Random Ramblings I Write

When will we learn to control?

2011-06-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

As I sit here
And slowly close my eyes
I take another deep breath
And feel the wind pass through my body

I'm the one in your soul
Reflecting in the light
Protect the ones who hold you
Cradling your inner child

I need serenity
In a place where I can hide
I need serenity
Nothing changes, days go by

Where do we go when we just don't know
And how do we relight the flame when it's cold?
Why do we dream when our thoughts mean nothing
And when will we learn to control?

These are lyrics from one of my favorite songs, Serenity, by Godsmack. Especially the last paragraph makes a lot of sense to me in this phase of life. Why do we dream when our thoughts mean nothing and when will we learn to control? There can be two cases when our dreamy thoughts mean nothing. One case is when the thoughts actually make no sense and the other case wherein you know that those thoughts are not meant to be. To shut such thoughts out of your mind is not an easy task, since they need a suitable distraction to keep your mind away from them.

Our mind chooses to run blind when it comes to certain requests from within itself. And one of the major examples is when a person is falling in love. No wonder people say "love is blind". What actually happens is that your mind stays blind to certain things which would otherwise make you rethink and reconsider your decisions. By the time you've done the correction and your mind can see the truth, you've hurt yourself and all that you did not see comes rushing back to you like a big tidal wave. This doesn't just apply to love, but to several other beliefs we hold in life. We never really care to investigate properly so as to find out what really is going on. We let our thoughts wander away from the crude reality and it would serve us well to keep this aspect of our mind in control. If we could spend half of this energy on channeling our thoughts in the right direction, we would achieve a lot more.

The question we next arrive at is, why then are we functioning in this manner. The answer to that probably could be that we humans were never meant to be perfect creatures, neither in appearance, nor in behavior. We need to accept that there is a certain imperfection attached to us that we should learn to live with, and not make any complaints about.

Tell me your dreams

2011-06-22T23:43:00.001-07:00

Its been just over a month since I put my fingers to the keyboard to type out something for this blog of mine. Life has been busy, what with all the expected and unexpected emotional roller coasters I've willingly and unwillingly been a part of. Several lessons learnt, several lessons out there to learn from and several lessons that are probably coming up in life. As a very good friend of mine always says, "the biggest mistake in life is the lesson not learnt". But all the emotional entries shall remain at the memory bag inside my head. They don't make for entertaining blog posts.

What does make for interesting reading would be the dreams that people have and how people bring out the actions from dreams into reality. Does that make sense? Probably doesn't. So I am just going to dive into my memory bank and draw out a dream that many people seem to have. It goes something like they're fighting on the edge of a cliff and they happen to fall off, and they wake up startled, sometimes screaming shit scared, when they've hit the bottom of the seemingly bottomless gorge. Thankfully, I've not been privy to such a dream in my life. The other deadly dream would involve some kind of snake which appears to bite the person having the dream. This is a dream I've had, and yes, it definitely does startle you when you see a rattlesnake opening its mouth and jumping at your face at the speed of a million miles an hour. At that moment, you know that its time to wake your sorry but disturbed a*** up and go to work.

The other kind of dream is the one where you end up doing something totally silly with or without someone you know. Be it stealing the Indian Cricket team's cricketing gear and brand new attire as a 8 year old kid (and whats more, having mom as an accomplice) or walking miles with a friend to find a restaurant that has been closed down for several months or writing an exam three times in a row in spite of scoring a top score every single time (ah yes, the absolutely baffling triple repeat act), I've done it all - well at least in my dreams. Trust me, the feeling you have at the bottom of your gut is inexplicable. You're left wondering how on earth you manage to come up with such dreams and ideas. And then there are these times when you have the same feeling but you do not remember the dream one bit, so you have no idea why you're feeling the way you are.

A couple of insights into how dreams affect a person's life in reality:

Firstly, if you had the kind of dream where you saw yourself dying, you can reassure yourself that you're going to live a long and ....... life (happy or unhappy purely depends on the bloody fate you have). And secondly, if you had the silly dream, you can be sure that you'll do such silly things in life (at least once before you die). Thirdly, I have only two insights, I said "couple" and I mean only two, so if you were expecting a third insight, then you must be dreaming. If you pinched yourself and saw that it was real, well then there you go, you've had a silly dream before and this is one of the silly things you were due to do in life. :)

Thanks for reading this post. All of you who are reading it surely do have immense patience for extremely non-sensical writing.

Syracuse wants me t(w)oo bad

2011-05-20T22:58:00.001-07:00

And its high time I came up with my next post. The best motivation a blogger can get is to be told that a reader misses reading new blog posts on my oh so unimportant blog. But on this occasion, what has driven me to write the blog is a restlessness speeding through my veins. It is a restlessness and sense of nostalgia that has gripped me since I set foot onto Syracuse university campus around the same time last week. By then I had gone back to one of my friends' place and lived one precious day as a student studying at the university. The only difference between this day and every single day back in the time period of August 2008- May 2010 was that on this occasion, I had no deadlines and submissions lined up and I was purely living only the fun part of student life.

What all I would give to get that life back! It is the life where carelessness is the order of the day. You have no one to answer to but yourself and there is this sense of peace in mind that is unmatched by nothing. So now that I've bored you all with some nostalgia that I have been feeling, I shall now narrate to you a strange coincidence which has a very low probability of occurrence.

I had been to Syracuse exactly six months ago in the month of November. The plan was to celebrate Diwali in the place closest to home - Syracuse in my case - with my near and dear friends. I had my birthday to finish off a grand trip and after an emotional roller coaster of a trip, I dragged my sorry self to the airport and was told that my flight was delayed. They wanted me to give them a preference as to when I would like to travel. I sensed an opportunity and told the airlines to book me on the same flight the following day. I felt a joy and sense of relief that made me breathe properly again. Suddenly there was no one strangling my throat squeezing me for breath. I had just gotten a second chance to spend some quality time with those I did not get to spend it with. And so I did spend that one day very well.

So I went back to Syracuse just a week ago and spent some really good time with all my friends there. And on my way to the airport at Binghamton, I felt the same sense of suffocation and shortness of breath. And as I was sitting in the airport thinking about how I had left (apparently) Syracuse for the last time, I saw a beautiful fog engulf the whole town and take away any visibility. Little did I know that it is this fog and the rain that followed which would send me back sooner than ever to Syracuse. And I felt...... [1]okay please refer to line 7 to line 10 of the previous paragraph. I was truly amazed at how I am probably the only guy on earth to get the same wish granted twice. People probably even feel jealous at how badly Syracuse wants to keep me there and does not want to let go of me.

When you do nothing at all

2011-05-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, this title to the blog does sound like this Ronan Keating song which was used for the movie Notting Hill. But the theme for this blog is more on the lines of joblessness at work rather than love or romance. So if any of you are looking for a nice breezy love story or some gyaan about romance and relationships, you can close this page and enjoy the whole song I have given a link to. For those of you who have been and will be jobless at work, please read on since I can guarantee that you will be able to relate to it.

