Life is Beautiful

Love is in the Air

2010-05-13T03:38:00.004-05:00

By some coincidence, I got this article lying somewhere in my old mails of 2004. Yeah! I like to keep things saved as a history. I have not written this, but some author has narrated this in a very nice way. After reading this all I could feel is "Love is in the Air". You made my day Dude

> It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city in the world. All
> right, so that was a little unfair. Chennai is not the hottest city in the
> world. But it certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable weather
> among the cities that I have lived in. And I've been around. But I
> digress.
>
> I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual trying to catch up
> with my sleep. On this particular day, a girl got on the bus, came to my
> seat and sat down. "Good Morning," she said. I looked back at her through
> half closed eyes, replied "Good Night," and then proceeded to return to my
> half hour nap before the bus reached the office. Unfortunately, I was
> woken up by a punch in the arm.
>
> "Wake up, bozo!" She was looking at me with a big smile on her face. "I'm
> not sitting next to you to listen to you snore."
>
> Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her. "What's up?" I asked.
>
>
> Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was also
> my best buddy. "Come on," she said. "Don't look so disappointed. You'd
> rather sleep than talk to me?"
>
> "I talk to you everyday, Preeti."
>
> "You also sleep everyday."
>
> "It's not enough."
>
> "So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?"
>
> You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had to give up. I grinned
> and said, "OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"
>
> "I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?"
>
> "Anurag called you last night."
>
> "How did you know?" She was stunned.
>
> "Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday."
>
> "And you gave it to him?"
>
> "What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him
> for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance."
>
> Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at every other guy she
> saw. And yet, she would not respond to any advances of a romantic nature.
> She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match, but if asked
> out to a movie, dinner, or even coffee, she'd never say yes. She defined
> 'Hard-To-Get'.
>
> "You like putting me in these situations, don't you?" she said.
>
> "No. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!"
>
> That invited another punch in the arm.
>
> I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other about our joys and our
> sorrows, our victories and our defeats. I'd tell her about all my crushes
> and she'd scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical music
> concerts and I'd add them to the list of things she 'owed me' for.
>
> And though I never let it show, I must say that she punched pretty hard.
>
>
> ~*~
> It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. "Hello," I said, as I picked it
> up.
>
> "Happy Birthday!" It was she.
>
> "You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call
> to say Happy Birthday."
>
> "Well then open your door, dumbo!"
>
> So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my doorstep -- with what
> seemed like half the population of my company. My roommates were supposed
> to be working late that night. Now I knew why.
>
> I blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my cake, got
> kicked in the behind, and got painted with the cake's icing. If Preeti had
> had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a paintbrush and a can
> of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book "Lord of the Rings".
> She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I thought it was about time
> I gave her a copy for herself.
>
> We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. "I think it's time I
> left," she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped her
> home in my roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I stopped
> her.
>
> "Hey, Preeti."
>
> "What?"
>
> "Thanks."
>
> "Hey, don't get senti on me now!" she smiled. "Are you trying to worm out
> of that gift you promised me?"
>
> "You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift on my birthday."
>
> "That's just because you're stupid," she grinned. "And you better get me
> that book, or I won't return your copy."
>
> "Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend Preeti Mehra. I can't
> let you keep that."
>
> She wasn't falling for that. "Your dear friend? And what about me? Am I
> not dear to you?"
>
> "Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of your Love Crazy
> suitors. Why do you need the book anyway? You've read it umpteen times
> already."
>
> "That is besides the point. You are getting me the book. We both know
> that." She smiled that wide confident smile of hers. "Good night." And she
> got out of the car.
>
> I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our conversations were always
> like this - a little joking, a little teasing and a lot of demanding. But
> somehow, I felt that something had changed since the moment she had turned
> up at my door that night. I was still in my reverie when a paper ball
> landed on the windshield. I craned my neck out of the window and looked
> up. She was standing in her balcony.
>
> "What are you still doing there?" she whispered loudly.
>
> "Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight," I whispered back.
>
> "We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past your bedtime!"
>
> "Ok, mommy," I grinned back. "I'm going home now!"
>
>
> ~*~
> I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely going to be my
> downfall some day. I made her wait for it, but finally bought her the
> book. That, and half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various authors,
> including a copy each of `The Complete Works of Shakespeare' and `The
> Complete Short Stories of Charles Dickens'. All I got for it was an "I
> told you so."
>
> I started spending a lot of time at her place after that. Mostly because I
> wanted to read all those books, and she wouldn't lend them to me.
>
> "I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling into the same trap I
> laid for you. Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these
> masterpieces. So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you
> want to mark your place, use a bookmark."
>
> So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands before I touched
> the books. It was as if they were sacred.
>
> "Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first
> place? For my birthday!"
>
> "So? They're mine now."
>
> "Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where
> exactly is my birthday gift?"
>
> "It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed into
> the sea by now."
>
> "Huh?"
>
> "Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?"
>
> "You what? You can't bake cakes!" That was a mistake. She looked hurt.
> "You baked me a cake?" She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
>
> I was stunned. "But you never told me."
>
> "You didn't ask." That was typical of her.
>
> "It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!"
>
> "The cake was for you, dumbo."
>
> "How long did it take you to make the whole thing?" It had been a
> two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with three flavors of very creamy
> icing. She had done all that!
>
> "Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did the
> vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another 15
> minutes. Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation, and then
> putting it on the cake took another half hour. Cleaning up the mess took
> an hour."
>
> She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started bragging,
> there was no stopping her. However, I wasn't thinking about that right
> then.
>
> "You spent over five hours on that cake?"
>
> "A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour cleaning up. Yes."
>
> I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She hated cooking.
>
> "I forgot to mention," she continued, "the hours I spent the week before
> that, practicing. Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!"
>
> I couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
>
> "Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked, and
> in the third one, I forgot to add sugar."
>
> It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation. "I mean why did
> you spend so much time on baking me a cake?"
>
> She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east. "For
> your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift you've
> ever got me. Try beating this one." She was grinning like she'd won the
> world championship.
>
> As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a week making her
> anything. I'd never even spent an hour making her anything. Getting her a
> gift normally involved me taking her to the store, letting her choose and
> use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap. "Thanks," was the only thing I
> could say. "Thanks a lot."
>
> "Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?"
>
> I was.
>
>
> ~*~
> I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the next day at work when
> my boss asked to speak to me.
>
> I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual greetings, asking
> how work was going and whether I was comfortable. He then told me that the
> company wanted to send me to New York for a couple of years. Normally,
> this wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. I could work anywhere
> and didn't have too much love for visiting places foreign. But right then,
> the first thought that came to me was that I'd be away from Preeti for two
> whole years. Twenty-four hours before, I'd have been disappointed to lose
> her company. But right then, I was devastated. That was when I knew I was
> in love with her. I'd had crushes before. Lots of them. But this was
> different.
>
> "Do you have any problem in going?" my boss asked, since I hadn't
> responded.
>
> "Not really," I replied. What else could I say? That I was in love, and
> couldn't bear the separation?
>
> "When do I have to leave?"
>
> I had a month.
>
>
> ~*~
> "Wow! New York! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! Did you know it
> snows there in winter?" Preeti was obviously very excited about my going.
> She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I now saw as
> 'separation'.
>
> I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how I felt. We'd known
> each other for a little over a year, and we were very close, but beyond
> some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to romantic.
> That was, of course, until I found out she had spent a week baking me a
> cake. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big difference.
>
> "What happened?" she asked. "You don't seem very happy."
>
> "Oh," I replied, "it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you know
> I was never all that interested in going to America."
>
> "What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are amazingly
> beautiful." She had a sly smile on her face. I wanted to tell her I didn't
> care if I laid my eyes on another woman again, if she wasn't with me. But
> I didn't.
>
> I realized that I only had another month with her. She'd rejected every
> guy who'd asked her out ever since I'd known her. I didn't want the same
> to happen to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between us. I didn't
> want to risk that month. I wanted it to be the best time I had ever spent
> with her. After I came back from the US, I might not even get to meet her
> again. Two years was a long time.
>
> We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the best restaurants in
> the city. She also helped me shop for warm clothes, formalwear, shoes,
> toothpaste and a million things I'd never have thought of on my own.
>
> "You need to buy a nail-cutter." My roommates and I shared one.
>
> "I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you should carry."
>
> "Your iron won't work in the US. No point buying one here as you need one
> that works at a hundred and ten volts and has flat pins. You can buy one
> at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there."
>
> "You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at least ten pairs of
> dark socks. The East Coast has a formal dress code. And you won't do your
> laundry more than once a week or two."
>
> "How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your blazers go with?"
>
> "Better get a haircut before you leave from here. Knowing you, you'll
> postpone the first haircut for too long."
>
> She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to add 'one more item'
> to my list.
>
> And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply in love with her.
>
> The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to leave, I asked her
> to come with me to the airport. "Of course, dumbo. You think I'd let you
> go just like that, or what?"
>
> After packing my bags for me and checking the lists for the hundredth
> time, she finally pronounced me "Good to go."
>
> We reached the airport four hours early to beat the rush, because it was
> an international flight. She got a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting
> area while I went ahead and checked-in my bags. Preeti had got a spring
> balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags were well within the weight
> limit. I finished the formalities and came to sit with her. We had only a
> few hours before I had to go for my security-check. We decided to get
> something to eat at the food court. And all the time, the one thing that
> was going through my head was that, after this, I wouldn't see her for at
> least another two years.
>
> "Hey, Champ. Why so glum?" She saved 'Champ' for special days. Normally,
> it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo', 'ape-man', 'matchstick man', 'weirdo', or if
> she was very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.
>
> "I don't want to go," I said.
>
> "I don't want you to go either."
>
> "No, you don't understand." I couldn't hold it in any longer. "I can't
> stand the thought of living without you by my side."
>
> She stared at me. There was a strange look in her eyes. I couldn't read
> it.
>
> "I am madly in love with you, Preeti."
>
> At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a cross between a sob
> and a laugh. "Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time to
> tell me about it!"
>
> A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop myself from wiping
> it off her cheeks.
>
> "How long have you felt this way?" She seemed amused, though she was
> definitely crying. I didn't know what to make of it.
>
> "From the day I found out you had baked me a cake."
>
> She laughed. "That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's
> heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a
> month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl
> you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!" She was smiling widely now. It
> looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
>
> "Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react? In fact, I still
> don't understand your reaction. I thought it would change things between
> us. You've rejected every guy who ever proposed to you!"
>
> "That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!"
>
> "What?" Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that. She was in love with
> me? "How long have you been in love with me?"
>
> "Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me."
>
> "But that was the first day I met you!"
>
> "I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry."
>
> "All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything!
> Then you go and complain that I waited a month!"
>
> "You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind."
>
> "You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein
> couldn't figure you out."
>
> "Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand, understood us very
> well."
>
> "I love you."
>
> "I know."
>
> That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into her eyes and took
> her hands in mine. Physical contact for us had been limited, until then,
> to a punch in the arm, a slap on the back of the head, or giving each
> other a 'high five'.
>
> "You realize, don't you," she said, "that this is our first date?" Leave
> it to her to notice the little things.
>
> "I really don't want to go." I'd always maintained that love is a
> bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
>
> "Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months."
>
> "How? On a dependent visa?"
>
> She laughed. "For that, I'll have to wait, won't I? I've got a project in
> New Jersey."
>
> I couldn't believe my ears. "What? When did that happen? You never even
> told me!"
>
> "Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't exactly
> sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch out for
> myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an opportunity
> coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is coming back to
> India, so I'll be taking his place. They want me there for a little less
> than two years." She was beaming. "I realized I had struck gold!"
>
> "And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you planning on telling me
> about it?"
>
> "Around a month before I reached there. I had to make it look natural. Or
> you'd think I was desperate."
>
> "Well, you are desperate!" This was incredible. All I'd done in the past
> month had been to mope around, listen to sad songs and write her letters
> that I never intended her to read. "You've been scheming all this while!
> How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?"
>
> "I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!"
> She was laughing. "You're the only guy I ever spent any time with. Wasn't
> that a big enough hint?"
>
> That was true. She would happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket
> match, but I now realized, only if I was one of them.
>
> "What if I had rejected you?" I was extremely flattered that she'd been
> crazy about me for a year. My ego was swelling.
>
> "You must be kidding!" she was clearly amused. "I get proposed to every
> few days. You are the one who's been rejected more times in the last year
> than I can count on two pairs of hands!"
>
> She really knew how to burst my bubble.
>
> "Hey," she said softly, "don't look so dejected. I said 'Yes', didn't I?"
>
> I grinned. "Yes, you did. And you've made me a very happy man. But you
> know what would make me even happier?"
>
> "What?"
>
> "If you learn to cook as good as you bake cakes."
>
> So she punched me in the arm again.

