed of my blog. If you click on the small XML icon next to the "Previous Text" in the sidebar, you can access the feed which can be fed in an RSS Aggregator.

Got home around 5 and thought of taking a nap. Ya right, woke up at 9:30, thanks to the smell of the food. Had some Chinese noodles that pavan made while watching Whose Line is it Anyway. One of my fav shows :)

Might watch a movie now. Expecting a busy weekend ... :)

More Art from Ruchi

2005-06-09T18:20:00.000-04:00

She finally got a cd of all the work she has done in her classes and transferred the work to me via MSN. There are here.

Started my techy blog. Feeling nice about it, esp that name I got for it :D

At work, have done something nice, well nice just for me :P. Arranged my table and chair such that m in the corner and at the very end of the room with my multiscreen system. Helps me work better when I know no ones looking at my screens.

Added a new section to my blog: books I read. Will keep updating this as time passes.

Just copied a bunch of techy books to this lappie, should be done with them in a few months :). Books...books and books, what would I do without them :D

Btw, this crossed my head a few days back:
Who is safe from Identity Theft......A person with multiple personalities syndrome :P

Lot of Reading :)

2005-06-08T22:35:00.000-04:00

Hell ya, two books in 3 days. Venkat's .NET Gotchas and Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

Submitted a review for Venkat's book on amazon, will get approved and posted in about 5-7 days. Also submitted errata on the Oreilly site, there were two places where the code had some flaw. The book is great read for anyone playing with .net for a year or more.

The NUnit book was recommended by Venkat on his blog. And u bet, it was a great read too. Taught me not just why to write tests but how to and which ones to.

OK, by now you are bored with all this techy stuff. Have started a techy blog but yet to post anything there, hence not posting the link to it today.

Ruchi was talking about COREL being taught in her classes now. Her teacher likes her work and some students appreciated too.

Another one of Ruchi's works

Chatting with Manasa after a long time. I discovered that she used to blog long time back and m urging her to start again. Lets hope she does, it will be fun to read her stuff, she writes well :)

Spent the evening understanding Mock Objects from Venkat. But before that, I made a new friend in the Political Science Dept , Cladia. She is a Masters Student in Pol Sci and her office is just 2 offices from mine on the same floor. Ended up discussing Indian society, Machiavelli's book The Prince, her humanitarian views and mine not so humanitarian views about the Human Society in general. We discovered we have quite a different set of opinions on a lot of things but the discussion was nice with respect for each others view point :). Mailed her the links to a few articles I posted on GISO.

The Usual

2005-06-06T22:06:00.000-04:00

For people with an eye for beauty and a thing for cool looking stuff, check this out. Found a nice software allowing people to collaboratively browse the web. Tech support sure would love something like this.

Sujata got this for me from DC when she went for her conference. Bush ka ghar mere table par :P

Got myself a tubelight, Vipul gave it. He is leaving tommorow morning for CA. So now the room is much well lit. The day was usual, some study in .net, dozzed off in the afternoon. Vraj told me he has finalized the apartment so thats good news. Some chit chat with Nishit today. Bhumi is planning to get a Sony Viao. Talked to her about Dell but I guess she has made up her mind.

Back to some .NET now :)

Sunday double aish karo :P

2005-06-05T23:53:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday Ruchi :). Ya my dear sis was born today :) But my sis was hard to reach today. She was partying while I was calling. Finally got hold of her and mom tells she won a watch at the party while dad won Rs. 200 in lotto. Cool guys, sounds like you people had fun :)

And it turned out I ended up celebrating it pretty well too :). Sujata had planned pav bhaaji at her home today and invited me too. Well I added a German Chocolate Cake to it and all need now is a bunch of hungry people. Gr8 pav bhaaji Sujata, thanks :)

Has been a nice weekend. Hoping for a nice week :)

Friday hai, aish karo!!

2005-06-04T09:35:00.000-04:00

Subah subah Pavan forwards this link. So finally the college appreciates our work. Well for us the true appreciation came from Venkat when he said

"Hey, you guys are true winners. Counting on the novelty of the application
is not a fair game in my opinion. It is your talent in developing the app
that counts. In my mind, you guys are true winners."

Then met him at 10:15 and got a critique of my resume, as expected he gave few good insights :)

Won this in Venkat's monthly quiz in his Agility Newsletter. My first book with an author's signature :)

That was pretty much the morning and I finally dropped into the Business School office. Completed a chapter on Developing Web Services from the MCAD book series. Then Madhuri had a meeting at 2, went on till 3:30.

Vipul calls me and says lets start early and visit the Sai Baba temple too. Today he was treating me as its his Birthday :) Happy Birthday !! And so I rush home, get all dressed up (ya like a kid who is eager to attend a Bday party) and we leave at 6. Meet Sai Baba and he is happy to see us as well :). Drop in to Walmart to buy some tape for packing. Vipul will leave on 6th for California.

Now we are finally at Bombay Gardens for dinner. He has a couple joining us and they are there finally by 8:15. Enjoy the food but sadly :( no ones in a mood for dessert expect me so I take a rain check on that. Then Vipul, Bhabhi and me goto AMC for Cinderella Man. All I would say is Russel Crowe is due another Oscar :)

The movie ends ar 12:15 but I guess the fun ain't over. While way back home, a couple of exits are closed and so we take a different route. The outcome, we are all lost, have gone over 4 highways (I45, I10, 610 and 59) and have no clue. Vipul had some nice cushions in the back seat and m not pretty good at directions. So m like you two people in the front seat, figure out directions, call other people, do whatever, m going to sleep :P. Finally home at 1:21

To bhaiyo and unki behno, Friday hai....aish karo :)

Save the President!!