If you were to ask an online dictionary to define joblessness, they would define in one of many ways which include "Having no Job", ""Unemployment occurs when a person is willing to work but currently without work." But my definition currently is "The state in which someone has a job but has nothing to do at work for a particular period of time." I am writing this piece of literature sitting in office only because I am feeling joblessness to its full potential at this very moment. I wish I was as creative as these innovative people, but unfortunately I am not. I prefer to put any little creativity I have to writing out this blog post. It seems like a long time since I blogged, but it was only a week ago that I blogged last.

The other thing I've been doing is use gmail chat to its fullest potential (barring video and voice chat, for they'd strangle me at work if I used those) by pinging all those people I've been out of touch with. It turns out that the number of people I pinged is a pretty big number. But then again, I guess its good that I got back in touch with them. I got a chance to find out how many of them had actually forgotten I existed till I pinged them (just kidding folks, not blaming anyone, don't send me any e-howlers). I also got to know how many people I had forgotten to keep in touch with (not kidding here).

Nobody to blame here, since circumstances are responsible for all that happens in a person's -----Forgive me for this piece of boring gyaan I am giving, its the joblessness thats getting to me! I wish the IPL games would happen from 930AM to 5PM PST. So that way, I wouldn't have to think twice about what can keep me occupied when I am just not in the mood to do work. You folks still reading?? Well, you do have Some patience, I tell ya! In any case, for those still not drooling away on your keyboards, think back to the days when you've been jobless at work, and I am sure you would have done similar things to kill time.

As one great person said, being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue; And thats exactly what I've been doing since I walked in to work on this fine day. Oh and there was a meeting that was supposed to throw me off-guard by being one hour long, but as it turns out, it lasted only a few minutes. Murphy of Murphy's law fame is always with me for anything and everything. Lets just hope he isn't with you guys all the time.

Disparity is the order of the day!

2011-05-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

What keeps life going? What keeps it interesting and intriguing? Well, my friend had the magic word up as a status message yesterday. Disparity! Some people may disagree when I say that Disparity is the order of the day. The world runs on and is driven by disparity. If there was parity in everything, then life would become monotonous and boring. There would be nothing to look forward to. What would we do without all the small fights and quarrels we get into because of disparity?!

Imagine if your brother/sister and you went to an ice cream shop with your parents. It would be fine for the parents if they got the same thing for both their kids. But imagine that the elder one gets a bigger ice cream and the younger one gets a small cup. Thats when the fun starts! The younger one is gonna start screaming and crying like crazy, and it will eventually end in a fight between the kids. The kids probably are pissed with each other for that one day, but then going forward, they will realize that its these kind of cute moments that add value to your life.

There would be no fun if all the 22 players on a cricket field were equally good. There needs to be one Andy Caddick for every Sachin Tendulkar and one Shaun Tait for every Kieron Pollard. To understand these instances, please watch this and then watch this. There needs to be a Rafael Nadal for every Roger Federer, because only then can we see the beauty and the beast both in action (no offense intended for Nadal fans, he is the best player currently).

Disparity doesn't just fuel fights and problems, but actually also fuels competition and inspires people to aspire to newer better things. There would be no point in having a ranking system without disparity. Whether it is by a creation of god or by the acts of man, one of the main concepts that drive this world is disparity. I would like to recommend this site to all those who would like to explore this concept further.

The will of the Halwa

2011-04-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Its a beautiful day and I am sitting in front of a modern idiot box watching Tony Stark slowly turn into Iron Man. On this very fine day, one of my close friends' parents are flying down from India to stay with their kid. This can mean only one thing for me. No, I am not talking about missing my parents or shifting within the house to accommodate their stay. What I am talking about is gaining weight because of some awesome cooking that is coming our way. Its not just the cooking thats going to force me to bloat, but a whole bunch of sweets and snacks that are making their way through customs at the San Francisco airport as I type this.

I look at the glee on my roommate's face as they enter the house, and at that instant I knew what I was in for. Loads of parental love, home cooked food (I cant but mention this repeatedly, because there is absolutely no escaping it), pampering and sightseeing. Before I can finish writing this blog, I would have eaten a sumptuous meal, a ladoo, a kaju burfi, some Kerala special banana chips and something more that they've brought. I do owe it all to my friend who is shuttling up and down with all the savories that I've not seen in a long time.

What intrigues me is the phase that will follow soon after all the pampering is back on its way to India. We will probably realize that in spite of several attempts to maintain our weight (actually attempts to lose weight would be near impossible), we have actually gained weight and need to work harder than before to lose it. I can smell the Kerala special Halwa sitting on the kitchen top teasing me- (Talking to myself) Stop! you shouldn't be thinking about it! Think about the gym, and how fresh it feels after a workout;How much fun it is to play several hours of tennis and burn some calories- Nooooo! I want to taste that Halwa, this very moment! And as they say, the rest is history. That neatly sliced piece of Halwa found its way through a lot of grinding teeth to settle at the bottom of a very satisfactory stomach that belongs to me.

I don't have too much more to say after succumbing to the will of the Halwa. I concede defeat for a brief period. But I shall, like any other guy would, make a conscious effort to not eat the Laddoo that is now teasing me from inside the refrigerator. :)

Calls and its pitfalls

2011-04-27T21:21:00.001-07:00

I've been instructed by a very good friend to write something on a lighter vein for this post. And so I shall abide by the wishes of this request from an ever jovial soul who never fails to lighten up my mood. But the question is, what to write about(or 'right' as this friend of mine weirdly writes). Whenever I have this dilemma, I turn to uncyclopedia and I am never disappointed because I always turn up with a topic to write about.

Phone calls seems to be a teaser of a topic. Phone calls, or just calls, range from being used for the most mundane of events to conducting meetings. I used to wonder how coherent conversations could be conducted over phone calls that involved members of a team from all parts of the world, but off-late I've realized that it is not too difficult after all. All you have to do is say hello and then mute the mic of the phone at your end. The monotony of it all may sometimes overwhelm you, but you realize in time that its completely worth it. Just to confirm your presence, you need to unmute the mic every now and then and sprinkle the meeting with your ideas. Its not like they're dying to hear you speak - or are they actually desperately waiting for you to speak so that they can mute their own phones?? Hmmm... fruit for thought people.

Go into the next tele-meeting that you attend thinking about this very thing, and I assure you that whether the others mute their phones or not, you will be dying to have them mute it and only then will you realize that by reading this blog, you've just become a product of my insane ideas. But think again- did you give in to insane ideas or did you just figure out a nice way to get work done when you were in a meeting. It always works for me. :)

So what else do we use phone calls for? Oh yes, I have known some people who make phone calls just because they have free calling on their plan. They discuss events so obvious and mundane as how big their footprint on the sand was and also how many steps they took in going from one building to another while going for lunch. Frankly, does anyone care if you saw Elvis Presley's photo on a website?? Or does anyone really care if you want to desperately talk about whether you should return a missed call or not. Just return the call already! You don't need to be told by someone else if that was a call with some evil plan in mind or whether it was just some friend trying to reach out for something.