Age vs State of Mind

2010-05-13T00:36:00.001-05:00

I was reading a book in which I was introduced this term state of mind. What is the state of mind? It is state in which mind is on a particular day, on a particular moment, on a particular month or a particular timeline. I am also read that you get or achieve anything based on the state of mind you have. Now there are so many influences that happen to get to a state of mind. Lets say I am happy now, there might be something that has caused this, because of which I am in this state of mind. People say or some of these self help books say that you can choose your mood. I don’t know if I agree with that. If I am sad or bored, for a while no matter what I do I would carry this state of mind. I will be sad even if I try to do something different to change it. Anyway now comes the age part of it, which is where there is something like a base level state of mind. I don’t know if it is called the state of mind, but the behaviour of that particular age. Who programmed this particular behaviour it is so true that no matter who it is in general any human being goes through the same stages of behaviour. I am not saying it is exactly the similar kind of behaviour.

For instance when I was at the age of 10-12 the only thing that was running in my mind was to play. I played almost all kinds of games, you name it I have played it. Gilli danda, cricket, marbles, football, TT, local games, street games, running, chess, carrom, badminton, video games so many of them that I just can’t believe it how much time I spent on that. I used to love riding bicycle and some Jyothishi had told me not to ride any bicycle, so until I was 8th standard I didn’t get a bicycel. Before that I used to always ask for a ride from my friend’s cycle or just keep dreaming about it. I remember it was Aug 15th 1995; Independence Day all of my family Dad, Mom & brother we went to a cycle shop and bought a black Hero Ranger cycle. I enjoyed riding the bicycle. I had a study at that age, but still sports was the major distraction. I was not bad at studies but I always used to be in top 5 but never topper.

Then age of Teens, my God by far this is the best age that’s why it is called sweet sixteen. The most delicate age, the mind is so volatile that any thoughts easily get influenced. Many get spoilt at this age. I don’t know what gets in to mind to go beyond the boundaries layed by parents or society. Suddenly freedom surrmounts and I will go on my own and don’t feel like listening to anybody and then those tender love stories of having crush on somebody or secretly following someone or wishing for some miracles to happen without having much guts to face any of it. Any movie just strucks in mind and bells keep ringing in mind. At this age itself we will have the life decider exams like 10th standard, PUC, CET and that is where a career would form to get a shape and a direction. Anything down at this time would screw the whole career. No matter what it is only of the guys or gals of this age know what goes on in their minds, it is hard for any 40 aged person to figure out that. But to get to 40 you would have to cross 16. What I like the most is the way in the nature that these things happen and at 40 you really can’t get the thinking of what you get at 16 or 18.

As your grow older and older things change. At the time of graduation even though lot of friends are around you will be a worried about job or career and where I am going to land up. But everyone will have lot of big dreams and the mindset is very optimistic. But when we get introduced to the real world then again it is a bit of disappointment. I thought so much different my life would be at job. Welcome to the reality Dude! Then at job hikes, promotions, feeling of loser and no time to have fun. At time in college there will be lot of time & lot of friends and but no money, so you will tend to think may be when I start earning I will have more fun and spend lavishly, but when you are at job you will have money but not much of time or friend’s time to really do anything that you had thought before. This is the irony of life. But not everybody’s life is like the way I am put forth above. Some 1% of the population really get what they want in life and they live in a high style.

There is this is age “forget all about this dude, I need a companion of my life”, then the girl hunt. After that the life of a kids. Then some thing on a hardcore career at the age of 35. Then car, house, and other big investments. Then the retirement plans and then dada dadi feeling and then the detachment………. goes on man!

PS: You would envy the age of the people in the poster.

Good Morning

2010-05-13T00:34:00.001-05:00

Morning time is such a wonderful time, that’s why people wish Good Morning, because morning is so good. Today I had to go home early, so I made a plan let me come to office as early as 7:30AM. So I got up at 6:30 AM got ready by 7:10 and left to office on my Pulsar. The weather is so pleasant, it just cool not too chill (it’s hot Summer ofcourse), no traffic, a slow feel of cool breeze (no wind actually, just that my bike is moving fast and feeling the stand still air), freshness everywhere. Ah! ha its nice.

I am a big late latif! Part of it is I am not a morning person. I don’t know how this terminology – morning person, night person came in to picture; I have heard a lot in hollywood movies. Always let it be engineering, PUC or work life, I can stay awake and late till any time, but getting up early in the morning is such a mountaineering task. Once in a while like today are exceptions. Night life is altogether a different story. Night has its own character of its own just like the morning now.

When Sun sets in the evening with turning the bright blue sky to yellow, orange, crimson red and finally from dark to black, lot of this things happen around. There is so much happiness to see the Sun – Sets and Sun Rise, it is so beautiful. I have seen more sun sets than sun rises and off late neither of them, why!; I will be in still on bed in the morning and office in the evening. Life has become so un-natural sitting in this boxed glassed building with a box called laptop. When I was young (10-20) seldom times we used to visit Juhu beach and watch the sunset. Its sad that Bangalore is not having a beach, else I would have turned to a morning person and jog on the beach everyday and watch the sun-rise. Right now the only sun rise I see is the coffee powder sunrise in my kitchen.

Once I had to drop my Mom to Railway station at 5:30 AM and then I planned to drive to Manipal hospital on Airport Road to collect a report. So I drove very fast from Railway station to Airport road. It was spring time, all the tree where so prolific with their fresh green leaves, some trees with no leaves, but just the beautiful fresh flowers, that too different colours yellow, voilet, pink, & white. They would shower the flowers if you walk below them, so godly right! That time I realized why Bangalore is or was called Garden City and the city is fantastic. Surprisingly all roads also looked so wide. These roads just get narrower with the traffic I guess. This was some 3 years ago, so there was no metro construction also.

The deal is I have to get up now on early everyday. 8 bache utna nahi chelaga. Office timing is going to change for the coming week. It is now 8:15 to 5:15, so I have to be in office by 8AM. Although till now the office timing was from 9:15 to 6:15 but I used to come by 10:30 or 11 and be in office till 8:30PM, 9 or 10AM. Now on I strickly want to follow this new office timing. I also have some life dude! I will see more sun rises and sun sets now on…..

Uff teri Ada

2010-05-13T00:32:00.001-05:00

I like this song a lot, I don't know why. There is not much of dance in this song, but the song is all about dance. The best thing I liked is Deepika has really danced very freely and naturally and the lyrics also means the same. The sequence of imaginary rope and action is very beautiful

Jogi Nach Le, Rang Raj De... (2)
Lehraake Balkhaake Tu Duniya Bhulaake Naach
Dhun Koyi Gun Gunaale Gaale Tu Gaake Naach
Ranginiyon Mein Kho Ja, Pike Pilaake Naach
Madbhare Naino Se Tu Naina Milaake Naach

Uff Teri Ada, I Like The Way You Move
Uff Tera Badan, I Like To See You Groove
Uff Teri Najar, It Says I Wanna Dance With You... (2)

Sun Le Saaheba, Tu Hai Ik Nasha
Hosh Hai Mera Saara Kho Gaya

Hosh Gawa Deewaane Hosh Gawaake Naach
Paas Tu Aa Deewaane Paas Tu Aake Naach
Dil Mein Hai Armaan Jaane Saare Jagaake Naach
Tan Mein Badan Mein Jaise Aag Lagaake Naach

Uff Teri Ada, I Like The Way You Move
Uff Tera Badan, I Like To See You Groove
Uff Teri Najar, It Says I Wanna Dance With You... (2)

Dekhake Bhi Nahi Ho Yakin
Itani Kyun Hai Bata Tu Haseen
Tere Husn Se Jindagi Haseen
Tere Husn Ke Aage Koyi Haseen Na Kuchh Bhi Nahi
Aankhon Mein Mere Saare Sapane Sajaake Naach
Mujhako Tu Dil Mein Rakh Le, Dil Ko Dhadkaake Naach
Pyaar Agar Hai Mujhase Pyaar Jagaake Naach
Jaan-O-Dil Hai Jo Tere Mujhape Lutaake Naach

Uff Teri Ada, I Like The Way You Move
Uff Tera Badan, I Like To See You Groove
Uff Teri Najar, It Says I Wanna Dance With You... (2)

I want to dance now!

Monsoon Wedding

2009-07-18T14:04:00.003-05:00

It’s 7 PM Thursday, still got a mail from Ravi to our group list. Ah! for a moment relieved to see I am not a only one still at office. Rushed to Home & then rushed to Railway station packing a wrong shoe pair by 8:25 PM, thinking the train leaves at 8:30 PM. You know what our Mr.Organiser Jagga always gives 1/2 an hour early deadline to real deadline. The first thing to see there was who all had what all sizes of luggages and the second thing was to take these baggages to settle them in a single compartment. Out of S4, S6, S7 I felt some compartment was labeled as “couples only” like in some pubs & discos . We, hungry chaps were desperately waiting for the Mysore station, why! A delicious food was awaiting us for our ambush – Courtesy Karishma or Ravi oh! I am confused.

Early morning Mangalore welcomed us with its thick green canopy drenched in a heavy rain. The weather there was so much similar to the characteristic of that of a girl; so volatile, so unpredictable, swinging to the extremes in matter of seconds. Rowen had done all the arrangement of the room and thanks to Mangalore buns too. It was looking really cool, home like feeling, the short walk from railway station Kankanadi to Samrudhi lodge in a drizzling rain was quite tranquilizing. Thank God it was Friday, so we decided to get freshen up by 10:30 and start exploring gloomy Mangalore. By the way Nishant had already arrived with his special friend Sarika. Ah! it is big group now 17+2 in number. After having a breakfast we went to Someshawara Beach. To our surprise the beach was not all that romantic & quiet, it was roaring with high tides, gushing with force on rock & little bit left out shore. Our Professional Photographer Mr. Pari took some amazing shots & trying out some experiments on the timing of waves hitting the rock and goggles. We spent almost an hour on the rock witnessing the power of nature just to realize how insignificant we stand infront of it. Anyway the best part was we were on a trip after a long time in a group of this size, meeting some of my class-mates nearly after 6 years (Kishore), recalling old memories about our college, checkpost, canteen, dialogues, giggling around with jokes and events that happened in the past. Now along with it we were adding to our memories like all standing & showing our back to camera, witnessing sweet quarrels of the newly wedded friends, chips, smelly bhel on that paper cone, walking & travelling in the bus, chit chat. Somehow we had identified Ideal Ice-cream parlour as our hang-out place. Food for lunch was substituted by ice-creams, cutlets & samosas. The day ended with dinner in Dolphins & poker game.