2005-06-02T22:54:00.000-04:00

We all have seen a million movies about the assasination attempts on the president, for that matter the good stupid guy in the movie who inspite being someone like the president has absolutely no clue that some ally of his is conspiring against him.

And then we have the whole movie about the "hero" going through a big series of traps till you reach the final golden moment when we have the hero with the gun and the ally holding our president to gun point.

Well, so now ppl pitch in and shot at our hero while the bad guy runs away with the president. All the crap I saw so far does not hurt as much as this.

If you in the first place want to kill the president why the hell run away with him. Its like waiting for that perfect moment when you would fire your gun and the angel of death would thank you, give you a gift voucher for saying get me these also on my list and I will get you a discount in hell :P.

Or may be its like, Mr. President I have a small family gathering. Kids and relatives etc... So why dont you do a show for them, let me take you there and you can die there. We have a small barbeque place in the backyard. We will have a nice time there and then you can rest in peace!!

For the record.... just saw XXX State of the Union.

Ruchi's day today!!

2005-06-01T18:10:00.000-04:00

Ruchi has got admission in HA college of commerce in Ahmedabad. Glad she choose that instead of HL. Classes start 16th June. I guess she has also registered for CA classes and her multimedia is going fine. Got her to install Hello today and transferred quite a few photos. I guess in a few days she will have all of my collection.

Ruchi made this in her Multimedia class, I have absolutely no place for such creativity in my head!!

As for my story, well saw Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy. Dozzed off while watching it so you know the rest. Btw, for those of you who would want to have a look at your credit report and that too for free, this is the place to go. You can have a free credit report from all of their 3 agencies once a year. So check it and make sure there are no descripencies.

New people got hired at job today and we have a meeting Friday afternoon to fix everyone's schedules.

Now back to studying MSF.

An Uneasy Day :(

2005-05-30T20:45:00.000-04:00

Had been trying to get for so many days and finally today morning Star Wars III was in. So m all happy and spent the morning watching it. Probably not the best thing to do...

Donno why but I can relate so well with Anikan Skywalker and how he turned to the Dark Side. I can see a lot of myself in him. The desire to control and have complete control over things. If you think about it, that is what life is all about. Control!!. It is the desire for control which leads to the problem of choice. The Control over your past, present and future. And while at one point of time this entire struggle for control appears so pointless and futile, on the other side when you are in the struggle you cannot think of anything else.

Have been thinking all evening about what Master Yoda said to him
Yoda: Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anikan. The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side. Death is a natural form of life. Rejoice for them who transform in to the force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy, the shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to loose.

But what troubles is both the sides. While at one point I think as if the lose will be great and will bring unflinching pain, on the other side there are times when I would have lost a lot and I did not give a damn about it. I am not able to understand this. It's like living two lives at the same time. Sometimes I think I get bored, bored of everything around me and so even if I am about to loose all of it, I dont mind. Scary as it may sound, it is equally disturbing about being a person who can easily get bored of the people and things around him. It's like my mind has absolutely no regard for the emotions and feelings others have.

Emotional attachment is a sure sign of weakness, thats how I see it. Probably the reason I dont want to get involved with people and stay close to a few only. But what makes me uneasy is what if I start getting bored of these few near and dear ones. Am I being absolutely selfish in using people as needed and then just walking out of their lives? I know I guard my own space like anything, its probably the only place left where I can find some solace and comfort. Ya people find it in someone's arms or lap but, strange as it may sound, I feel uneasy there.

Sometimes I just look back and see my photos when i was 5-10 years old. And that photo tells me "Life does not give you a second chance, there is no time for it". And I keep it back in there and forget about it. Circumstances, situations, LIFE whatever you call it... somtimes you just give in to it. I have at times and now when I look, I dont want to.

And that is what I fear... the loss of the good in me. The ability of the Dark Side to control me. Sometimes the mirror tells me that I expect too much of myself. Am not sure, but probably its again the price I pay for being a perfectionist.

Anyways, lemme grab some food

An IPOD in my BackPack ;)

2005-05-28T11:12:00.000-04:00

It would be great to have the 60 GB beauty shown here . Well, can't afford it right now and not prepared to get anything lesser in size. Daily I goto college and thats about 30 mins of walk. Usually singing or humming all the way but in the back of my head, m like if I could have some music now.

Well, necessary is the mother of customization ;). Configured my lappie power settings such that its all on while the lid is closed. MS Imagine Cup gave me a gr8 backpack which even has an opening for your headphones to be connected to any device in the bag and you can put them on your ears. So what does all this lead to. Now when I leave for school, put my playlist on Jet Audio, connect my headphones and put the lappie in the backpack. Ab college jaate roz badhiya music ;). So turned my lappie to an ipod :D . Now just have to stop myself from dancing on the road daily :P

Baki kal, did some narration recording for Madhuri on a ppt. Sham ko we all had plans for a movie. Saw Bunty and Babli. Loved it!! Ya if thats coming from a guy who barely watched Bollywood given all the crap with which they come out nowadays, then this is definately a good movie. Before that was watching The Italian Job (yet another time :P) in office.

Had given Star Wars to get in but when opened it, turned out to be Constantine. Well, given again on both lappies, lets see what happens :d

For those who love drums, check out the clips section here. My recommendation is to start with Samb-Adagio. These ppl are absolutely wonderful with drums. The videos too are innovative and thankfully not vulgar :P. Added them to my Link sections on the blog. Put your headphones ppl and take a flight into the world of drums!!

Hey, long weekend is here. Got a few things on hand like some thesis work, a bit study of MSF and probably few movies :D. Lets see how it goes :)

Lot of stuff going on :)

2005-05-26T22:00:00.000-04:00

Ya quite a few things going on simultaneously.

