Days of Our Lives - Dr. Serus Ramoray

2007-11-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

Aint that funny!

Moving out of school and entering work life has been a big transition. Lots of things changed; my work schedules, type of work, way of work, lifestyle etc. Except for a few I think I have acclimatized myself to most of them, but now is the biggest one that I am facing, "Changing the sense of humor!".

That made me think about what has been the definition of humor all this while; or rather "What is funny ? " {:-p acknowledging Sarah J. Parker }
I was pondering over the mere basics of being funny and how could one be branded humorous. I think the best way to go about it would be to enlist and catogorize all kind of humor and see what it needs to be funny. My mind could only recollect the follwing kinda humor:-
A) Narration: Seemingly simple way of being humrorous. If you can enact a humorous incident from TV/Movie perfectly. It gets best when you may apply references to situations from TV series. Copying a joke from a friend and applying it at the rite moment may be counted in this genre.
Requires: Good memory, great presence of mind to think in parallel and pull the best reference from the memory and a lotta TV watching(I would strongly recommend daily shows and family guy).
B) Malapropism(a.k.a 'literary jokes' 'PJs'): Sheer elegant jokes. A class of situational jokes involving playing around with words to form a brilliant word.
Requires: Good grip on language(any), multilingual helps( classic cliched ones involve usage of the same word in different languages).
C) Trash talk: The worst genre. Trashing people based on their origin, styles, weight, looks etc.
Requires: Time to acquire information about people and their sensitivities.

This was all I could think of catagorizing all the kind of humor possible. Please enlighten me with new bullets which may be appended to this list.

And hence, the task is simple. I just need to figure out applying all of the aforementioned stuff at work. Is it really that simple?

Oh yeah btw, after I wrote all this stuff, I googled for 40 secs and found this link:
http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Funny-Without-Telling-Jokes
Hope this helps ! :)

Coming soon: "A day with hippies"

2007-07-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Waiting in my cold cell, the final bell began to chime. The next moment I was strapped on my electrocution chair; the undertaker's whisker was constantly imbibing a cold shiver onto my nerves. My life flashed past my eyes, but it just halted at a moment when I actually remembered the last time I had seen the Undertaker. It was a cold night at the Bryce Jordan Center at State College, when four of us brave men had decided to check out the WWE event at BJC. Undertaker was one of the biggest stars that evening on stage other than ofcourse the HBK. The time we came out Hari was high on WWE and was almost going to choke on laughter, which ofcourse was instigated by pointy's stupid comment on Golddust coming out of real fire on stage. Man the amount of gold he wears must be worth a million dollars especially looking at the jwellery prices at the shops in Edison, when I was shopping with my bhabi. Wonder if gold is really expensive or just overpriced in the US assuming that people here make more money. The more money myth is ofcourse is dying with dollar falling badly in past few years and projected to be reaching close to 36Rs by next year end. It probably is attributed to developing Indian economy than cupping US government. People prefer to stay back in India these days, infact choose to return to India to get a much better convenient life. The metro cities are definitely getting closer to the US if not for the infrastructure, atleast the culture. Its getting so easy to get a chik in India.... damn it!!! yet another chain of events ending up with getting a chik!!! when will I get out of the regular corridor chain of thoughts carried over from IITs!!!!

Title:Lemme start on a random note and see where it ends:-p

2007-07-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Have you ever done this??

U want to watch a band perform but hardly can see or hear anyone, and end up paying tonnes?

U drive a hundered miles to save upons a buck on your shoe purchase ?

U go to malls and buy everything but what you needed ?

U goto the restraunts and drill your wallets for having a crappier verision of what you cook ?

U download all the free movies online but hardly ever watch them ?

U work toward becoming what you would hate to be ?

Looking up at the list.... try to unzip a zipped archive in linux:-p(purely intended for geeks) and for non geeks.. look into your credit card bills (currently doing that):((

2007-07-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

Smug* Alert!!!!

Standing at Starbucks, I have always gazed at some of the greatest Smugs ordering their drink to absolute precision. "One large iced caramel machitato with whipped cream and honey on skimmed milk.. (wink wink)", would be one of those shorter ones which I vaguely remember. I considered that to be the smug peak until ofcourse I met a few friends of mine whom I found lost the abyss of smug clouds all around them. However, my smug expectation threshold was demolished yesterday when I read this!!! "Bottled water in NYC for 55$"
Apparently, a bottled water chain is becoming popular in NYC, which sells pure flovoured water in 80 different flavors. The most expensive ones are as close to 55$ for a 20oz bottle. You may order stuff like "A 20oz extra oxygenated 0.2% clorinated himalyan water", which would keep you fresh all day long, WOW!!!!! A look back into my past I was remebering the kinda water I have been having all life... started with Yamuna water on my tap in delhi, cat licked mess water in hostel mess, well water on soccer fileds, occasional non-branded bottled water... sure misfit in this country... un fking believable. I bow to the SMUGs!!! "The corporate world so fking needs you SMUGS.... THANKS... (one eye closed)"{ref: SP} I thought SFO was leading in smug cloud density, but thumbs up!! NYC...

Me back into writing business... thesis and blogs(given that its 10th anniversary of blogging http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118436667045766268.html)

*Smug, verb, : contentedly confident of one's ability, superiority, or correctness; complacent (dictionary.com)

*Smug, verb : smelling your own farts (allsp.com)

examples from real world: George clooney, Brad Pitt, a few desis at/from PSU(you may feel free to enlist a few at PSU for smug ignorant ppl's reference)

2006-06-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

666 -- The one for you and me

Just felt like rojoicing this date, a special one with a tribute to the marvelous industry of english horror movies. Have not found many great admirers of such a genre except prolly my freind GO, but I have always been delighted by the splendid picturization and cinematography of such movies. Its really not the gross movies that I am talking about, but more of the classy fundamental movies related with the biblical myths the horror legends like the Vampires and so on. In fact I remember watching a whole series of Vampire movies back in IIT days and getting all the information about them right from detecting to killing a vampire:-p The interesting aspect to such movies is the consistency of facts across movies which builds upon the myth extremely strong over you and gets you engrossed into the sequels. Unfortunately in recent times not many directors have done a good job with horror movies, but infact they tend to diverge quite a bit to the gross side of such movies which is quite a shame. Eagerly looking forward to spending a fantastic weekend at State College and hoping to watch OMEN with some true admirers of the dying class.

2006-06-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Felt like home .. London...

Donno why but my trip to london was so much like home. Probably because I could correlate to people much more than I can with the americans, or prolly it was the accent, may be the culture or probably the castles and the history. Just felt such a righyt place, and its certainly not a rookie decision outta fascination, I have indeed travelled a lot and never felt so good about any other place. Over the short period of my stay I have developed a mad infauation for the londoner accent, the european vogue and surely the Tube (london subway). On the visiting/sightseeing, hit my dream places, like the Arsenal Hibury stadium, the lords stadium and a few castles(the last ones ofcourse not on my dream list). But the fun part was travelling all over with some good friends from the hostel. It was quite agonizing to land in NYC back from london and travel in the crappy subways and listen to some white b1@#h delivering a trash talk about her husband!!!

