Discovering Myself

Randomness of ideas

2009-05-25T23:10:00.002+07:00

I was just watching "Criminal minds" (those of you who dont know what this is, you need to grow up) the other day and just had this thought cross my mind. I realized that throughout the episode, the FBI guys never used any other SUV then the one made by GMC. They did change it from big to small to big but all the SUVs were made by GMC and the small cars from Ford. This made me think about all the other series that I have been following and to my surprise it came to me that in all those American series/dramas, they never (99.9%) show any ASIAN (I will stick to asian since I dont think I can really support India on making good cars) cars. Now when GMC is going bankrupt and Ford not doing good, I wonder if they will start showing FBI agents driving a Honda Civic or Accord. That would be so cool for all the Asians since 99% of them (including me :P) buy these cars and it will be like a dream come true to see the cars they like to be used by feds on TV :). I guess they would probably just scratch the (asian) brand of the car before showing that on TV since people here are paranoid enough to pretend to be different than being the majority or right. I guess that's why they are trying so hard to save these inefficient companies (GMC etc.) from just dying.

Anyways, it was a nice feel to really know why I see the same kind of cars in all the thrillers that I see.

The on-way entertainment

2008-09-08T05:57:00.003+07:00

Traveling alone sometimes can be very boring especially if its a routine travel between your home and office. It requires even more time-killing-effort if you are not driving to work and taking a public transport like a common man (in the commonest sense). This is something I have observed over the last few months and sometimes even felt it.

Some people (mostly old ones including the middle-aged) just try to read newspapers in the buses as our ancestors used to do. Others (the modern generation like us) will either put the 2 wires in their ears and switch-ON the i-accessories and go deaf on the rest of the world OR they will just take out their phones, flip them open and dial a number while traveling in buses and all. Now, it may be very amusing for these people to talk to somebody to kill their journey time but just imagine, a guy sitting next to you and talking continuously to someone on the phone. I don't know about others but it can drive me crazy sometimes, especially if you can guess that the person is talking to his/her (to-be)-partner. In those kind of talks, all you can hear on your side are mostly yes's, no's and sounds like hmmmm..., ohhh, ehhh,, etc. etc. Most of the human-understandable language is cut-off considering the private nature of the talk, but then if the talk is really that private why the hell do you even want to have the conversation in the bus. Well, I think some people just don't get it.

Anyways, I have kind of accepted this reality as there is no better alternative and I definitely don't like those i-accessories. For me, the best time pass is to just look out for that one whom you can look on. Good thought right!! Just joking man!! This is just one thought that sometimes have crossed my mind when I observe other Desi's in the buses. But then we all need something to do in that boring hour of our journey. Hopefully, I will develop a good time-pass soon otherwise these other people will become my time-pass which may not be good to a common man's health. :) :)

Fashion and the bik-beach

2008-09-02T02:45:00.003+07:00

Long time since I came to this foreign land that Christopher Columbus discovered years ago. If he could see what his discovery looks today, he will be more than just happy. Apart from all the advances this country has done, the one thing that intrigues me most is the dressing style of people here.

In my country (Bharat Desh), fashion has a different quotient and a different motive. To be more clear, my country's fashion comes from the new style of clothing, creative design in ornaments, reflecting a different persona etc. etc. and definitely the motive is to present yourself better and beautiful than before (although in present scenario some of these can be contradicted). But, this place seems to have a different way of making a fashion statement. Showing your body in a million different ways is something I can attribute to the fashion quotient here. Looking at all the leading magazines of this country, that's one thing that reflects the most. I wonder how much does it contribute to this country's popularity. I am happy that men at least don't go around wearing shortest shorts and stuff, otherwise it will be very messy. :P

Well, I got a chance to enjoy this fashion today at the Santa Cruz beach. Its one of the finest places that Bay area has to offer. Basically for me this was the first bik-beach in US and I was not let down after watching all the bik-beaches in so many movies and all. One thing I have to say, the movie stuff and the real stuff is pretty similar here and these people don't really just put some fantasy stuff in movies like we do. At least that (movie experience) helped me to digest the most of it today. One thing is, I don't think anybody who goes to these beaches, does even look at the water...not even in the rarest instance. Hey hey hey, I am not talking about myself there :) :) .For a start this was not bad, though I think I still have a lot to see in here and I am definitely ready for it :) :)

Will keep you posted on my latest encounters.

Non-Bollywood Bollywood fans

2008-06-08T05:44:00.003+07:00

Was just reading this article on a website detailing about the craze for Bollywood movies (especially SRK ones) abroad not just among NRI's but complete foreigners. Here is an excerpt from that article said by a Korean:

‘‘ We don’t see movies silently in Korean style but rather in Indian style, which means making a lot of noise, laughing loudly at every joke and abusing the villain.’’ This is what attracts Korean audiences to Bollywood movies. As to the choice of films, he says that almost all movies screened are SRK movies because members aren’t interested in anyone but him. ‘‘ We also make Shah Rukh T-shirts , cups and some members carry his photos. Even their cellphone screensavers are SRK images.’’