Learning about MSF thanks to the MCAD series books. Job keeping me reasonably busy. Madhuri has put me and Bhargav on a new project that deals with Content Management Systems. Don't ask me what it is, I have as ignorant as you are. The way I see it, looks like the entire summer will be about this for the two of us.

Almost my entire office is now accustomed to listening to Trance Music. Put something slow or soothing and soon people are like.... Puneet kuch aur laga. Trance lagao and sab mast :D

Aaj Purva ke saath bada cruel joke hogaya. Well actually joke hua but hum logon ne mazak uda uda kar cruel kar diya. Well can't help it, aadat hai :P. Abhay was supposed to complete survey for a course. He did just part of it and left. So Madhuri asked Purva to complete it. She spent the whole day doing it only to find out that Madhuri had asked for a course offered in Spring 2005 and Abhay had done for the same but offered in Fall 04. So alll effort gone to waste. Kal phir se poora karegi, poor soul. Sahi frustrated thi, well obv koi bhi hoga. Upar se hamne usko paka diya...the good thing is she takes it all in sporting spirit and so we can joke with her. Tommorow is her last day at work so uske baad to shanti chaane waali hai :P

Bhargav rachna se chocolate cake lekar aaya tha, home made. Ek footlong sub ke baad nice dessert. Even Madhuri had it once I told her that I did not make it and hence it was safe to eat :D. Hass lo hass lo, aayega ek din jab main bhi mast cake banaunga!!

Over the last few days got about 1 GB of Ebooks, spent quite some time organizing them. My total collection right now 4.18 GB plus two 700 MB cds from India. Phew!! you need a lifetime to read them :). Well can't help it, I love collecting them.

Getting Star Wars, hope its in by tommorow morning. Ya ya don't get started on it should be seen in a theatre etc...., my lappie plus my headphones pretty much make a home theatre for me.

Bhukh lagi and dinner is not ready:((, chalo me grabbing some biscuits :P

Welcome to the Real World!!!

2005-05-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

Ya you are wondering how many times in your life have you heard that. Every time something messes up, goes wrong it wont take a sec for people to say "Welcome to the Real World". It's like at they are so very much waiting to invite you there. Yes puneet, yes make that mistake and let me have my chance to invite you here :P.

When you are in school and some competitor of yours gets a favour from teacher and you complain. Probably your parents or most probably your neighbour aunty (the one interested in everything going on in your house) will be like... You are grown up now, welcome to the real world.

You clear your 12th and planning to join college. Every uncle/aunty you know on the planet, family friends, probably family enemies too :P will go out of their way to talk to you and tell you... School was ok, but now its all about your making your carrer, bringing good name to your family.... Welcome to the real world.

Clear college and people like me make it to US. Again the same story :D.... You are going to an alien land, take care of yourself, you are on your own now... Welcome to the Real World.

Same will happen on going looking for a job. Sometimes makes me think as if every person you know has been a security gaurd in some birth of theirs and so that trait to welcome someone is so very instilled in them. And hence even in this birth they just can't stop themselves from reliving that past life :P

Next time someone does.... give him a buck in tip ;), maybe you did not in his past life and he is still demanding it :D. How do I know this... welll try out and you will never see him back welcoming you the real world. See you paid him his due and he's gone :d

The reason for the above paragraphs : 1) Sienfeld's ability to make jokes out of the daily things in our life made me use my observations too in the same direction and 2) Read this on Sujata's blog today : Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Yes ppl derive inspirations from wierd places, thats how life is... Welcome to the Real World :P

Life's teaching me something

2005-05-24T22:18:00.000-04:00

Back in houston and been busy since I am back. Had 2 weeks off at work so now they have a lot fo work for me.

The week at Redmond and now since last 2 days at work, Life has been teaching me something. And it's about communication. and more importantly about taking things for granted.

The Judges at MS told us you did not do enough to convince us it was a revolutionary idea. I donno why a complete working product demoed in 15 mins and another 15 mins of decent Q/A did not convince them. I was not at all pleased with this reasoning of theirs. And now that they don't realese the judging criteria etc... even Venkat joins me in being pissed off with them.

At work has been quite busy. Madhuri and Paul both had work for me. Done with quite a bit of it. This job anyways involves work in bulk in short period of times instead of a regular influx. They like my work but I fail sometimes on communication. This time too made the same mistake. Finally have taken some serious steps to stop that from happening again.

Also coming up with a Don't Do list. Ya we all have this habbit of keeping a list of things to do. But for a guy like me, the opposite is equally necessary. Will add to it as time passes and probably read once in the morn. Ofc wont turn it into a 50 page document :). But I guess will help to have a reminder about not to do a few stupid things in life.

Have developed Photography as a new hobby. Uploaded quite a few photos on snapfish. Sadly snapfish does not allow web sharing or maybe i donno so far how does it allow that. So posted on yahoo too. See them here. Comments Welcome :)

Btw, it's 10 and someone please tell Amit that cooking needs to be done by now not started now. 2 yrs but all said has gone to deaf years

Heading back

2005-05-22T13:13:00.000-04:00

So its all over :). We made it to the top 9 but could not make it to the top 3.

The Good News: Ours was the best presentation these guys saw. Starting from the Flash Ad to the entire software demo and the Q/A session. That is how the judges began the Q/A commenting that this is a really polished work.

The Bad News: They believe ours is similar to net meeting or live meeting. Though we target a bunch of ppl in the same meeting room, they believe that we did not do enough to convince that this is a revolutionary idea.