And oh yeah not to forget about the people I met in the flight. Just to make my trip perfect I was sitting next to a football club statician, from portugal, which took care of my flight trip:) While departing he gave me his card and an open invite to any of Feynood Football club game any time I am in portugal. The card went straight to my wallet on top, certianly o be taken care of more than all those crappy researchers' cards whom I ever wanted o collaborate with....

2006-05-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

Soccer tales

Had to admire the great effort by Arsenal to keep a final full of excitement down till the end with their ten men facing the daunting task of keeping Barca off their net till 76th minute. Fourteen minutes away from glory, they conceded and down went all the 76minute effort. But the tremendous mettle and courage shown by the brave playes needs immense admiration.... hats off.... especially when the refree didn't really want the team to win.....

For all the soccer following readers... hope you watched the game.. and developed some good respect for Arsenal FC and certianly much more respect for football, with the fine quality of football put up by both the teams.... I just hope THierry Henry stays with Arsenal....

Looking forward to the world cup now....

2006-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ahh.. they dint win

For once I was anxiously looking out for the election results in Chennai. In particular 8 constituencies where candiates from Loak Paritran were contesting. They did look quite resonable in their philosophy of transparency in the government and couple of other things, and recieved quite a bit of support from the educated community of Chennai, in particular the IT ppl. Grrhh... but they lost in all 8 constituencies and we got a 83 year old out there taking the oath.

Getting to that, I always find it funny the way the government changes in TN. It so very well reflects the inadeptness and inefficiency of every party. Over last couple of years there has alaways been AIDMK and DMK alternating in the rule. Possibly, since every time a party wins, their mismanagement and whacky governance, takes them down the next time. Common sense should really make people to come out of their mental block and think of alternatives. But, completely realize the difficulty and practical infeasibility of all that I blurted above.... but I believe I can make a wish... my birthday wish ....

2006-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Back in the park

The story is about a small place called, Surat Pur , way too rustic a village, deep among the cedars and birches of the Himalayas. The naive, unsophisticated, villagers were the heart and soul of the story. Time and again when the situation demanded they would react to it by pulling off a ingenious idea, quite orthogonal to even the wierdest of the dreams of an average thinking adult in cities. But the pulp of the story revolved around the kids of the village and the world when viewed from their eyes. The inquisitive nature of the kids and their tremendous (il)logical explanations was what people loved about it. It just looked as if people always wanted to experience their childhood and correlate themselves to the unweildy. Noone was spared from the kids' desire to learn and explore, strating from celebrities, democracy, people as educated as Dr.Singh to the icons like Mr.Yadav. Every sport was being taught to them in a new fashion and a complete different satirical manner. Like fixing matches was taught as a rule to the kids at their school and non-taxing political braingames were imbibed into them as the regular norms of winning games. The innocent kids were well complemented in their effort to learn by their extremely ignorant parents.

Haroon and Serus the cofounders of multi-billion dollar venture Arouse Inc. in their attempt to diversify tried to capture the whole village in the form of a naive cartoon series. And, there, was the begining of Doordarshan's biggest ever animated series Surat Pur.

2006-03-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

Chaar Din ki Chandini

In my race with time, at some point when I stop to peek into how long I have to go, I often am struck by surprise. The time suddenly seems to be shrinking for me, all in the form of a few deadlines, not just some publication deadlines, but things like when I want graduate, what next and so on. I rememeber as a kid a month seemed to be a long time, but now I have started counting years. Life suddenly seems too short to get things that I want to get outta it. I guess at each point you just gotto be lucky to be doing what you love to but many a times its about setting your priorities right. Looks like so far I got some of them right in my life, I need to work on a couple more.

I realize I shall hibernate for a while again till I get to my Internship this summer, where I look forward to update this site a bit more frequently.....

2006-01-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

Electronika

"You got mail" says the mail box every morning even before you brush your teeth or have your coffee. It was already 10:00 am, the alarm really did not suceed any time earlier, but thank god, "It's a snooze" . The hard work and pain of the streneous brushing exercise is gone with the advent of "Mr. Electronic Brusher" . Mom's job was being done by friendly cooks, Mr.Microwave, Toaster and omlette maker." . Who cares if my bycycle is fit to ride today, my car is really reliable, " thank god!!! I really don't have to walk no more" . Work is great, "sitting in my air conditioned room, with my dual core Xeon and a solaris machine, Ahhh.. what else could I ask for" . The best part, "My new weather bug, updates me on the temperature/sunshine.... outside every thirty seconds, so I get to know everthying happening outside." My lunch time discussion was about conquering the lost empire in Guildwars, an online game that I play with my friends when I am away from them. I have my evenings pretty well planned. On any typical evening of a weekday, I go home which is immediately followed up by a light snack(being diet conscious, its reduced to just some fruits!!!) after which I start on the Guildwars. After a tiring session of 2hrs, depending on my mood, I cook for myself, or eat out in in depression(due to losing the game). Finally, I rest in peace in my air conditioned room, dreaming....

"Have I talked about all the comforts of life?".

I am sure "I am missing something!!!!!!" and very sure that many people will be able to correlate it to their everyday lives. The question really should be, "what next?".

2006-01-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

Do I really wanna know?

A return to the blog world after a quite a hiatus, seems like ages since I last wrote. This time the fire was really kindled by couple of very unusual gossip sessions, particulary on what I consider as philosophical issues. Issues discussed upon varied from, the science embedded in Indian mythoogy, the appreciation of sanskrit, about power of mind and ofcourse the regular discussion with totti on America On Line.
The first few bullets are something that make complete sense, are well proven issues that are based on facts and records in the form of amazing scriptures, the absolute genius of the ancient time people. Its infact a pity that I really dont know much about all that, and infact googling over last few days helped me learn some really amazing facts about Indian mythology and ancient sciences. The latter is something that I occasionaly think about(I am referring to Netgear's close compititior now!!). That is something which is based on nothing(or probably which is beyond my comprehension), and after quite some thinking about it I kinda felt that life is really much more simpler if I just stop thinking about such abstruse(to me) issues like, the power of mind, subconscious mind, the Art of Life.... lots of similar associated issues. But atleast for now, temporarily I will stick to my quest for knowing Indian Mythology, atleast till I am able to retain this enthu. (which might just last till the end of this day.. but even that's not bad:-p)

2006-01-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

Is it the weather? Or just me

Always try to get back to the entusiasm levels for sports which I had while at IITM. But, something is wrong, I never am able to get it back. I probably was good and catching up while at calif. but back here at penn state enthusiasm levels just drop way too low. Is it acads? weather? people around me? all of the above...
I think all of the above would be the right answer... half the time I have deadlines to catch ... then there is bad weather... and finally there are very few people who realy wanna be playing... which again is because of the above reasons... so it essentaily gets onto a viscious loop which could only be broken by few enthusistic ppl. Hoping to get back playing soccer every day sometime.. I know it is not even remotely possible, but I just wish....

