Travel

Doesnt travel bring out the best and or the worst of people out? I was recently travelling to a city I had never been to before. Its all under wraps :D. But I think there is no better art than the expressions that people have.

Saw a kid, poor little boy, scared to death. First flight experience. :)
Saw an old lady, lost in between time (read as decades and modern life) walking down the street.
Saw a cute asian girl notice me take pictures of flowers and came forth to better align her flowers on her stall for me to get a good snap.
Saw anxiety on person.
Saw a kid with autism making a lot excited noise in being able to see a plane up close. Unfortunately his grandfather wasnt up for understanding his excitement and pacifying him. God Bless.
Saw a whole bunch of military/Army/ROTC kids going back to their hometowns after a week long exercise. Making new friends at the last minute, sharing information, beer, friendships formed with a common bond and a week.
Met an old colleague, shared coffee and some excitement.
Saw a father suggest his son to kill time by sitting in a phone booth, thought that was fun, Kids response... Can I also call someone? :)
Saw a daughter in her mid 40s taking her mom in her mid 60's to a town monument and saw how they rapidly talked and shared their mother daughter bond.

Saw so many people in one place it was just too nostalgic.

Sometimes I think why do we need art? Art I believe is a medium to express. But if you turn so cold hearted that you can't feel feelings, then art just wont be for you.

New Blogger Template Designer!

Finally! this is really a great thing! wonder what took so long. but this is what I have been wanting. Thanks El Goog!

All this while I did get to learn some CSS and html and template designing. But this is good.

Weekend

Just watched braveheart for the first time in my life. Good movie,
fighting for freedom with a zeal that you just cannot develop in one
day!

Also went to the Charlotte NASCAR hall of fame, it doesn't open for
another 10 days but we got tickets to sneak peek soft opening, it was
really a good experience.

"you can overcome anything in the world but fate" - Richard Petty!!
This is a good lesson of life.

And thencooked food at home watched angels and demons and bravehert....

Now for some reason I just cannot get myself to sleep!!!

Sent from my iPhone

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.

Ghajini

Saw Ghajini today, a very well made movie. It's a scene by scene
replica if it's Tamil namesake which I had seen by reading the sub
titles. But Aamir's and Asin's acting is really awesome. For a
newcomer or upcoming actor Asin hit the right emotions with perfect
timings, Aamir's acting is as usual perfect to the T.

There is great attention to each detail in the movie. And though the
movie is inspired by Memento, which I had seen 2-3 years back, is very
well Indianized and is pretty cool actually here.

Good movie overall

Sent from my iPhone

Part 4

One more shot

Part 3

This one reads "Naughty"

Tree part 2

This stocking reads "Santa I can explain"

Our Xmas tree part 1

The "un"Holy Wars

Many a thing has been said about the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Many a things have been done after that. People have reacted to it in the best possible manner they deemed. Some came out with profanity, some came out with fear and while others including me expressed anger. 

S kept on reminding, we are not there, what right do we have to say anything? I kept on saying, it doesn't matter where I am, there are some things that are so wrong at the core root that they need to be addressed.

What do I mean by wrong to the core? Fight over religion. That is wrong. I don't think any religion preaches violence. No religion can do that, its the wrong misguided uninformed interpretation that is wrong. This misinterpretation of religion is abused by some and absolved by some. This is wrong.There are a lot of things that are correlated to this but I dont think I need to delve into something thats being anlyzed a million ways already. There is no right analysis to why this happened.

But I will say my final two words and keep it simple. If you remove discrimination based on race, sex, caste, religion, color, ethnicity, physical attributes, diseases and all other man made measuring tools and the person right besides you is nothing a but a human being, Just the same as you, a living breathing human being. So respect them the same way you would respect yourself and life can move on.

Ah! Google

And lo! they added themes in gmail. So, you may say whats the big deal with themes? Well, I had the tree theme, and it changes based on the weather. Its rainy outside today and its rainy on my gmail. If its sunshine, its sunshine on the theme. Its pretty impressive.

Good job guys.

My blog gets famous!

Students in Appstate are reimplementing my blog website using Zope! WOW

Update:
I didn't know when S posted this post. It's just one student and that hapens to be none other than S. Sick, S, really slick , think I must change my pwd

Changes

And I was able to make some changes to my new blog as well. One the label cloud, thanks phydeaux3 the other the blockquote. I liked the blockquote that I had in my old blog template

this is how my new blockquote looks like. see its Likable.

At least I like it. Good things.
Time to sleep. Weekend over.

S for Swimmer

When I was a kid, I used to go to the public swimming pool in our city. There we used to have two sections, Non-Swimmers and Swimmers. The Non-Swimmers Section was 5 ft deep max, small, crowded, lots of irritating kids grabbing you as they swim with their floats on. The Swimmers section on the other hand, started with 7 ft deep water and went to 21 feet deep, was huge, less crowded, with 3 levels of diving boards, a side jump board, it was the perfect heaven for a prankster kid like me.