Well, as for me, personally it was a dream come true to be talking to MS guys in their conference room. I gave the entire presentation for 15 mins straight while Pavan and Thomas assisted me with the demo. Then we had a 12 min Q/A which went pretty cool. All 3 of us have our flaws and plus points and i believe that we 3 complement each other pretty well. As a team work this was a nice experience. Few ppl i met later complemented me for the presentation.

Though the evening was like we felt we will make it to the top 3 but when it did not happen, I was disappointed the most among the 3 of us. A bit angry with myself. Thats the problem with being a perfectionist. I get angry when i can't comprehend or m not able to accept what others see as gone wrong.

Came back to room and just slept. Thomas and Pavan went around to see the places around Marriot. I wasn't in a mood. Well you may look at it as lacking sporting spirit but its not that. What it is I cannot explain and honestly I dont care to explain. Thats why just went to sleep and was up at 4.

Sat in the hot water tub for about 30 mins. Then called up India, it's DAD-MOM Anniversary today :) They got a few frnds at home and got black forrest etc... Ruchi is planning on applying for CA in Ahmedabad, lets see how does it go. They were pretty happy to know that we made it to top 9 nationally.

Right now as m typing this, m at the airport using a free wireless network. Now you know why I love this country. Btw, who ever made to the top 9 , each team got $1000. They also gave other freebies like a backpack, VS.NET 2005 Beta 2, Tshirts etc...

Overall, the last two days were a good combo of fun, competition and networking. Back to houston by today evening.

Cya ppl

Made it to the top 9

2005-05-21T23:00:00.000-04:00

We cleared the regionals and made it to the top 9. Details here.

Exciting Day :)

2005-05-20T22:24:00.000-04:00

Lots of stuff happened today :). The morning started with some great breakfast at the Marriot. Then they briefed us about the day. Gave us some cool badges for the coming two days, a nice Imagine Cup Bag and a certificate for participation.

Eric and Frod came to talk about .net development for mobile devices, last years UCLA team proj leader talkeda little about how were the finals at brazil. These guys also showed us a video of the finals at brazil.

Then jumped into the bus and went to MS. Huge campus, really huge campus. Went to visit the visitor center and the store. bought a couple of shirts and took a lot of pics :D

Now comes the real stuff. Took to the developer division building, given a working lunch and our table to setup the demo. Today is for MS developers, program managers etc... to visit us and see our projects. So we setup our stuff pretty neatly, all wires managed very well by thomas. Then put up our poster and started the video on the flat screen.

Well ours is the only poster with no proj details but just the proj and team name with the logo, punch line etc... That made everyone else turn there heads around as everyone else was like what is your stuff all about. That generated quite a bit of interest. Additionally the video caught attention. Some ppl would just come and see it.

They have put us in the group with stanford and washington. one among the three of us will make it to the top 9. Lets see who does :)

Our UI stirred quite a bit of gossip in the room as it was something everyone found pretty neat. The teachers with the high school students came to see it too saying our students told about your project.

Ppl from MS came to see it too. It was a pleasure doing a demo to those guys, answering questions on the fly and talking in general. All this went on from 2-4 and we did not realize when it was 4. All 3 of us were enjoying doing the demo so much that we were like bring on more ppl.

Anyways, back in the buses and soon back to Marriot. Came to the room and talked a lot about a lot many things. Rehersed the presentation in detail, discussed how we will answer questions etc...

7:30 we go downstairs and they have the Halo 2 Tourney. I got paired up with this guy Nishan who works obviously for MS. Nice guy to talk too. We had pizza together , thomas joined us too. Well then i got this guy completely screwed as when we started Halo 2 on XBOX, i was completely new to it. Hence i got him out of the tourney in round 1 :P

Well otherwise we ppl had pizza together and played some other indoor games. The evening was fun and just got back from there. Will change and fall dead on my bed now. Cya ppl tmrw.

So here we are at Redmond :)

2005-05-19T20:04:00.000-04:00

A hurried morning is how it all began. Woke up at 6 and we had to leave by 6:30. So rushed with stuff in the morning and at the stop by 6:35. the bus comes at 6:40 and we reach the bus station near Thomas' house by 7:45. Took my camera with me and the whole day have used it well.

So all is going fine and we reach the airport, get the tickets, get the luggage checked in. Well Pavan did not like that all is going fine. So 20 mins before we are to board, he realizes he has misplaced his passposrt. Now thats the last thing you want to happen. So we tell him u have to search around, ask the ppl who issued u the ticket etc... but we need to head for the flight. Also give him details abt the next available flight etc... Now he comes after 10 mins, having found the passport with the lady who issued him the ticket. Phew!!!

So get on the plane and we have the seats at the very end. Thomas had got the cd of HALO for Windows for m off to playing it about 30 mins after the flight. Played till my battery got exhausted. Took a lot of photos too. Lets see when can i post them.

Well reach Seattle and its raining. They say its raining here most of the time of the year, hence so many coffee shops as its anyways gloomy and sad :P. So the shuttle is there to take us to Redmond. Takes about 1 hr to reach here.

Well the Marriot is a nice place to be. We are placed in the Residence Inn. Took the entire video of the room and also some pics. The first thing we did after getting in was connect the router and get our laptops hooked up to the internet. Ya its as imp as air and water :D

Then we went around a bit just to see what the Redmond Town Center is like. These guys had coffee while I took some more snaps. Back to room and the got on with CrystalThought. Took the video of the application, Thomas made the Demo Diagrams etc... Then Brad called up and said he had a few frnds with him from MS and would like to take us all for dinner.

Went to a near by place called Claim Jumper. Donno why they named it so, did not care to ask either :D. Man this was one heck of a dinner. Started with Onion rings and Garlic Bread as appetizers. Also got some Apple -Cranberry Juice. Then in the main course i got Roasted Veggie Pizza. And the Desert: Brownie Finale. Jezz we were all so very stuffed. And the Brownie Finale was just too good. We guys are all talking for abt 3 hrs in all.