Anyways, sadly back from an amazing trip to florida... just wish I could say, "Good to be back", but that statememnt has to be put on hold for a while... I believe an year or so...

2005-12-24T05:47:00.000-08:00

The drunk Vs The Non-drunk

Strongly inclined towards starting a movement, where people who are not drunk in a party of drunkards should be kicked out of the parties. Most of them simply turn out to be opportunist *!@#$$%%s. Although the theory does not hold for the "Paskaars" (Oscar version of paasam (love in tam) filled ppl, but its about the sadist ppl who try to get the drunkards loose all their dignity and secrets, only to be well recorded in a non-drunkard's memory, crystal clear. Well, sometimes its not just the teetotlers, but the smart drinkers, who can turn out to be even more evil, since they do loose their senses partially, but then are reasonably evil enough to dig up a reasonably well plotted grave for the sloshed ones.... Well in anycase, myself glad to get back to the blogosphere, which I quit temporarily for some academic stuff:(..

2005-12-04T00:29:00.001-08:00

Plagiarism in blog world

Just wanted to simplify 2T's life, by discussing some ground rules on plagiarism. Firstly, I always wonder why is it so much talked or made fun of?
At some point or other, people will think of something that's a repeatition of someone else's previous post, will that be an attempt to plagiarize ?
Is copying someone's idea and rephrasing it plagiarism?
Is copying a post followed by adding your ideas plagiarism?
Is citing someone plagarism?

My anwers: No, No, No, No (Then why should I ever crib?? prolly the 3:00am blues:()

All the above strategies have been adopted and critiqued on numerous occaions by 2t, so just wanted to pen them all down.

2005-11-27T03:32:00.000-08:00

What if there's no way out ?

Caught in a maze, when all I can see a wall ahead, searching for the way out, how do I believe that there is a way out? I keep searching for the way, knowing that I might just be misdirecting myself all the time. What if the groping dark and the haunting silence was meant to be my destiny? How do I get the courage to fight back? How can I believe that I can ever get out of the labryinth? Can this be correlated with a known scenario which has a solution? Is the approximation in practical and feasible?
I look up and cry in despair to my ex-friend tomy, flying in the hot-air baloon over the maze to pick me up!!! He always knew my location in the maze. The transmitter chip that he had in my mind to observe how I behave in a maze, worked well for him. He was just busy noting down the valuable information and thinking how it can it be used to predict the behavior of humans when they attacked his fellow dogs.

Wonder why I am up for a PhD (Piled Higer and Deeper!!!) and trying to crack a bug at 3:00am at nite:(. Human race is anyways heading for destruction finally.

2005-11-20T17:31:00.000-08:00

Ghulam Revisited

Never believed in something that happened at the ending of the movie, Ghulam , but could correlate so much to the movie yesterday on the badminton court. With absolutely zero energy left in me, I was contesting in a match for the third position against an seemingly arrogant chinese. It was quite an unusual day for me, I was playing after quite sometime, for the first time a singles tournament, and with totally different kind of shuttles. It was a corwd of nerly forty guys to beginn with, and I strategically entered into a easier draw. But in anycase, I somehow dragged myself to the semis, and by that time I barely had any more energy to be burnt out in my body. But with acouple of protien bars and lotsa gatorade I was able to stay thoroughout the game and lose :(.

But now was the match of my life, I was playing a chinese for the third position. My muscles were giving up and the guy was cruising to a victory in the first set. I had already gotten into a defeatist mode, and thought I will just accept defeat without playing the second set. Mr.Opponent was leadin, 14-1, but, just then he made a snide remark to his friend, "I wish I was playing a better player for the third position" , which kinda got me furious. I took a short break, pulled all my spirit back, gulped a bottle of gatorade, and fought back. I lost that set 15-10. Followed by winning the next on 15-4. I was no more tired, and felt that I could beat him very peacefully. Leading 7-1 in the third set, lady luck bade a goodby. I fell down trying to pick up a drop, and sprained my calf muscles. That was the enfd of the day, infact, I realize today, that its the end of atleast close to a week of physical activity for me. My opponent, I thought went ahead and claimed the third prize, but later realized that he was courteous enough to share it with me. (10$/2= 5$ each:-p and a T-shirt:)).

Anyways it was a wonderful experience... and a wonderful end to a day when the Nittany lions crushed Michigan to win the conference... rather shared the win with OSU .. like I shared the third prize:)

2005-11-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Potter Mania

Wonder if it was the ambience, the energy of the crowd, the enthusiasm of not only the kids but a gamut of age groups, but the first day show of harry potter was really impressive. People in the theatre dressed up in cloaks, carrying wands, every other person wearing potter glasses and claps every now and then during the movie, well I am sure it can certainly not be called a mad infatuation of just the kids. Although not a great harry potter fan, I went about an hour before the movie, and to my surprise found just two rows available for sitting, the first and the last rows. Well, actually the last, because my friends had reserved them for me(they arrived an hour and half before the show!!).
In anycase, the movie stood upto my expectations since I did not have much to scale it from the finer aspects, as probably the potter fan club might. I was impressed by the cinematography, and the direction, and ofcourse the story was quite impressive, certainly the best one so far. The irony of the night was that, my roommate Mr.B who had minimal interest in watching the movie and slept over the movie was there with us to watch the first day first show, while an ardent potter fan, totti, was forced to sit back and work on his presentation for his thesis defense next day.

Extremely touched by the analogy given by totti, which was related to my Arsenal Mania, I watched the movie again with him yesterday night, and that was fun too!! I actually observed some finer things which I missed the first time :)

Anyways, its a good movie to watch, I suggest all you guyz to check it out. As of now registering myself with the potter fan club.

2005-11-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Down the Aisle

Walking down the Aisle,
anxiously awaiting her smile.
As he watched her come bye,
looked down to check his fly,
then he looked up the sky, to thank god,
and from the pocket pulled out his IPOD.
But then he dint want to show off,
he wanted to show that its simplicity that he is full of.
A million times he looked up and down,
made him look like a clown,
scared of watching her come bye,
what if she thinks he's just a lecher passing by!!
While all the thoughts were driving him crazy,
he removed his glasses to make sure they aren't hazy.
Then came his chance,
they exchanged a glance,
and in a flash of time,
he found himself in cloud nine.
Yes, she did that, she made his day,
seems that she was smiling all the way.
It was just him who never looked at her,
never made his mind to ask her cell number.
Everyday he waits for tommorrow,
to watch her smile and drive away his sorrows,
and as the days go bye,
he is still a single at Aisle five.