And then nowadays, there is this category of people who use data plan on their phones. Oh boy, you people should be hanged! How can you kill so much time on something like facebook without actually posting something?! You should be able to figure out that we have some brains and can guess that you are doing something fishy. LOL! I just can't imagine dabbling away at the smartphone without doing anything useful. I appreciate the patience you people have in doing something that does not serve any purpose. In some cases this satisfies the whims of a few people, but beyond that, you only increase the price of your data bill.

So getting back to the phone calls, oh well alright! My friends think this is already long enough... So I shall stop here and congratulate all of you who just wasted a few minutes of your precious time on this sensible yet senseless blog. At least you looked away from your smartphones/dumb-phones to do something different.

A Rhythm Of Chaos

2011-04-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

Many of us know what chaos theory is. For the uninformed, it is also known as butterfly effect and states that any minor change today will cause a world of difference sometime in the future. You don't need a movie with Ashton Kutcher to understand how true this is. We can see it in our daily lives, lingering around us. Our every word, our every action, our every second of life is the cause which has an appropriate effect associated with it. And in this vein, my blog today will discuss how I've seen events unfold as an effect of actions in the past.

You see a smile and you like it, so much so that you're smitten by it. The mistake you make is that you fail to see whats going on in the mind behind that smile. Little do you know that there is a scheming, careless and cunning mind residing there. Like killing a bug that would change things in the future, you kill the brain cells which are urging you to be practical enough to see the real picture. And this action leaves you lamenting what has happened for the rest of your life, wondering what mistake you had committed but give such importance to a good smile.

You charm people with your wisdom and advice, and unwillingly but yet willingly accept followers to your thoughts on life. You take it a tad too far by stepping into what looks like public property, only to later realize that a part of it was privatized without your knowledge. Before you realize and apologize to the owners of the privacy, you are waiting to be stung by the unexpectedly high number of bees thrown at you, not filled with nectar, but instead filled with venom. You have now learnt your lesson on how wisdom is better kept to yourself rather than sprayed out into the open.

You show concern towards tender beautiful things which could get hurt at the slightest hint of stinging words. Little did you know that the same concern was never intended to be returned in kind. Instead, what you get is the return, with interest, but in the form of a huge pile of crap that you cannot handle. It will make you rethink what your beliefs are, what your definition of trust is, and push you to the edge of impatience.

The one thing that is common to all this is the fact that you learn to live life in a better way. Your lessons in tact, your brain is only equipping itself with additional toolkits to tackle more difficult situations with elan and calm both at the same time. You may deviate briefly, but you straighten the path life takes and kick it back into rhythm, amid all the chaos that spans this world.

Living my life and only mine

2011-04-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

One whole day, spent all by myself sure did give a me lots of time to introspect. Sometimes I think its good to sit alone at home with nothing to do. Its only then that you realize that there is actually something you can do at home, like cleaning it. You get to listen to just the kind of music you've always wanted to listen to or watch the movies you like to kill time on. Its a good thing to be bored sometimes, you get to appreciate the value of free time.

What I got to do over this past day is something that not too many people get to do these days. I lived my life only for myself and did not have to do anything that was constrained by events, people and work. I enjoyed cooking again, especially making rasam, which has always been one of my specialties. I listened to Iron Maiden and did not have to worry about anyone around me not liking the kind of music they shell out. I cleaned the house in my own way taking all the time I could get. I watched football and cricket and volleyball. Just goes to show how many things a person gets to do when they get their own free time.

It is on these kind of days that you get to reassess where life is heading. A clarity of thought usually sets in and one's mind gets recharged to tackle the everyday problems that one is thrown at. After almost several months, I had a day where I spoke on the phone with almost no one. There were no incoming or outgoing calls to my phone and there were hardly any conversations from my gmail-chat. Just goes to show the busyness in people's lives and also points out that not everyone remembers everyone, during a typical day in their life.

I go to sleep at the end of this rather uneventful day with a huge loaf of satisfaction down my throat. This feeling owing to the fact that I am doing one other thing that I usually don't get too much time to do, and that is writing another post for this blog. I hope and expect that people don't waste any opportunities to live their lives for themselves every once in a while, and stay away from the white noise that they include as part of their daily routine.

Yu(vi) little Beauty!

2011-03-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

Its a good feeling to watch India making sure that the Aussies will not win the World cup for the fourth time running. Its an even better feeling to stand in office with a couple of other guys and watch the match on a laptop. The excitement needs to be controlled since we do not have the freedom to scream out our feelings, and this adds to the nervousness of the moments. With no nails to bite, I was ready to bite off the skin on my fingers as Yuvi and Raina started to rebuild the chase. Every ball, we cheered, every run we celebrated and with the target getting closer, we drifted closer to the edge of our seats. We were not going to fall off, but rather were gearing up to jump off the seats and rejoice in the victory that was soon to follow.

The era of Aussie domination in cricket had officially come to an end. Ironically, when Steve Waugh had the record for maximum number of consecutive test match victories, India ended it with the help of Very Very Special performances by Laxman, Dravid and Bhajji. Its good to see that on this occasion, the youngsters took the mantle upon themselves and clinically sent the champions packing. The match started at an odd time for me- 2am PST. Being the lazy fellow that I am, I woke up to see Ashwin bowling the carrom ball to Shane Watson and figured that sleep was more important than watching the men in yellow scoring some runs.

I cannot explain how glad I was after finding out that I had slept through a Ponting century. Frankly, I hate the guy for his attitude and gamesmanship, so I wouldn't have enjoyed even a single moment of it. So I got up to a sensational pull shot from Sachin off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson and thought that Sachin would end up scoring a revenge-century against the Aussies. I thought I'd be able to watch God score his century by the time I got to office, but I was disappointed to find out that he had nicked one to the wicket keeper soon after his 94th half century.

When I heard that Yuvi was playing well and stabilizing the innings, I was driving at an insane speed of 35mph on highway 101, thanks to a few thousand cars with brightly glowing brake lights feebly visible through the heavily drenched windshield of my car. The wipers were in full swing and were frankly going faster than the speed of moving traffic on the freeway. I was thankful to any cars heading off towards the exits, freeing up traffic for me. I was not disappointed after all the delay as I still got to watch Ponting get taken down by Yuvi. As I can see it, Yuvraj now has the right temperament and is in the right phase of his career, having tasted the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of being a star.

With Sachin slowly but surely heading towards the end of his career, I think its about time the Yuvi era took shape for Indian cricket. The lucky charm called Yuvraj Singh keeps rolling- When Yuvi scores, India wins. Hoping for two more MoM performances from him in this World cup. Anyone in the US planning to sleep on the night the match between Ind and Pak takes place next week? I shall plan not to.