But there was one little deewar ka wall between the Swimmers Section and Me. The S (- for Swimmer), with a round sun like circle around the S, stamp on my swimming pass was missing. I was the Amul Chocolate ad in terms of swimming. Ready to Swim but not fit to be in the Swimmers Section.

Well it so happens that to get the awesomest of the awesome stamp on pass, I would have to lap 10 laps of this huge, uncrowded section. Thats 10 50 meter laps, I dont know about you, but a kid in the 4th - 6th grade age, that was a lot for me. So there I was, sulking in the 5 ft deep Non-Swimmers Section. Oh in case you think why couldnt I just sneak in the other side, I tried that a couple of times, but there was a jerk of an instructor who knew I wasnt supposed to be there. That could be another post in itself.

Well, I figured a trick to all this, I let my membership end and didnt renew it for a month. And then I went back for a new membership. What that did towards me getting the awesomest of the awesome S stamp was that for a new membership you just needed to lap 2 laps around the huge pool and lo! you are a swimmer. So I did just that. And as a sweet payback, it was the khadoos instructor who had to approve that S on my new pass.

Well, if I had some persistance, today I wouldnt have been beaten to death when I tried to lap 22 laps around a similar 50 meter pool. It was like I could almost see that instructor laughing at me as I was on my own personal victory lap number 22, struggling to keep my head above water, and splashing water just like two hippos mating in the water. But I did it. I lapped not once but twice the entire course to get the S- for swimmers stamp on my pass. about 10- 15 years late, but I did it. In you face mr. khadoos rayban instructor. I am a swimmer today. Twice officiated.

GCOMWNTBCWWG

That would now be the tag that I would be using for a personal mission.

Gaining control over my weight, not to be confused with weight gain.

I am a member of this website sparkpeople.com which provides tools to control your weight. I am loving it so far. Next week should see a lot of improvement in me and hopefully that elusive 200 lb mark would for once and ever be achieved and maintained. So there you have it. Next time you see that tag, this is what it means.

In search of a car

My new thing since monday has been to search for a car. Well we need the 2nd car to help the commute for S, so the 2nd car has to be a cheap car that I can drive for the 4 mile commute to work and pass on the better car to S while she commutes the longer distance over the weekend. It makes sense since the better car would have zero chances of a breakdown in the middle of redneck no-where. 

So here we go, looking for a used car. 

Time to sleep.

Congratulations America!

CA M.R. Venkatesh

My friend saw this video and asked me to take a look at it. Its a whole one hour long video where Mr. M.R. Venkatesh (let me call him CA) talks about "Globalization/Globalisation" (shoot even Mozilla is recommending the American spelling).

His take on it is this: the US debt is huge (nowadays a known fact) but the US is a consuming economy and Asian economies are Saving economies. He mentions some really cool facts such as the fact that on a average every 1 unit of currency earned by an Asian and hence the Asian governments, they save about 20% of it. Whereas every $1 earned by the US, it spends $1.07.

He got almost everything right, and he totally convinced me with his agenda except for his last observation. With a Swadeshi movement background and a India bias that we as Indians always have to an extent, he mentions, that the Indian economy will save because of the Indian housewife.

Sir, times are-a-changing, the Indian wife exists, but in rural India, the cities portrait a different view. Independent woman, single moms, etc are all concepts that you can greatly see in the cities of India. But thats not my point. It is not the institution of family that will save an economy. It is the importance of the domestic market that relies on the domestic product at the same time exporting some product out.

That will save economies. The 20th century to an extent saw some biased economies of scale, but the truth was one commodity was produced in one nation and traded for a different commodity with another nation. But slowly that has changed. UK, is about 80 - 95 % reliant on imports for all needs and necessities. This is where you start going wrong. Service Industry in India, Manufacturing Unit in China, Sales unit in US, Banking Unit in UK. Do you see something wrong here? We are headed in a direction where if you want to do a particular type of job you may want to change the country you live in. So if China produces and US buys, what does US do to provide money to buy what China sells?

I feel that its complicated, yet, at the cost of sounding conservative, I feel, that each nation should have its balance of jobs. Each nation should have its riches and its poor. And the world will have Rich and Poor economies. Because that is the balance. If we dont have extremes and are all at par, there wont be any motivation, innovation, excellence, aspiration,determination and all such -ations. No nation is by choice a poor or a rich nation, each nation that understands the rules, plays the game, plays it smart and excels will be a rich nation. And boy I can start off bashing any Indian with an Indian-Pride to a point that he admits, we as a nation havent yet figured it out. Well, enough of this, I need to get to my sleep. But if you have time and want to listen to some facts, watch his video. Do keep an open mind and dont be biased in a total agreement/disagreement attitude.

I do get a lot of time over the weekends.

Seinfeld

So what do you do when you get your hour back? So I dig up my collection of Seinfeld and watch a couple of episodes. Its always a great way to relax. soothing .. relaxing .. sleeping .. yah .. nothing like the weekend.

Its closer!!