True completely but still people should get over with SRK :)..Someday, perhaps!

The first Hot Week after 2 years

2008-05-18T11:40:00.002+07:00

This last week was, I suppose my hottest week in the last 2 years and it was not even above 100F. Surprising but true it is. Living in Minnesota for most part of my time here in US and then living in Boston during the summers, I think I just missed the fun of having summers and hot days once in a while. But, as far as I go, I don't like hot weather at all even though I come from a very hot place in India. And so, its an easy guess that its not going to be easy for me handle this summer after all.

Contrary to my emotions, I think most of the people in US just wait for summers all their life, be it for shedding more clothes from their body, going to beaches, taking sunbath (tanning is one big hobby of everybody here), swimming all day and so & so. I can relate more than a thousand reasons why people may like this stupid hot weather but I can state 1 million reasons for people to like winters. Even the most basic thing i.e. walking becomes a sweaty job in summers. I wonder how hot gals feel with this extra hotness in the weather: Kudos to them ...haha

I would say, summers is only good for me because I can find more people(gals) in less clothes :) ...I think, its just hard to be Kool when its all hot around but things always fall in the right place.

And the award goes to.......

2008-04-23T11:20:00.002+07:00

I am so not on the earth today. I am so much happy today. I am so flying to the heaven today. Why? Because I won a $500,000 lottery. Don't believe it? Read this:

FROM: THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
MR.DAVID TRUMP.(HOLLYWOOD AWARD PROMOTION)
PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
REF NO: 12/0078/IPG
BATCH NO: EGS/ 20054117/08

ATTN: WINNER.

RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION, FINAL NOTICE.

We are pleased to inform you, that as a result of our RECENT AWARD
PROMOTION DRAWS HELD 2008.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:021-7276083-04 with
serial number:31270-0 drew lucky numbers:05-06-12-14-38 which
consequently won in the 5th category.

You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of(FIVE HUNDRED
THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in cash credited to file with
REF:Âº.EGS/3662367114/13

Note that all participants in this award promotion program have been
selected randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over
20,000 Officials and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all
search engines and web sites,from Asia, Australia, NewZealand, Europe,
North and South America, Middle East and Africa, as part of our
International Promotions Program.

This promotional program takes place every year,and is promoted and
sponsored by eminent personalities like the Hollywood
Celebrities,Forbes Magazine, Donald Trump and other corporate
organizations.

LOL!!! By this time if you haven't figured out what it is, you are not really worthy of reading my blog :) :) . Really speaking, only these mails are the ones where I win so many things, otherwise I don't think I have ever won anything in a lucky draw :)

And the weird part about this mail is, I got it on the university email address and that also mailed to all the Electrical graduates. I think spammers also know that guys in Elec. deserve so much more. Recently only, the university made us take some 4 tests for private data safety and security on campus. These mails show how much online security we have in our university. Stupid people...Anyways, I don't mind all this as long as someone makes me happy by making me a winner for a moment although a fake one.

Orkut Names

2008-03-30T07:50:00.004+07:00

Have you ever had the opportunity (or as I will say "durbhagya") to guess somebody's name on Orkut or at any other place, be it just a chat client? As far as I think, this becomes a real pain when you have to spend, like minutes, to identify one of your contacts in Orkut, just because this person doesn't have a human name or a face (photo). I was just wondering, why will a person want himself not be identified by others. Here are some "jarra hatke" names and my take on those...

Losing, Drifting, Can't hold myself :
Seems like somebody is really driving too fast and is going to crash, never to rise again. Interestingly very misleading when you finally discover that he is one of those flukers.

I am back, hope things will change now:
Are you sure!! Its like a superhero making an entrance and then praying to GOD for a change in situation. thu....

I hate love because it breakz heart:
Its a warning for the person's family not to love him anymore otherwise he will break their hearts. (I am all scared)

Eschew Obfuscation, but how? :
Mann, this one most of the people won't even understand. Actually, it means "remove confusion". Can you believe, somebody is creating confusion and then asking how to remove it. Ironic, isn't it?

Gone to Delhi/Bangalore etc etc. :
Its like a train (life) schedule posted so that you don't lose yourself somewhere while traveling :) :)

Machine with emotions, XYZ:
Thats like over-praising yourself. Isn't it? I won't make any such suggestions since I have never seen a machine with emotions and emotions in a machine, whichever way you want to put it.

XYZ ..not loging for long:
Thats a red signal to all the spammers who keep filling the guy's scrap book. Anyway who cares!!

I walk a lonely road, don't know where it goes..
He is all about negligence and confusion.

Perceive, Conceive, Believe, Achieve:
Ok, perceive....hmmmmmm......hmmmmm....Nothing! My senses have given up. Since I couldn't perceive, I am not able to conceive. Now how can you believe somebody who doesn't even have a f***ing name. I finally achieve nothing but just a pain in life.

XYZ: I am not d4nt, I make the difference:
This one was put up by a girl and I am pretty sure she is making a difference by letting people know about her efforts. Useless people..

