World at war

The other day in DC I visited the holocaust museum, I didn't quite realize what I was walking into until I actually started my tour of the museum. I was overwhelmed with a great grief and sorrow and disappointment with the human race. All the attrocities carried out by these people...You just can't say that you carried out your orders, because at a certain point of cruelty your own principles should have stood between the order and you. These attrocities were conducted by people who really believed in what they were doing and actually enjoyed it.

The museum itself has clippings of dead bodies being pushed into large pits like a farm produce gone really bad. I mean these Nazi bastards didn't even have the humanity to put a cloth over these bodies.

May god just bless the souls of all the people who had to die by the hands of the Nazis.

Mankind just seems to disappoint me over and over...under the pretext of religion, under the pretext of ethnic cleansing, under the pretext of race or be it caste! Do we really need these? Why can't we live an honest life? Don't your religions teach you that? And if they dont then I think they don't deserve to be called a religion.

Of late, the war against terrorism and stuff is also primarily a religious war. It's a shame we didn't learn a bit from the holocaust.

If there is any God, I pray to you to put some common sense in all people.

This is my only prayer to God.

Sent from my iPhone

At the smithsonian museum of natural history at Washington DC

Akheer

Woke up today listening to Juggy D's Akheer...

A very beautiful song...it gives a lot of examples about the end and
suggests that u take His/Her (God's) name....

It's almost like a bhajan kirtan type of a song, but it has a very
lovely meaning to it...

We all answer to some God, even if you are an atheist, your God is
knowledge o the belief that there's no God...but there is.... He is in
all of us, we choose to ignore him at times and we tend to think of
him in times of real needs... Our minds are weak and a lot many times
even the strongest person in the world needs support....

God is beautiful... So is life....

Ok shuffle played an iron maiden song right after this...gotto go and
change the music to the mood

Sent from my iPhone

The scientist

So here I am in a bedroom at a friends house all alone as I wake up...
S is out of town do I decided to drive up to a friends place in DC for
the vacations..

So as I woke up with the sun zoning on my face through the window on a
cold day after Christmas I put the iPod on shuffle and it selects
coldplays the scientist.

This song is such a lovely song...just thought I'd capture the
moment....

Merry Christmas.

Sent from my iPhone

Love

Ever have that feeling? Its hard to describe it, its even difficult when you miss it. What is it exactly? 

I mean waking up to the smile of the person

going home and to be greeted by a hug...

calling someone up when you know the storm just hit your area.. 

yeah .. it is these things.. but its a lot more than this. its not the stuff that we regularly see in tv's or movies or read about in stories. Its just a totally bizarre feeling. 

Its like, even if there are two immiscible liquids and they are poured down a tube and they somehow mix up get on with the flow, and the flow is this smooth streaming of joy, pleasure, peace, calm, care, laughter, smiles, teardrops, twinkle in the eye moments,secret yet public moments where no-one really understands what you just shared with her and no one will really even care about it but the two of you. 

Love's a tough cookie, I may sound a little romantic here, but the point is .. its our anniversary and s is out.. so sometimes its alright to miss someone and pine for em.

Friends / family?

I feel so close to my friends....a lovely homemade dinner with friends
at the table is as good as I could get to a thanksgiving dinner with
family...

When family is so far that they can be reached just through a
phonecall....your friends are ur family....I'm not talking about just
s I'm talking about everyone here... Ma, brother, cousins,
uncles....they all get replaced by ur friends to give and share love
and moments to remember

Thank you god for such good friends ....

Sent from my iPhone

Life is beautiful

Been listening to a lot of nice Hindi songs lately, and boy do they
make you wanna croon along.

Today I saw an acapella contest on NBC and it made me wanna look up
acapella on YouTube. There are a whole lot of talented people on
YouTube.

Was trying to figure out my wordpress email address the other day...
Took me a long time to find it. But I'm back to posting blogs through
emails.

Since s is back at her home in india, I thought I'd be on a salad
diet... But people have been extra nice to me!!! My boss gave me a
loaf of pecan cake, me neighbors invited me for dinner once, and a
friend who graduated packed me a days meal before she packed and left.

So far,
exercise = 0 diet = 0 weight loss = 0 weight gain = 2

But it's all good, it's the season!!! Lifes good!