2005-11-08T11:08:00.001-08:00

TV serials

Completely enjoying every second of South Park's new season, I just wanted to look back on the gamut of TV serials I have watched over ages. As far as my memories go, I think the first ever serial I remember watching was something on DD1 called, Buniyad , was probably about some family story , but just do not remember anything about it. I was always into watching cartoons and enjoyed all the supermans and spidermans... DD2 was something that probably revolutionized the viewrship, and got people exposed a bit more to media. I used to love the comedy series and the countdown shows, the later I still ike to watch, but tried watching some of the comedy serials that I used to love... I was surprised to find them no funny at all.. wonder why... Anyways, then was the cable invasion and the world of soaps. I hate to say this but I was a big soaps fan and infact have followed a couple all the way till the point when I started hating that series. I have seen many people complaining about them but i always believe that if anyone starts watching them, it just sucks u into watching them and that's the whole trade all about. I think at Ekta Kapoor makes what sells. All the crap about the soaps affecting the society never caught upon me. Back in chennai during my undergrad I stopped watching even news chanels, I just remember watching ESPN/STAR sports. I ocasionaly watched some wonderful quiz shows on BBC especially when my friends used ot appear on them, but predominantly sports network.
Talking, present, I am back to appreciating cartoons:-p. The ones I really love watching are actually more of spoofs, gross and full of sarcasm. Standups, and regular comedy series' have also joined my list only after coming to the US. In fact I never really watched a lot of f.r.i.e.n.d.s, back in India. Its only after coming here and watching it for a million times that my dialoges are often plagiarized from it. ANyways, enough of crap I guess.. but the fact remain.. for now, South Park .. top of my charts:) Totti, lets get some DVDs this weekend maan:-p

2005-11-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Sports corner

As an ardent fan of Arsenal Football Club, I was pleased to watch arsenal win both in Champions lg qualifier and EPFL, while Chelsea losing both. After watching the highlights of thegame a couple of minutes back, and unable to share my feelings with any other Arsenal fans (Noone's picking up their phones :((), I thought of penning it down. The victories were in fine style and the goals were really classy.

ONE MORE reason to be in India... I get to watch all the games on one of the best ever sporting coverage networks in the world, ESPN/STAR sports for Asia. Unlike the sports network in this part of the world, where there is not even a news coverage of world sports :( Miss those days so much, when all the Arsenal fan club used to gather in hostel common room to watch the champions league games at midnight :(

2005-11-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

Seniority

Zonked out after a long night out, as I walk through the corridors of CSE building, I realize that a sense of seniority has started to creep in me. I have always been under the impression that my seniors are much more brilliant than any of my batch fellows, but wonder if we stand upto the mark. Delving into that thought I kind of concluded that, probably the juniors always typically tend to find their seniors smarter in most cases, and probably the hierarchy follows. Actually, I know couple of other people have thought about htis and discussed, like shiva was offlate nicknamed Senior in his lab as he seems to be the person to reach out for in case of any problems in his lab. Totti, getting numerous number of calls from all his juniors for getting fundaes on research etc...
In any case, I think many of us would certainly agree from atleast IITM's culture and intellectual level point of view, that we certainly saw a decline in the intellect level over time in IITM. I wonder even if that was because we always used to rate any batch compared to their senior batches. It just a compliated thing that always takes me by surprise, how we typically form impressions about people across generations.

2005-11-01T00:37:00.000-08:00

World's first blog story (4)
Please read the rules of this story-tag game at Rohan's site.

And the saga continues....

He had always known that silence spoke volumes, unfortunately it was in a language he failed to decipher on most occasions.A long pause.He stared for what seemed liked ages.It made little sense.May be it was'nt meant to be. He shrugged and looked at his friend. The pregnant silence was ruptured by his friends intermittent sobbing. Today was Diwali, it was supposed to be the "Festival of Lights", but things were different tonite. "Lights out", yelled the Jailor. The lights went out and the virgin night was silent and dark again. But, then was he reminded of his lover whose murder brought him here. All of a sudden, the summer heat in the cell, felt dreadfully cold, when, every moment of his past life flashed in front of his eyes as he stared at the writings on the wall .

2005-10-30T00:33:00.000-07:00

Ideal Life

Slog on the weekdays, on my own firm, and win some amazing projects, however still managing to play soccer everyday.
Friday night: A break from work or any taxing sports. Just hang out with my friends with beer, or occasional liquor in a nice bar, probably playing pool.
Saturday: I wish I had a band and could practice, but in any case do some office work followed by some relaxed flute practice with couple of other music enthusiasts and ofcourse play soccer.
Sunday: Go to a temple/classical music concert with family in the morning followed by preparing for work on monday, unless there are any other plans with family (so pretty much a family day).

I realize that the only thing going right for me is the friday evening schedule. Therefore as an optimist, I believe I am atleast tending towards such a life.

HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL the DESI READERS:)) I am missing my family extremely and really wish that I get to be with them atleast in near future during all such occasions.

2005-10-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Post-Midnight blues

Is it just me and my roommates or does it happen with everyone that any discussion about life starting after 12:00am lasts for the whole night, with none of us feeling any bit sleepy at all? Quite surprising how philosophical everyone gets in their thinking, and also quite frank about their lives. Be it career talk, or the standard gossips, things are analyzed from a completely honest and different perspective at such times. Damn!!! one such nights yesterday, always feels quite sucky the next morning when you ponder over retrospectively.

2005-10-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Junket -- That's the word I am looking for

A few hours ago
I ordered two tacos "to go"
But since it was free
I wanted to eat three,
that put me thinking
about the word for such hoodwinking.
It was something in barrons or kaplan easy to forget
for ppl who take a trip on someone else's budget.
Junket it was
and yeah that was the cause,
why I tried a medeterranian cuisine
or got picked up in a limousine.
It feels great when all you can spend is paid,
except for expenses of getting laid...
when you dont have to think about money
and get out of your cave of parsimony.
And now I guess people get to know
why I publish every time I want to get away from the snow.

2005-10-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

Decision making

Many a times you are in a soup while asked to make some critical decisions. One such situation of dilemma which I think every graduate student gets into is about waking up early in the morning.
Such an analysis if performed independant of constraining factors like, deadlines, meeting with advisor etc... can really turn out to be an interesting one. Especially in cases like when you have to make the decision to get out of the bed to attend a boring class or take up the challenge of dragging your a@@ out of your comforter to start your day for the good of humanity (that is if your research is any good at all :-p). Such catch22 situations are the ones that test your determination in life and probably your control over your senses. It probably also reflects the degree of regularity in your life. Well, all that said, I tend to think of all the possible reasons under my comforter to miss even the most important of the meetings of mine, and have so far managed to get away with those. The only time I had real trouble since the begining of my graduate life was over my internship at Intel, where I had to wake up at 8:00 amd every day and that's probably the reason why I love grad school much more than work life. Hope each one of us grad students suffer with such an syndromme of irregular life and are enjoying it at its best. I know many of my CSE freinds who are the classic examples of the so called irregularity :))

2005-10-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

How I felt when it rained !!