Its good to know some things

2011-03-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Walked into work today only to find out that we'd been kicked out of the conference room that had been my project team's den for the past month. Apparently they did not need to explain to us why we were temporarily shifted to a room thats only thats just about bigger than the size of my kitchen back home. But I should say the only thing I am complaining about is the fact that now my supervisor can lean back and get a full view of all the non-value added (for the lack of a better term) activities I perform, like killing time on Facebook, Gmail, Google News and the sports websites. The key words to note here are "killing time". Yes! I have a lot of time that I can kill and I'm putting it to good use by basically thinking about Nothing. Mark Gungor explains in his talk "Tale of two brains" about how men are completely capable of having nothing on their mind from time to time.

Being fond of psychology, I've always been fascinated by how people think, even though I don't understand it a lot of times. It just does not make sense to me how people make some decisions in life, particularly women! You can safely term them as the unexplainable species and get away with just a stare from them, because frankly, they know it themselves that they cannot predict their own moves in different scenarios. Although I do know they are unpredictable, I still take up the challenge of trying to figure out how they think, knowing very well that its a losing cause. The main reason why I do this is because there is no fun in doing something if you know you are going to win. On the other hand, there is a lot of excitement in playing a game when you know you'll keep getting better each time, even though you're going to eventually lose it.

So I begun this dangerous game somewhere halfway through my undergrad studies. At first, I was able to predict the moves of some of the girls I knew. I could even guess what they were thinking about the people around them. But soon I started second-guessing myself and realized that my initial success was predominantly due to beginners luck. But I would not deter from my motivation to pursue the ever-elusive female thought process and I should say I have learnt a lot of things over the past few years. The learning has included lessons on how men react when it comes to women and how they perceive relationships that women have with the people around them.

A few things that could help men when they're handling some situations with women include the following:

1) If you feel a girl and a guy are so close that something could be going on in between them (clarification for all dirty minds: i mean feelings for each other), then be rest assured that something surely is going on! Do not try to assume anything else, because you're probably wrong.

2) If you think you can give advise to a girl who has feelings for someone, please back off and live your life. Do not try to provide any advise, since all you would be doing is stepping into a Tsunami like the one that hit Japan- you'll end up feeling like a house or truck hit you from behind!

3) If you think you can give advise to girls who are just out of relationships/break-ups, be sure to tread a careful path, because you never know when your advise hits the Recycle bin and when her feelings for the guy are Restored back to the Desktop.

4) If you are not a ladies man, please do not try to pick out a gift for the girls without the advise of one, or you'd probably end up disappointed.

Just realized that writing a blog makes me look like I am doing work. So, I shall stop my list of advises for today so that I can write more in the coming days at work. Feels good to have a blog entry after more than 6 months.

PS: I am ready for your smiles (men) and stares (women) now.

What next... Java or Jalwa?

2010-09-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Classes (No not the course kind), Inheritance, Polymorphism, Methods, Interface and Encapsulation. Any of this sound familiar? Am sure that all software engineers and programmers will find these terms very commonly used and implemented in their daily life. But my last brush with any of these was way back when I was a freshman in Trichy, India. A trip down memory lane actually tells my I had actually not heard any of this even back then. My programming was limited to writing programs for finding out prime numbers within a given range, creating small games like finding out who typed A-Z at the fastest speed (I hold the record with 2.5 secs) and creating a system for a cinema's ticketing system. And so I decided to do a Bachelor's in Electronics, with a dream of one day designing Pentium XV processor or making the nVidia GeForce 10 chipset. But we all know how that dream ended.

So then I decided I was no good in Electronics (Which was actually not true.. but still I decided) and applied for a Master's in Engineering Management. As most engineers do, I too wanted to stick with at least a little engineering even though I wanted to go into the management side. So I ended up doing what one would call a splendid Master's in a colorful city called Syracuse. And I say colorful because it is one of the few places which over the course of the year sees all colors engulf the city at different points of time (Of course some of my friends who worked in the dining hall would say its colorful because of the presence of err.. a lot of cheerleaders. :)). Just when we all thought here is a new dream, one of becoming a Supply Chain Professional that, for a change, looked like turning into reality. And what's my status?

I am Learning Java 5.0, which is actually Java 1.5 since Java 1.2 was Java 2.0 (for some weird unexplained reason) and figuring out exactly what all those terms I started off this blog with mean. And how much of my Master's is coming in handy? Well, you can't say its totally useless, considering that I got work in a dining hall doing my MS and also learnt to sit long hours in different kinds of seats and couches in the library reading pages and pages of text (Something I did only the week when we had exams back in Trichy). What I will be doing next, the almighty shall deliver the sentence for. For he beholds key information about the next unexpected path that my career will take.

You may never know, I could be the next successful thief- like what people claim Bill Gates or the Facebook guys to be- and may start the next big phenomenon to overtake Apple and Google on the World stage. Or I could write more recipes and become the next Gordon Ramsey or PF Chang. But whatever happens, I will never forget 2 things in life:

1. Eating at home is the best option.

2. Hot homemade pepper rasam with rice is always the best item on earth. :)

Is that random enough a post for you guys? Do I hear virtual rotten tomatoes? Keep em ready and stack em up. The next few weeks you will need a lot more.

To all Chilli Parotta Fans

2010-09-07T20:35:00.001-07:00

There has recently been this demand for the recipe of the chilli parotta that I make once in a while. So I thought I'd put pen to paper, or rather some fingers to the keyboard and write it down. Its a very simple thing to make for those people whose cooking skills are better than making just Maggi noodles and toasting bread (Trust me, there are people who struggle to do even that). This is a delicacy in Tamil Nadu and this recipe is dedicated to all my school and college friends with whom I've enjoyed this item umpteen number of times in Chennai and Trichy.

Here's what all you need to make it for 3 people

Oil

Cumin seeds - 1 spoon

Cloves - 2 pieces

Onions- 1 big or 2 small

Mixed veggies- 1 cup

Green Chillies- 4 to 6 (depending on how spicy you wanna make it)

Bread- 10 slices

Salt- 2 spoons (I guess. :) You'll know how much is needed)

Red Chilli powder- 1.5 to 2 spoons (again, depending on how spicy you want to make it)

Crushed Tomatoes/Puree or Tomato Ketchup- 3 to 4 spoons (Both work perfectly fine)

Garam Masala- 1 spoon

Ginger Garlic Paste- 1 spoon (If available)

The procedure is as follows:

1. Toast the ten slices of bread without any oil/ghee/butter on a pan. In the meantime, boil the mixed veggies till they become a little soft.

2. Chop the onion(s) into tiny pieces.

3. Heat the cooking pan and add 4 to 5 spoons of oil to it. (Dear cooks, you would know how much to add, so do the needful)

4. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and cloves.