July 11th 2009, Saturday – A big day for Rowen & Zita. We all got up and dressed up with suits & marriage attires and had a bunch of photo sessions(I think Vogue or Maxim can sponsor us for such events). We the great timekeepers entered the church late. Rowen & Zita were already at the centre and the ceremony had begun. The whole set up was so extravagant & grand, we could feel delight of it everywhere. What impressed me the most was solemn ritualistic addressing by Fathers of the Church. Although some part of it was in Konkani, with a bit of Marathi background some meaning could be made out of it. The whole marriage stands on the foundation of love, faith, trust, mutual respect. Some of verses made so much of sense like the one standing together in health and sickness, abiding by love, forgiveness, living in harmony, honouring eachother to live together for eternity, pervading peace, instilling love in hearts of not only the newly marrying couple but also people present in the hall. Chalo yaar funde se fun part par ab mudenge. There was a orchestra, a lovely decorated podium, a 3 level cake and a enthusiastic anchor. Everything was so organized say it a toast, or couple walk, or dance, or speech by Rowen(Did you win first prize in speech competition when you were in school), food, best man & maid of honor dance (Ajay good job man! ). The evening party was so much fun and was very casual in nature. Man! everybody in Rowen’s or Zita’s family are talented. Almost everyone are good singers, guitarist, dancers, musician in one way or the other. Our Best Man turned out to a Bar Man (Ajay! got so well mingled with us, I am getting a feeling that we studied engineering together). There were so many games too. We also started with song antaskari and dance. I was amazed by the incredible energy of Grandma(I feel old at this age), Rowen’s Dad, brother for that matter everyone there.

We didn’t want the party to end, so with that influence we continued our party at Room 315. We made two group on-bed & off-bed and played a hour long antaskhari. So many songs kept on playing, playing, it was 94.3 non-stop hits. Then the most interesting game started, the dumb charadas. Everyone one us were pulled on to the test of acting skills. The most daring & amusing actor award goes to our Busa (MC). Man! it was so much fun. Damn it! didn’t wanted to end that either, but the clock was ticking 3:30 AM. So half the crowd left to take some rest after a long day. The other half continued with Poker. We were now playing with more and more coins and we got the hang of the game now after the initial orientation by Nishant. It was already morning 4 or 5AM.

Poker was not just over there, the gambling continued, along with it came up with so many imaginative ideas, “Why don’t we book a room and play poker, why don’t we meet everyday in Majestic to play. Even in the early morning 11 AM people started the day with poker. After all the party and marriage not all were with the same energy, so some wanted to stay at the lodge, some wanted to visit Panambur beach and some wanted to do shopping. We paid visit to Ideal Icecream again for lunch. Panambur beach is just beside the Mangalore port. The whole area was filled with trucks, Indian oil, railway track. Even just soil over there was purple in colour rich with iron and manganese I guess. I wish if it was all gold . This beach was like a normal beach – nice shore, lot of people, lot of eatable stalls. Got wet, did lot of jumping, lot of photo snaps and rain made to us to run away back to lodge. One thing Murgi & Jaya always used to join us where ever we use to go. Well! The trip was almost coming to an end, packed our luggages and back to railway station. Luckily this time we all got seats in the same bogie and were badly waiting for TC so that we could grab packed food specially packed and brought by Karthik (lambu) & CR. Slowly it started to sink in our minds that trip is now over, we have to get back to our work. Seriously I had forgot all about it for 3 days. We were Bangalore station well before the time. The final roll call – attendants of the weddings: Jagga, Pari, Ravi & Karishma, Nagaraj MC & Spoorthi, Murgi & Jaya, Nishant & Sarika, Srinivas, Srinivas CR, Karthik Lambu, Karthik Gurugalu, Kishore, Magesh, Babu, Zubair, Ajay, Cletus.

The question is whose will be the next wedding out of Bangalore and when will we have some trip like this again. Oh! no the better question can be why can’t we just go for another trip to some good place sometime? What do you say people….

Tension Matt Ley

2009-05-05T02:11:00.001-05:00

After nearly 6 months I am back to my own blog. What was happening all these days. Well! There was a lot happening and I couldn’t hold to many things. I enjoyed writing blogs before but now a kind of resistance had developed towards it. This would be a temporary phase.

At office I enjoyed working on one project which was going on for a such a long time and this was the peak moment. We worked day night to cover up so many tasks that were lying around. Did 3 months of night shifts too. Finally we completed 95% of the work from our group side, there was still some more left out by other team and it was scrapped. This somehow was the effect of my last blog. Yeah! the famous word used now a days called “recession”. Everybody just keeps on talking about this. In all the news channels, in all the newspapers, in cafeteria, in shops, in relatives’ house, in cutting saloon, in meetings, in shabji mandi, in coffee house, every freaking place. Somehow this is a psychological thing or a real thing I don’t know has effected every industry. So I decided one thing I won’t think about or use the word recession. By the way I have more projects than before in hand now, even if one got scrapped .

I don’t know I kind of have a grave confidence that nothing will happen. Stay calm and take it easy. This is just one part of the whole process. You know I heard this saying as Death is also a part of Life, I guess in Forest Gump. What a movie man. For him nothing really mattered, he just did everything and attained the peak in everything without even knowing what he did. I like that movie a lot, one of the classic movie I guess. There are so many such statements which can be easy taken as saying. Like “Shit Happens” yeah very true. In the whole world or in the economy sometimes Shit happens. Tension matt ley! Jo hoga vo dekha jayega. So I really don’t care about it. In fact now things are changing or improving I guess. Anyway again who cares.

Financial Crisis...A Summary

2008-10-09T07:37:00.005-05:00

Something went wrong. The whole world economy is just shaky now, rather at a downfall. There is total chaos in the financial world. With this the tremors are spreading to every domain now. Slow down, recession, economy crisis, bail outs, bankruptcy; these are the every day news.

Actually I wasn't following anything of this and I was just too happy in my world. Slowly I started reading all about it. How it started and how things are getting worse day by day. I used to hear in US that real estate market is down and US economy is not doing well. But as a common man the repercussion to day today activity was not that high. I don't know somehow I getting the feel of it mentally.

Just in 5 weeks there was a financial turmoil. How it started, here it goes in simple terms a company of worth some x billion borrowed 25 times its net worth creates funds to lend and invest. In 2005-2007 the real estate market was on a steep growth and it was assumed that this will continue forever. Mortgage lenders became lenient in their lending standards with the greed of making more money without worry much about the repayment as this can be recouped with the property itself. Now the property bubble burst lead to steep depreciation in the property prices. People could not repay their loan on time and repayment defaults kept increasing leading to those huge chunks of toxic mortgages. These investment banks purchased the mortgages from banks thus freeing them to lend more money. Investment Bankers used these as assets and sold them to various institutional investors like hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds, and banks in all parts of the globe including Europe and Asia. The real risky mortgages were charged with very high interest rates. Overall approximately $1 trillion was invested in securities thinking they get huge returns later. As the tide turned down, all institutional investor suddenly faced this erosion of the capital. This big chunk of money was all sold and chained through the whole financial system and then there was no real value in those mortgages at all. Now there is no real money with these financial institutes at all. Suddenly everything started falling with huge deficiency in the liquidity and every major company started declaring as bankrupt. Now the government had to come to rescue the whole economy by bailouts and buying the banks the financial institutes.

The two hedge funds owned by Bear Sterns collapsed. The Federal Reserve staved off a Bear Sterns bankruptcy by assuming $30 billion in liabilities and engineering sale to JP Morgan Chase for a price that was less than worth of Bear's Manhattan skyscraper. The biggest American lending companies, which I consider them as the main cause for all of this, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in big trouble with their stock prices falling out. On September 7th the Treasury Department took over them for some $200 billion. One of biggest investment banker Lehman Brothers was totally wrecked and it filed bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch which is again one more big icon of investment banking sold off itself to Bank of America to avoid similar fate of Lehman Brothers. Washington Mutual was down; Barclay Capital bought bits and pieces of Lehman Brothers. On September 16th American International Group, AIG an insurance giant was on the verge of failure which was bailed out by Fed again for $85 billion. The $700 billion bail out plan which was rejected was finally passed. How much this would rescue the economy is not really known. The Dow Jones has fell to 9200 odd points, BSE yesterday had gone below 11000 mark. Strange it has reached to roaring 20,000 points but now down to this level. European markets are down, Asian markets are down. There are many financial institutes in bankruptcy in Europe. Yesterday Kamal Mehta and P.Chidambaram were giving repeated press conferences to build the confidence in the investor and Indian Economy is very much in convergence with the Financial Institutions and we are in a growing economy and we won't face such a situation.

Bus yaar! Yeh saab hogaya. Finance ke bahut sare funde bol raha huun. If you don’t understand anything of the above I conduct special classes on the weekends. Special rates available if you call within the next 24 hours… ;)

Chal abhi aramse chai peeta huun.

What are you searching...

2008-10-08T06:05:00.004-05:00

I had a life in Kansas for long time. So many things happened in past two years that my life has stirred up completely. I could really see ups and downs of a life, good and bad things of life, personal life, professional life. I did meet lot of new people at a new level and they did share their life stories. I am not 65 years old and the people I met were not even 50. But for the first time I was seeing with vision of life as a whole. I don't know, optimistic person like me, was turned to a pessimistic person. My faith was shook, the principles and fundas were questioned again in my mind and suddenly nothing was meaningful. This whole thing was a big confusion. What was I searching all along, I don't know...

Anyway this crap philosophy and all doesn't work. Life is rude to you sometimes. Time up boss! Get your ass out of here. So what all I had till now, had to packed in my just 2 suitcases. Damn! I was doing this packing past last 2 weeks still I couldn't finish it till the last minute. I did one thing though, everyday I paid visit to each of the places in which I had spent my past time. That was a amazing recap. Actually this time I was not feeling sorry to leave the city. I felt good. Change is always good. Change always bring about a new excitement and new colour to life. But certainly the experiences and learning that I had would always remain etched in my mind.

Now coming back to my room was such a Ah Ha feeling. I got access back to all my good old stuff. In many cases, I felt India or Bangalore is far more advanced. I have so much better options here. Suddenly I am back in the crowd, among the people who love me, who care about me, all this just makes you feel wonderful. Things started getting clear in my mind. Although the confusion is not totally washed away, but work is under progress. While I was cleaning some of the stuff on my book shelf, my sight fell on this good old book "The Alchemist". I have read this before and it is amazing. This is a magical fable written in such a incredible way which makes to glued to the book and at the same rate it keeps on telling you life fundas. I have started reading it again and even if I have read it before, even though I know the whole story, still I am able to relate myself much better. When I read it before I was in a different phase of life and now I am in a different phase, so view point have changed a little bit and this book is teaching me new things now.

It is all about following and realizing a dream. It is a matter of a destiny how ones path of life gets decided. These are some excerpts from this book.

"Destiny is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young know what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. It's a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth" Courtesy Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

Airport

2008-10-07T13:15:00.003-05:00

One of the most interesting place that I have come across is the Airport. Well! It is quite strange, only for past few years I am getting this opportunity to see this family of place more often, before that it was always either bus stands or the railway stations. Although my first flight in plane was on January 1st 2000, what a beginning! that was the first day after the millennium celebration.I still remember I was in Engineering first sem, I was made to sleep early and we were awake by 3 AM and watching the millennium celebration happening all around the world in TV. My first flight on plane was to Chennai on the way to Andaman Nicobar Islands. Probably that is a different topic altogether by itself.