CNN has an election calculator, this is how I feel its going to look like.  There are some states here that the calculator will not allow me to change the degree by which a candidate will win, For eg. NC will be a close call, it would be a democratic win, even though my picture says republican, but thats becasue i feel it would be close in NC. The youth in the city settings of NC will elect BO, but the rural settings of NC will still vie for JM, the surprising statistics here is that the number of youth in the cities going to vote is almost equal to the rest of the population in the state. Thats the clincher. 

I dont mind biting my words, later on if BO loses. And thats kind of explained in previous post. But, JM is doing a hell lot of good job saying what the other candidate does not do well, but not saying what he will do.

I feel thats wrong. The republican campaign is all about how Barack Obama is not the right candidate, but they fail to say what they will do to change the current situation. 

Yes you Mr. Senator John McCain, how do you suggest that with your experience you will calm the storm? What is your plan? What are you planning to do? Besides saying that BO is not tested? What are you talking about, have you previously been the president before? I didnt think so. You are just the same, untested.

Get a plan, show how you can change the situation, show what you can do for the poor, show how you can help the situation. Thats what people need to know. Not that Barack Obama is untested.

You may ask why am I so fired up? Well cause, I have a family to support, I have a job to keep, I cant be at peace in this economic situation and keep my bank account in a bank that is already merging with a second bank. 

I remember 2 months back I read, that the economy has not yet hit rock bottom, that one big major bank will close, and then things will stabilize. Well, 5-6 banks have closed. 5-6 banks around the world have government help. 1 economy (Iceland) crashed. 5-6 governments across the world are pumping money in the banks, reducing rates and god knows what else. Wheres the bottom to all this? When do you say we have hit the bottom, and from here on no matter what happens this stays, and we can just improve?

Thats why I'm so fired up. I dont think this one man can change the world, for that matter the US. But then the others have all huddled up and been doing the same since the last 8 years, so definitely change is needed and will be accepted. 

Testing blogger through a 3rd party app

Dunno how this'll work. So here goes nothing.

Time to sleep

Later

Time flies

S was here for 4 days. Ok, for those not in the loop, S is currently studying, so she has to stay away from home. Thankfully this is'nt as bad as our previous days, when I was studying and S chakki pissoing in UK as an IT professional. Its just 90 miles but it takes a whole 2 hours (I drive very safely ... lol S this is for you), actually the roads leading to Boone are not a freeway but an internal state highway type cos the place she stays at is holed up in the mountains and the closest "freeway"-ish road is the "Blue Ridge Parkway".

So S was here for 4 days, and time just flew. We "shopped" at P.F. Chang's ... so we had leftovers and S wanted a carry bag and not the P.F. Chang's version of a Dog-Bag. And the waiter comes back with the carry bag and says "Thank you for shopping at P.F. Chang's" that did tickle my bone all the way back home. Then I came home earlier the next day to work from home, and ironically, after S's nice beauty trip, when we got stuck in traffic, I took a shortcut through my Office at 5:40 in the evening...  Then we met our friends played a couple of rounds of carrom the one game where S and I are almost cut throat competing against each other almost every time. Saturday saw me running errands, laundry ,car wash, eating fried fish and fish curry, eating more fish, watching movies, etc, you know the usual errands.

Btw I got X-men and X-men 2 for a steal deal, it was fun to watch the movie in the surround sound on my cool TV which btw is begging for a PS-3.  Just for the Blu-ray feature. Honestly. God-Promise. 

Sunday was funny cos I chopped all the vegetables, S cooked em we ate it. Sat down and then something funny happened, a spyware somehow managed to get into my system and scare the shit out me n S. Then it was an amazing race kinda thing where I had to reinstall the OS on the machine before S had to leave. We checked the clock and kept on loading drivers after drivers. Finally S had to install Office and the anti virus on her ride back to the mountains. Yup there are people kind of the computer scientists type that live in the mountains.

The whole point of this exercise was to identify how 96 hours flew so fast.

Whats music got to do with all this? I was able to develop a likening to the music of Yuvraaj.  Cant help it, theres not much out there to listen to, so I am now listening to my favorite song, "Tu Meri Dost Hain" my second favorite song is "Tu Muskura" but theres a couple of notes there that I wish didnt not change their pitch and kinda went in the tempo, but I dont even know if this sentance that I just wrote makes any sense. So what the heck, beggers cant be chosers. Dying to find some good music. Thats it. 

Yess!!!!

And finally I have got something that I have always wanted in Blogger. I wanted to be able to post a post but in the future. Previously when I changed the date for something in the future, it justed published the post with the future date today. But now its Scheduling posts. Maybe it's been here for a long while, but I just thad the use for it today and there you go...they fixed it...

Dont know if I will ever have the need for it again or not, but Im glad to know they have this feature.

Taxes vs Jobs

Being in the US, during an election year, you end up following the elections. No matter what you do, how far you try to run away from it, it will still be around the corner. TV, Internet, Newspapers, Campaigns and now even Apps on your Iphone, the election is covered in all media, all languages, all races and all modes of life.

The other day, I was cooking my chicken curry and this campaign supporter knocked on my door. So while I smelled all so makahani I had to explain him that no matter which sides I pick, I wont be able to vote. But that still wont prevent me from blogging. I have decided to take the elections in my blog and talk about it through these on going weeks.