Whatever, who cares about all this nonsense. See, Orkut is for networking and if your friends only take time to identify you, who else is even going to care.

P.S: Any name matching to any person's Orkut name is just not a coincidence and I won't care for it anymore than I do now. Thanks for reading this whole arbit post.

Media trivia

2007-10-25T13:40:00.000+07:00

How big a media spur can you cause if you die in a plane crash which collided with some WTC or Empire State building or so? How many people will come to sympathize with your family for their loss (obviously your family gets the insurance money and freedom from your painful talks but we are not talking about that here)? The answers to the above questions will be "very few". Most of the world and media will be diving in finding out how the crash occurred, how many people died, if there was anybody surviving, if yes how, and so many things which could get just make your death so secondary that even you won't care about it.

Not exactly the same thing, but on a similar line something happened recently. Dhoni got a haircut yaar!! Now you would say, whats the big deal in that? Don't ask me, ask those who are writing about it (even I am, now :) ). Most of the people are speculating that why will he do such a strange thing. Is it because he is hitting on Deepika or because he wanted to change his fashion statement? Let me ask, can't he get sick of combing his hair everyday or keeping them clean and tidy? Anybody will get pained with such long hairs (ask the girls who also don't like to keep long hairs now a days, the smaller the better). Media has made a whole "rai ka pahad" (mountain out of a molehill) thing out of it. There are videos showing particularly his head with short hairs and not even his face. Speculations are going around about if he will be able to maintain the good performance in upcoming cricket matches with his hairs being gone (?????).

What the hell?? Nobody thinks that even Dhoni could run out of shampoo one day (even when he is the highest tax payer in Bihar) and realize that hairs can be very painful sometimes when let loose on their own. Good that he took care of them now itself. I just hope that the barber who did this to Dhoni don't get killed in the near future if India loses against Pakistan or Australia. Then may be we will have to buy Dhoni a fake wig until he gets back the good old "jungle" back on his head. Anything that works better for the nation, after all its all about Cricket in INDIA :) :) :).

A cup of Coffee with me please

2007-10-02T07:27:00.000+07:00

Sometimes I think how did I survive without coffee for the last 5 years, as now it has become an everyday necessity for me just like water. It was good to think that I was not intaking any caffeine but really speaking, its a good feeling to be on caffeine.

Starting the work at 9:30 am and no breaks till lunch makes a man feel lost all along.A lunch also just gives you a slight change in mindset which may hold you for an hour or two at the most, but not for long. As soon as you start yawning at work, its time for a coffee break and it better be black because you still have some more time to spend wasting your mind on the unrealistic complications of this technical world.

Having said all that, its not the coffee which takes your sleep away, its the partner with whom you have this coffee. No, No, No, don't jump on any conclusions right away, as most of you will do given the slightest indication. Let me clear it up saying that the partner need not be someone close or you know dash-dash-dash, he/she may just be someone whose face you like (can be in any sense). Obviously if its someone special you have an extra edge over others (an unfair advantage you know).

The question is why the hell I am writing all this??? Actually, in this brief duration of time since I started drinking coffee on a regular basis, I realized why I never felt the need for drinking coffee earlier and what made it so special for most of the people in this world. And the most important thing I have found that its the partner who makes your coffee special not the brand or taste. I have had some of these special moments (some of the coolest ones :) )and I remember those coffee hours as I continue my coffee/caffeine consumption.

P.S: All being true, coffee does help you get good grades in dire circumstances and at those moments you don't really need a partner but the GOD to help you out.

Preparations for the final take off

2007-10-02T06:57:00.000+07:00

Its time to rock baby!

Final semester, final courses, the last battle before the glory has given a sense of joy and tension at the same time. Its hard to think the life not being a student instead a professional. Every step in life is a new beginning but there are always some moments which you don't want to forget and I think I kind of have lot of those now, so its time to move into a new phase :) ..

Now its just that one simple luck which will define the future course of my life and may be a lot others :)....dont waste time on guessing about those now as they dont even exist till now..hehehe...The only one thing that I really missed in this last year is HOME and believe me its only home that I want finally. Hoping that this longing for home will pay off good returns, I am hanging at the edge almost everyday enjoying each moment. I have seen people go through a lot more difficulties than I can ever imagine and I am determined to make the most of what I have got.

One thing that you may notice in my blogs is the shift from humor to more philosophy and real life thingies. Don't judge me on that as its just the lack of ideas which are forcing me to write in this genre. But the humor and satire will come ....just wait and watch.

A calm finish to a thundering journey

2007-09-02T00:13:00.000+07:00

Life has never been so different and more resolved than it is. Mind has never been so clear about anything than it is now. Last 3 months have been a voyage into the unseen realms of technical knowledge and the spirit of engineering.

It all started with a desperate struggle to prove myself to the people in the industry that I can do things that I have never done before and I can discover things that I never knew about myself. Nothing big but an internship could have done that. And its all God's grace that finally I got one and as usual it was more than I ever asked for myself.