Then we walked back to the hotel and Vito came to see our app. Gave us his reviews and what stuff can happen in Imagine Cup. Nice pointers. Then he and I went to get a foam board for our poster. Just got back from there and it's already 1:30 now.

Here is the schedule for the next two days.

Friday May 20th
Start Time	End Time	Location	Event
7:45am	8am	Homestead Suites	Shuttle departs for the Marriott
8am	9am	Redmond Marriott	Breakfast / Registration
9am	11am	Redmond Marriott	Welcome Presentations and Product Demonstrations Speakers TBA
11am	12:30pm	MS Company Store Visitor Center	Company Store and Visitor Center Tour
12:30pm	2pm	Bldg 40/41 Steptoe/Constance	Lunch, Setup for Product Fair
2pm	4pm	Bldg 40/41 Steptoe/Constance	Imagine Cup Project Fair
4pm	7:30pm	Building 40 to Imagine Cup Hotels	Project Fair pack-up, Return to Hotel, Break
7:15pm	8pm	Homestead Suites	Shuttle departs for the Marriott
7:30pm	10:30pm	Redmond Marriott	Imagine Cup Party, HALO 2 Tourney
8:30pm		Redmond Marriott	Shuttles begin departing for the Homestead Suites in a continuous loop, last shuttle departs at 10:15pm

Saturday May 21st
Start Time	End Time	Location	Event
7:30am		Residence Inn	Shuttle departs for the MSCC
7:50am		Homestead Suites	Shuttle departs for the MSCC
8am	8:30am	MSCC (Rainier/St. Helens)	Continental Breakfast
8:30am	8:45am	MSCC (St. Helens/Rainier)	Welcome, briefing of the day’s activities
8:45am	9am	MSCC	First teams escorted to building 34 for Regional Competition. Teams not competing to remain in the MSCC and prepare for presentations/relax.
9am	11am	Building 34 (Various)	Continued Regional Competition. Microsoft Staff will escort teams to Building 34 for presentations.
11am	Noon	MSCC (St. Helens/Rainier)	Lunch
Noon	12:15pm	MSCC (St. Helens/Rainier)	Regional winners announced and order determined for Finals of the Imagine Cup to be held in the Cascade Auditorium
12:15pm	5:30pm	Cascade	Final competition
5:30pm	7:15pm	MSCC (St. Helens/Rainier)	Imagine Cup Dinner and announcement of winners, prizes awarded
7:30pm	7:45pm	MSCC	Shuttles depart for Homestead Suites and Residence Inn

Cya tmrw :)

The night before leaving !!

2005-05-18T22:13:00.000-04:00

Quite a hectic day and still its not over!!! Pavan and I spent quite a long time working on the ppt, and here is the best part-- it has just two slides :P. Ya that is what happens when two perfectionists break their head on a problem. Actaully spent a long time designing the images we kept on the ppt.

Anyways, that is how the morning began. Took prints of all the relevant documents and distributed it among all three of us. Then Thomas came in at 12. We made a list of things to do, the first one was to get his tablet running. Thankfully did not take that long and soon we tested it as well. Had a quick lunch at subway while thomas went to get two more copies of our poster, only smaller in size.

Done with that, we sat in the afternoon, we listed what all we need to take to MS, a lot of electronics, i hope the airport guys dont mind. Then thomas left and we decided to pracitce the demo and the presentation.

Here is where the evening gets a bit irritating. I had booked the conference room from 3-6 but when i reach there, some prof has a workshop from 2-4. Wow, good use of authority!! What can you say. So we come to the 3rd floor and find an empty class. 10 mins spent connecting the lappies and all, we just begin practicing and another prof drops in, "I want to use the projector, can you move to another class" Ya ya sure why not, why dont we move to another building. So again a new room. But Bad luck to abhi bhi kharab hai. 10 mins another prof drops in. "I have an exam in the next class, can you ppl practice elsewhere". Who the hell has an exam after the semester has ended!!!

So finally one more shift. Thankfully no one troubled us now. Practiced till 6:30 and back home. Poora din khade khade paav ka band baj gaya tha. So first packed all the luggage and then a nice shower. Ab khana khakar video record karna hai iska. Uske baad either sleep or night out with movies who knows :P

So ppl will keep you all posted with all the details as well as the photos there. Probably they will have a webcast of the event, if so will let you all know the link.

Cya then :)

Preps going fine

2005-05-17T13:59:00.000-04:00

19th is nearing ppl :). And the excitement is mounting. With no clue as to what the other 43 teams have made, we will leave on thursday for Redmond. The software is done with, all tweaks over as well. Now its just the presentation that matters. Thomas is in canada and will be back tonight. Pavan and I gonna practice as much as we can on the software. Tommorow we will record a video of the software with narration and practice the rest of the day. Our poster is ready and looks beautiful.

Baki got a good news. My sis Ruchika, her result is out. She scored 81% in the 12th Commerce. So all celebrations at home :). Hope she makes to a good college in Abad itself.

Kal demo tha Venkat ko and went cool. The application features have been freezed now, only presentation is what we are working on.

Will keep you all posted as each day goes at MS!!

Back after quite sometime :)

2005-05-13T22:16:00.000-04:00

Ya haven't been here for the last few days. Have been with CT for quite sometime. And now our software looks damn cool, looks like an Office 2003 software. Ya the look and feel is like a MS product.

We have been slogging our ass off last 4 days. And when on 11th we did a demo to Venkat, he was impressed. And believe me this guy is difficult to impress. He has mentored us all along the way into making this software. And we have given him quite a few surprises everytime we demo him. This time too did so.