First off, I'm going to make it very clear, that these views are solely my views and my opinions. If I offend you, you can click the next blog page and go on with you life, you dont need to be transfixed to this blog or post and make it a personal issue. Now my thoughts may be wrong, but no one can ever be always right and with that I post them here. Next, my opinions and views do not reflect upon my employee and so dont go about saying he said that and so she said this.. nyah nyah.

Alright so that cleared, I didnt really follow the debate that just happened, I had much better things to do. I knew there was a debate and so I rented "Iron-Man" and I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 hours. I can always read about the debate in the next days news. They will sift through what I need to know. But at the end of the movie (and actually after I watched all the speacial features and deleted scenes and a replay of the cool Iron-Man get some bad guys kickass in Gulmir scene.. boy do I digress) I switched back to TV and caught a reporter's precis which said this.

Obama was doing great and gave an allround performance and McCain's play was the increase in taxes and how he kept on circling back to the higher taxes.

Now I, being an Indian on an American Job, can give you the most unbiased opinion about this. Let me expalin: The Republican party, when it wins, supports the companies that are pro offshoring of jobs. The Democratic party (I will digress here, in India, a call of democracy is to be rebelious and non-conservative and nonconformistic which is exactly opposite of what it means here...fyi) being the conservative party will fight back and find ways to keep jobs back here. And heres my 2-cents(80 paise, .8 Rs) worth with this basic approach:

Republican: Yay! more jobs out means strengthening other economies like India and thus helping my country and my people.
Democratic: My job here, with more jobs here, my investment in my Masters Degree pays off.

Now I am not selfish so I dont want it to look all about me. But think of it, if this election were to be running in India right now (and boy would life have been easier, what with just 2 parties to chose from) I would think of what here is right for the country? What would eventually benefit my nation and thus me? Would Increasing the taxes on those whose salaries are in six digits make any difference to me? The common man? Nope. But what if you keep more jobs in the country, provide employment to more people than ever before? What those tax hikes affect me? take ca guess again? Nope! So for my country Ill let those higher taxes roll and welcome those job increases.

With that said, it wont be surprising to you that I am supporting the Democratic government this time (at least that is :).. ) around just so they can turn the tables a bit and make it shine here within the US instead of out .

More to come on the elections...

Fix you

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home,
And ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you,

It goes on, actually I was trying to find the song in the CSI-NY teaser on CBS. Its killing me to be able to hum it but not be able to know it. And then I gave up to listen to one of my favorite CP songs, thought I'd share it out.

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind

This weekend I had some time to watch a movie and I thought I should watch this movie that was so much in the news when it was released. Jim Carrey has always been my favorite hero, but after some time, his theatrics were just so similar to me that my loyalty to him was wearing. And then I just didnt watch some of his great movies, I havent yet watched "The Cable Guy" as well and I think my next movie might as well be that. But this movie isnt about Jim Carrey at all. Yeah he's acted well in it, but this movie is about it's story and love.

Many have written reviews where they say that this movie brought back their belief in love. Its so cool to see that they erased themselves from their lives, yet they got back. And this time around, they decided to change what they did wrong.

I loved the character of Clementine played by Kate Winslet the most. Random, intellectual, impulsive... Just complements the boring character of Joel...The Director also introduced the other characters in such a nice manner so as to reason out the ending. None in the cast was wasted, or redundant, all just made so much sense.

Its a must watch. But again, some may like the movie, some may feel that the concpets used are too weird to get across the point that they are trying to make. But hey its a movie, a story.

Change

I had been trying to do this for long... and its finally been done. I was so out of touch with the blog template I had in place... I thought I had to get it fixed and now I was bored of working out the css n the whole stuff that I somehow had time to play with while working on my Masters projects. huh.. 

Anyways... so i *upgraded*? my template and now am using the in house template tools.....

keeping it easy for me ... 

oh btw ..I been listening to whole load of oasis today...

Stop crying your heart out

It took me some time to find this song in my collection after a long long time...

the perfect song to mope about... on a rainy saturday afternoon while you sip your coffee and try to just forget about everything and just enjoy the moment।

sung by Oasis। Look it up if you know what I just meant in the line above.

Ayo....

So a few months back while checking my gmail ... I finally started paying attention to the lil ticker bar on the top in your inbox that provides links based off of what you want to see and the context in your email... 

A long time back people were scared that someone or some software can scan your private emails and then use them best against you... that seems to be a note of the past now....

Back to the main topic, the lil ticker bar, I know google has a word for it, aha .. Web Clip. This thing provides some light entertainment to your mail. I like to see what the word of the day is or like to see what wired.com or engadget.com write... (those sites were/are my favorite since the iphone 3g days). 

But today my topic aint about the Webclip bar solely. Its about what I feel is happening around me.... First the hype about the Iphone 3g... its a pretty cool gadget I must say.. :D... ok but the real point is.. I am writing this blog using a chrome browser and its a pain to use the chrome browser for blogger.com. Can you believe it? Googles browser does not work fine for its own products.... The font selector never works, you gotta highlight the text and then change the font.... no thats not the point of this post as well...