People say with power comes responsibility but in my case it was the sense of responsibility at my work which gave me the power to do things that were way beyond my abilities. Use and implement things, thats all most of us do all our lives, but I have realised that creating something new, coming up with something thats not visible to others can give you a sense of accomplishment that can last for your whole life. I have realised it by looking at others and this is something I look forward to do myself also.

People around you can largely affect the way you look at things and percieve them. Something like that also happened with me. I have worked with people who are flawless in what they do and in a manner nobody else does and may be that what sets them apart. I have a long way to go and I may never visit these paths of my life again but I will always remember the things that I have learned during this period and how good I have felt about myself.

It was a war at the borders of mind and I have come scathed and and mutilated but it still feels so good as if I have longed for it ever. It was a struggle, it was a fight, it was a confrontation that I neither won nor lost but felt all along. It is a calm finish to a desperate start, thundering journey, conflicting minds and a quest for satisfaction.

Writing Comments won't hurt you

2007-07-20T06:35:00.000+07:00

Over a period I have realized that even when people read my blogs (quite rare :( ) they don't provide any comments after they are done reading. You don't know how important it is for me to get a feedback from people (as if I care) about my blogs. This is surely not for those who hate my blogs after reading them :P. I am not going to entertain any bad comments and I may even sue you for your improper comments...:). Just kidding yaar! Please take your time to judge me and do it in any case. Even the most vicious comments are welcome (not for personal vengeance though).

Its like writing a testimonial on Orkut where even when you hardly know a person you can always write 1024 characters by just going through his profile and interests. You can even copy other testimonials in that process, obviously copying comments is a big FEDERAL offense and you can be prosecuted for plagiarism :P . Oh I kept the FEDERAL in bold because in countries other than US, nobody ever cares about these things. You can even use my comment box for chatting if you want to, at least I will have the consolation that my page is getting filled :). Hey, don't take that seriously, I don't want those crazy bloggers to fill my comment box with crap material.

Finally to sum up all the crap I wrote, please provide comments on my blogs. And keep in mind I don't write crap, its just a misconception.

You can have all the fun...

2007-07-18T08:10:00.000+07:00

I have been thinking to do this for a long time and now I finally decided to put down my knowledge on some visible medium. Nothing great yaar, its the links to some of the sites which you can explore if you want to watch movies online....I don't take the guarantee for anything to be legal or not but who cares about that. Here they are:

1. www.muft.tv
2. www.videoduniya.com
3. www.videomasti.net
4. www.irani-chai.com
5. www.movieforumz.com
6. www.rajshri.com
7. www.vid2c.com
8. lucky88.eigenstart.nl
9. www.tv-links.co.uk
10. www.peekvid.com
11. www.freemoviescinema.com
12. www.nabolister.com

There are a lot more sites which I know but these are the ones that I have tried and found to be mostly working correctly. I will update this list whenever I am ready to tell you more...

Wait and watch!

Technical revolutions

2007-07-09T02:23:00.000+07:00

It has been quite a while since when I have been reading a lot of fuss about the two new technical revolutions. They are exemplary in my view and could not be matched by any other product present in the market.

Firstly, came the Nintendo Wii which just surpassed the sales of all other playstations in the first year single handedly. Sony has been the major player in the gaming industry for years but Nintendo revolutionized the whole market with its interactive gaming experience. I have played on Nintendo Wii and I can vouch for the extreme fun that you will have playing on it. The sales of N-Wii is not going down soon, so guys forget Sony for sometime and enjoy the new Wii magic.

Secondly, it was "iphone" which stole all the limelight lately. "Apple" has been known for its most creative and flawless products. This time they just broke all the rules and gave people a mini computer in their hand which has made the mobile market apprehensive about releasing any new products, because now you have to match iphone before bringing out something in the market. The only consolation to the other manufacturers is that its still too costly for a common man to buy iphone. But as the craze spreads, hopefully iphone will also rule the popularity charts like ipod has been doing it for years now.

If you have the money to spend, check out these two cool products on your own and I bet you will love it.

My personality according to Similar Minds

2007-04-21T14:09:00.000+07:00

This is really not my own guess...I would never ever dream of comparing me with this weird and psycho person...This is just something that is told to me according to the SimilarMinds.com and I was completely shocked with the results...Please don't pain me if you don't agree because even I don't. But others are free to make comments on me and I am free to publish them atleast on my webpage.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hair raising facts revealed at 616

2007-02-17T11:02:00.000+07:00

Its two months since I posted on my blog space, so I plan to put something different today. Its interesting stuff and I may not be able to give it that original touch which it possessed when spoken by the legend as we will state later, but I will try to give you all the facts at least.

It was a typical night in our house which was graced by the beautiful thoughts of Enkie and cherished in an aggressive and entertaining manner by his roommates Somy, Dada, and Manex. It is rare now a days that we all gather in our living room at the same time but sometimes when it happens, its a blast. This night was also a blast, not that we partied lavishly or something but we enjoyed it to the fullest and with our hearts (agony of mind was there simulataneously).