We had met Brad sometime back and he told us you got your 20 mins of fame with MS. Make it or break it. So the next day I came up with the idea that we give MS a taste of what they are best at. Marketting!!. I come out of my shower and I tell Pavan we are gonna make an ad. Hell ya, we gonna market our software, sell it to those guys. We gonna go there with all we got!!. All the ammunition we got, all the bullets in the gun.

And we made one wonderful ad. All thanks to the creative talent named Thomas in our team. Thomas + Flash = Your Lucky Day. I gave him a Trance music tune and he went to make a great ad for our product. We all added our ideas to it and now it's a work of art. Will post it sometime after we are done with the competition. Venkat saw it and he was like, WOW !!. He gave us a few more suggestions on how to make the application and the ad better. We have been working on that since last few days.

Pavan has spent quite some time on the UI since morning and hence the Office 2003 look. Thomas made a nice and simple poster. The design for the shirts we will wear there on the competition day has been finalized. We will get them made soon. Thomas also plans to make some flyers :)

We make another presentation to Venkat on 16th. Thomas is gonna be out of town that day so it's just me and Pavan. We are working on practising a few scripts so that we know exactly the flow we will take. Additionally this tuesday i will record a video tutorial of our software with narration. This we will keep running there on the 20th when the entire MS will come to just visit our stalls.

So we are all eagerly waiting for this now. It's gonna be fun and war at the same time :)

Now for something off topic. Have noticed here in US how medicine ads are. Half the ad is about what are the side effects of the medicine and who all should not take it. The begining of the ad talks about what disease they will cure and the end about what they will cause :P

So was thinking what if software ads were on the same line. Here is a sample:

Have you ever had that need to be able to solve all your calculations easily only if you had a better software. Well now your problems are all solved. We have the new Exalculator for you. Now you can do all your complex calculations in a jiffy. And it is much better than other commercial softwares like Mathematica or Matlab. Only Exalculator lets you type in details and generate formulas for them. So what are you waiting for. Get your self an Exalculator today and trash those old softwares.

PS: Exalculator is not for everybody. People with IQ below 110 may not use it or they will be overwhelmed by its ability to solve problems. Computers with RAM less than 1 GB and processors with speed less than 3 GHz should not have Exalculator on them. This will lead to extremely slow machines and may damage existing softwares on your computer. Please ask your computer support if Exalculator is right for you.

Thats all for now ppl, cya soon :)

Mother's Day :)

2005-05-08T19:57:00.000-04:00

Letter from Mom:

When I get old, I won't be who I was.
Try to understand me and be patient with me.

When there's a soup stain on my clothes,
When I don't remember anymore how to tie my shoes' laces
Remember how I taught you all of those when you were young

Whenever I keep repeating my words on something until you get tired of listening
Be patient in listening,
Do not interrupt me when I talk
I repeated all bed stories for you before you went to bed whilst you were still young.

Whenever I need you to bath me,
Please do not get upset with me.
Do you remember, when you were young, I had to use all my ways to get you to take a bath?

When I do not understand about technology at all and new inventions,
Do not look down on me.
Think how I used to be so patient in answering to all your "why?" questions

When I cannot walk, give me your hands and carry me.
Like when I did to you when you started learning how to walk.

When I cannot recall our conversation,
Give me times to remember them.
To me, the most important thing is that to have you by my side to listen to me

When you see me getting older, do not be in sorrow.
Understand me, support me, like I did to you
When you started learning to live your life.
How I gave you directions in living your life,
Now, accompany me to spend the rest of my life.
Give me your love and your patient,
I will give you my blessing smile
Behind my smile, there's unconditional love for you :)

From mom...

Firing Code!!!

2005-05-06T22:46:00.000-04:00

Yup, thats whats going on since last few days and that is what will continue for the coming weekend and week. We have a huge list of things to do for CrystalThought. 11th is the demo to Venkat.

Yesterday evening Brad came to see our application. He gave his thoughts about it and about how we should present it to MS at imaginecup. So that has increased our todo quite a bit. Then we all went for dinner to Bennigans. Enjoyed the food and the brownie with ice cream.

Today morning finished Madhuri's work and told her m not coming next week. Since 1, back to coding. Evening met Venkat when we got stuck with a few things and he provided insights which are helping now.

Evening was a bit relaxed, saw Rush Hour 2 on tv, had dinner.... Now time to code again.

Aae subah kya din laayi hai tu

2005-05-04T10:31:00.000-04:00

Bahut hi badhiya subah hai aaj. Halke halke badal hai, thoda fog hai. Came to college walking on the jogging strip next to the bayou. Thats my daily walk and I just love it. But is mausam mein aaj maine apna ek gaana khatam kiya jo aisi hi kissi subah par chalu kiya tha kuch mahine pehle.

Halki halki si hawa, kirano ne mujhe chua
Mausam ki yeh tazagi, har taraf yeh hariyali

Bheegi bheegi yeh ghaas, chidiyon ki woh aawaz
Neela neela aasman, mehka mehka yeh saman

Aae subah kya din laayi hai tu,
khul ke jeena mein chahu,
kissi ke dil ko chu jaau,
kissi ko khushiyan de jaau (2)
Aae subaaah

Stanza 1:
pahando par chadke mein, badalo se mil aau
jharne ke paani mein, khelu mein aur nahaau (2)
chup jaau sab se mein, phoolon ke baagon mein
nanha sa baacha hu, srishti ki baahon mein

Aae subah kya din laayi hai tu,
khul ke jeena mein chahu,
kissi ke dil ko chu jaau,
kissi ko khushiyan de jaau

Stanza 2:
jhirmir jhirmir yeh, boonde jo girti hai
sangeet ki tarange,badan mein chedti hai (2)
mogre ki khushbu se, raste yeh mehke hai
yeh ped yeh raste sab, apne hi lagte hai

Aae subah kya din laayi hai tu,
khul ke jeena mein chahu,
kissi ke dil ko chu jaau,
kissi ko khushiyan de jaau (2)

:)

Btw, sirf subah aachi thi, baaki din bahut kaam tha :P. Ate lunch at 4 so you know the rest. Enjoy ;)

Fun day :)

2005-05-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

Aaj fullto aish ki. Yo no work, no emails exchanged, no chats too. Well what was I doing then. Sujata and I found a few days back that we both are planning to send something India on Mother's day. Both were looking for good deals online but nothing there made us happy. So today we decided to go shopping together.