After staying in Kansas for nearly 2 years, I had almost become a host over there. I used to come to airport on numerous occasions to drop-off so many of my friends. Saying Alvida to so many was always painful. Certainly Life is Big, and I am sure I will bump in with all my real friends again. Finally I had to probably make my final trip to Kansas Airport ( I am not sure if that was the final one, for this year at least ). The strange part is I was always there to send off all of them, but no one comes to send me off. That's fine!

Airport is such a heterogeneous mixture of all kinds of people, from all countries. There is certain smell or should I call it as fragrance in every airport that is kind of very different. Is it the smell of the toilets, phenol or the mixture perfumes of so many people, or air by itself in which we all fly. I hate waiting anywhere, however in airports that is the only best work to do. So my best time pass is to observe people around. All these business people with their formal wears, suit boat show off so much of a class look that as if they are the only people who are making the world to work. Always stressed with their laptops, blackberry, hi fi mobiles holding a first class ticket, which is more of booked at the company expense. Then there are these young teenager who prefer to sit at some corner on the floor instead of the chair which their gizmos connected to power slot. Girls often with a pink ipod, pink laptop, chewing a gum, looking very serious around (Oh! God this pink obsession). Then the young hunks with some sporty shoes, with haphazard bags, caps, some junk style, raw look with some food in hand. There are our desi people too. What do they do, they just stare at the other desis. I don't know whatz up with this staring business. There are some families with kids with their own mini-DVD players, video games. So much of electronic stuff in airport myan! Then these rollers in between for the babies. These rollers are so much of a mess, they are annoying to others too, they always take so much space and are always parked on the way, with the babies and some even grown ones sitting happily in it. Probably I will not understand the use of this now, but I feel it is a big irritating luggage (of course I am not referring the baby). There is other category of people too, these hippies, some art guys, or the music guys, they are always in a different world. Oh! yeah these airport or airline people too, with their uniforms, remove that remove this uuff this security checking, so much of a hassle. Sometimes I feel these guys are still going to school, because they still wear uniforms. Anyway this above sentence is silly. It happens like this because waiting and watching kind of develops a boredom. Finally with boarding call, that be as per the zone, we finally get to enter the plane. First 10-15 mins is all about fitting the big lug gages inside those boxes. Now the excitement of who will be your neighbour, you know it what it turns out always.

Till now I have seen Chennai, Port Blair, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Frankfurt, Paris, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago and Kansas Airport. Of all I like the Paris Airport, why it is stylish and fashionable as per its city. Although this time the toilet was bad. May be that particular one. Anyway it is damn good. I haven't seen the whole world there is a separate ranking available for airports based on many criteria. In fact I expected more out of the new Bangalore International airport. It is of course big and good, but to the international standards, it should have been more a lot more different.

Anyway that's it, I am feeling less interested to write more on this topic, but it is quite fascinating on how the directors have managed to make a movie "Terminal" Tom Hanks on it. Really a good movie. Well! All the way on this travel back I was tired tired tired. The very first leg from Kansas to Atlanta made me feel such a long flight. Then Atlanta to Paris and Paris to Bangalore, back home and then slept like a log. End of the story.

Funny and True ;)

2008-07-02T10:21:00.001-05:00

Couple of days back I got this set of sentences as a forward. Found it really cool!

Relationship between eyes

The best relation ever is between two eyes,
"They blink together, move together, cry together, see together and sleep together".
STILL they never see directly each other.
But when they see a girl, one will blink and the other will not.

Moral of the story: " Girls can break all kind of relationships ".

Aeeerrrooopllaaaannneeeeeee

2008-06-06T13:59:00.010-05:00

When I was little, probably of age 4-5 years, that was when I joined the school for LKG or may be before that I guess. I had one ambition then. Whenever whoever used to ask me what will you become, when you grow up, I used to say "I will become a PILOT". My ambition or craze for becoming pilot was so strong that I had a huge bunch of toys which were only aeroplanes, helicopters, guns. We used to stay in a small taluka place Yadgir in Gulbarga district. Hardly any plane would fly through that air route, even if it happens to fly, you can hear a mild plane sound and suddenly I used to start searching the whole horizon of the sky. Somewhere if lucky would find an ant sized aeroplane. In every fest I just used to get planes and helicopters. Whenever I had fight or angry with any of my aunts or cousins, my punishment to them was "I won't take you in my plane". At that point of time we had black & white TV. If I remember correctly the brand of TV was Crown TV. It had a wooden shutters too :). So in that area it was like only we had TV. All the people, kids from neighbourhood used to come to our house and watch TV. TV was such a cool thing then, but it was not for me. If everyone used to be inside house I used to be outside with my planes. The only movie at that age I remember seeing was a movie probably called "Vijay" which was about a war and there were lot of planes in that movie.

As we grew we changed places, houses, schools, then in 8th standard I decided to become IAS officer. As we grow, our childhood dreams, imaginations, innocence all fade and we advance towards so called realities of life. Then all the herd mentality will start. Play safe nature is always so much embedded within. Then took science in PUC, then there are only 2 options. Engineer or a Doctor. I don't have any backup or background in Medicine so Engineer is the best choice. Then study cram cram in exams get good CET ranking, get good Engineering college, then cram cram study in engineering, get good company. This thing never ends. It is a rat race and everybody will be just running. If I imagine this I see a huge 6 lane road on which the whole population is running. I am standing on a footpath with a bag(why bag I don't know). I would stop somebody and ask "Hey where are you going", he would say "Don't waste my time, I will be late, I have to go". I didn't get the answer, so again "But where are you going". He would say "I don't know but everybody is running". I get the same answer from couple of other people. Well! This is not the case with everyone. Just my imagination, sometimes I feel even I am also running, but very hard to accept that, probably I won't accept it even today.

Whatever! Though the dream is still there. Just by mere coincidence, or that`s how life takes you or something like that. Even though there are numerous companies in various domains, I landed into Honeywell through campus placement in my college. I remember the first day in Honeywell after the initial orientation of half day we were assigned with the teams and I didn't knew what the hell was my team all about. A senior of mine working in Honeywell had told that Automation and Control Systems has better work than Aerospace. So I went on to the 5th floor of our Uranus building, I was anxiously looking at the books, boards, posters at the cubicle to see what domain did this team belong too. Though ACS was good I wanted to be in Aerospace. Finally I am in the Aerospace domain and it has been such a interesting journey to not just see but work on so many exciting things about aeroplane. I salute to the Wright Brothers who discovered that we can fly like birds a century ago. Even after travelling in planes so many times, whenever a plane flies in the sky, I don't stop staring at it until it fades away. Guess what! A pilot working here in Honeywell Olathe is going to take me on a plane. I will be sitting in the Co-Pilot seat. In air I will definitely take control of the joystick, operating the instruments and I will be flying it. Just waiting for the Tornadoes to settle down to give us a clear sky.

One day I really want to fly my own plane. I will become a pilot...

I Touched the iTouch

2008-03-22T13:04:00.007-05:00

I had a confusion in my mind since a long time. In December I was thinking thinking and finally didn't execute it. Nothing great! It was just that iPod vs iTouch vs iPhone. My brother was more on to iTouch. It is cool and looks damn good.

Well! the thing is iPod classic has 80GB costs $250 and iTouch $300. If I take iPod I can store lots and lots of data, songs and movies. In iTouch I just get 8GB seems to be less. I don't want to pay another $100 just to get 16GB iTouch. But I have 500GB hard-disk. I can watch movies in iPod too. What else is great in iTouch, nothing more just Wifi and calculator and other stuff. How much to I use these Wifi stuff in India. If I setup the WiFi network in India, I would rather use laptop to browse the net rather than doing it on iTouch. One more thing is that if I take iPhone then iTouch would become redundant. I don't want to take iPhone from here, by breaking that AT&T contract and do the exercise of cracking it for Indian mobile network. I would be at the risk of guarantee of iPhone.

Yesterday was a Good Friday, So I thought I should do something good. In the evening went to Plaza and then to the Apple Store. Apple store always looks so good, everything white looks royal, sleek, Hifi(Wifi was there) and techno atmosphere. Especially the new MAC Air is just awesome so thin. Then focusing on my requirement I went to the place where iPods were kept because the store was about to close in another half an hour. I went on with initial thing of pressing all the buttons and hearing bits and pieces of what was there in iPods. I was thinking white iPods looks better than black iPods. It was good.

Then turned towards the place where lots of iTouch were kept. iTouch welcomed to its interface with a big screen. It just looked awesome, big screen, so sensitive, all 3D glossy icons, the maps, calci, safari browser, music quality, photo viewer. The interface is just too good, you can pinch it and anti pinch it(I don't know what is the opposite word) for zoom in and zoom out. Just for satisfaction I checked my gmail on it, luckily it went to my actual mail account. It is like a big room inside (a web page or anything) and you can just by moving your fingers you can reach the ends of the pages top down left right. Man! This damn whole thing impressed me a lot.

iTouch: Hey! How am I?
Srini: Too good man! Steve Job and your engineers have worked a lot on you to the most minute details.
iTouch: What do you think, I am better than iPod
Srini: Yeah! I am feeling but space, and your big brother iPhone and all....
iTouch: Man! Don't think too much, For everything so much analysis, you feel good about me, just take it, I will be loyal to you :). Moreover see I am new and cool, iPod by its name 'classic' it is pushed back to old age now.
Srini: Ok! Da! enough of your marketing, I will buy you now.... :)

So my credit cards was swiped just like that and iTouch was in my hand. My friend exclaimed Welcome to the iPod family!. Get out! you are telling as if Steve Jobs is your uncle(He has a iPod that's why all this style). Well! One more thing, iTouch or iPhone is not the Resistive touch screen unlike kiosk, PDA, ATM machines. It uses the Capacitive touchscreen technology where a thin film conducts continuous current to the sensor. You know human body is also like a electrical device, your finger touch would create a capacitive field and this change is the capacitive field it create distortion which can be used to execute an action. That's why iTouch or iPhone works with your fingers only not with stylus or even your hands with gloves. If you don't understand don't bother or ask questions back to me, this is just to show off that I am electronics engineer hahaha :D.

End of the Day "I touched the iTouch"...

Long Weekend Nowhere to go

2008-03-20T15:04:00.004-05:00

It is a long weekend this weekend. The whole of this week our greatest topic of discussion is "What is the plan for this Weekend?". I don't know how many times we have discussed about this. To plan any trip is not a difficult thing, it is very easy; just decide on what is kind of requirements you have or type of fun you want to have, freeze the place, take the maps, book the motel online, start your car(Ofcourse if it is a road trip). I like road trips because it is fun to drive. But there are some things like in a group, some one has to take the initiative, some one has to do all the arrangements, some one will drop off in the end, some one has to maintain the enthu in everybody, now these kinds of things are not easy.

Actually in my last visit I have covered the possible places in the north, east, south, west of Kansas. The places which I would like to see in US are Las Vegas, Los Angles, Yellow Stone National Park, Niagara Falls, Miami Florida(any Florida beaches), Hawaii. I mean these are special. If I try to plan for any other cities around it would be again typical tall buildings, some observatory, zoo, aquarium, museums, park. So for the places of my interest I have to fly.