The dinner time was just over and we were all sitting in the living room, browsing on the computers and wasting our time. Actually, I think Dada was checking out for good deals on a laptop as he has been doing it for quite sometime now. Suddenly, Dada had a very curious question boggling in his mind that why do companies give stuff for free after rebates. It was a very good question indeed and as usual I and Enkie jumped in the discussion to give our precious views. Enkie's view was that the companies motivate people to take their stuff for free so that they can recommend it to others to buy it. He stated this to be a kind of advertisement funda. I was not quite convinced with the argument and I added that companies want to make a market presence by reaching to the customers in this way. Don't worry I am not going to teach you the whole economics here. Its just that, this is the way conversations start in our home whenever they do. Continued....

Out of nowhere, Enkie in addition to his previous argument says that, if any Surf (mark the Surf part) company in India decreases 50 paise on its products, it could sell a whole lot more (Don't blame me for the level of digression coming at this stage since it was all created by Enkie). Then considering it to be a very poorly made argument, I and Dada digressed and attacked Enkie saying that 50 paise won't make even a slight difference on the companies sales. But Enkie was resilient and said that since the population of India is 10 billion and 80% of the population used Surf, it would really make a difference.

Now wait! wait! wait! Did I hear population of India to be 10 billion. Oh yeah, I did. It took me and Dada just a second to burst into hysterical laughter at this point and for the first time Manex also made his presence felt by laughing out loud and to the fullest. Enkie was quite puzzled as usual and then we made him realize that India is having a population explosion not a population Supernova. Looking this way then India would be on one side and Rest of the World on the other side. Enkie regretted his saying that and it was visible all over his face. But, the discussion was not over yet and we were all dumbfounded knowing that 80% of the India's population uses Surf. Surf!!!!!!! Did you know it? I don't think anybody else in this world would ever have thought of it except the legendary Enkie Tarkah ( his legends are more famous then him, a whole documentary can be made on that).

Now the house was on fire. The discussion was getting hot and serious. I and Dada spent a considerable amount of time convincing Enkie that India is still not such a developed nation that 80% of the population can use Surf. Infact 80% people don't even know that there is a brand named Surf out there. But, then who has moved the immovable and the same thing happened with Enkie also. All the arguments we made to convince him backfired on us and instead of accepting that we may have a point, Enkie started describing the urbanization India has gone over in the last 10 years. He described the way Varanasi looked 10 years ago with its small streets and crowdedness and how it looks now with all those big roads and industries coming up. He also added that now we have gigantic Malls and shopping centers and technologies like DTH in India which were unthinkable a few years back. So from all this he concludes that 80% of the India's population uses Surf.

Are you convinced? No, right? Even we were not. Those were the most unconvincing and out of the way arguments, we ever heard. We started our efforts to convince Enkie that even if India has gone under such a urbanization, people in villages uses local soap (remember that brown one) and other things. Over this Manex says that they use Nirma and fake surf. Never mind, he always make those irrelevant and third party statements. And, then Dada told Enkie that even in Bombay 80% people don't use Surf, leave India aside. He made continued efforts to make Enkie believe that Surf is still not accessible to the poor people. This kind of made him think a little bit and there was kind of silence for over a minute. We were holding a firm ground against Enkie Tarkah but mind me, its an impossible task to make Enkie agree over what you think.

At this point Enkie interrupted the discussion and left to go to 302. Why? What happened? We were startled to know that he was leaving such a nice, hot and spicy discussion in between. but, this is also one of the traits very much specific to Enkie. We tried to stop him and demanded to continue until we reach a consensus but then he had made his mind and may be he needed time to think over it again, whatever it was we couldn't do anything. Just to tell you, we still haven't finished our discussion on that topic and its kind of a movie with an open ending where most of things are left fuzzy. Whatever the result was, it was a great fun that night and how-so-ever stubborn Enkie Tarkah is, we can say one thing about him, he is one of his kind (that kind also being the only kind of its kind).

Advertisement caption for Enkie:

Enkie = Neighbor's envy owner's pride....God bless every apartment in 616 with one.

(P.S: No offence meant anywhere and any relation to a person living or dead is not a coincidence.)

Six Degrees of Separation

2007-01-12T09:34:00.000+07:00

“Six degrees of separation” is a philosophical term which means that any two human beings in this world are connected through at the most six acquaintances. It is thought to be a lot related to the term “Small World” now. Several studies relevant to the Small World Experiment have shown that any two individuals could be connected through 5 or at most 6 personal acquaintances. This proves that even when the size of the world is increasing and population explosion is taking place, because of the technological advances people can connect to each other remotely and thus there is a more connectedness in the world. Now or then, whenever you hear a person saying that the World is getting smaller or the World is so small, you know what he/she means. Wow, doesn’t this sound great? Now, I can say that President Bush is my relative’s, relative’s, relative’s, relative’s, relative’s relative. Such a close relation, I never knew it. Same I can say for any great celebrities or icons. Oh my god! Now I am connected to anybody in Hollywood and Bollywood, so as everybody. The only bad part is, it may happen that CIA comes and arrests you on behalf of being connected to Osama Bin Laden. So be careful! But this is something very good and interested people can search more about it on Wikipedia.