As a kid in Delhi, rainy days used to wonderful. A group of us tiny toddlers use to hang out and take shower in the rain, irrespective of sexes :-p, and wet, we arrived aback into our houses, to hear the pleasent scoldings from mommy. My school till grade 5 was not the best ones... and we used to infact get off some days due to excesssive rain water stagnation in school and that is when we, as kids, used to thank lord Indra for his divine powers of shutting down schools.

But then slowly, it became PITA, when I changed schools, and I had to run for the bus on a rainy day. Sloshy roads conveniently helped me getting myself extremely dirty before getting to school, and I used to be quite pissed about that. However during, grade 11th and 12th, nothing really mattered to me much, since, all I really cared about was my scores at the JEE test series, I doubt if it rained, even if it did, I do not really remember.

Rainy days in IITM used to be good fun. We had this wonderful field behind our hostel, Sangam , which transformed into a pool, all set and inviting us for some cool water sports. Well, us innovative IITians, took up that enticing challenge, and invented this game called, Water Rugby . Inspite of the recurring casualities each time we played the sport, we used to get a turn out for the game sufficient enuf to form three teams of 11 each for that sport. So, those days were not really very bad.

Well, now cutting it right here, I come to the the present day scenario, when I despise rain as terribly as never before. First, it creates an extremely dull mood, as if calling me to sleep all the time. Second, keeps me away from one other religion of mine than hinduism, namely, SOCCER. Although no to take at all away from it, it does wash my car, though creates a higher probability of an accident or skid.

As, I look over the few paragraphs above, I find my likes and dislikes for the rain so completely cyclic. That gives me a ray of hope that I would love it sometime, hopefully in near future, walking and getting drenched in rain with somone besides me who absolutely loves doing so :-p. Signing off on a dull rainy day from Pennsylvania :(.........

2005-10-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

Are the prophecies coming true ??

Was I not reading news regularly or is it just offlate that we are experienceing tons of hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural calamities ? Often wonder if all the prophecies from the bible, the Gita and from couple of other prediction pundits, about the world destruction are coming true!!!
I am just hoping that mother nature is working on a wonderful strategy of wiping off the scum on this earth, like the terrorists in kashmir, the bush constituencies, god knows who next.
BEWARE TOTTI!!! dont pain people with AOL!!!

But, in any case its quite alarming to witness an increased number of natural calamities in recent times, well the humans indeed are misusing planet's resources miserably. I am glad that point5 's paper bachao andolan is going good and really hope that each of us makes such small changes in their lives to do some good to the planet :)

2005-10-07T03:20:00.000-07:00

Intellect of Society

I have often wondered and discussed with balls on this issue, " Do movies really reflect the intellectual level of the society ? ". The thought was kindled, when I watched this amazing movie called Gajini , which had some concepts borrowed from one of my all time favorite movies, Memento. As the movie ended and I managed to get over with admiring the extremely wonderful effort of the movie director, I was pondering over the same question once again while driving to my department. I have always been amazed by classics like, the Mememnto, Usual suspects.... and some movies as complicated as Mulholand Drive (atleast I bulbed completely over the movie!!), which makes me really think that, such movies, if appreciated by people, shows a clear fact that the society is much more intellectually sound. It simply looks impossible to even think about the future of Indian cinema ever tending towards such classy hollywood efforts, and above that, getting the right accolades from the society. Feels really sad if the type of movies appreciated by people are really the typical mass masala movies, which actually looks quite distressing when looked upon with the correlation between the movies and the intellectual level of the society. Really hope that some of the really talented directors of Indian cinema get the people out of this quagmire all the contemorary movies are getting them into. Well I believe the movie makers should really not think about what people want out of the movies, but convey what they really want the people to think. Before I sogn off!!!

WE ARE!!!!!..... PENN STATE.. really excited about tommorrow's game.. hope we win it

2005-09-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

A whole new experience

Always wonder when I come across a dog in the back seat of a car, "How does the dog feel?". Putting my self in the dog's shoes (or paws!!) I think it would be quite an intimidating experience, when you attain speeds that you are really not used to. On the other hand it might just give a sense of triumph to watch the other dogs straying in the streets for food or in look out for bitches to *ate. But pondering over the issue more, I might then start thinking in terms of the social classes that the dogs might have. Like the rich classes, who get the privilege of travelling in porches and corvettes, or the middle class one which travel in the japanese cars (not so expensive models), and ofcourse the street dogs which travel in bus number 4. All this said, its actually a bit scary to watch a dog in a car, which might distract the driver any moment and cause an accident. Wonder if there have been any such incidents in the past!!! Anyways, they look pretty cute out there :P

2005-09-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

What really was the cause to choose this profession ?

Me: Waiting for the comments
An, F, ??: "well just heppened!!"

Ba, M, 23: "I was watching a streaming video... it crashed.. I was frustrated that I could not do much... thats when I wanted to be in CSE"

Ch, M, 23: "junta do it daa..."

Ha, M, 23: "how else would I have met A', F, ??"

Ha, F, ??: "Well, I always wanted to do good for the world... solar cell outta iron, what bettter I could have asked for :)) (and that big smile follows)"

Po, M, 23: "People call me chucker... let me know the exact mechanics behind the working of an arm.. or first a lever.. or first learn about stresses and strains.. and the obvious profession"

Ra, M, ??: "Maximum tams in this dept daa... I can kallaichify..."

Su, M, 23: "S to the counceller at front desk: Machaan no enthu daa... give me whatever you get for this AIR at a location closest to hyd??"

Sh, M, 23: "Wonder how people get back aches.. lets choose the right profession!!!"

To, M, 23: "Truly, madly , deeply in love with materials... although these days moving away from the materialisitc pleasures iin this world"

Key to read the above:

1) All the alphabets indicate the nicknames.
2) ?? means age not to be disclosed, holds for all the females.
3) Oh yeah you must have figured out that the second alphabet stands for the Sex.

PS: wanted to write about Ro, M, 23, but could not come up with one... Any new names welcome

2005-09-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ek choti si story

One of the most irritating creatures in this planet are flies. I am sure they do play a significant role in the biological cycle to keep the food chain intact, but as far as I am concerned they are a bunch of pretty annoying creatures. I do believe that most of them are stupid enuf that they die splattering on my car's wind sheild while on a highway, but couple of them are really smart and manage to sneak in their way to a good life. Consider, one of them for example, which pestered me for a week over my road trip. That one probably wanted a free ride to PA from stanford, or fleed due to some threat from other flies, or proabably a messenger from the queen of CA to PA kingdom. In any case, a free travel in this expensive world!! maan that one did pull off a smart move. Well, wonder how they have their societies and systems, if at all they have any, I really hope that the territorial PA flies dont consider me as a trojan to bring a invador from california. Hoping to be in good terms with the PA flies I sign off...