5. Once the cumin seeds have turned dark brown, add the chopped onions and fry them for a while.

6. Next, add the Ginger Garlic paste and mix nicely.

7. Before the paste gets sticky on the pan, add the mixed veggies. Fry the veggies for a few minutes.

8. Add the salt next. (Make sure you add enough for the vegetables and the bread you will add later)

9. Add the green chillies and the red chilli powder to the veggies and mix it well. (This is just to spice things up)

11. Add Garam masala and sprinkle some water.

10. Add the tomato puree/crushed tomatoes to make it a mild gravy. Make sure that you don't make it watery. The gravy should just be enough to give colour to the bread.

11. As the gravy melds with the veggies, make little pieces from the bread that you had once toasted. (Seems like a long time ago doesn't it)

12. Add the bread pieces and mix it nicely with the gravy. Mix it such that the bread pieces take the cover of the gravy. (If the colour is not red/orange, something is very wrong with how you prepared this. :))

13. Add a little oil and mix well so that the bread also cooks well.

14. Mix continuously and fry for a few minutes and make sure the taste is fine. (Especially the salt)

15. Once you think its done, just add some Cilantro/Coriander leaves on top to garnish and switch off the burner.

As Chef Ramsey or that famous cook on Star Plus would say, "The dish is now all set and ready to be relished by the lucky people who are gonna eat it." It is best served with plain yoghurt or onion raitha.

If you want to make it a little more authentic, you can use parathas or chappathis but make sure that they are properly roasted/toasted with the pan before you add them to the gravy.

Tip: If you think the salt is slightly excess (in any dish for that matter), add a little lemon extract to contain it. The lemon should be added when the dish is still cooking and the lemon can diminish the effect of the salt.

If you have any further questions, comment here or feel free to write to me. The so called "Critics" are welcome to insult/abuse at their own risk. Be advised that I have a spy in every one of your homes.

Signing off! Chef Vats

Friendship it is.. or is it

2010-09-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

If you're still wondering why this post has such a title, it is because thats what people wanted me to write about. In particular one friend of mine (codename: FlowerGo) who is also jobless and waiting for work to start from Tuesday, wanted me to write about how wonderful it is to analyze our really good friendship over a very short period of time. But something tells me that before I ventured beyond three sentences, all you readers would be fast asleep and wouldn't depend on Benadryl shots or sleeping pills.

So today I thought I'd write something totally different from what I've written before. I thought I'd analyze a few nicknames. Nicknames are a funny thing. From being called as the unit of power (Watts) to having a hospital ward as part of my nick (Sriward) I've seen it all. In spite of my name not being the easiest to pronounce, I've not had it butchered by anyone here in the US, yet. Its always been my dear fellow Indians that have screwed it up. And then there was this friend of mine who was Under Influence and was totally into Lits (Literary events), so he came up with 'Vats the good word'. This would later on replace the event Whats the Good Word in one of our college cul-fests as well. And as you all know, it is also the name of my blog. Incidentally, this friend of mine is almost always addressed by his nick- Patti (Means dog in Malayalam).

Nicknames are something to cherish for life. I am sure every single person has a list of nicks that they accumulated over the course of their lifetime. It just takes some digging up from the memory and a trip down memory lane back to the college days, when you had all kinds of people around you who did not care to call you names (some of which are better left unsaid), which sometimes end up being nicks. Usually I was not the one who pioneered in coming up with nicknames for people. But with one particular nick-Rules, that I came up with for one friend of mine, I started enjoying it. Why the name Rules? This friend of mine had stormed into the railway station to send off one of our seniors in college and in the process had forgotten to buy a platform ticket. So she decided to be truthful and bought two tickets the next day she came to the station. I could not help but come up with this name for her.

As for how I got the name Sriward, well that one was a little weird. I would say that my school cricket team's coach had a serious hearing problem, and thus heard Srivats as Sriward and even wrote it down as that on the team list given to the umpires. So when they were calling out my name, it took a while for all the team members, including me, to realize who it actually was. The bigger irony is that this same coach of mine used to call me something that sounded like Si-ri-way-it.

I could keep on writing loads about nicknames, but I guess any longer and this could fill up one section of The Hindu Editorial page. The idea behind writing this one is to take all of you people back to those days where you were the victims or predators who coined silly/stupid/slick/dashing nicknames for the people around you.

My Friend Once Told Me I Should Write Again

2010-09-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

As I sit here, at the center of a huge couch on a Saturday night with nothing to do, I realize the transition I've made in life. Its been one helluva journey through undergrad leading up to Grad school and now life post graduation. The most important addition to my life during my two years in the US has been a pair of spectacles. Funny as it may be, the pair I sport were Made in India (for a change) and came right out of the excellent Eye care facility in my hometown of Chennai. Its been one boring evening, and I even tried sleeping through it. But I would not be able to sleep either, mainly due to the fact that my dad woke me up with a phone call all the way from 8700 miles away, but also considering that my previous several weekends had all been fun filled and this silence and emptiness in the house somehow seem strange.

We have an excellent collection of Indian restaurants on a street called El Camino Real (No I am not calling the Real Madrid football players Kamineys, although they are ;)) but still I chose to eat fries and milkshake at Mcdonald's. Could it be perhaps that I am reminded of those umpteen road trips on I-90 and I-81 where we always stopped at this particular eatery to grab the very same thing-I guess it could! The milkshake still rocks there and I have no reason to complain except for the fact that being a vegetarian thats always my order at MacD's. As for travelling on the highways to tour around some visually breathtaking parts of the country, that dream will have to wait here in California. The main reason for this being that its going to be another month before I get at least my learner's permit thanks to an ever-crowded DMV office. People also say that it will take a further 2 to 3 months to get the actual drivers license. So here I am, during this Labor Day Weekend wondering where I should plan to go in November- encouraging isn't it. I guess I'll just have to stick to visiting all places inside my head.

An air conditioner that does not work, dirty water coming from the taps, a bus fare that'll eat into my salary like piranhas latching onto any food they get and a place that will remain warm throughout the year. Whoever said California life is going to be wonderful should be gunned down unless he/she makes my life better. Alright, I'm just kidding about the gunning down part; You never know who is prowling on these blogs to get a reason to arrest me for a crime I surely did/will not commit. Come to think of it, it will be cool to have to FBI walk in to your house and push you to the wall- Ok wait, my wish list is just getting worse by the minute! Trust me, I did not take any drugs, just the superb Aloo bhaaji cooked by my roommate.