Its about what is happening around us.. I know I said this before as well... Heres whats happening... theres hype about google chrome, we jump right in, theres hype about Apple and their iphones and we jump right in ... we as a consumer buy in to anything and everything thats out there to get us... does it improve our life? well to some extent yes... but was it needed??? and to that question you may have various answers....

When me n S go out shopping Im the one that usually caves in easily .. Im the one that is the ideal retailers dream customer.. the credit card company's dream cow.. but I have my own self protecting device... i ask myself the question do I absolutely need the stuff right away? if the answer... is no .. which it mostly is .. then i put it on my list of things to buy the next time I visit the store .. and you know what? next time around .. I dont even feel the urge to buy that stuff.. If i do .. then I would buy it .. but not otherwise.... 

Thats my rambling for the day .. my next serious question is .. is continuing this post further on really worth giving up on my sleep?

Lost!

Its not starting yet, but I am eagerly waiting for the next season of Lost!!!

A long time back I told a couple of frens to have a look at this serial... and they werent sure if they really wanted to watch it or not. 

Then like a salesman I told em, Watch the first episode for me. 

How many things do you know dont need convincing??? 

I mean seriously to sell em to lost all i had to do was ask em to watch the first episode. Thats it! I dont know of anything that sheer brilliant than this. 

And in case you havent been bitten by the lost bug... watch the first epsiode for me...

You can find it here at www.go.abc.com

testing blogger on the iPhone

the only way I can type stuff here is when I use the HTML editor. Dunno why google isn't coming up with an iPhone app for blogger. It would be so easy with an app Instead of actually having to type it this way. I'm pretty much sure that I won't be able to upload photos properly this way either. Ah well!!! Till the time some super genius at google doesn't have to type a blog the way I am right now...we won't be able to get some app here

Saturday

Its been quite some time since I am actually at home watching the tv and just relaxing. Since the time I moved to Charlotte, each weekend has been a fun filled crazy weekend with a lot to do. Either its been us at the friends or the friends over at us. And the last two months have been even more fun. My Ma is here with us...so its kinda like payback time :D...

Remember how as children we hate so many decisions our parents make. Be it the pink pant that they think fits perfectly great on you or the ban on cricket or just the scolding and abolishment of anything we thought was cool... well.. now that she is here.... everything I do seems to be just fine.. she even defends me when the wifey says something about something that I shouldnt have anyways done in the first place.

Things kind of take a full circle hyperbolic round turn ....and it always amuses me. Its just something that you cant control when it happens but after its done its stuff you just seem to be perfectly all right with it. The soaring gas prices, inflation, economy concerns...I was kind of really shaken at the way things were going initially, but it doesnt seem to bother the rest of our generation. I mean at the rate we are going, is it really worth bringing in another generation? What are we giving them? But then the other thought came to mind. The answer. Science, we dont ever give up do we? We develop invisible shields, sound shields, we would soon develop a more efficient way to generate energy. Necessity breeds Innovation. This has always been the mantra of Mankind and Life on Earth and it will prove itself this time again.

I thought about it myself? So what do we do right now? Burn coal, create steam, get turbines whirring, let the magnets do their stuff to the coils of copper and lo! electircity. Nuclear? Same concept, burn atoms (metamorphically) create steam, blah blah... ok ok... the latest thing going around... the talk of the town... Gas/Petrol/Oil... burn oil, create pressure, get pistons whirring, let the gears do their stuff and lo! transportation / production / irrigation / construction... and all other things that depend on the great thermal cycle of whats called as the petrol engine. Whats the key point to all of this? Efficiency? we havent been producing energy efficiently. So theres our first necessity.. increase efficiency... what next? What about all the heat we produce? we waste it .. what happens when we waste it... it goes in the atmosphere... heats the earth and sits there.... maybe someone will develop a machine that harnesses heat energy to create electricity.. soon enough we may not need air conditioners...

Well .. when I could think of all such things.. then I think .. some scientist out there must be definitely on his way to these things.. the earth would be saved once again by science..tantanaaaaaa

Alright... enough of ramblings....back to just enjoying the plain old saturday....

Braves

What does it feel like being brave?

Well I am not sure if I have had that moment in life when I can definitively say I was brave to do this, or I was the bravest amongst the lot to have done this....

I saw two visions of Braveness in a spam of 10 minutes yesterday in the most unsuspecting, unexpected forms of all. The first vision, all though led by vanity, was a cool moment whereas the second one was slightly disheartening and demanded to question the superior authority of its judgment.

As I waited outside Claire's yesterday while my Ma and Wife were shopping for earrings... honestly how long should that take?... long enough for me to be able see these two events.