I guess I crossed 55 :(

2005-09-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

Farewell At Intel

"I can see many people want to drive me out!!", was my stupid PJ to open my farewell talk at Intel, where nearly 30 people showed up. People, especially my boss after the talk asked me if I wanted to come back, especiallly concerned due to the remark I opened with. I must say, it was a wonderful experience out there to be working for the biggest name in the chip industry. I was particularly taken aback to meet some of the smartest people I have ever met and interacted with which was quite contraray to my impression about people n industry. I really wish to write more, but with my broken wrist the best I can do to keep my blog alive!!

2005-09-12T00:39:00.000-07:00

Phobias or Philes

Lost in thought, left in my limbo at work, two days away from leaving california, I was browsing through a couple of websites for places that I could visit while driving back to PA. Couple of activities looked familiar, but some things like, bungee jumping, mountain biking, were alien grounds, which made me give a thought about my 'phobias' and 'philes'. The big question is "have I really explored the gamut of activities around this planet to realize what I am afraid of and what not?" Say, for instance, unless you sail you dont really realize if you are sea-sick, especially listening to experiences of some of my friends discovering that they were sea-sick, I thrive to do that soon. On the other hand, I really do not know if I really have a quench for physically challlenging, activities as I really have very few on my list so far. I think as a grad student I should really be getting into as many new things as possible, since I realize that once you get into a job you really dont have much time for pursuing the uncommon activities.

The above was something that I wanted to write but could not finish before my Road trip. Having enjoyed tons of activities over my cross country trip I have been successful in figuring out a couple of things I totally love to do. Yet to find many things I am really scared of.. well I was quite petrified on the campground with a bear prowling around for some food...other than that good(probably bad for couple of people) news, I reached PA alive successfully after 7 days of driving:))

2005-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

A toast to Stanford Junta

As I look down from the eighth floor of one of the high rises on Stanford campus, my residence for last three months, a sense of nostaliga creeps in. I remembered driving around the whole of escondido village for almost and hour and not being able to locate Blackwelder(place I live), and still wonder where was I lost? First few days, frankly, I thought I was in a very wrong place, when I found most people around me to be the pseudo desis. But, dont know if changed them or if I changed, I probably had the best ever time of my life over last 2 months. A couple of more days and I will be back to the phase of life which is probably what had been the only thing that I was craving for over my internship period, THE GRAD LIFE. But, I am sure I am going to miss this place a lot, once I get back to penn state. So, on this day I thought that, may be I should write a small toast about most of the junta whom I met here, and if I missed someone, please do not mind!!

To begin with, I should talk about my wonderful host at stanford, Mama, the ultimate paradox of the world, impersonification of the word Irony. Mama, whatever junta feel about you, no party or group is fun without junta paining you, or your crappy PJs, which on many occasions have forced me to retire to bed:(. Coming to Sachin, Machaan!! you've been a super fun room mate, a suberb cook (quite an innovative one, I must admit!!) and a wondeful company for soccer. I would never forget your screams, trying to mimic 'the priest', or our occasional cacophonies on flute and keyboard which caught the attention of everybody in the hall (on all the occasions just the two of us:)). Well I just hope that you don't die of a brian tumor for well known reasons:). And then there was piyush: My crib partner!!! doode I have never seen anyone whose thinking, habits etc are more similar to mine, except that I was never even close to getting the GGM. Our exact same feeling about work, life, women, and the orders in subway:)), will surely take me some time to forget. Well in any case, I am sure I revived the dormant Tam in you sufficiently enough, that you continue this indignation for some time to come now. Then was my first roomie, Marwah, Doode!! you still have a pending comeback. Mr.Gullible, for my minimal hoodwinking talents I used to get enormous amount of confidence moving around with a person like you. Well anyways, if not for you, I am sure we could have ever planned any of our fun-trips. One of the most enthusiastic people I have ever met and if not for lazy people like me around you, you would have had probably every day of your life over last three months. You are just too nice a person, and I will always remember Sachin saying, "Marwah, agar tu ladki hote, to maein tujhse shaadi kar leta". Not to miss out on Roon, Archan, Suhas, Aditya and all other junta in that gumbal, had a wonderful time with you guyz, and ofcourse not missing out on the ladies, Mamta, Neha and Adi, you certainly are one of the coolest group of women I have met. Before concluding, I would also like to admit that there was one person who really helped me improvising on the threshold of my patience levels, thanks to u too:).

So in all thanks to all stan junta whom I have been around with for the last couple of months, for giving me such an amazing time, and wish you all a fun filled grad life:)

Watch out for upcoming posts on Work Exp at Intel!!! and my road trip cross country :)) might be away from blogging till next weekend as I will be on the roads driving!!!

2005-08-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

An apple a day ...

A few days down, you'll be gone, and I'll be left staring at my windows, missing you all along. Hope you find a better partner, and a nice place to live, a better guy and better niche. I must admit, I had a wonderful time with you, never had issues, except for the music, but still you did the best you could do. Your memory has always taken me by surprise, that certainly made you much more smarter and helped me save my cries. A useful partner for my music classes, you've been fantasticallly supportive of the sucky melodies of my flute, quite inspirational when you played something really cool. I should really thank you for staying up late with me, over my sorrowos and agonies, my joys and pleasure, and the moments when I was under immense pressure. You were most of the times the first one to give news about my best moments, my success, my victories and sometimes issues to lament. Wish I could find a better company, who could standby watching the same old movies the millioneth time and the cricket matches all night. Your elegent looks have always caught up the eyes of people around me, being with you made me feel confident complete. Oh! I am going to miss you so much..my dear MAC you'll always be in my heart!! wish I could adopt you for ever, but John Domico will be ready for my murder. (for readers not from PSU.. all TAs in PSU CSE were given macintosh laptops which are taken back once you are not a TA!! (1 Gig RAM, 1 GigHz).. John Domico is the person we return back the machines to)

2005-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Desi MapQuest - Welcome MapMyIndia.com

With technology gearing up in India, and lots of new highways showing upon the India map, high time that we need something like mapquest for the India domain. Was really glad to watch an Indian company taking initiative on that front, by introducing a wonderfully novel solution with the existing resources in India. Many of you might just be aware of the site previously, but there are some really cool concepts introduced in the new version. This funda called, elocation, where you can give directions to your house from a popular location in your neighborhood. Hence, any search to your house will give your personalized directions from a well known place in vicinity of house. Have a look at www.mapmyIndia.com, and some of the cool features it has introduced, I was quite excited to elocate myself!!! check it out!!

http://www.mapmyindia.com/elocshow.php?ID=suresh

ensaai

2005-08-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

No wonder that I am still single!! Scary.. hmm..