If you're still reading this post, then you are truly my fan and you deserve an award that I cannot afford. Your patience and tolerance for random ramblings is truly exceptional. On a more serious note, I have absolutely no idea why I am writing all this. Anyone who can explain this to me will get a surprise gift that I can afford. Lets see if any of you win a pair of sunglasses from me (Oops.. so much for the "Surprise" gift :))

Its good to be back

2010-02-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time since I put this part of my brain to use. One of my friends started blogging, and that reminded me of the time when I had been a regular blogger writing about snowy nights and Rajnikanth entering politics. Sitting on my king size mattress (some of my friends feel thats the only size I'd be able to comfortably sleep on) I am watching Murali Vijay make his way out to the centre, to try and save India from the deep hole South Africa have put them into. But wait, lets not start talking about cricket here, I can get carried away completely. My personal heater is running at full blast in spite of the central heater doing its job. The reason, of course, is that Syracuse has decided to throw a late (but latest) and severe winter at us. When it was still the first week of December and my friends felt that the winter was going to be delayed, I was delighted to not see heavy snowfall yet and insisted that winter would be short but fierce. Well, its fierce alright, but it looks like this winter will last for a long time to come.

Amidst all this I make sure that I have all the fun possible. Yes, I do get busy with classes and work, but that doesn't keep me from having fun. I am answering very interesting questions on Facebook with every passing day. Some of them get interesting answers out of me, but most of them I just skip because they ask me if I'd go out on date with guys(:O). I think these applications could do with a feature of detecting the user's gender and providing questions pertinent to that. What else keeps me going? The answer to that spontaneously comes out of my roommates' mouth. The new movies that keep coming out and the weekly episodes of some of the best TV serials keep me hooked to my laptop. Playing Mafia, counter strike and poker, organizing birthday and farewell parties, working at the new Ernie Davis Dining hall, have all been fun.

What really has kept me going are the many friends I have made in Syracuse. The year immediately out of my undergrad did give me many new acquaintances, but it has taken me a whole year to realize that I was clinging to my past a little too hard. At some point I had to let go and put the fond memories in the safety locker box in the memory bank of my brain. My trip to India the summer of 2009 was responsible for this. Since the beginning of the Fall of 2009, I have had a lot on my mind, but my near and dear friends have guided me through it with utmost ease. And what is the lesson I have learnt from this first quarter of my life (Some FB application told me I would live till 92 years of age :P) is that if you make good friends and help them through their tough times, then you shall be taken care of.

Alright, thats enough nonsense for my comeback blog. I will throw up some more in due course. And next time, the stuff will be more interesting to read. Till then, enjoy Sachin blaze away.

Reel to Real Politics: Will he take the plunge?

2008-11-22T22:08:00.000-08:00

Bal Thackeray has been praising Rajni a little too much. Right from the Hoggenakal issue, which he praised Rajni for and stated that the Big B should follow in Rajni's footsteps, to the very recent view about Rajni's duties in Tamil Nadu being over, Thackeray has been all praise for the superstar who is Marathi by birth. Is there something brewing here or is it all just a lot of words being spoken? We have had a lot of news doing the rounds about how Rajni's fans are urging him to join politics. The mass following for a single person in Tamil Nadu has never been so great after the iconic MGR, who was loved by one and all.

I guess we need to watch this space to see if Rajni will indeed enter politics, be reluctantly dragged into it or just abstain from it totally. My bet is on Rajni entering politics with a bang. Wonder if it will, in any way improve the present situation and if we TN will get a very charismatic leader eventually. Well, if he decide to run for CM then his political speeches will be worth listening to, especially because they will sound extensively like many of his movie dialogues. :)

Sparkling dreams.

2008-11-20T19:45:00.001-08:00

There I was, lying down and looking up into the beautiful sky. Several white objects sparkling in the sky. But then I realised the objects were getting bigger and some were disappearing only to reappear in spots nearby. I sudden chill creeped into my shoulders through tiny gaps under my shirt. My thoughts raced back a few minutes and I was walking towards the library from my supply chain management class. It was snowing and mildly and I was witness to a beautiful evening filled with dark skies from as early as 5 in the evening.

I was almost at the library when i saw Her. There she was, getting covered with snow with every passing moment, looking really elegant. I had fallen in love with her instantly. Those well rounded curves, the sparkling eyes shining in the artificial evening light, the mesmerisingly silky skin. What more can a guy ask for?! I was immediately drawn to it and with a quick start began racing towards her as she started moving away. What I did not realise was that I was wearing worn out sneakers and on a pavement filled with snow it was not going to be of much help. I could take only a couple of steps before losing grip and dancing around in a zig zag manner to balance the bulk of my body without falling down.

Somehow I managed to remain standing and started going after my target again. But Her 350 horse power engines were too fast for me. Yes, all this while I had been talking about the Porsche 997 Carrera S. A masterpiece from the Porsche stable that any car fan would like to own. I did not even get a chance to click a snap standing next to the silver car. A missed chance indeed! With that disappointment playing on my mind I made an erratic turn towards the library and......

"Hey Vats.. Vaaaats!! Get up da.. What the hell are you doing on the pavement?!", my friend called.

It then dawned on me that I was lying down on the pavement next to a street on the university campus after having slipped in the snow. The sparkling objects were beautiful snow flakes descending from the skies. A familiar sight for the past few days, I had not been lucky to get such a view. I slowly started to feel colder when i realised that tiny flakes had sneaked into my pants from under my sweatshirt during the fall. With some help I managed to get up and start my walk back to the library. With a statistics homework and assignments in both supply chain and economics due for the coming week I had to endure a long night at the library. But every now and then the Carrera S flashed across my eyes. At least I knew which car i want to buy when I become a filthy rich guy. But before that, I would have to complete my master's program and finish Grad school, starting with the never ending stream of assignments which will thankfully end in the second week of december. Probably after that, I can chill out in the sub-zero weather at Syracuse.

What we need to learn from the Aussies.

2008-11-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of years, we have had several on-field incidents between cricket players from India and Australia. There is one point that we need to carefully notice and that is the fact that invariably it has been the Indian players who have been fined and banned. Rarely have the Australian players lost any percentage of their match fee or been banned from playing in any matches. Be it Harbhajan being banned in Monkey-gate, or be it Gambhir being banned for elbowing Shane Watson, or be it Zaheer Khan being fined for taunting Hayden after his dismissal in the second test of the ongoing test series between the two nations, its always been our very own Indian players at the receiving end.

Is there something we Indians need to learn from the Aussies? I guess we need to learn one very important thing and that is "HOW NOT TO GET CAUGHT?" The Australians have mastered this art all too well. It was Shane Watson who started to flare Gambhir up, with Simon Katich also joining in. It was a sensational reply from Gambhir with a hammering pull shot off Watson's bowling on his way to scoring a dazzling double century. But on his way to the landmark, he also left a blackmark in the form of the elbowing incident.

Mike Hussey has accused Gambhir of being on the lookout for opportunities to intimidate players from the opposition. Now what he does not realise, or probably does not want to mention is that Gambhir has been made to think like that because of comments from the opposition. He is still a young player and the young blood in his veins seem to be flaring him up. Rarely do we notice the experience lads like Dravid, Ganguly or Sachin react in such a manner. They have been there, done that, and know very well how to tackle the situation.