But then turned that shopping into a whole day of fun. Reached her place about 9:30 in the morn. Talked a bit , esp sujata cursing her jumbo jet laptop :P. Then we planned the day. So we were going to cook first. Then a movie.Then shopping.

So what do we cook...looked at the dals but ditched them. Instead Kadhi. And sabji... after much contemplation and consideration...Lauki(Doodhi) was the unanimous winner. So this with roti and rice looked a tasty meal. Got on the job right away.... as in m stiring stuff while she is cutting things. Ya better she play the cards and I assist so that we can ensure a decent lunch. Well just cooking is dry job, so TV par Andaz Apna Apna (AAA) laga di. We cooked stuff in abt 2 hrs aaram se and movie ke dialogue sunte sunte aacha time nikal gaya.

So then its eating time... both are damn hungry. I had skipped the breakfast today :) So we completed AAA while we were eating. Cleaned up all stuff and now what movie. So it was either "Wag the Dog" or "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". I recommended the first one and she agreed. We had a wonderful time watching the movie. Sahi hai. It's a great tale about fooling the whole world. Ya you can fool all the people all the time.

so it's about 4 now. We are like lets get to the main thing..shopping. Now the thing with me is I take all the time in the world for my shopping. So I don't rush someone and nor does some one rush me. So aaram se we reached the mall in the bus. Now Sujata was pretty sure what she wants so we just looked around in JC Penny and soon she found the earings she wanted to send. As for me I wasn't sure. I found a good painting in JC Penny. Then looked in Bed Bath and Beyond. Found a good photo frame there. Went to Ross and found a good purse there. Decided on the purse. Now we are done shopping in about 2 hrs or so. :)

There was La Medeline there which I had noticed the when we came to the mall. Did not know that is her fav place. Why... they serve the Tiramisu Cake. So she is like can we enjoy that. You ask me if we can eat something sweet and I would say no. Not even on my deathbed :P. I casaully said to tease her that lets hurry, they have the last two pieces. And when we reach there, they tell us, just one last piece . Well, my intuition ain't that bad. So we get a Tiramisu and a Chocolate Sacher Torte piece. The two actually complemented each other damn well and mast mazaa aaya.

Chalo ab back to her house, mera lappie mujhe miss kar raha hai. Bus stop par almost 30 mins ka waiting. Then her home and bak bak bak bak hum donno kar rahe hai. Her poor roomie went in her room and closed the door :P.

Oh by the way, Sujata and her roomie Deepti have a wonderful house. Bahut badhiya sajaya hai and all spick and span. Good job grls!!

Back home around 9:30. Here is a strange thing that happened on the way. While coming back, i had 3 of the people that were in the bus with me in the moring. And they were all seated in the same seats as morn. Whatever... :P. Abhi amit made mast daal and aloo capsicum. So pet puja done :)

The power of brain....empty brain ;)

2005-05-02T21:30:00.000-04:00

Always believed in one thing: Fun is good only when at someone else's expense. And I never leave a chance to entertain myself with such fun, no matter what. Therefore at regular intervals of time, life provides me with a bakra or a bakri and I make use of my empty brain to do the best of it.

Names changed below but this is what I did. My friend, Sapan saw this girl Sheela in a seminar. And he had a crush on her that moment. Rupesh, Sapan and mine common friend told me about this. But i was informed too late. This is a month old episode. Sapan finds out she is joining the same company as him and he is all the more happy. But life takes a twist. Few of sapan's friends find out she is married. Damn, sapan is all sad and down with this news.

I chat with him and tell him, well u are like the Dil Chahta hai Sid. Cheer up. No Puneet its a closed chapter now, nothing can be done. I am like, dude should have told me sometime back, could have helped you. He is like you are so far away in America, you can't do much. I found sheela's email id from somewhere and m like, well I can mail her. He thinks m kidding but m serious. So i sent the following mail to sheela

Hello Sheela,

Hi, This is Puneet Sarda. I got your email address from you
home page. You don't know me but I have something
very important to talk to you. Please bear with me for the
next few minutes kyon ki yeh kissi ke life and death ka
mamla hai.

I have a friend Sapan. He saw you for the first
time in the seminar on "Hand Writing Recognition".

And believe me, it was love at first sight for him. You may
not know but he has been observing you around the campus.
Bas duur se dekh dekh kar khush hota hai. He is too scared
to come forward and meet you. Hence m mailing on his
behalf.

He was just wondering if you mind having a coffee with him
in the college cafetaria. Just a casual chat so that he can
get a chance to talk his heart out to you. His email is in
the CC list so if you would be kind enuf to mail him about
this, I would be grateful to you.

Regards,
Puneet

So the mail reaches Sheela, Sapan and Rupesh. With one minor change, i mistype sheela's email id intentionally but in such a way that it's not visible on the first sight. So there sapan and rupesh get a mail, i get a mailer daemon. And these guys are shocked to death. Rupesh is jumping in his seat: Puneet yeh tune kya kar diya. And m laughing my ass off here. Sapan had a few colleagues in his office. All of them are dead shocked.