Just to mention for the science geeks, even the network theory uses this concept for developing interlinks between two destinations to send a packet.

Snow pics

2007-01-04T01:16:00.000+07:00

This new year was welcomed with strong snow showers in Minneapolis. It was great to see the place glowing in lights with a white blanket all around. Want to catch a glimpse of the scene after snow showers, visit here. I have uploaded some of the photos on the google web albums here.

My Chicago trip

2006-12-31T07:03:00.000+07:00

I thought it will be a good idea to share some of my experiences with others regarding my awesome trip to Chicago. It was one of the best trips of my life and made me fall in love with Chicago. I enjoyed each and every moment of my stay and being with my friends added to my excitement. We tried to see as many places as we can but still it seems that we have missed a lot of things. There is so much to see out there that 4-5 days is very short for it. The best places where I went were the Navy Pier and the Shedd Aquarium. I wish I could have stayed there for a bit longer. The Christmas time decorations made the City look like a heavenly place. I have put some of the pictures I took on google web-albums. You can see them here. For more description with photos, visit this place.
Some of the photos may not be so clear and I am sorry for not being an expert at photography.

Being a vegetarian

2006-12-20T03:59:00.000+07:00

Still a vegetarian-nice try!

I have been in America for almost 6 months and during all this time I have realized that it is impossible for a person to come here and still remain a complete and pure vegetarian. Now what we used to call a cheese burger back in India is supposedly the one with beef in it out here. Now that sounds ridiculous and frankly it is. You have to be very and remember very cautious to select things to eat outside since one way or another you may end up eating some non-vegetarian stuff. By the way, eggs doesn’t come under the definition of non-vegetarian here, so revisit all the definitions you had of being a vegetarian. Also, if you think that avoiding non-vegetarian things by name and going for fruit salads etc. can keep you a vegetarian, then I must say you are partially wrong. These people have all kinds of non-vegetarian sauce like oyster sauce etc. which they use while preparing salads. It is a shocking thing to know this but this may happen with you if you are eating outside.

The best way to remain a vegetarian is to cook on your own and read all the ingredients on all the products you buy (too paranoid na). This way you may be able to maintain your sanctity and health both but only may be. Or on the other hand accept the things as they are and stop being paranoid. Be a semi-vegetarian or a semi non vegetarian. This way you can enjoy both the sides and still remain faithful to yourself. Finally, I must say “Listen to the heart”.

India destroys South Africa

2006-12-20T01:33:00.000+07:00

This was an awesome moment for billions of Indians as the Indian team had beaten South Africa in South Africa after a span of 14 years. This was as if, India was back from exile and all ready to celebrate Diwali in South Africa. It came as a surprise since India was not among the favorites before the series as they had lost the one-day series flatly to SA and they were supposed to be weak against the pace attack. But the one thing SA forgot is that we also have a pace attack comprising of Sreesanth, Zaheer, VRV Singh and the most experienced of them all, the one and only one Kumble.

This was not just the comeback of India but the comeback of a forgotten hero “Saurav Ganguly” also. He proved that he can still be an idol to follow for the Indian team. His betting provided the much needed momentum to India at times of distress. His performance was applauded by everybody and stripped open his criticizers.

There were a lot of other distinguished things about this test which can’t go un-noticed. There was this little fellow “Sreesanth” who with his fiery spell didn’t allow SA to spread their wings even once. He was also marking his comeback from very rough times, but he seemed to a regular bowler and showed an unexpected enthusiasm. His answer to Andre Nel’s verbal slogging by hitting a six was the funniest and a spectacular moment on the 3rd day of the test. His display of happiness would have drove Nel crazy and he must be beating himself for indulging with Sreesanth. Better for him and SA, now they won’t do anything like this again.

Overall this test was a great fun and a historic moment.

The under cover agent from Australia

2006-12-01T07:59:00.000+07:00

      
How many Gangster movies have you seen? If you have watched a good number of them
then you will surely know, that to bring down a big gangster, you need a mole in his
gang. Now you may contradict that statement but its kind of true. I have always
wondered if its possible or if its ever done in real life since its too hard and
risky. I have never seen anything like that except sometimes in papers when they
talk about ISI, RAW or CIA. But, recently I recognized a covert operation going on
involving the Indian cricket team.

If you don't know, let me tell you the name of the person who is under disguise and
the center character of it. His name is Greg Chappal. Now whatever the Australians
may call him, he will always be a foreign agent working under cover. It may sound so
strange but then someday we will have to realize and accept the truth.

It all started at the last Cricket world cup in 2003. India was one of the best teams
that emerged in that world cup and went on winning continuously (almost) till the
finals, where they lost to the mighty Australians. They were feared by the power and
momentum that Indian team was gaining, so they sent their agent Chappal as the coach
of the Indian team just after Mr. Right left. The whole tragedy started then only.
Our dear Dada lost his position and career to this immigrant, filthy fellow. Many of
the players have never been called back in the Indian team since then. He tried to
bring all kind of absurd changes in the Indian team and gave it a name of
experimentation. Yes, he is doing the experimentation but not for the good but for
finding the worst combination, so that Australians don't get a good competition this
time.