The Australians have somehow become experts at sledging their opponents and provoking them into sayiong and doing things that warrant legal action, while they get let off with only a word from the umpires on the field. When the players are questioned about their integrity, they lack the patience and composure to answer the questions in a dignified manner- Ponting of course. They call the opposing captain's complaints unwarranted, even if a player from their team spits at a player from the opposition- Lara's complaint about Mcgrath spitting on Griffith.

If I am not mistaken I think Ponting made a comment when Ishant Sharma was dismissed as the nightwatchman in the second innings of the third test. It sounds funny does it not?! Of all the people to sledge after dismissing, it has to be Ishant Sharma, the tailender. I guess Ishant will be sensible enough to take that as a compliment to his batting skills. I think the Indian players need to learn the art of not getting caught for any aggression from the Aussies, or give up any aggression and stay calm like the seniors in the team, or do it the best way- let the bat and the ball do the talking.

An interesting final test on the cards, lets hope we bring home the Border-Gavaskar from Oz land. Its been wuite a while since we had it here.

Life's Good here...

2008-09-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Finally, I get some time to write something. Life on the busy lane has started for me, with classes on four days of the week, from Monday to Thursday and part-time job and Seminars taking over Friday and the weekend. I do not have any day which is completely free and I am surprisingly not unhappy about it. I guess with the weather getting colder by the day I do not wish to venture out and see the tourist locations on offer in the North East.

After the initial homesickness and loneliness life now feels very good. I guess one of the main reasons is the fact that I am enjoying my courses and class work. The teaching here is very good and more than how well they teach in class, their ability to make you work towards deadlines in the form of assignments and homeworks gives the additional push required to make you learn the subject well. Only now do I understand how all the toppers, Fundoos and so called Padips(Nerds) felt while being good at what they did best. It is actually a great feeling to learn on your own and do the assignments for the following class.

In my Statistics course, I am proud to say I am among the students who understand the subject well and do the assignments with relative ease. To my surprise, well actually to me shocking surprise, people here are using even my solutions and guidance to complete their assignments and to prepare for the weekly quizzes in class. A feeling that cannot be easily explained takes over when such a thing happens. It was not so long back that I, as a student of NIT, Trichy, used to rely upon others for the assignment and not care one bit about doing even a little part of it on my own. We used the few hours just before submission deadline to copy down from the people who had spent a night or two completing it. Sometimes we even managed to persuade the teacher to postpone the submission date for the simple reason that we had been lazy enough to not even copy the assignments.

Well, coming from that system I choose to look at the situation here in the US as a welcome change, because the primary reason I am here for is to study. Only while doing these courses do we people in the India also realise how monotonous our system in India is. Even mathematics was a subject which was made theoretical by the teaching methods and there was no effort taken to make the students develop an interest in the subject. If such a thing had been established in our system then I could have probably waived off an entire Statistics course here and taken up another course of my choice. But, the fact that I did not put in a complete effort during my under-grduation in this course has led me to take up the course and learn it properly on this occasion.

As for my part-time job, well I finally have permanent shifts at a Dining hall( The US version of our Indian college Mess) and my job involves handling anything and everything that people eat. Being a vegetarian, I initially expected that it would not be a comfortable and pleasant experience, but the fact that we handle all the stuff using gloves and also that all the food is processed and refrigerated, nullifies any odour the food stuff may have. On the whole I have no qualms about my work apart from that it does take up my weekend and also that it is a tiring job. Working in the salad bar can be fun, as some of my friends working in other universities' dining halls will agree, because it involves cutting nice fruits and vegetables and since the work involves all fresh items, the job in itself feels fresh.

Well, I have my dining hall shift starting in half an hour. Though its only a 5 minute walk from the library I am in, I will be going early so as to avail the luxury of enjoying free food in the dining hall. It is a tricky proposition because we need to figure out which stuff is vegetarian and which is not. That is what takes a while. :)

Something is not right

2008-08-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sitting in a dark room with just my laptop monitor illuminating the hallway, a sense of loneliness has finally taken over. I do realise now, how much I miss my dear own India and all those people I used to either meet or be on the phone with. My parents, whom I did not miss much when I was doing my under-graduation in NIT, Trichy are on the other end of the globe now and I can feel their absence to the fullest. Homesickness!! I guess it has finally entered my life.

I have had a mixed second week in Syracuse with a lot of stuff happening. From attending orientations and being served very nice Indian food to not being able to sleep on a friday night when I have nothing to do, I can only agree to the fact that my week has indeed gone well contrary to my current mood. I have finally managed to end my part-time job hunt by landing myself with a few shifts with one of the dining halls in the University campus area. It comes with a handsome pay of 8.8$ per hour. Apart from that, I have managed to apply for my Social Security number and have cooked a dinner for five singlehandedly. With only my classes to look forward to and with noone to speak to I seem to be lost for words. the Requeim for a Dream theme music playing in the background only adds to my mood.

Being suddenly thrown out of immediate contact with "My World", as I would like to call it, brings back only those fun moments I have had in plenty and immediately the current situation hits me in the gut like a solid punch! I have to say this place is doing all the possible things to keep me occupied with some work or the other, but I have managed to hit an alltime low. there is only one thing that makes me feel glad and that is the fact that I am slimmer and trimmer than the average American person. Every second person I see is fat and bulky and when I say bulky I mean it!! They must weigh at least 300 pounds or 125 odd kilos. :)

But that does not stop me from walking at least 6 miles everyday and trying to find time to visit the gym to play some squash. I know many of you have been looking forward to hearing a lot about this place and how different it is. I promise to write a lot more in my future posts. For now I just wish to throw my loneliness at you so that I can feel better and approash my next few days in a relieved manner.

I am sure I have spoken on behalf of most of my friends who have come here and are missing all the friends and parents from back in India. Please do let me know if I have correctly echoed your sentiments.

My Second First Week in the US

2008-08-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well I finally managed to somehow reach "The Land of Dumbasses" taking a couple of Lufthansa and United Airlines flights. On the whole it was a very comfortable journey bringing back haunting memories of the night of 30th when I was stranded at the airport with nowhere to head but back home. This time though I was intent on getting to the US and to my university at Syracuse. When my wait finally ended at around 6pm local time on the 8th of August -well that reminds me about the special date on which I travelled, 08-08-08. How many people can boast of an immigration stamp which has this date on it?!! To say I was only a little excited when I got down at the Hancock international Airport would be an understatement. I wanted to look around the campus right away and see how different the place is. I was dropped home by a very nice Indian couple whom I came to know through my father. They were really helpful and full of warmth. It was only when I was taking a ride with them did I realise that I was not the only one who felt that there is a dearth of good films coming from Kollywood. They also felt the quality of music in films nowadays is below average.