So I am in a fix situation, I feel like going out somewhere and really feel relaxed, rejuvenate and reset the health state of the mind. I have to do some of my work too which are to be done from my side. Going out also gives happiness and accomplishing the work that we have in mind also gives happiness. Doing nothing, just killing time is the worst thing to do, it is very boring, frustrating, it is like flowing as the wind blows, and then regretting that I did nothing. I feel 80% of the time in our life(by making a generic statement I am not trying to drag everybody) we do nothing, it like death waste, killing the time just like that, rest 20% of the our life time is what something remarkable we do or which remain on the top of the head that we did something. For the time line it is not required to consider a whole life time, just considering timeline of a year or 3 years is good enough to do the analysis. Suppose suddenly you ask me what significant things did I do in the last 5 years, or if you ask me what do I know, I just go blank... aaah aaah aahh.

What crap am I talking about. Some crap man! Actually I am bored I am searching for happiness. There are lot of these Maahaaan sayings "Happiness is within", "you can be as much happy as much you decide to be" blah blah... After knowing all these still you won't see or get the happiness. Bliss is a long way to go, as I believe it is advanced stage of a happiness. Man! then it gets spiritual. One has to realize himself to be in a blissful state. One will be happy when he finds what makes him happy, what he loves.

By the way I was talking about trip for this weekend, totally forgot about the topic, but they are inter-related. Even if you go around if you don't get the happiness then there is no point in a trip too. Man! A good company is required, not that I have bad company.

Whatever! I am not going anywhere out this weekend.

Memories with no delete option

2008-02-03T11:52:00.007-06:00

A month passed by since I am back to India. Suddenly in between I was having a different kind of a feeling. I was so busy in work at office and some personal work in hunting for the property. I was just living every day. Go to office, come back, sleep, do some work, fill forms and back to office, meetings and tracking. Just like salt or sugar when dissolved with water will loose its original form. I got dissolved in this busy world. Today I was listening to some of my favorite songs that I used to listen in Kansas. It had happened something like this that the USB memory drive of 1 year which was disconnected from my PC, suddenly got connected and started showing me off all the history files.

Initially Kansas was like a boring place, but slowly as I went on spending my days in here, I started liking the city. What was special about the city, the people I met here, the homely nature of the city, the plaza, the parks, the downtown, the candlewood suites, my running path, the office, the work, everything almost everything in here. As though I found it was not good for buying anything much of electronics items unlike the deals in Fry’s electronics of Phoenix. But I did roam around places here and went around lot of restaurants and pretty good hang out places. Though all along the time we went on blaming Kansas for its geographic position, it is like you won’t understand the importance of something that you have, until you loose it.

Initial one month went off in just getting settling down in here, getting my laptop, SSN, DL, car and things like that. Then when we 3 Honeywell guys (Bejoy, Arya and me) got together we started experimenting the roads and places around. After the Wipro guys and gals pitched in the Candlewoods, our group started growing. I still remember I had invited everybody to The Country Club Plaza, I had heard that it was a good place! that’s it. We missed the exit or a lane change and went altogether in a different route. Someone helped us in showing us back the route, but we were in doubt whether they are helping us or taking us somewhere. After the first visit to Plaza and then later discovery of this place, it formed our favorite place to hang out every weekend. Few of the places of Plaza I just can’t ever forget. The fountains around, the bridge over the water stream, the statues, the cheesecake factory, the starbucks, the America’s Pub, the Barnes and Nobels, so many other restaurants. Plaza is one such a unique marvelous place; it is so romantic, it so mystical and magical.

We went on trips to the cities around as far as possible. St Louis was the first trip. It was just 260 miles away from Kansas. It was good fun time to see the arch, the kiddy museum, the zoo and just roaming around. Only frustrating part for me was that I always missed the exits, may be as I still say it was because Vinod was helping me properly with navigation. The Chicago trip was just amazing. Man! Chicago, has its own flare, it own style and attitude for which I liked it a lot. Just after spending 3 days in Chicago I felt it is a city to live. The drive was just too long and memorable. My second profession was driving, I was a driver :), but since I love driving, I don’t mind this even as a profession. The Dallas trip was good, too long drive for 2 days, but it was a good break. The Rocky mountain trip was rocking. Rockies in covered with snow was like heaven, it was too beautiful to handle, the lake walk, the trees half covered with snow, the colorful lighting on streets, the thanksgiving parade, the starbucks over there, twin owls hotel. It was one trip with no deadlines and we watched so many movies while in hotel. It was the best trip of the year. The New York trip was fantastic in its own ways. These cities are just the best cities in the world. “I love New York” that is saying that goes around everywhere in NY and I really feel the meaning of it.

The friends I got here, I believe them to be friends for lifetime. I just hope so that we keep in touch till the last moment on this earth, but I don’t know. My Honeywell folks were Bejoy, Arya, Madhava, Harshad, Prashanth, Sachin, Enrique. From Wipro were, Anoop, Pooja, Vidya, Matangi, Nakul, Ayyanar, Vinod, Nirmal, Safeer, Srirajesh, Imran, Senthil… Well! I am not taking any attendance here :). Each of them came and went off for a period of a time. I always had a strange feeling why do people meet and depart. I used to kind of give them send off and I used the feel what the hell am I the host here or what. But I knew no one is permanent, even one day I have to leave from here. Anoop Pooja and Safeer were on H1, so in a way it was good for me with a thought that I will always have their company. Unfortunately something happened, Pooja left Kansas, unsolved mystery forever for me. All means of contact with her was lost just like that!. I wish even today Can God make some modifications here. Anoop was always there, in fact he was a default person in all my trips and weekends. Dude! Thanks man!. Matangi is an amazing cook and she never feels bored to cook any day any time. She is like a radio (Mat don’t feel bad, it is a complement in a good sense), once it is ON it goes on and on. Nakul was cool, we all had a big adventure and worlds of fun was loads of fun. Arya is a cool person, I really had such a good time to have him in our company. He has his own typical style and philosophies. Something or the other thing would be going on giggling, laughing or some jokes when he is around. Madhava is one person who ultimately gave me a send off. On the way back to India I went through New York and New Jersey. Anoop came along and we roamed around a lot of places in New York. It has just too hard for me to say Bye to him, talking some crap and avoiding eye contact I ran off to my path next ahead at the Times Square. It is very difficult for me to stop writing for this blog, because I have so many more things to say. The strange yet another thing is that I started writing this post when I was in India and I am completing this when I am back in Kansas again.

All these memories are buried in my mind and would remain green forever.

Home Sweet Home

2008-01-17T12:54:00.000-06:00

Many topics have come and gone in my mind. Time is flying and the situations in which I am around are rolling one after the other. I don't want any of those feeling to go off without notice. Somehow I need to keep up with the time and keep writing.

After encountering the deadly snow storm of Kansas, I somehow reached New York. New York is altogether one more separate topic. New York in Christmas time was awesome, it was totally filled with energy. I threw myself into the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then into the flight from Frankfurt to Bangalore. The journey was tiring, with very little sleep on the those comfortable seats(just like BST bus). Now this strange thing that should be true with almost everyone. Always you would expect some good looking female should come on the seat beside yours. Till someone arrives you would be damn curious about who is gonna take that seat. This is true for bus, train, and plane. Ultimately what happens is kind of always certain that, it would be taken by either some old uncle, grandma, or another male software engineer, unless and until you are damn lucky and your time is so good that all the nine planets have got aligned in a straight line. So the obvious thing happened with me. When the plane touched the Indian land some kind of happiness aroused inside me. After all it has been really long time almost a year. I was just waiting to get on to the Bangalore land. When the plane door was opened I could feel the smell of the city. Even after a year it hasn't got changed, it won't ever probably. The taxi wala didn't knew the road to my home and I hadn't forgot the road either.

As I was passing through the roads a lot of memories were going as a flash back in my mind. I could see nothing had got changed, everything remained the same, even the ditch near my home. I reached 4:20 am and was totally tired, but was not in a position to sleep. I went on talking, talking and talking with my Mom and brother as if I hadn't spoken for years. Even they didn't had a good sleep, but they were also excited to have me back. The next day my Dad was flying all the way from North India, Punjab to see his son after a year. After really a long time we all four had dinner on a same table. The challenge for me the next day was to drive to airport to pick up my Dad. After driving really powerful cars of 200-300bhp, I was pushing really hard the accelerator pedal of our car. Moreover the traffic and the driving on the left side of the road the quite opposite of US. Though I felt a bit of hurdle to move around in traffic, but then I have driven 10 years in India and just a year in US. I was more than excited to drive my Pulsar. I was all the time driving car, so my pulsar was looking at me with side eyes. So I had to come take it for a ride, you know what, it responded me with the same roar when I turned its accelerator. I was back on the Indian tracks in total action in a day. I haven't forgotten anything, driving, riding, swimming is all like walking. All of these you have to learn once in life.

After coming from US, even if you want it or not there are few things which you feel implicitly. Everything looks small, the roads, the cars, the airport, the cubicles, the shops, the buildings, and everywhere so many people, the dust, up and downs on road. You try to walk on the left side of the pathways. You would the pull the doors in office to open, but they are to be pushed in order to open whereas in US it is standard that to enter you have to pull and to exit you have to push. You would be more used to English films and channels where in you would have the update information but nothing much about the latest Hindi, Kannada songs. So when you are changing channels on the TV, it would somewhat get stopped at HBO or Star Movies, VH1 and also you would recognize the songs. The English accent would have got a bit different. When we went for shopping I was converting the price to dollars ;) (This is not attitude, OK!, the thing I was buying was cheaper in US). These are things that you feel naturally, but whatever be it, the happiness you get being in India is something non-replaceable with anything.

I went to my cousin's place to celebrate new year. It was total fun and there were all young people and so many of my relatives. Suddenly you would have become a highlight. Everyone asks these set of questions, How was US, Where all did you go, How did you feel, Did you used cook, What did you get me, where are the chocolates, you have become fat, Are you going back. Somewhere inside I was really feeling bad. In the period of one year I couldn't speak to so many people who I know, so many of my relative, so many of my close friends. Many things have happened in their life about which I am not updated with. My cousin is Mom now, four of my friends got married, I couldn't even attend, I don't remember the names of their finances, some have changed their companies and I don't know where they are now, one of my friend went to Germany, other was busy preparing CAT, few of them are in US, but couldn't meet them there. When you are in the other side of the earth and in total opposite times you would really miss many things. When I was watching TV, even then I felt in a year I have missed so many things that have happened here. But really Brand India is great now and fast encompassing around the world. The stock exchange, the Indian bull has ran to great heights, some 110 shared have risen 1000 times, which means if you had invested 1 lakh, it would have become 10 crore. Every channel has Shah Rukh Khan with his six packs because of his brand establishment. It seems India is the flourishing with new opportunities and energy.

Even in office everyone comes to your cubicle. I went on telling my experiences and places I went in US. Of course even on the project I was in limelight. But it is like this say when Tendulkar hits a century he would remain in limelight for some days, all news channels and all the people in hair cut saloons speak about him. Or say some new movie is released those actors in the film will be in total limelight spotlight what not. Then as the time moves on the glamor dies down. People forget and Man the nature to get adapted with the environment. So after some time the nasha of US goes off. You would become one of the sheep among the herd and move on.....

PS: But I don't agree with the last sentence.