One girl maybe 3 years or smaller than that, asked for her ears to be pierced. This may not seem an event to be classified as brave, but this little lady had an audience of her ma, brother, dad, uncle, aunt, 1 awed indian husband of a lady who was showing her ma in law different earring designs... and the two ladies assisting with the piercing. She was all prepared and told about the procedure and she was strong with a smile and gave the go ahead. I shuddered and had goose bumps as I saw the two sales people one on each side punch holes in those little ears. The moment they clicked the little girl was shocked and slightly jerked but then again she just stared as if nothing happened. I thought the shock would settle in, in about 5 - 10 mins and she would start crying .. wailing rather...but she was just fine.... That confidence in a small kid to me was so brave....

At that same moment as she walked out with her family...I decided that the store had nothing interesting for me and walked out of the store and there I saw the second child. On the ramp in the center of the walkway I saw this kid pushing himself fast on a wheelchair. His Dad was right behind him and didnt even thought of pushing him up the ramp. The kid didnt even ask his dad to be pushed. They both were just fine and walked by in the crowd as if nothing ever happened.

That was the second brave thing I saw. These two sights may not be that significant or important in someones life, but to me there was the proof that life continues...

Hmm

What it's Like - Everlast.

Then you really might know what its like.

Love the guitar strumming in this song.

On the other hand. Had Chicken Biryani, Aloo Paratha, Mutton Kheema, Ragda Pattice and Chicken Curry, Kheema Pattice and all this in a matter of 2 meals and a Breakfast and oh all this was cooked at home !!!! Also not to forget the Home made Nankathai biscuits that I had with Tea. I love my friends here.... Any doubt about that??? :) (read as evil grin)

I think the evening of tennis at the court justifies the sinful meals...

But then again we also went out in the evening to eat Gobi Manchurian, Chicken Kadhai, Seek Kabob and Chicken Kurma.... now gotta find some chores that would justify this.

Beautiful weekend. All my prayers to the one person I know who has a doctors appointment.

And now a Coke n Scotch (yeah i know but I dont care) in my hand while I watch a Movie..(Race)

Later

Morning Revelation

So I always called my laptop my computer and a couple of people had an issue with me calling it a computer when its "actually a Laptop"...I did'nt think about it for long called it a laptop to stop the cat's whinning.

But .. it just struck me today.... You dont go and say .. wait here while I go get my SUV or wait here while I go get my Coupe....you just call it a car!

Laptop's a classification for a thing. the thing is a computer.

Its 6 in the morning and this is the best I could come up with???

Oh yeah .. still listening to stop and stare

Sometimes...

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving, but I go nowhere
Yeah, I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be
Ohhh

Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, can you see what I see

I have a liking towards songs like these. this ones One Republic

white stripes/simpsons/talk box

Thanks to a GEICO advt recently, I was introduced to that pipe that they had in their mouth while making thoses whoawhoa sounds in the song Its my life by Bon Jovi. I had at that time told a lot of people that those were sounds by the mouth due to the pipe and all.. never really figured it out until Peter Frampton sold car insurance to me using the contraption that was gifted to him.

Yes the talk box. I just learnt something new today!

Also loved the intro to the song "the hardest button to button" by the White Stripes. Its a whole load of passion and anger, i feel the song could have been stronger than what it is. But hey Im just a critic sitting in front of his lame computer with no talent but a criticizing attitude.

Whats all that got to do with the simpsons?

The geico ad? while watching simpsons; the white stripes? featured in todays episode of the simpsons; the amazing intro? when bart takes on music as child counselling and gets hooked on to it.

Gotta love the simpsons,
Gotta spread the joy!

Vengeance at 25:17

For a while I always thought of vengeance as a means to an end. An end to the hatred in you for whatever the reasons it be. A calming soothing thing that sets the sociopath mind at ease. The heart eases and pacifies itself. The end of a rush.

And when you really master your lust for vengeance will you actually get yours. There, I just created my own catch-22isque phrase. The real vengeance is when your get over your lust for vengeance.

Why is it that this word so stuck on me brain for so long?

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee

Thats why.

If God, being God, desires Vengeance and takes it on those that do not follow him, isnt God a communist? And you know it todays world, for all you know, God may actually be a communist, what with China doing so well these days. I know its not a big deal, money is here today gone somewhere else, superpowers rise, rule and fade into a black hole sucking everything around it until eventually it meets another superpower, so strong that the black hole has no effect on it.

Just the routine, as Bartimaeus might have said.

This is the red (now why in the hell do they want such a bold color? why not a dull gray to symbolize equality and no disparity?) communists' vengeance. They have finally got their chance to wink their eyes as furiously as they can and say "up yours" to the rest of the world.

But coming back to the topic, which so far as aptly stated in this discussion somewhere, that my digressive brain has totally lost track off. Is it really God's job to seek vengeance? And in what manner? sending you to hell? That would be the devils job right? in that case how else? By turning you into an ant in your next birth? you may end up being at the gates in the next 5 mins. Then how else? Aha, by making you stand in the line of an NC plate and license line for hours with just 2 old ladies helping each person in the line.

Time to sleep.
ramblings continue further.

Main Jahan Rahoon

Keheny ko sath apney yeh duniya chalti hai
Par chupkey is dil mei tanhaai palti hai

The whole world is "always" by your side
Yet theres a loneliness in your heart.