Its a pity that a team which has got so much of potential and strength is struggling
against South Africa. And, sorry to say but if this doesn't change, we will be thrown
out of the next world cup as soon as we enter. Its not a joke. I think the BCCI should
overcome the politics and do something fruitful for the team, if nothing else throw
away this Chappal and bring some new one. Dada should have shown the middle finger to
this filthy person right then only.

Lets wait and watch, how many permutations and combinations this person does with the
team members and how much tolerance we have.

Disclaimer: The spelling mistakes are made intentionally so mind it.

Amazing place

2006-12-01T06:48:00.000+07:00

Must have noticed it but not that closely....

Now I am not trying to create a series nor a random pattern. These values are based on my real life observations. If you are living at the same place as me then you also must have came across these numbers but may not have a paid any attention to it. I won't keep you guessing for long and break the suspense.

This is the Minneapolis (in F) weather as I have observed over a few days. It may not be consistent with this randomness but tries to follow it for most part of the year, at least during the start of the winters. One day its sunny and hot and the next day if you come out of your home without any warning, you will freeze to death. I am not at all exaggerating but its a fact. Mostly its the winds from the north which decides the cold in Minnesota. If they are blowing then you will blow away otherwise its OK. I like it because I have always liked randomness and I think you may also like it as you don't know what to expect next. This at least keeps some suspense in your everyday life in whatever way. Whatever it is, it is a beautiful place and fun place to be, with lakes surrounding you from all sides. I bet its one of the most beautiful place in US.

An Unexpected Guest

2006-10-19T06:38:00.000+07:00

It was a beautiful weekend and we (me with my family) planned to go out to have a good time. We all got up and prepared our trip. We were a lot enthusiastic since it was after a long time that the whole family was going out together. I took my swimming costumes, cricket kit, cards and all other things I could think of playing with or using for amusement. It was time and we were all set for a nice day ahead. We decided to go to a fun park and then go for dinner at some exotic place.

We went to a fun park and had a great time playing water games, strolling in the garden, playing cards and then enjoyed great food at one of the most beautiful places. Finally it was time to go back home. Heavy heartedly we all returned to the home but we didn’t know that the adventure is not over yet.

As soon as we entered the home, we realized that the stuff inside our living room was all upturned and it was a lot of mess all around. We were shocked and the view made everybody tremble with fear. I went inside the bedroom and checked out the cupboard and the safe. Everything looked fine with that. Then we went around all the places in the house and did a clear inspection. We noticed that nothing valuable was missing but still the whole place was in some kind of mess. As I entered the kitchen, I noticed that the fridge door was open and a lot of food stuff was half eaten and scattered here and there. It made me suspicious that somebody must have been very hungry to even take his time to eat.

Finally, I went to the neighbors to inquire about any kind of suspicion that may have occurred to them. They said nothing big happened throughout the day except that there had been a group of notorious monkeys roaming around in the vicinity. I went back and saw that we had left one our living hall window open. It made me hysterical thinking that a monkey could have created so much of fear among us after we had such a great time. I still laugh remembering that incident.

The most important figures of speech

2006-10-18T02:54:00.000+07:00

Ever wondered what are the most frequently used words used in this world? Whether the language is English or Hindi or Deutsch or any other language, these 2 words are said in their original form irrespective of any change in their translation from one language to another. Guess…
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OK
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Let me tell you. They are SORRY and THANK YOU. This was simple right but we never think about how many times we use these words in our daily life since they are now embedded in our daily speaking style. For even a small mistake a person is supposed to promptly say SORRY whether or not he means it is a second issue. Similarly we say THANK YOU for each and every damn small favor which is ridiculous sometimes. This behavior is OK only if we are dealing with complete strangers or we really mean when we are using these words. Otherwise it just seems as if we are following a pre-defined custom and do it thoughtlessly.

So now onwards whenever you are supposed to use any of these words, please MEAN it. Anything is influential only if is said from the heart, so mean it.

Of course, I have excluded some “4” letter words even if they are used very often but these are the most frequent used words according to my experience.

The prestigious IITs

2006-10-14T06:39:00.000+07:00

The IITs

Once again Indian Institute of Technology has been named as the number three institute in Technology scoring behind only MIT and California University Berkeley. The survey was done by Times Higher Education Supplement (THES). The dominating entry in the top 100 global excellence institutes this time is the Institute of Management at rank 68 which has jumped 24 places since last year.

The IITs has always been in news for their excellent inventions and research. But, this is very applauding for an Indian Institute to compete with the top US universities. This shows the kind of talent that resides in India and also gives a picture of the global presence Indian students and researchers are making. For the last few years IITs have made the world aware of their presence by spreading their alumni in every part of the world at the top notch positions.

Just recently two of the IIT Delhi alumni have started a local search network Guruji.com in India mainly concentrating on the Indian market. This is one of the greatest ideas that have come from the mind of IITians and this is surely going to transform the way search is performed on the internet browser. Although Google has become the basic search engine for anything today, this application holds its own panache in the Indian parlance. The only other place where IITs have not been dominating is the Pure Sciences. I think with a little effort we will be able to leave a mark in that field also.