Om Shanti Om

2007-12-21T23:09:00.000-06:00

Should I write about this movie or not? Am I too late, because the movie was released a bit time ago? Is the hype of this movie over? Anyway whatever be it, I feel like writing about it. You know right! Any Shahrukh movie is hyped, advertised, spoken all over and spread over everywhere. Sometimes I feel Shahrukh Khan as more of a business man than an actor. He is too shrewd, witty and a perfect entertainer. He knows what really has to be done. You just see his interviews, he takes over the anchor, acts like humble and proves that he is the king of bollywood. A great Filmfare anchor, keeps all the right people in their good books, cracks jokes on his competitor in a intelligent way and makes everyone happy. At times he portrays his emotional side with senti senti dialogues. He has struggled and come a long way to reach here. That's why for all this I like him.

I was too much occupied in work and was waiting for this movie to release, as a break from work. So on the day of the release along with friends I went to the movie theatre here to AMC 30. Though we were looking for the night show, I don't know why because it was SRK movie all the Indians seemed to have occupied the theatre. For the first time I saw it was housefull and sold out. My previous experience with Kansas Movie theatre was different. For "Chak De" there were totally 7 people in the big theatre including us. Guess what! for "Hey Baby" the whole theatre was occupied by me and my friend Anup. I was having a feeling this theatre is a adjacent room to my hall in my house. The reel was rolling specially for us. Anyway we booked the ticket for 5:30PM show for Saturday. I was in office till 5:15PM(Yeah! even on Saturday) and then rushed around driving crazily and reached 10-15 mins late(oh! shit how can I be late again). The film had already started. After 2 and half hour the film got over. Thats all! the blog is over.

"Blog abhi khatam nahi huvi hai, blog abhibi baki hai mera dosto". Overall if you just see without really making your logic part of the brain to work, it was a good entertaining movie. I enjoyed watching it and some part of it I like watching it again and again. It looked like the whole movie was done without any tension, everyone were let free to act whatever they want to do. I think, for the first half of the movie they really thought a lot, worked a lot and have put on many things to the show. There are these few of the things which I liked the most in the movie. You know, it is so nice and easy to go back to the history & remain in that time line and tell about what that is going to happen in future. Like SRK telling to Farah Khan tu kya film ka director hai kya, some other guy telling to Om "Sirf jacket pehene se koyi hero nahi banta, kuch shakal bhi hona chahiye aur style bhi rehna chahiye(Even though it is true SRK is a great actor now), Pappu and Om at the Tea shop telling a fresher about name "to Govinda try karu, aaahhh try karo"(today Govinda is a hero, (name matters a lot)), Om telling Shanti "Dosti mein mera ek usool hai, No Saarry no Thank you"(Dialouge in Maine Pyar kiya). The set up of the oldies looked so good, the digital mixing actors in the song "Dhuun ta na na", the music has more of Dhol sound, the old type big collars, tight light colour pants, the colour of the costumes with square chux shirt, big flower sarees, those plastic baskets, the badminton style, old type cars, lightings, hair styles. It was filled with humour also filmi Maa, actions of old styles, different versions of Bhagoo, South Indian actor Omshantinatan Swami "Naa Raamba, Naa illaay, atttii pattii katti heyyh heyyh, Yenna Rascalla Myind Ittthaa". Whenever the scene turns into too sentimental type suddenly the next moment it would get a swift turn to a humour. The second part was ok dokie types, with some masala of filmfare, 31 actors entering in a song, SRK Darde Disco item song and that cool types modern bigada huva baccha.

How can I forget to write about Shanti, which forms the center of focus in the name of the film. Man! She is so beautiful. Deepika Padukone has already created waves among everybody. When she enters to the theatre out of the car, in that pink dress she looks so gorgeous. When the song Dhunn ta na tadun tanan started, my eye's pupil size enlarged(I don't have to explain this funda right!). She looks so cool in the second half of the movie. I feel beauty has an aura around it. This pervades everywhere the feeling of happiness. It is like the aroma of the frangrance that bring about a strange kind of a joy. This feeling lingers through out the film and even in the songs. Om(SRK) falling off with a hand on his heart to her smile is just so true. I would also do the same action for her smile :D.

With all this mirch masala, I feel there is some theme and philosophy in the film. It is about having a dream, chasing a dream and dream does come true. The best part I felt is, whatever dialogues in the first part of the film are repeated in the second part with the dream being realized. Even though you make call it, its after all a film, but after all in life you need to have a dream. I had read in the book "The Alchemist" about how the world conspires when you start chasing your dream leaving behind everything.

" Itni shidhatt se meine tumhe paane ki kooshis ki hai, Ke har zarre ne tumhse mila ne ki shazhis ki hai"

"Kehte hai, Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho, to puri kayanat usse tumhse milaneki kooshis mein lag jati hai. Aap sabne meri chahat se mila diya Thaanks I feel like I am the King of the Wooorrllldddd..."

Storm, Snow, Ice, Bore

2007-12-11T15:42:00.000-06:00

Weather weather weather. I wonder whether weather is so important. Actually for the people like us who live just near to the Tropic of Cancer(Geography pada hai na 5th or 7th I don't know) we always have such a good weather. We just don't realize that we have a good weather untill and unless we are out of our place and see some crazy weather at the extreme north and extreme south fo the globe. Kansas being in the mid of no-where on US maps has very volatile weather, more volatile than a girls' mind(Now why girls' mind are volatile or all are not like that, I don't know; don't ask me all that. Just feel that their mind are volatile).

You know what! when any two US people meet the one think they start the conversation with is about weather. Hey! How you doing? How is the weather at your end. People tend to speak hours together about weather. Then when they see weird faces like ours they ask how about the weather in India, How is the weather in Bangalore. Then we start calculating in our mind 27 degree celsius which means F = 9/5C + 32. Are the F and C at right places? Is it 9/5 or 5/9. I think it should be plus 32 because Fahrenheit is a bigger number(wah logic), ah! 9/5 * 27 ah! too complex formula man!. Shit! I have to appear for CAT, can't I calculate such a small thing in mind. Hey! People are still waiting and watching your face expecting a answer about the temperature and weather. Oh! Forget about the formula, just guess a number we keep doing a lot of guess work at many places. Yeah! Our weather doesn't vary too much, just the people vary a lot. Somewhere from 70 degree F to 90 F. Anyway they are not going to come to India and check the weather. They say we have 60 F now, which is kind of very good. Again for my understanding how much is it in Celcius. Is it C = 5/9(F-32)? Who cares. I just feel bored to speak about weather.

Over here there is a weather channel or should I say like that every channel speaks about weather. People in office here have live Doppler Radar graphs on their screens. They have live temperature update. Any plans to any tour they first check the forcast. In fact they check the forcast everyday before coming to office. Hell! man.

Actually past a week here the weather is totally changing. I didn't check the website or watched any tv news about weather. In fact there was a snowfall here on the day just before the Thanksgiving Day. And then actually there was good amount of snowfall on last Thursday. Was it Thursday or Friday, I don't remember. Anyway so everyone in office told that there is going to be a huge snowfall today. Oh! is it? how do you know, forcast, weather update mail. Just a day before everything was green and sunny. When I got out of my office, man! Kansas looked totally different. Everything changed in a day. Even though there was no sunlight, it looked so bright everywhere. Everything was covered with snow. It was like a white bedsheet is thrown all over. Even my car with more than 3 inch of snow. Feel like this setup should be untouched to protect its beauty. Then when cars and start rolling on the roads the snows gets dirty with mud and sand and becomes the ugly grey. So last weekend it was all cold and snow, I couldn't go anywhere. I spent the whole saturday just in home. It was just good to watch from window, but was very boring to stay home. Even it happens there when it is raining heavily, you just can't go anywhere and have to stick in home. It gets really boring sometimes if you are alone.

Soon after this snow face was over, one more strange event in weather. Ice Storm! This doesn't mean that huge cones of ice are going to hit the ground with the blow of the wind. It is actually that it starts raining and temperature starts dipping down and down to the freezing point. Then the water on the trees, roads, boards, builings, cars, obviously everthing starts freezing to form ice. Water over ice freezes again and just forms the accumulation of ice. I have some pictures of it. It looks so amazing. Man! I kind of saw all kinds of weather being here. Morning when I was driving to work I was feeling like driving in the Montreal circuit, Canada. I haven't driven there, but this was a circuit in game Need for Speed.

Finally what! Nothing.
Moral of the story is Snow, Ice, Storms are just good to see, but boring weather to live.

Back!

2007-12-01T17:14:00.000-06:00

Three months back I had written something on this blog and then on I have not scribbled much over here. I don't know what is the exact reason or there are many of them. But somehow writing something is fun! I really enjoy the feeling of some kind of accomplishment after finishing an article each time. Anyway these are not the articles that are going to be printed neither in "The Times of India" nor in "The New York Times". Well! I don't even want it to be printed there, why in the hell there, for that matter why in the hell here.

Somehow I don't know why these kinds of thoughts are popping off from my mind. Who is going to read all these, what is the use after reading all these, who is going to care me anyway, who is going to look at me, what is the use of this life, why should we live! oh ooh! hold on! where is this going. I don't want to end up either into some philosophy or psychology. I don't know why generally people don't like to enter into these fields, but inherently everybody deal or stay on these fields.

I have read few of the blogs where people write so openly and frankly on what is happening in their life and then some are like that opinions of the happenings or way of life. I don't know in what way I write. After all how much have I written till now. But so many topics came in and out of my mind. There are so many things after all. Actually there are a zillion things and everything is important. Kya bakh raha hoon....

Ah! I got the reason on why I am saying all this. Actually I am lost. I don't know what to do. I never thought I would get lost in this way. I need to find myself back. I keep saying myself, I am back, am I, really? Okay! I was finding the meaning out of everything. Meanings for the questions. Who is going to care me anyway. What difference will my life make to this world.

Well! I want to end this blog with some positive note. It is just for me to feel better from the feeling of hopelessness. So this is a short story in two lines. A woman was walking on the sands of beach barefoot on a sunny day in the evening across the shore. I love the beaches. They are so good. The whole atmosphere at the beach is so enchanting. That cool breeze on the face, the roar of the waves, the crimson blue sky after sunset, happy faces playing in the salty water, the feeling of cool sand to the feet, the touch of the water when it flows in, then the trickling feeling or submerging feeling when the water flows back to sea, aah! everything is so awesome. I wish Kansas had a beach here. Actually sometimes I feel like going out from the room to somewhere and then I stop myself with this question where should I go... If there was a beach here, then I would have gone there and sat alone. By the way coming back to my story of two lines, there was a strong wind the previous day, so due to the strong waves a lot of star fish were thrown to the sea shore. So this woman was picking up each of these star fishes and was throwing them back to the sea. After all fishes live in water you see. If you had seen around there were thousands or millions of star fishes on the shore. At the other end a man was observing on what this woman was doing. He was surprised a bit and out of curiosity he came to that woman and asked. What are you doing? The woman replied I am just giving lift to these star fishes back to their home. The man asks, there are so many of them millions of them what difference will you make anyway.

The woman picks up a star fish from the sea shore, holds it and shows that to the man and throws it back to the sea and says "I made a difference to this star fish"....

Window

2007-08-27T18:29:00.000-05:00

Ah! Not the Microsoft Windows, the actual window. Since the Microsoft OS, whenever someone utters the word windows the first thing that comes to our mind is the OS. That is the kind of influence of technology. Anyway I mean the real window.

In our office in Bangalore we get a number of opportunities to distract ourselves from the work since the day starts. Breakfast in the morning at 9, Tea/Coffee at 11, Meeting at 12, lunch at 1, Tea/Coffee at 4, Snacks at 6, Telecon at 8, dinner at 9. So I am always all the time with my friends, colleagues, people. In US it is kind of different, people are around but they are busy with themselves. So nature and loneliness have become my new friends and this is really abundant in US. In Bangalore whenever I used to feel bored I used to go and bug someone or the other and take them to terrace and have some coffee, juice or anything. Here at one corner of the office, which is deserted with empty cubicles, there a wide glass wall or say a big window all over. So whenever I am bugged, frustrated, bored, sad or happy I come and stand at this place.