Sent from my iPhone

Kit-Kat

Umm .. love the kit-kat commercial which shows people snap a bar and break it into 2 and take a bite with the sounds of all three acts.

On other thoughts. started watching Man vs. Food... awesome series. that guy can kill himself eating so much food. but i love the food they show. and surprisingly it makes me full.

Netflix rocks. Grooveshark rocks. Best buy rocks. Black Friday does not.

Oh btw s, I doubt that you will read this. but in case you had, you would have know you were getting a surprise tomorrow.

Windows 7 Help needed

I have a program that is a 32 bit application. I have Windows 7 Professional 64bit OS installed on my PC.

My PC hardware is not compatible for Virtual Windows XP mode in Win7.

My option is:

- Dual boot windows 7 and windows xp. (I have original Windows Xp cd) But how do i do this?

I need to dual boot Windows Xp with Windpow 7 (where Windows 7 is already installed)

Help please!!!!

Social engineering

With the onsite of the internet and the social interface of the
Internet a new trend seems to be emerging. In the days long before the
Internet and when Prince was just going from Prince to TAFKAP and a
symbol, peoples social needs were completely different. It was about
the Nike Air shoes that everyone wanted and it was about the Party
that everyone would be going to. Peoples social needs were
materialistic and they were a commodity that actually had a value.

The regular junta post Internet period now is completely different.
Social status is not based on who has the Nike air shoes or who went
to the pink Floyd concert or which parties u attend. On the contrary
social status is based on who is the first one to get on the band
wagon of anythig new in the Internet.

Email was long available to everyone through yahoo and hotmail and USA.net
and whole other services. Then came in gmail with invites to gmail.
Everyone I knew back in 2002-2003 wanted to get into gmail. Then came
facebook, privy at first just to college kids and then opened up to
everyone. And now comes Twitter withthe retweet button, available to
some but not everyone. There's a reason why these things are in beta
mode. So that people could try it out before and give some kinda
feedback, utterly importantone that I's. Boy if I get one of these
requests it could drive me nuts in half a day.

Later now, time to sleep.

Spread peace and love!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Collective Soul - Shine

Oh, Heaven let your light shine down. 

I must admit, this song is just awesome. Its such a perfect song for my Sunday morning. Just had my coffee on this beautiful Fall Sunday Morning. Sunlight coming in through the windows around me, beautiful music playing and a warm coffee. This is just so perfect!

Back to my post from yesterday, isnt this heaven on earth or what?

Planning to do some laundry today, then visit Walmart to get some winter supplies (read lip-balm). Would also be visiting Barnes and Nobles. Ive been wanting to getTime or Newsweek subscription, will check that out... Next stop would be the local library for some cd's with piano music in em. I heard Journey by Michael Montes' and so has anyone who has watched tv in the last year, its the Canon EOS commercial where life starts with a baby walking in a backyard and goes on to a guy playing football as a series of pictures not related. This piece was so amazing that now I have this hunger to listen to more piano music. So I will search the library for some piano music.

Spread peace n love.

Simple things in life

Today I saw two different people going to two different places and
declaring these different places as "heaven on earth"... To both these
friends of mine I wanted to say nah uh huh I have seen heaven on earth
and it's at a completely different location altogether.

So I sat down and thought to myself, what was it that made me feel
taut this place where I stood there that day made it a better
candidate for the heaven on earth title.

The answer is simply in our minds. When we are at peace with our mind,
oblivious to the world around us, just awed by something so simple in
life as nature itself to such an extent that we forget all our wordly
worries, take a deep breath loosen up he body and just enjoy the
moment, that is heaven on earth.

So to all my friends out there, sometimes it's just important to
ignore our worley worries, uncomplicate our life and just unwind.

:) spread peace and love

Sent from my iPhone

Testing blog on both

I was recently named manager of the department of redundant managers
department...or something to that effort.

Well since I like some o the features of wordpress and some other
features of blogger.... I decided to post simultaneously using post
via email feature. :) redundant^3 I guess.. Bub still pretttty awesome.

So this here is the test for both together...