2005-08-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Thinking about thoughts

Just thought about how much time do I really spend thinking, and how productive are those thoughts. As a PhD student, supposedly the people who think a lot, this came to mind while sitting down with a problem yesterday and trying to think of a solution for it. After a while (3hrs), when the problem was getting away from me, my thoughts deviated into thinking about, when did I ever think like this last time. A vague rememberance, I could recollect days from my JEE preperation, when I used to really think a lot about problems all the time. But, I guess since the day I got into a profession which really does not require you to think much, engineering, I have been drven away from that habit. Most of the modern day research is completely google oriented and its probably once in a while that you really sit back and think on problems and usually you end up solving them either within a few minutes or end up googling and finding the solution online. Well, coming to when do people think alone over problems, I can recollect some of the classic examples. I have had couple of friends who solve problems in dreams, some of them even formulate a problem before sleeping so as to get a clearer picture of the problem in their sleep and have claimed that it works!!! I like to think in shower, its probably the early morning freshness, but some of the good papers that I have published so far, have emerged as outcomes of some classic ideas under shower :) I have heard people saying that enunciating helps while thinking, tried that, works pretty well for me. My manager at Intel thinks all the time if he finds a problem, the scariest, when he's driving !! I have often thought about problems while driving, and thanks to my sub-conscious mind have so far not been invloved in any accidents. But, at the end of it a vague feeling creeps in, when I think about how unattentive I was while driving. Considering the fact that I have a junky report to write for a customer tommorrow, I think I have given sufficient thought to my thinking, and better recede back to writing my report!! But do think about it and write what you really feel!!!

2005-08-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

Undeserved Wealth

Abu was a nice hard working guy, who used to earn what he worked for. But one fine day he found this pot of gold which he thought was a a windfall from heaven and accepted that without much questioning. Abu planned to save up the money for his future and be rich, but, then the myth came true, Undeserved wealth never sticks with you for long . He partied a lot and treated all his friends, to share his happiness, and spent 1/4th the money on that. Abu, was ill, he had to pay nearly 1/4th of that muny to the doctors (being in America, a part of it was covered, but still was damn expensive), then his car broke down and he spent 1/4th of the muny on his car. Then abu was upto some serious travel, for which he needed 1/4th of that muny, there were still some coins remaining, which Abu was expected to pay back to some of his firneds. So, in all Abu could never really save up any of those coins he got. Moral of the story, only the hard earned money really stays with you for long, any money obtained without putting fight, goes away, no matter what :( As I look over www.psfcu.org, I turn in to one of the believers of that good old tail.

2005-08-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

Phir bhi dil hai hindustani?

Ok! I am sure the only person who is really gonna be supportive of this post is Totti. But, still I am willing to take any stinkers from people. Probably the opportune moment to write this article, when I am going to pick up an ardent tam movie fan, Mr.Matter from the airport this evening. This comes to my mind every now and then, about the movie choice of desis. I as a great fan of almost all the desi movies feel really hurt when I see people cribbing about desi movies in front of non-desis. Actually as a non-daring person, who is scared to raise his thoughts in public, I thought this is really the place to express it all. But, probably its a wise decision on my part to really let it go on most occasions, especially when someone really important is on the other end. Actually, the fire was really kindled when "Mr.Important" started cribbing about Rajnikanth, on being asked about the superstar by a curious Chinese friend of mine. There was this press article in google about the upcoming movie, Shivaji, for which our superstar was getting paid a exorbittantly huge sum of muny. The curious Chinese questioned the quality of the Superstar, a forgivable crime due to ignorance. But, how can you forgive a pseudo tam who on the third occasion now, disgraced the ultimate, by cribbing about some of the classics from the Superstar.

Shouldn't people have atleast the sense of not letting down the country's image in front of foriegners. Well, anyways, it holds true with many other people who sit and watch SRK movies and make fuss about them after thoroughly enjoying the movie. Infact its happened on many occasions now that people talk crap about SRK movies like Main hoon na, even DDLJ, and I had to stand alone in defence of the movies. Well, on the contrary I do agree the Salman khan's laughs make me cry and his cries make me laugh, but I guess we need someone like that to make us really appreciate and distinguish between movies and to keep up the constant rate of movie production. Well, as a great admirer of desi movies, I sign off willing to fight any profound comments from my friends on this honest confession. I wish people could really come forward and take this as an opportunity to confess their true liking for desi movies, and join the coup.

Probably too much outrage on my part, but blame Mr.Important.

2005-08-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Thin Line Between Life and D#$th

Have you ever been scared about picking up a disease?
When the routine hair fall seems abnormal, a long old mole in your body looks fatal or a regular bleeding gum looks like the right symptom. Your regular decline in stamina causes worries, you are scared when take deep breathes after your regular scurries, the body aches after gymming play upon your mind all night, thinking all the time that your death is right behind. Your regular weak eyes start experiencing the dark, and your snores seems like contagious bark, all the omens seem to be right what you thought and the down your nails your skin seems to rot. Groping in the dark seems scary and you resign to fate waiting to be rescued by a fairy. With minimal hope you visit a doctor who performs some regular checks and asks you to come day after. What do you do before you get the doctor's report, how do you sleep well with all these thoughts? You see thats when the additional pillow helps:) Hope it answers querries of all my friends about my two pillow saga, try it!! it helps on those nightmarish situations. Sleep with one eye open, grippin' your pillow tight

2005-08-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

"And I was born!". This time I was looking forward to a much more exciting life, unlike last time, when I was living in a deserted place, had barely any friends.
But, this time it looked like I got everyting that I had ever dreamt about. Call it racial, but I was proud to be black, and always moved around in the company of people of my race. Life was great and I was completely enjoying my routine life. I really enjoyed the refreshing shower early in the morning and standing in queues with my friends. I had friends in all age groups, some young some really old, some on the verge of leaving us real soon. I hated to be out in the sun, but felt claustrophpobic under a cap. Wish I always lived in an air-conditioned room, but then talking of air, I hated storms. The place we lived was quite often hit by storms, and those used bring nothing else but extremely agonizing misery, and infact were fatal on numerous occasions. Most of my friends were close neighbors of mine. All my friends were really cool and we used to have an amazing time. We used to be glued together in parties, there was always some kind of bond between all of us. Some of my friends used to get their faces painted to look cooler in parties and I used to enjoy it a real lot. Occasional orgees used to become quite wild and infact I remember being seperated from my friends forcefully on many such occasions. But, no regrets, life could never have been better, untill that day, when, early in the morning I woke up to see a white guy moving into my neighborhood. I thought we were getting along well but then, probably not. As the days passed bye I saw more and more white people encroaching our neighborhood and all my black frineds were slowly fading away. I was feeling quite isolated and at this point awkwad to be one amongst the last blacks to be in town. I was not really taking this change well and was getting paler as days went bye. And then I just made up my mind to commit the biggest sin, SUICIDE. I jumped off from the height, but unfortunately got stuck in some weird place. Someone picked me up and shouted, "Votta Myier", and people around him started laughing, thinking that it was a PJ. But, no one really realized how true that guy was.

A tribute to the locks :) --- A Hairy tale

2005-08-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Did you know ?

You can not type http://blog-name.blogspot.com on yahoo messenger and send it to your friends!!

Also try this... on a unix terminal type Ctrl-S, and lemme know if something weird happened!!

Thought I will not get tecchie here!! but why the heck!!!