I am looking out at this window since start of the February, the day I have arrived here. Out of this window there is nothing great but it is still great to stand and view from here. As I look down there is one big strip of lawn and pine trees and trees with leaves like in Mohabbatein film, then the private road from the parking lot. At the left and at the right there is this huge parking area. In the middle there is a small pond. Then far end again grass and road for walk and end of our campus. After that there is a huge farm, and lot of forest like trees. I can the see the K-7 highway and the vehicles at distance. Then there seems to be end of the horizon after that greenery and start of the territory of sky. The picture at this side is not exactly how it looks, but I would like to put some picture along with words so that why this is at this side.

The setup is very same all the while. There is no change in the position of anything anywhere. Even people here are so standardized that they park their vehicles at the same place since years. Even though nothing moves from its position, this whole setup never looks the same every time I visit here. In February it was totally covered with snow and no leaves at all. All the trees were bald and beautiful. Then in mid of march snow melted away and dry grass everywhere. In May June everything turned green and looked so fresh. It looks so different when it rains, quite different on a sunny day. A different look in the morning and totally different in the evening. The same place looks different in so many ways and what is the reason for this. Well! the same place is influenced by a lot of other factors like sunlight, clouds, wind, weather condition, and time.

Now something flashed in my mind. This is very much analogous to us. I as a person am very much the same, I have the same face, same brain, same heart, same body, since years. Of course there would be mostly some improvement I suppose, in terms of our personality and behaviour and some depreciation in terms of age. But still we don't remain the same person w.r.t something or someone else. We are all the time influenced by so many other factors and these parameters makes us behave differently in varied situations and circumstances. The place where we stay, the friends we have, the atmosphere around us, the people around us, the culture, the time period, and so many other things even the non-living things very much make us in many ways. This is so much hidden that we will ourselves will not be knowing what are we now and what we were like before and what we will be further.

With all this still everyone has an identity and are unique. Everyone have a specific place on this earth. It is like my above analogy, the static ground with a floating sky. So is a personality....

Toothpaste in US

2007-08-15T19:26:00.000-05:00

"Toothpaste in US", yeh kya topic hai... Yo! I have some stuff to tell about this...

Everyday everyone when they get up the first thing they do is brush their teeth. This is the integral part of activities in a day.

On Monday I went to Walmart to buy a toothpaste and a toothbrush (very important items, especially whenever you are going outstation this is the first item to forget). So then in this huge Walmart the first thing is to find at which corner such commodities are available. After walking half a mile I found this big huge rack where these enormous set of toothpastes were placed.
I was dumbstruck and my eyes were circling round and round(Well this is not the first time I am looking at the toothpaste, but..).

Man! There are so many brands of toothpastes. Colgate, Pepsodent, Crest, Aim, Aquafresh, Close-up, Complete, Gleem, Oral-B, Signal, Sensodyne, Mentadent, Fluoride, Euthymol etc. Kya Fluoride, Euthymol direct chemical names derived from periodic table or what, how do they advertise these. The complexity doesn't just stop at the brands. Now each of these brands have so many sub brands or versions that you will literally go mad. For example Just in Colgate there are these versions: Colgate Total, Colgate MaxFresh, Colgate Whitening, Colgate Advanced Fresh, Colgate Advanced Clean, Colgate Lumimous, Colgate Simply White, Colgate 2in1, Colgate Sensitive, Colgate Fresh Confidence, Colgate Sparkling White, Colgate Oxygen Bubbles, Colgate Tartar Control(don't know what hell this means), Colgate Cavity Protection, Colgate Children Toothpaste ... ah ah hmmm What the heck which one to choose. Like this, other brands also have versions Crest, Aquafresh in jazzy glazy covers. You will go mad looking at all this.

Now it does even stop here. There are different flavors in toothpastes. Regular mint, spearmint, peppermint, then anise, apricot, bubblegum (looks like for children), also cinnamon, fennel, neem, ginger, vanilla, lemon, orange, pine. Yeh kya khane ka cheez hai. There are varieties in the form of gel and in the form of paste. So I stood there whether to sort it by brands, or sort it by flavors or sort it by price. One more option simply close your eyes whichever your hand touches take it. Options, options options..... Why do you want to make life complex man! See in India I would simply choose Pepsodent regular. This is not the first time I am buying in toothpaste in Walmart. Actually my previous experiments till now have been sad. In the first month I chose Aquafresh some flavor it was ok types. After looking at an Ad in TV I chose Crest Pro-health. This was costly and worst. The slushy, glutinous like a tar of road and never could stand on the brush. Now I have taken some Colgate Total clean mint. I am not happy with this also. It doesn't give out any foam at all when you brush, well! I am not expecting foam like a shaving cream but something at least. I don't know there are so many brands more when will I get the one with which I can be comfortable with.

There are these thing again. FDA approved toothpaste. American Dental Associated recommended toothpaste. Dentist recommended toothpaste. I wonder how would dentist really maintain these 32 teeth. Will they never have any tooth problem. Do they have more wisdom teeth. Still after using all these dentist recommended products people don't stop showing to them.

Now toothbrush also share the same story. I stood at one place there were so many toothbrush of just electrically operated. Kitna automation hai baap US mein. Brush bhi koyi manual nahi karta. Looking at that I thinking; manual normal brush nahi hai kya. Oh! at the other rack. There are brushes with soft, mild, hard bristles. Now after making a big decision of a selecting a brand of toothpaste, I didn't had any patience left to analyse which brush. Picked up something and came out. At the billing counter realized damn! that simple brush costs $4.5 which will last for 2 months in my hand. Every morning my this ceremony of brushing teeth lasts for 10-15 mins till all my teeth start crying and shouting Bas kar baba bas kar clean hogaya mein. My Mom also tells me "Kya daath saaf kar raha hai, ya bartan dho raha hai".

Finally the conclusion is my search for the right kind of toothpaste hasn't ended yet...

Anything Can Happen

2007-07-30T22:35:00.000-05:00

Long time back I had read this proverb on the walls of some room, "Life Is A Challenge - Meet It! Life Is A Song - Sing It! Life Is A Dream - Realize It! Life Is A Game - Play It! Life Is Love - Enjoy It!". Somehow to me I liked this particular line "Life is Beautiful", that is what I have kept as my blog heading.

But now my current state of mind utters me this line "Life is Strange". That is really strange!

Yes! Life is strange and anything can happen at any point of time. It is hard to believe this, left apart than to realize it. Of course who will live everyday with a impression that something will happen to me today. We have been living the life which is so much straight forward and which is so much safe under the umbrella of protection all the time. We always feel things are under my control, but there are so many things which are not at all under our control. It almost seems that everything that changes in a day or night happens only in movies but it is not.

Everyday kids go to school, men go to offices, women go offices, people do their business, teens enjoy their time freaking around, everybody are busy in their own world of living, everything is in equilibrium, then suddenly an earthquake occurs, or heavy rain which bring about a flood, a deadly disease, a natural disaster, a bomb explosion, terrorist attack. Everything shatters into pieces, there would be devastation everywhere, every one's life is affected. This is something that happens in mass scale and even though we are in such a technologically advanced world no one has any control over it.

There is another case where world is in harmony but some disheartening events are happening in each ones life. There are numerous permutations & combinations of such incidents that affects an individual deeply . It is so strange that since our birth as our life moves on and we meet so many people, we get connected and disconnected on the way with many of them, some part of their life becomes our part, some influence us, some demotivates us, some form a relationship and some relationship fades off with time. In this network of relationship if something happens to someone it would create a shock-wave and each one is affected depending on the distance that is maintained. When everything is going on fine, as if it is a perfect world, perfect time suddenly there would be a twist on the road of life and the everything turns apart. You start wondering what is happening and some damage would have already been done and changes the whole course.

Why does it happen like this? As if God is maintaining a complex equation with lot of complex parameters and he always makes sure that LHS=RHS. If you are really getting all the happiness of life then just get ready to face the sorrow of life. Why can't there be happiness, brightness, success all the time. I know I know! the same old answer without the existence of darkness how would you understand the importance of brightness. I guess! God deals this with all creatures that he has created. Say! Spring! wow what a season spring is. The very name spring, springs happiness in mind. The flowers bloom, new fresh green leaves to trees, very soothing serene weather as if everything is perfect. But spring season remains for some time, then comes the hot summer and harsh winter. Things change. The bad news is the good things never remain forever and the good news is that bad things never remain forever either.

Ultimately you have to go through all these and it is true that anything can happen at anytime which makes me feel "LIFE IS STRANGE".....................................

Typical Software Engineer

2007-07-11T15:14:00.000-05:00

Since a decade "IT" has hyped our life to a great extent. A Software Engineer is treated somewhat different everywhere. If a software engineer goes to a shop to buy something he will end up spending in 100s or 500s, because the shopwala will put nice topi on this so called intelligent software engineer. One more reason for spending so much is that he has money only in denominations of 100s and 500s that is what ATM gives out. Forget about the normal shops, these guys always shop in Food World, FabMall, Big Bazaar, Spencers and always pay by those so many Credit Cards which are Free for Life time .

Everyone tends to speak with you in English and even software engineers talk only in English (Nan magane Kannada Baruttala). Always acting very formal wearing formals with thousands of "Sorry"s "thank you"s. Damn! even vocabulary is built up with Jargon and the following phrases keeps on repeating even for the day-today most common activities; no issues, scope is not there, that is not my requirement, this is not a value add to me, great job, we should incorporate that, end of the day what matters is, basically, bottleneck, milestone, that is generally my process, I am currently in meeting, hectic and busy man! Now how would it be if you talk all these hi-fi words with a Doodwala. This itself will raise a typical guy's collar.

Go to any restaurants in the afternoon, it will be filled with these people who will roaming around with their respective company tag (ID) still hanging on their neck. Sodhexo coupon, ticket would serve the meal as well as save the tax. If they are around in a posh restaurant then definitely some 'Team Lunch' or 'Lunch with Customer' would be happening and all the orders would be placed based on the criteria that the dish should sound different and cost the most (chance hai loot le). Then the talk would be I tried that dish in that star hotel, it was awesome, have to tasted this dish over there, then one guy would tell the Team Lead, Hey! next time we will go there.

The cost of living has in one way increased due to the software engineers I guess. If you go to look for a rent for a house, my God! if the owner comes to know that you a software engineer in so and so company his rent rate will increase by 2-3 slabs. No doubt he would be saying my son is working in IBM and my daughter is studying in Berkeley University(Inside you will be feeling damn! my GRE score was not good). Even the smallest house are 2 bedrooms now and even if they are 20 km away from the city they cost more than 8k to 15k per month. The auto-riskhaw people now don't give change of Rs.6 suppose the meter reads 64. Mobile market with hundreds of corporate plans. All baayis have become good cooks in these engineers' house.

When a bunch of software engineers meet the scenario is very interesting. Everyone act as if they are venture capitalist and have invested their own money in their own companies. My company is a MNC, 50 billion dollar company. Each one is judged by mobile model they are carrying and the car they are driving. Typically they will talk my company provides this benefit, my company covers this much, my company has food from this caterer, my company is sending me here. There will be bunch of discussions on the company benefits and policies and few here and there would be cursing their own company saying my company doesn't provide us anything except work! Some guy would start "when I was in US, I saw that... I did this,... I did that...." Then comes the salary discussion, hike discussion, manager discussion bla bla bla.