Was listening to this song, Main Jahan Rahoon from the movie Namaste London. Ok movie. Pretty girl. But I kinda liked the punjab da puttar Akshay Kumar in it. The guy has shown stupendous amounts of improvements in terms of an image as a hero from his churakey dil mera days.

On the brighter side of things to look out for this year:
- Will try to make my money make me more money
- Hoping not the same in terms of body fat.
- Bring back all the ambitions from the past. (includes getting more out of life)

Kind of a slow start, but hoping this year will really kick it off for me.

brilliant youtube video of the week:

- Guy showing how a stupid plastic bottle stashed somewhere in his engine, generates 3 months worth of HHO gas to be used in your car as a hydrogen fuel for greater mileage.

No no wait, HHO gas is actually a great gas!!! Indeed, its steam! But the guy, the site and so on goes on to say how HHO gas is combusted to form water (H2O) hmm strange, your put a gallon of water in a bottle add Soda Bicarb, and you get HHO...

If you read the whole site I guess the only mileage that went up was my LOL. or maybe L2O or maybe LLO ..

Things the world can come up with...

Later

Happy Diwali!

The first diwali !

Happy Diwali all !

A-Town

There are so many things I miss about A-town!!!
the people
the kids of all my colleagues
the action
the desi scene
the weekends
the house where i could not bother whose beneath or whos above
the roads!!!
the 85mph on a 55mph crowd!
the bert show on All the hits q100

Yup life almost sinks in perfect and then u have to shake it off as things may not be as rosy as they seem! So off one packs off everything that he just built and goes in search of greener pastures!

Nomad!

BOM-CMX-GSP-CMX-DTW-ATL-CLT-???

But here we are in the greener and "lake"y lands of NC in Davidson NC. setting up new homes, new relations and a new life!

Exciting new season ahead!

Happy Halloween

Wassup World

Listening to Entity Paradigm after ages, Irtiqa was by far a well planned out album with music that sounded mature for a band with a the first album release.

Jal the group that came out with the Aadat song also gave a similar performance.

One thing to note about these two groups is that they are Pakistani. And they go to prove that music has no boundaries. I am a huge music lover. Got tonnes of song varying from sri lankan artists to chinese artists to hip hop and white people behaving like black and to british bands that rule the world. I dont remember one itty bitty peice of the lyrics of the songs I love, I love the music. Not that I am good at making the music either. I just have the ear for it. Although saner people like my roomie tend to think otherwise.

So be it, I just enjoyed the thrill I got from the 5 minutes of listening to Irtiqa. Anyone with an open ear wanting to try out new music, do listen to this album.

Hmmm thinking, what happened to my collection of trashy british songs...

To the girl who thinks being into Goth means you love rock, you've got a long way to go.
You cant club Nirvana, Linkin Park, Metallica, Marlyn Manson into one and say thats goth.
Thats just crunk ! ;)

Tea n Silk?

I wish I could make my font default to trebuchet.
The disadvantages of going with a slightly modified blog is that you have to find your own solutions to your own whims. So as random as my cup of tea or the tea leaves in my cup (zilch) I thought of penning down some thoughts in the subliminal form of words.

I know Im just using words because I feel like using them at this moment. So many thoughts are coming to the mind...

I made myself a cup of tea today. Read a few lines about Bartimaeus and Nathaniel. Chopped a few uber roots (Potatoes, Garlic, Onions). Uploaded my current favorite song on the ipod.

Ha ! They have a self help book on "THE iPod" pronounces "Ze iPod" with a fantabulistic ulterior class sophistication. Dont know if you have one of those books, does that qualify you as a real oaf of the highest level or a real Dumb Socialite, hmmm guess both are the same. But still I thought to myself, I can make a self help book on how to use Plastic Bags, but I doubt if the people on the streets would really be able to buy my book and then use a Plastic Bag to carry the book in.

Hmm My current fav song."Chak De Phatte" by Kailash Kher. Yeh duniya mast kalandar....
Cool song. Cool Movie.

Another Movie I saw these days... Ek Chalis ki Last Local. nice. innovative. I thought it was inspired from pulp fiction. But I think not right.

Anyways. Time to doze.

Tea n Silk you ask? You should've guessed it by now. China!

Lately

The memorial day weekend was spent lazing at my aunts place in Lansing, MI.
Had some wild cracks at cousins and enjoyed the "rain in denver"!!

Pirates of the Caribbeans at Worlds End was okaaayyyyyy .... with a very dull tone !!!
Had to watch it to complete the mystery from part 2.

Played a lot of NCAA and whooped Saleel 5 times!!!

So I figured the blog is turning into a personal diary!!! Aint that what its sposed to be???

I turned one more year old last week !

listening yo'

Lately the best stations that I get to listen are all the hip-hop stations.
Had a cousin over, then a friend and got them all hooked on to one or the other hip-hop songs.

Cousin got hooked onto "this is why Im hot"
Pal got hooked onto Akons Dont Matter

Now Im hooked on to
Tpain - Buy you a drink
Party Like a Rockstar
500 Dollars
Nelly Furtado-Give it to me

The list is a long one ..... the drive is a short one.