Http://Shailen.blogspot.com
Http://Shailen.wordpress.com

Now to check if it works

Moment of Surrender

Awesomely beautiful U2 song. Feels even awesome to listen to this song live.

:) Good Night

u2 360

So, S n I were finally able to accomplish one of my dreams :) (grinning from ear to ear). Yesss!! I went to a U2 concert. A real live U2 Concert!!!!

Bono and Edge and Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton are just awesome entertainers!!! I mean the whole show was just so awesome! They had a central screen that was just awesome! And Bono was just awesome.

So there you go. I was at the U2 360 ° concert at Raleigh. And it was awesome.

Whoa... 2 posts in a row

So, Im back! Today is Monday, its also feast day at home. S goes tomorrow morning, so we cook for 3 days. Until last semester, it was food cooked for 5 days, now its just 3 days.

We cooked.. shrimp in hot curry, some awesome mozzarella sticks, some crab cakes, pulao rice and some curd curry. Wow. I just had a Guinness with mozzarella sticks. Watching House. S was really excited about House but does not like the new house in the asylum.

Next on my list of goals:

-Bungee Jumping

-Para trooping

-Hosting a Podcast on Indian Songs

-Get my certification

-Support a good cause and propagate it.

-Get back to studying English. (I really think English is an awesome language, it has the complexities you need, its universal, its easy and its highly adaptable)

More to come.

Yalo

So... Its been a crazy long time since I had any updates. Rather since I wrote something. Well abot a month and a half ago, I had my in-laws visiting me for about 2 months. I guess I wrote something about them. And if not, A-town, take note, you are officially on my not-so-cool-cities list. I had a break in.. my poor baby of a car had a break-in...:(. Right I cant let go off it that easily.

Then right after this was done, we started looking out for used cars for S. That was a horrible experience. Cash for Clunkers.. schmunkers... all those lucky dogs on the streets with horrible cars were able to get the governments cash for new cars. What that did to the industry was a catastrophic nightmare. The sharks at the dealers were eying those lucky dogs. People like me n S who were out there trying to get a great deal on a used car, which on a normal business platform was not a big deal, were left high and dry.. literally .. dry.. (at this one dealer were all --can you believe it... ALL salesmen were busy dealing with customers for new cars!! .. no one could even offer us water after we checked out cars out in their lot under scorching heat of the oh so pretty sun). Boy do I digress. But seriously, any person, who had the fortune of visiting that car dealer on that day, would've left the place thinking: "uh .. what recession?".

Anyways, back to the reason why I've been so busy, now as if the car wasnt such a big issue, our stupid apartment community had to hike the rate on us. Her words "This place is oh-so-effing charming that you will have to cough up the additional amount I say or else leave!". So then the second mission we had was to find an apartment that we like, and that fits our budget. So, car and Apartment, no big deal. We kinda nailed it on the last weekend that we had available. But it was a harrowing experience.

So now finally after a long long time I have some free time in front of a pc and actually got the willpower to post something. I mean there are countless posts that are saved as drafts... occasionally I have the urge to write about something and then when I do start to write, the passion just fizzles. The point looks moot. The effort seems wasted. The post looks ... just that... a post. And it is, rightfully so, meant to be just that, a post. Its not that the world cares about what I feel about the shenanigans of the INC and Mr. Tharoor. Or for that matter, Obama's health care plan. Boy a couple of sentences back that was a whole load of commas for nothing.

So here goes... my list of what Ive been upto:

Movies watched: District 9, Inglorious Basterds, The "umpteenth" final destination, Julie and Julia, He's just not that into you, Sunshine Cleaning, Fast and Furious 4th, GI Joe, Transformers 2, Haunting in Connecticut, Kaminey and some more that I dont even remember.

Books read: Zilch... although I have bought "The Hobbit" I plan to start off with this one and then move on to the LOTR series, that will definitely buy me some time.

Drinks Had: Miller Lite, Guinness on the Draft, Blue Mojito, Awesome Mango and Berry Flavored Iced Tea at the Ruby Tuesday, Tequila, Jack and Coke, Baileys, Heineken.

Life pretty much goes on. Had some great weekends with some friends.

Oh btw, Id be fulfilling one of my dreams. Im going to U2's concert!!! Looking fwd to Oct 3rd.