2005-08-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Turning Point

The game ended and the captain of the opposing team walks up to me and says, "Hard luck boy, your wicket was the turning point. Well, by the way, do you play for any league ?" Made me think, "Am I good or good ? (modesty.. what's that??)", and got me thinking over my sleep.

Have you ever been involved in a turning point of any sport, like Gibbs dropping the cup, Khan letting off a regular shot on goal through in the champions league match? Could not think of the last time I was in such a position, but yeah today it was one such day.

Out in the scorching sun, battling on some alien grounds, playing a sport which not only I quit playing but infact used to desist for quite a while. I was holding one end strongly wile maintaining a consistent scoring rate, chasing a resonably moderate total. The occasion was Intel India cricket tournament's final and stakes were quite high. After a spectacular bowling performance by our team on the field I was kind of under the feeling that may be this is one of the days of glory. With our opener falling off the first ball, terror struck the nerves of most people in our team. This is when I entered the crease and with some real cool cricketing shots, I stayed there, batting consistently, must say that I got lucky today. While on the other end we were consistently losing wickets at one point we were in a position where I felt that I was going to comfortably win the match for my team today. I got into a good partnership with Abhishek (fellow employee), who played some amazingly sensible cricket, and the game seemed to proceeding in the right direction we wanted to, UNTIL!! A stupid call from either me or the bench, abhishek wanted an impossible second run, and continuing on his run-out spree he was caught in no man's land for the seventh time in a row. With this I was into one of the situations where my friend Rajaraman has been into couple of times. Me and my boss trying to get our team home. One more ball to go in the 7th over, the bowler was ready to ball and to my surprise my boss on the non-strikers end walked up to me saying, "Doode you are playing well, just stay there and we will win!!". But then was the statement which was one of the best prophecies I would have ever seen in my lives, when boss said, "Dont't get run out!! ". Then, there was the ball, which I played to fine-leg, I think it went straight to the feilder and there was a slight isfileding by him. I had been running for such shots all this while, but this time I think there was no run there.. and in no time I found myself watching the other team celebrating my wicket. With that, more than anything, the moral of the team was in abysmal dark. Quite a sorry sight actually to see pressure getting on to nerves of people who tackle much more complex problems during tape-outs :). Anyways, we went down fighting till the last ball, that was probably one good thing about it. Amit tried his best to get us back into the game, but I guess it was slightly too late. Its been quite a while since I played some competitive game, so after a really long time I felt really sad losing a game. The last time was probably when me and subbu clinched defeat from the hands of victory playing the finals of the badddy tournament in PSU. But, anyways to commiserate I thought of having some good indian food and with such noble thoughts, me and Chappati headed towards a cool south indian restraunt and feasted on a huge masala dosa and a plate unlimited meals, following which I crashed, thinking about the dreadful RUNOUT and the insightful words of thalaiva, "Never run of a misfield!!"

2005-08-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Me Myself an "Iyer"

Day to ascertain my "Iyer"ship finally arrived after one year. This day is called called "Avani Avittam" in tamil (the ceremony of upkarma); might sound some fundoo "Iyer" jargons, but all it stands for is "the thread changing ceremony".

On a retrospective note, last year this day was quite an experience, when I was accompanied by three dear friends of mine for the ceremony, to the Pittsburgh SV temple. It was quite an interesting trip, where one of the guys was quite an orthodox one and the other two were there, for the sake of getting some "Iyer" shots and "patel" shots respectively. Before anyone abuses me for using too many "Iyer" jargons, let me tell you what "Iyer" shots means. Its a term coined right now by yours truly, which typically comprises of a tam Iyer topless and posing to show his sacred thread. Well, "Iyer"onically I myself am not the best judge of such things since I go for such ceromonies just because my mom asks me.

Having said that, I have often thought about issues on religion and stuff. Things like "Why does totti read Ramayan every morning?", is it just the inspiration that he finds in monogamy or is it Ravana or is it just because muthu asked him to? Why do I wear namam on my forehead or go to religious ceremonies and all? I really am not a believer kind of person, but still there is something that has always kindled me to get into these things. Will think over it sometime.. now that I am kind of jobless in life...

Anyways, getting back on track, this year I was out at this fantastic place called Komala Vilas, a typical south Indian restraunt prepared for this occasion. You should really visit the website of this restraunt, might arouse a couple of taste buds out there just by reading the stuff on the website. So this year, I was accompanied by chakka who came purely for checking out the food and I am sure he did come out satisfied. About the ceremony; this was probably the longest ceremony I had since I actually had the upakarma for the first ever time. Along with the ceremony were the "Iyer" special PJs by the priest, actually he did crack some cool ones. However, I was more amused watching an ABCD kid forced to do the ceremonies by his dad !! wonder why such people care to live here at all.

Well with that me sign off as a rejuvenated "Iyer" today and look forward to my plans to get "higher" tonite for the sole reason that... "Chappatti is here :)"
On second thoughts, just remebered chappati has been a teetotaler for a while now, since the time he left the US, so we might just have some cool desi grub and get high on that (like our dear friend charan always says.. "Ob!! Junta can get high on food..")

2005-08-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Why Shall I BLOG??

Always wondered why people blog? Thinking logically all this while I could just conclude that, "Abbe saale jobless log killing their time"... but thinking again I realized that may be its not just that!! Well here is why I thought about entering the phenomenol world of blogging.

Its that time of the year when the bosses are out for vacation.. me almost alone in the office browsing through random ramblings of couple of my friends on their blogs... and I start thinking.. may be its time to start one of my own. Sounded completely in synch with my impression about bloggers, "Jobless people".. which repelld the idea right away from my mind.

But then two days back I dropped off sachin (my roomie for last couple of months) at the airport. That night back at home all alone watching some of the episodes of friends which sachin and me used to watch all the time I kinda felt that I am missing him, which made me think, "Why not write about such moments, so that we look back at them as we look at our old pictures ?" Well I thought may be that was the right time.. but it was too late and I kind alost enthu and CRASHED (somthing I learnt from Sachin:) )

Following day I again was kind of jobless at work with my long simulations running in the back ground I got back to thinking about blogging and started browsing again, through a couple of blogs.. pointy's in particular which talked about our trip to SFO, LA... which made me rethink and this time with a completely new perspective, "Why not write about all my travel experiences ?" Thought that was good enough, but then something was still missing or probably it was due to Rohan (fellow Intern) who called me for lunch!!

The final nail in the coffin was struck by harsha's blog on sports and my telephonic converstaion with my dear friend PP, when we relived some of the moments of gunners' classic moments. This was it!!! and here it is... I want to start a blog... and name it... either the gunners or something about my trans america trip.. or why not just something that I have been doing over all my dinners over last couple of months .. watching friends (yeah I kinda thought that I had grown outa it.. but then thanks to my new roommates... ).. and here it is.. Days of Our Lives...

If you are wondering about the "Serus" thing... well keep guessing.. I am sure the crossie pundits are gonna get that real easy....

signing off my first of the many more posts to come....

Sus