So once I have had my share of laughter, i forward the mailer daemon to these guys and tell them chill, its a joke. Sapan is like man i was thinking what will i do now, more importantly what will she do now. Welll i offered a simple solution. She would come to your place with her husband and 4 other guys. You and the husband have a WWE match. The winner takes her and the 4 guys take the looser to the hospital. Fair deal, right!! Ofc, You would agree with me here.

So that was a wonderful sunday afternoon for me and well a memorable event for these two guys. But let me tell you, Sapan sure has a fetish for married women ;)

Well apart from that life going cool. Imagine cup presentation to prof just a week away. Decided upon a final list of features to implement by then. Code freeze date set to 12th. After that code review, rigourous testing and designing presentations. Seattle is gonna be fun ;)

Desktop Screenshot

2005-04-29T11:26:00.000-04:00

Longhorn is yet to come but if this is what I can make of Win XP on my multiscreen system, imagine what I will make of Longhorn once i get hold of it. Yes, I have a thing for beauty, a special place for it in my heart :)

Yabi dabi dooo!!!! :d

2005-04-28T21:41:00.000-04:00

Ya so why m i so happy. My best buddy Vrajesh got a job today. He is employed at Mindspeed. They were supposed to reply few days back and he was getting all tensed about it but finally he got it. Hell he should have, the interview went damn well. Vraj celebrated with some apple pie and a special pizza.

And this para i am writing about 1:30 hrs after the previous. Why?? well Ujjaval called from Australia and guess what, he got the visa for the next year. So now he will get permanent residency after he completes his masters, so he can work in AUS after that. Bahut bada tension khatam hua uska. M so happy for both these guys. He is gonna celebrate with a cake, I told him if u dont eat a cake, aaj ka din samporn nahi hua. Cake ke importance par to mein kitab likh sakta hu but the bottom line is celebrate with a cake no matter what.

Talked to vraj for abt an hr. Wahan usne apple pie khatam ki and maine apna aloo palak chawal ka dinner chalu kiya. So ab seth gaadi and apartment dhundne mein lagenge. Rest will follow, if you know what i mean :P

Explored quite a few blogs today and a few nice sites. You can see new links in my links section of the template. My recommendation is Photoblogs. Spent sometime reading, playing literati with sujata.

Busy Day

2005-04-25T21:09:00.000-04:00

Ya quite a busy day, running from one thing to the other since morning. Knew that Madhuri had work for me since yesterday. So that was the first thing in the morning. But before I could begin that, for an hour or so, the net was down. That sounds and feels odd, not accustomed to that.

Well got her stuff done till noon. Printed my ticket details and gave them to Melaneese. She will now begin the paper work. Got to mail her tomorrow to remind that.

Demo went quite well. We showed Venkat the features and discussed quite a few issues. He gave a genuine appreciation for the total work we have done, but m not satisfied a bit. I want to get a lot more in this project, I want to see it as a product not a project. Coming 3 weeks will get a lot more stuff to it.

Came back to Office at 2:15 and Madhuri had more work for me. Did some it and left at 4. Thomas came to PGH at 4:10 and we began working on the CT again. Took care of the UI, provided it menus, and did some of the menu activation. The next big thing there is the meeting browser which Thomas and I will work together on. Tommorow, he will take care of some logos and buttons as he has much better artistic skills than me. The meeting browser is gonna be a real cool UI module.

Evening Venkat's class was fun. Back from it at 7:10. Immediately went to cook, hungry since morning. Started Amit's cd on the boom box and began cooking mix veg. Should be ready by now and m ready to pounce on it. Btw, the gulab jamuns did not happen yesterday, lets see if they do today.

Gonna work again on CT after dinner and meeting with Vipul. M loving this proj.

Btw, its strange weather today. God knows from where did rain come in. Had been pleasant since last few days but today was all cloudy. Rained in tits and bits all day long. Well not a welcome change as the weekend weather was beautiful.

And the nice news is Schumi is back in action. This time he came 2nd in the race. Can't watch the race but monitor it whenever I get a chance. Good going Schumi.

Chalo , me going for my pet puja :)

Coding.Equals(Weekend) ;)

2005-04-24T21:53:00.000-04:00

So you get it, thats what the weekend has been. Right now, CT is working pretty well. I can connect to the Web Service, Start/Join and Leave Meeting as well as send files between clients.
Thomas is gonna work on a few of the UI modules related to the Meeting browser and menus. I am gonna start the Save file part. Pavan will take care of the drawing issues.

Thomas got me and Pavan the entire 5 book set of MS Press books for MCAD Certification and here's the best part-- he got it for us for FREE!!! ;) . Free, ya thats been quite an important word in my life :P

Yesternight, Amit made Pakoda, wow!! . Had them with apple-cherry vaniila ice cream-- milkshake. Quite a dinner. Thomas was here, so got a chance to enjoy them too. We were all talking till 12, cracking jokes about engineers and discussing a lot many things apart from our code. Had a fun evening :)

India all are doing good. I guess ruchi has eliminated Event management and tally classes from here list. Exploring a few good web designing courses, by this weekend should have fixed one.

Vipul had invited for gulab jamuns last night but was caught with coding. Will call in sometime and find out if there are any left. Man!! gulab jamun, don't remember when was the last time I had them.

Btw, love the fortune script of my blog, keeps giving some cranky mesg all the time. And right now it says "If a thing's worth having, it's worth cheating for. -- W.C. Fields". U BET!!

Thats for now, a new day tommorow. Madhuri has work already ready for me. Baki kal will be a nice demo to Venkat.