Im thinking of a something bizarre here, and I guess I always get these ideas when Im having a hot shower. Maybe it's the writing pad that evolves during a bath, due to the vapours forming on the glass of the shower or what Im not sure of. But here it goes.

 

The other day, I was driving fromWahsington DC to our home in North Carolina. The drive was about 7 hours and we started at about 4 during peak traffic hour. So here I was, stuck on a road with 3 lanes and traffic that's moving but about 30 mph slower than the recommended speed limit. I had to be home before 12 and was determined about it.

 

So in order to be faster, and not to get stuck in the slowest lane, I had to come up with a way to see if I am actually driving faster or not. Now my wife, S, constantly kept reminding me chaos theory. About how we would always get stuck in the slowest lane all the time. But I had to defy her. And defied her I did.

 

Heres my genius of an idea: I set markers or identifiers for me at the starting point of the discussion. I had a blue saab and a white chevy in the lanes besides me. So I figured out, I can play it this way, I will cut…change lanes only when the blue saab and white chevy are behind me in that lane or any other lane. Once I built a good amount of difference with those two that way, I then decided to change my markers, got a red buick and a town and country besides me now. Same logic applied again.

I kept on doing this till I think I got to make some leeway out of the traffic. By the time the traffic was cleared, I had the blue saab again closer to me but the white chevy and the new markers were all a couple of cars behind me.

 

So by driving a little dangerously I was able to devise a new way to beat the traffic. I am not sure if this logic or algorithm exists in the math world, but I would definitely like to dig deeper into it to see if there is anything that formulates this logic. The logic? In an unstable environment, set a reference point to yourself to measure the relative distance and realign over time to reset the reference point.

 

When I talked to S about this, she scoffed and told me that next time she is gonna put a timer in the shower.

 

PS: once the traffic was gone, the white chevy beat me again, but that's because he decided to drive faster than the speed limit + 10 rule. So all this could be futile.

Sent from my iPhone

Listening to U2- Stuck in a Moment.

And followed by John Mayer - Waiting on the world to change.

Beautiful saturday afternoon this is, cool breeze on me and the comfort of my couch and some nice music. Getting some good rest on the weekend.

Zoom zoom?

Last night was hectic... I was with her and she refused to turn on at
my will!!! I tried my best, coaxed, pleaded, prayed, even turned the
lights off...but she was not willing. I then thought I'll try my luck
and play with her stuff under the hood...

That's right my car was not turning on.... The battery had completely
drained out...we tried jump start but after that it won't start on
it's own...

I finally called roadside assistance ... Mazda's RA was really
good...a guy came tried jump starting and then towed it for free to
the nearest dealer and now they are working on it ...

Fingers crossed knocking on wood let's hope things will be fine

Sent from my iPhone

Diet it is

So I finally got around to my diet again!!! Like I had said before I
was not gonna give up on my health so easily, so when I started seeing
how my friends are on diets and how they are trying to take control of
their weight, I decided to get on the same diet plan.

My friends are on thisdier plan that is called the GM diet. Now I had
heard it was a very difficult diet to follow, but I still decided to
brave it and get on it.

I didn't realize what I was getting into until now!!! I'm on my 3rd
day of this diet...the first day was so bad. It's surprising how even
though I was eating more than I regularly eat on the weekdays, I had
these cravings for chips, chocolate, coffee, tea and biscuit....

Believe me I don't even have coffee on a regular basis and here I was
craving for it. I just had the cravings for spicy food and stuff like
that. I convinced myself somehow that the potato next day would be
awesome... I finished that little thing in like 10 mins and there I
was ... Craving for some taste...That's what it was craving for
taste!!! I was craving to taste these things!

Well I'm on day 3 and each day I am giving myself some incentive in
the form of next days menu. But now I have to look at day 5 since day
4 is all bananas and milk.... Blchhhh I don't like bland mill at
all.... So help me God!!!!!

Btw I have lost 3lbs so far...

Sent from my iPhone

Laloo/Sonia/Mulayam/Rabri/Pawar???

Today I found myself asking this question. Who is standing for elections in my hometown? And that brought me to my next question. Why dont I know much about the elections in India? And then followed the saga of questions...