You should see a software engineer position in a matrimonial market. Uufh! profiles would be so and so company, so and so salary, US returned or Germany returned or Australia returned. What will the guys from other profession do. Most of girls soon after their marriage you will find them in orkut with status saying married, San Jose, United States. The IT has influenced in almost every field of today's life, say it a retail market, say it transportation sector, say it real estate business, say it commercial business, say it entertainment, just no end to it. No doubt it has created a lot of opportunities and has raised our economy to one of the strongest economies in the world.

Whatever be it, a typical software engineer is so much typical in so many sense. Now don't run back on me with a hockey stick to hit me(a typical software engineer will not have one though), the above listings are just my views on the other side of the typical software engineer, because I happen to be one among them........................... ;)

PS: In some of my future post I will try to compose about a typical day in office.

The Joy of "Nothing"

2007-07-06T10:11:00.000-05:00

Any point of time there will be so many activities happening at every point of the world. Everyday all the newspapers in the world is filled with one or the other news. Well! We are always concerned with the activities happening around each one of us, because that is what we see and that is what that influences us.

On one fine day, just like today it would have happened like this, my car has broken down in the middle of the way, I am late to office, I have three meetings today, I have slipped my deadline past 2 weeks, I have lost a project which I was supposed to get, my boss is troubling me for not performing well, I have to fill my tax returns form and invest for mutual funds(don't know a damn about it), my personal loan is not yet approved, I have to pay the debts of my housing loan, I had a fight with my girl friend, I have to wash and iron my clothes and get a new pair of shoes, I have to prepare for CAT, I have to go and attend a function of my relative, which is so boring to attend, My mobile is ringing all the time, I don't want to talk with that guy but then I get 3 calls from him, I have finish my dinner soon as I have a call at night to attend............ on and on and on. (In the above sentences "I" is as an example as me, all these are not happening with me today). So many things are clogged in my mind that it is impeding me to live Life and know what Life is all about.

Imagine how would it be to spend a day without a clock or watch or any timing device anywhere in the house or room. Mobiles, landline is all shut off. There is no one to disturb you or talk with you on anything. When you get up on this day nothing comes in your mind, there is absolutely nothing to be done today. Today I am totally free from everything. There are no sad memories or instances that is bothering me today, I have no plans or apprehensions for tomorrow. Suddenly it is appearing to me that the world has come to a standstill for me.

Wow! Now this is the "Joy of Nothing".

In this state of mind, the day would start like this. The brain would impulse the eyes to open, when it is tired of the rest and not by the way the sleep is interrupted by the ring of the alarm with a big snooze button. When you get up and look at the window outside a thought will arise in your mind saying what a beautiful day. As you sip the coffee watching at the birds singing, kids playing, trees fluttering their leaves, cool breeze then suddenly realize "whether all these things were there yesterday?" Then just start doing whatever that comes to your mind or do the things which you wanted to do since a very long time. Read a book, go for a long drive, eat a great food, meet and spend all the time with whom you want to, watch a good movie, take a stroll in the evening, ah! there is no end to this list. What a bliss it is to spend a day like this!

I just got a glimpse of this joy of nothing, as I had taken leave for 2 days with no reason. The reason I gave for myself before applying for leave was, Man! I have been working on every working day since 5 months. I am back to office now.

Now it is like this: There is nothing called nothing....................

My First Accident of My Life

2007-06-30T21:35:00.000-05:00

On the rainy Saturday(the rain hasn't stopped yet since my last blog) I was in full josh, because it somehow happens to be a long weekend. Long weekend, which extends beyond the weekend with some leaves on week days. The saddest thing this year is that American Independence Day has fallen just in the mid of the week, no where near to any of the edges of the week, on the awesome Wednesday.

I was in full enthu to have some good fun on Saturday. I came to my friends house, with intention of something to be done(but nothing was there in mind). As the rain had created enough of annoyance since morning, the options that too in Kansas being bare minimal, nothing much other than to go to a movie. I wanted to watch some josh bhara action movie. So we decided we will go and watch "Live Free or Die Hard" which recently released on the movie day Friday.

The movie was so good, filled with only action and really made me feel Live free or Die Hard. All along the movie I was thinking Damn! I don't do anything that risky or anything adventurous where in I really have to think about death anytime. What a safe life! It raised my adrenaline to a good level. After the movie we walked one around the Town Centre Plaza with the thoughts of action & josh of the movie in mind.

Then I came to car and started with the "Khalbali" song of RDB and put in reverse gear and pushed the accelerator. Well! even though the movie had made impact but I was just barely above 0 mph. The mistake was, I saw first time in the rear mirror and went back a little bit and then changed my mind to turn the other way around for which I took a bit forward and then back again in reverse in a different direction. As I was pulling back the car this time suddenly I heard a bang sound. I was not surprised anyway, just thought something minor happened. When I looked back there was a Lexus car on the other side(Thank God I hadn't hit this super costly car) but to my surprise in my rear mirror I could see a Jeep SUV right behind orthogonal to my car. Then we both pulled back and I went out to check the amount of damage.

The damage on the Jeep was just superficial, in my sense and Indian sense it was nothing. But my car back bumper was hit a bit hard. I just told that guy, who looked pretty shrewd and crooked (Was he already my enemy?) that nothing happened we can just walk over. He started saying why don't we share the insurance information and then use it for claim. The greatest problem I was facing in my mind was that I didn't knew what is the process or the procedure. Damn! Knowledge is always power, (I like the converse proverb too "Ignorance is Bliss"). So I asked him and then he called the cop. My first encounter with cop as a bakra in the whole situation. I was just ready to face anything, my first experience and I was not wrong, after all an accident happens accidentally. Then cop came and was just cool said if something is above $1000 (my eyes started rotating hearing this) then a report has to be written else we can just share the insurance info. Whatever! we did it and I got rid of it, actually I didn't knew what exactly is the next thing to be and what is the impact overall on me. I asked the same question to cop and his answer was not satisfactory to me.

As this was my first encounter to something like a accident(it no where qualifies as a accident at all as nothing absolutely nothing), but it had kicked a bit on my faith in driving which expands more than 11 years. I tried so much to take it off from my mind. The whole adrenaline got down to zero level like hawa after a flat tire. Went to Taco bell to have something and tried to forget about it. I just was wondering how can some incidents impact so much on mind and mood and things like that.

Like a typical software engineer I am downloaded all that junk data from my mind to this e-paper and deleted that memory from my mind. I think it is deleted now!.....

Deleting 100%......70%.....50%.......30%.....10%.........0%

Rain Rain Come again! / Rain Rain Go away

2007-06-28T14:10:00.000-05:00

One of the most beautiful creation of God is Rain I guess! Of course Rainy season takes the prominent period of atleast 3-4 month a year. I just can't count how many rains I have seen till now :)

There are different types of rain at different places or at different times at the same place (now does that make any sense, whatever). In Bangalore the rain is very sweet, because almost everytime it will rain heavily only in the evening. The best part is this 2 hours of rain would not interrupt your schedule much. But it would have caused enough devastation in they city. Blame it not on the rain, but the world class infrastructure we have for this beautiful city. Anyway! in Dharwad the rain is really boring. It won't be heavy but enough to drench you totally in 1o mins and it would go on and on and on for 2-3-4-5-6 days, like a girl; when she starts crying, there is no signal for a stop sign. In the coastal areas it is heavy and gloomy. In Gulbarga or some desert like places the rain is the rarest gift that hardly turns up.

One such rain I saw in Kansas, US yesterday. This vast country has so much rich nature of so many beautiful faces that one has to just experience. Sometimes I do feel that the nature here shows up really wild faces also like the Hurricane in the south, Tornadoes in the central area, Snow Blizzard in the northeast, Burning Hot Sun in the West. Yesterday the whole day it was raining and we went for a long drive of about 70 miles in this beautiful evening and in this rain. It is really quite a good feeling to drive at 70 mph on the freeway(highway) with all the vehicles around gushing water all over. This surging mist was so mesmerizing with all the surrounding green trees showing us the way forward. At one place it was as if a thick black cloud sitting over head was laughing at us and cracking jokes around about our fate or state. It was as if a party going on in nature. Nature was getting tight really ;). I had one such drive experience earlier where in I was driving a sexy Porsche boxster sports car at the speed of 150 mph the rain was making it hard to control and I speeded all the way skidding around. Oh! that was Need for Speed 5 game in computer!

This Rain is favorite for poets, so many songs are written around rain, so many movies are pictured in fake rain, so many photos of rain. Rain is the one which brings the fabulous rainbow in the sky, the one which makes all the silent trees smile. It is such a good feeling in rain, the amount of enjoyment we get playing in rain is just awesome, like the way school kids play with the colourful raincoat on, still turning wet all over. The feeling of the first few drops of rain trickling down into your body, the chill feeling, then the wet feeling, then the shivering, and then warmth of the towel rubbed over your head is just priceless. Having a hot masala tea with garma garam kanda bajji with all your friends cracking jokes in the balcony is a great joy. It can turn out to be romantic also like sitting with your wife in a single chaddar ;).

When the rain stops, the world around you won't stop, but it starts. Even though with a feeling as if it was as a great fest or event we had last day, we all get ourselves moving in our own world of work, problems, routine and go on...

Blog - Blogging - Blogger

2007-06-27T12:09:00.000-05:00

After a terrific start of my first blog last year in May, I thought based on the comment (which I got after a year), I am inspired to restart it all over again ;) .

Well! Blog: I used to wonder what a weird name it is. I searched in the dictionary and couldn't find this word (old oxford dictionary). Who started this all, whose idea was it, how did it get famous, why do people blog, what is it all about. These questions are still pondering in my mind as my fingers are playing with the keyboard. I am aslo wondering, is it a noun or verb. But now if you see in the modern dictionary it has made itself as a complete word.

Historically, in the past when I was in school studying 10th standard I thought to myself that I should write diary. In fact it took almost 6 months to materialize and I got one very nice king size hard-binded maroon colour diary from my Dad and started with it. Like with any task the difficult part is hmmm... what to start with, what should I write... Then I started and continued it for almost 2 years and went on writing what all came in my mind and the happenings of each day, the good part, the sad part and the feelings and emotions and the situations. uuh! it turned out to be very interesting and then when I used to read it back, it used to surprise me, oh! is it! did I think in that way, was it like that....

Though I loved writing it, it halted for a simple reason that it was read by someone. I had written a big note at the start of my diary saying "Please do not read this". Damn! such note creates lot of curiosity. Anyway I had not written a secret code for a national treasure or something. But guess what! I had developed my own code language, my own script and that initial script I had hid it at some other place. Sounds crazy now! kind of Da Vinci code to break it.. :) . Why was a need for such a thing; man! to hide the secret love stories, and about some wacky stuff. It was fun!

Now back again to such a thing, just visible to World Wide Web. Is it a human instinct to record the life, we have lot of documentation of the past so many civilizations. Is it to show others about what we think and what we feel or is it a show off. Is it a tool for self-retrospection. Is it for the happiness we get in writing something. Or is it for the happiness we get in reading someone's comment on our literature or praise from others, from which we elate ourselves (because we can not elate ourselves by just feeling good about ourselves for no reason) . Oh! what the heck, why should I analyze all this. The weird thing called blogging is the trend and it is fun!

Entering into the world of blog as a insignificant creature....

2006-05-02T05:14:00.000-05:00

Life is Beautiful