Trying to... trying to...

Been trying to and wanting to write, but times one element thats been eluding me to the core. Not that I dont have time at all, but writing comes out of a chain of thoughts, it needs to be followed and noted down. Just havent been getting that kind of a continuity for a long time. Even to finish a book, which ideally would have taken me a couple of days, I had to take considerable time and effort and sometimes even disappoint S so much so that I can capture the essence of that particular twist in the tale.

Wish I had a 48 hour day. Wish I could be fast at things to work out everything and yet get me the time to catch up on me.

Had a nice weekend, friends over, did some trail walking, some partying, some dinning, some fun. Lets see what happens next.

My sympathies to the people who had their dreams, their wish come true moments, their happiness and joys pinned on the one little aspect called visa, many were sure it was going to be a piece of cake, but not anymore. Wish you guys the best of luck...

New Speeding Idea

I want to drive without ever being caught by a cop.

For people like me, the cops should come up with a security device, A device that will block the engine revs and determine the speed of the car based on the road type. The cops install that device on my car and I drive it to the max everywhere.

For example speed limit on a freeway is 65 mph. With this device on my car, I assure the cops the cops that my car will not be able to do crazy speeds, the cops fix a peak steady speed of 73 mph on my car. So now, even if the road is free for me, I wont be able to do more than 73 on the road, thereby never to bother about being caught by a cop.

People might argue, whats the purpose of this, the purpose of this is to assure the law that the car cannot go above a certain speed, if all the cars provide that assurance, the average safe speed on the road can be increased to a newer limit. Im sure everyone will want to use this facility as it is the average speed on the freeway isnt really more than 65 - 70 mphs accounting for traffic, braking and everything.

3D Data?

Maybe Matlab lets us do this. I hope people in MS or OpenSource try to come up with something that can manipulate 3D data. that would be really time saving.

Knotted!!!

So lately I knotted the knot a couple of months back now am stayin wid my better half... previous i was whole now i have a better half... (the engineer in me starts questioning what happened to the other half ??? or was I always half .. in which case does my weight actually equals to a gross 400 lbs?????)

So i get to see stores I never knew existed... Ikea.. and I get to know that the white doors and the white shade in my apartment are in fact actually a theme ... ;) ...

Lifes been a ball lately. I hope she stays happy .. specially when I pulled her out of her comfort area and brought her into this strange land.

To be seen and blogged a lot... more talks to post .. specially bout my new roomie/wifey :)

So I missed out a deal

This thanxgivin I was up all night ... reached Best Buy at 2 and saw a huge line...and thus I missed out on my deal.

But the best deal of my life is just around the corner. Brings out a lot of different moods in me. I guess All I have to do is follow the heart. :)

Experimenting with Picasa

 

I tried... but Im an Indian

The urge to eat some delicious, some spicy, some hot food just couldnt be sustained.

Today, I tried not to eat any of the junk food, of course, I could have tried to cook, but lately since last year, this habit is as rare as the balding eagle, I have almost literally stopped cooking. I need to get back to cooking, but cooking our food here leaves a very pungent odor on everything. The clothes smell, the body smells, even the hair. I know I know in India we rarely have the pleasures of quarantining the entire Kitchen, but the fact is in India everything and everybody cooks Indian food. Which is of course plainly called as food in India. But the point is where everything is the same there is rarely any distinction in the olfactory senses. But here even a pinch of turmeric and you will find the Generally-Minding-His-Own-Space-Gora ask you "You an Indian? You just had Indian Food?" in the Lift. Its not the goras that Im really bothered about. Its my own smell, It smells not just different, it makes me feel foodsick throughout the day unless I have a bath with some really strong stuff like Old-Spice and rid me off the curry on me.

I need to come up with a solution to the smelly cooking. I saw my friends came up with a simple one of having the lid closed immediately after adding the spices. But the smells stays. It Stays.. reminding me of the not so great cooking talent that I possess and how it was bliss back in India with my Ma.

On an ending note: Once when I was a small kid my Ma was really frustrated with me getting in all sorts of trouble at home. She Warned that if I keep on getting into trouble She will leave Home and go far away. To which I asked.. "Who will cook me food then?"
Poor Ma she didnt know better to slap me or to laugh at me.

My New Karmic Discovery of the Week.

+ + =

When I was a Michigander, and that too from UP where you could get the original stuff for as cheap as free, I ignored it, and now Im a self confessed fan of Maple Syrup. This combination almost makes me smack my lips everyday.

Heres to a healthy start of the day. Cheerios + Maple Syrup + Milk = Blisssh

days are going slower

I know I know. It was just last week when I was in the Rockies. But I still think the days are going wayyyyy to slow.

LIstening to
Agar Tum Mil Jaon... in a nice slow tempo, the song is actually damn neat. Hmmmmm

Scientist guys at the atomic time center, can u rush up time for me real quick?

cops? think again

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6119928.stm

This is way too ironic, hilarious, sad and one of those happens-only-in-india things.