How many of us have never cared about the elections? Why was I so bothered and mattered with the American Elections but not so much concerned about the one thats going in my own country? How have I exercised my right to vote and rightfully so? Why do we just blindly say that I support the Congress or I support the Sena or I support the BJP and so no matter what I'll vote for their candidate?

I have done exactly that in the last 2 times I have voted. I didnt care who the candidate was, I looked at the party and voted. Actually since the time I have been eligible to vote, I have voted 2 times out of 3. First time I voted for a young independent educated candidate who I thought is the glimpse of the future of politics in the country. I was greatly wrong. I can see that poor kid would not have survived the Indian Politic Scenario now. He would not have been able to achieve one bit of the promises he had made. But, and a very strong But, he was educated, idealistic, had the right idea, the right direction and he personified what that one half of me that is hidden inside would have done. Taken a stand and acted on the sad state of affairs in the country. he had the courage to do so. And for that I voted for him. I dont remember his name now, and I'm not sure if he is still in the politic scenario, and even if he is, I am definitely not sure whether his determination and strongwill would not succumbed to the political aspect of the wrong in Indian government. The second time, taking a cue from the failure of my first vote, I decided to vote for a party, thereby increasing the chances of my vote actually causing a change. My vote did cause the change. The party that I voted for did win. Or rather the candidate that represented the party that I felt had the matching ideals to my demands won.

Any change? Nope. Nada. Zilch. Life stayed the same. It didnt matter whether it was an orange flag besides the tricolor or whether it was congress flag or whether it was the blue flag. Government still performed the same.

The last elections I wasnt even in India. And I followed that closely trying to urge my mother to vote for the right party. But she is of the older generation, and easily convinced by some of the political agenda around.

Why did I care which party she voted for? What did it matter? Indian elections are really nothing but about a handful few that rule the party that rolls out their plans to attack certain issues, which never even come up to the table for discussion once the party wins. The Indian elections are not where I have a choice in saying who would be my Prime Minister. or who would be my President. Because I have no authority on selecting either. Absolutely none whatsoever. The Prime Minister is appointed by the party that wins the majority of the votes. The President is appointed by an election in the Parliament.

The main reason of my post for today is this. To all fellow Indians who have the opportunity to vote and elect their representative. Please research each candidate thoroughly. Dont vote because the candidate belongs to your party of choice. Vote because the candidate is absolutely the best choice for the development of your constituency.

For more information go to:
Googles tool to your constituency:
http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/
ADR's website to checkout more info about your candidate:
http://www.nationalelectionwatch.org/
Phone Number to dial to know more about your candidates:
1-800-110-440
or even better... volunteer to work for ADR or any such organization that educates people.
and another good thing you can do... spread the word.

Be wise!

Another day

Off lately days fly bye like rockets. Work has been exciting,
challenging and fun. But it's taking a toll on my plans to be healthy.
So I drove to the YMCA closest to my home, there were at least 80 cars
in the lot. That's a lot of people working hard to be healthy. Soon
enough some day I'll be swimming too....

Till then I'll leave it to the video at home.

I'm getting episodes of the wonder years for the iPod. I was smitten
by Winnie and used to think Kevin was a lucky jerk.

Next project is to get Cheers, I haven't seen any episode of this
series but knowing that Becker was in it I think I might like it.

Friday is around the corner...

Benefits of working from home

Season 5

Lost season 5 starts now, and they had a well explained introduction to the whole series...

Man am I excited. More to come.

Of New Years and Resolutions!!!

So the vacation period was a blast!!! S was home for three weeks and she was on a roll...  we had a christmas party and then had a great new years eve. Then there was the week off at Hilton Head, SC where we were the youngest vacationers at this time of the year. Just being able to relax throughout the day an going to the Spa and steam was awesome... the relaxation lounge really worked...it was simply awesome... 

Today was a long day!! getting back to work after a year is a big deal!!!( I was on vacation starting from new years eve :P :D) but I was able to work it out... hopefully by tomorrow the frame of mind sets in... 

Time for Dinner... 

Happy New Year

Alright!!! 2009 is finally here. Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

Hopefully its only gonna get better from here on!

Had a blast in Uptown Charlotte and now at friends. Will update in detail soon.