We IITians are surely making the world a different place to live. Hope that I can also contribute significantly to this stream.

The Fall of Zimbabwe

2006-10-14T06:02:00.000+07:00

Zimbabwe used to be one of the best opponents to play against in the Cricket History but the kind of downfall they are going currently seems to be putting their team’s ambitions to an end. At one time even the best teams like India, Pakistan, and England etc. used to struggle playing against Zimbabwe but now to see them win has become a Kodak moment of life.

Currently, in the ICC Champions Trophy they have been embarrassed by each and every team. Even the minnows like Bangladesh have not spared them and beaten them with a very big margin. Earlier there was news that the Zimbabwe cricket board is not paying enough to the players and that’s why players are not getting any motivation to perform. This seems to be very much true since if we see any player of Zimbabwe playing, we can perceive that they are not playing with heart.

We just hope their comes a revival in the cricket team of Zimbabwe so that they can realize the true potential with which they used to perform once.

Lake House

2006-09-29T03:33:00.000+07:00

I watched this movie just a week back. The cast was pretty strong with Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock and Shehohara Abdooshalah. It is one of the movie which will leave a viewer puzzled with the thought that if he is still thinking in present or future. The writer tried to maintain a balance between the events happening in future and present and ofcourse relatively past. It does make up for a nice means to kill time. At the end you are left with both a joy and sadness in your heart since this is a unique movie with both a happy and a sorrowful climax.
If you look at the climax for the future, you will be devastated to know that Keanu is not there for Sandra but in the present situation both are together. So keanu is the one who is dead in the future but he is alive in the present but he will not be dead in the coming future. Got confused eh! this is nothing. If you wanna get the real taste, go and watch it. Its a good time pass.

Movies that teach you about the life

2006-03-28T21:08:00.000+07:00

If we look around, we will find that very few people live their life to the fullest. Most of us are so entangled in the intricacies of life that we forget to enjoy the limited time we are granted in this birth. Here I am going to mention some of the movies which you must see to actually know life's worth....

1) Its a Wonderful life: Starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, this beautiful movie conveys the eternal truth of being happy in life despite of the unfavorable circumstances. Named as George Balley in the movie, James is a very generous man whose good deeds precedes his reputation in his town. But, on a Christmas eve he looses some money and becomes very depressed and wants to put an end to his life. He is stopped by his guardian angel and the angel makes him realise his importance in this world. This stops him from doing a great mistake and he returns to his normal life. In the course of the movie, a person can feel that even if we have to suffer a lot of pain in life, it might of useful for us to go on living like that for a greater good.

2)The life is beautiful: Starring Roberto benigni, this movie is one of the most elegant love stories ever written. The movie revolves around the struggle of a jewish man, who is living a happy married life until his family was sent to the jewish concentration camp. The efforts of Roberto in this movie to save his son from the cruelities of the concentration camp are laudable. He makes his son believe that all this is a game, so that his son is not afraid of the gruelsome situation. The emotional standards set by this film are very high and I can bet that any person who sees this movie can't stop loving it and will be touched by its passionate portrayal of fatherly love.

3)Kal Ho Naa ho: Starring Shahrukh khan, Saif and Preity, this movie persuades a person to live his life to the fullest despite the opposing circumstances and problems of life. Sharukh plays a person suffering from terminal cancer but still, he tries to bring happiness into lives of others and spread smiles all around him. He ends up improving life of many people around him. The most important lesson we can learn from this movie is that life is full of ups and downs, but the right way to live it is to enjoy each and every moment granted to us. Its a very heart touching movie and a must for Hindi movie lovers.

Who is John Galt?

2006-03-24T18:09:00.000+07:00

As the topic itself suggests, I am devoting this blog to the Novel "Atlas Shrugged" by an all time favorite author Ayn Rand. I have just started to read the novel (completed 1/4th) and I can feel the intensity and passion with which this novel was written. Not to forget that the same author has written "Fountainhead" also. All the characters in the novel have their own panache but they share the same irk of being ambitious. The stolidness of some of the characters like Dagny, Francisco and Rearden leaves me terrified. The portrayal of these people in the novel is so ruthless that it hardly seems real but the author does a great job by blending these characters with the real world in a stunning manner. A few instances in the novel says everything about the characters in the novel. Like, when Dagny Taggart goes ahead with the construction of the 'John Galt Line' using Rearden Metal despite the extreme opposition by the whole nation, it really sets her image as an extremely optimistic, confident and determined person who cannot be broken down with petty criticisms. The portrayal of Francisco carries a flavor of suspicion as his decisions to operate the business are not clearly explained till now. But, one thing is clear that he is the most carefree person in the novel who doesn't care about anything in this world.
The narration of the story is so spellbounding that even after reading 1/4th of the book, it seems as if I have just started and the story is yet to begin. I hope my journey through this book remain as exciting as it is now till I complete it but one thing I desperately want to know is "Who is John Galt"?