I had landed on a friday evening and would not be able to report to the university till the morning on the following monday. So I decided to go shopping with the guys here and they took me to Walmart. The first impression one gets when he steps into this store is WOW! Well, at least that is how I felt when I went around the place. Such a huge shop with a very high variety of goods all available at cheap prices and in excellent quality. It is not easy to describe such a store and give the best and excat idea. One must be there to feel the brilliance and grandeur of the place. As for me, I picked up loads of stuff from a comforter to a pedestal fan to a floor lamp to basic stationery and some eatables for our house. I came back home to realise how big the mattress I have is. It is a KING size mattress which means its bigger than two single beds put together. It takes up 70% of my room and is the most comfortable mattress I have been in.

Then came Monday morning and I reported to the Center for international services and finished my paperwork in a jiffy with assistance from my good roommate Mr.Anand. I did not fail to notice the free candy on offer at the Center and grabbed a couple of 'em. I also got a chance to visit the Library and make use of the internet facilities there. It is an excellent facility with everything right from a common printer to photocopying machines. But as it is the case in all places acrosses the US it costs to take printouts or make copies.

Apart from attending several seminars and getting paperwork done the other thing I have been running around for is an on-campus job. Its the one thing that has been evading me for a while. I have even been given an employment letter but then later rejected shifts for the job. Running from one end of the campus to the other has become very common. The only respite is that the weather is cool and pleasant and the campus is really beautiful. Though I claim the weather is very pleasant it is very unpredictable and it can go from being hot and sunny to dark and cloudy with thundershowers in a matter of minutes. It was on one such day when we decided to play football with a few seniors and a couple of Professors in a nearby ground. Though it seemed to be a fun experience for a few minutes it turned nasty with very windy and heavy showers that took quite a while to subside.

On another day I went to the Gym with my friends here and we were dumbfounded by the facilities there. What was on display was a few basketball courts, some squash and racquetball courts and a huge gymnasium. We were so overwhelmed by it all that we played basketball, squash, racquetball and then went out with the seniors to play football also. We were thoroughly exhausted and were expecting a comfortable ride back home when the seniors instead took us to a volleyball court when it was getting really cold. We were in our shorts and a strong and cold breeze was blowing. What was worse was the fact that we had to remove our shoes to play on the sandy courts and it had rained that morning, which meant that the sand was wet and very cold. Once all of us got back home that night we just cooked something in a hurry and ate it up and went to sleep very early.

If its one thing I like about this place and dont like at the same time its the bus service. Many a time they are irregular and not on time, but this reminds me of India which makes me happy. :) Speaking about India, there is a very new and young Indian student Association here at my university and we decided we needed to clebrate August 15th and remember the day when we got our independence. I should say it was a fun experience with a small snack arranged- in this country snack is biscuits, cookies, cheese, salami. After the snack we had a nie speech by one of the freshers here for this Fall and we followed that up with a pretty good rendition if our National Anthem. Am sure Mr. Tagore would have been proud of us. :)

The best structure on campus would be the Carrier Dome, where all the football(American football- gosh i hate it when they call football soccer!!) and lacrosse games take place. It is a splendid piece of work and you cant take your eyes off it for a few moments. Syracuse has a great sporting history with one of the best basketball teams, a superb lacrosse team and a well respected football team. Please do catch the upcoming film called The Express to know more about Syracuse university and a special football player back in the 1800s. Am sure you will find the campus green and beautiful.

Well, I guess I have written a pretty good amount of stuff as part of my first actualy week in the US. I actually call it My Second First Week in the US for reasons my previous blog would have explained. It has been fun so far, but once classes start is when it gets all busy busy and hopefully with an oncampus job I should make some money for myself. Lets hope for the best. I will keep writing about my life here heeding to the request of some people in India who wanted to see Syracuse through my eyes. :)

My First First Week in the US

2008-07-31T09:53:00.000-07:00

Flying over the Atlantic in a nice flight with some nice european air hostesses tending to my needs. I can also see a huge mass of water below me. What lies ahead is the 'Land of Dumbasses" as one of my friends calls it. A land where it is totally different from the one I have been in all this while. The flight would soon land in the capital of the Big Apple and I would set foot onto the stupid superpower called US of A. From there I would be taking a flight to Syracuse where I will be spending most part of the next two years doing my MS. I have a lot to look forward to since Syracuse is apparently a beautiful city and the university is one of the oldest and finest. And its situated in New York state. I would be a mere five hours drive from the City that never sleeps-NY City. Times Square, Wall Street...... an endless list of amazing things to look forward to. On the other side I need to drive only for a little more than two hours to get to horseshoe falls or Niagara falls as it is known to all. Its going to be one hell of an experience living and studying in the US. So much to look forward to and its all just a few hours away. Its going to be a dream come true. I am going to have an awesome time...................................................... SLAP!!! "Get up da... Its 12:30pm!!"

Back to reality!! Harsh reality I must say. I am still in my same old bed in my dusty room cursing the strike going on at Frankfurt. I spent most part of the night in the Check-in area in the Anna International terminal. All packed and set to make my first visit to the US, I entered the airport and slowly made it through the snakelike long queue to the counter only to find out my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC has been cancelled due to the stupid strike at Frankfurt. They took my ticket and asked me to wait for a 'few minutes'. I waited with a few other people who had the same problem. A bunch of eight who had a connecting flight to Atlanta were also stranded and sidelined because of this issue. The Lufthansa people took their own time to set things right. I was there at 10:45pm. After a while we were asked to move from where we were standing because they were setting up that space to check in passengers for another flight to Dubai. We were just being pushed around like mere pieces of baggage and not given proper information as to when we would be put on a flight. It took them quite a while to find out they could not put us on any flight within the next few hours and that I would have to travel the following day.

I was keeping myself occupied by making phone calls to tell my friends I would be in India for at least another day. My parents and relatives were waiting eagerly to find out what action was being taken by the Lufthansa officials. It was 1pm and still they had not found an alternate arrangement for me. The patient lad that I am, I did not create a big scene over there. It took a lot of pressurising and some blasting from my father to finally get me a ticket to my final destination. They handed me my new plan at 3:15am! What an experience! more than four hours at the airport on a night when I knew in a short while that I would not be travelling anytime soon. The flight plan they had come up with was not favourable and my dad took it up with our travel agent and came up with the plan of having me flown into the US on the 8th of August. So here I am, sitting at home with a very funny feeling.

Having said Goodbye to the whole of India, it feels very weird to meet and speak to all of them again and tell them I got screwed by a stupid workers strike in Frankfurt. Every few minutes I just think about what I am going through and laugh my ass off, for that's all I can do. What a superb way to start my journey to the US. What was supposed to be my first week in the US, I am now spending in Chennai. God knows what more he has in store for me. I will just hope its all positive this time. And that I dont have to do a Tom Hanks(The Terminal- for the uneducated) role again and that I can write what I have written right at the top when I am actually on the flight to the US.

Long live the Rivalry! All Hail Fed vs Nad

2008-07-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

The score was 8-7 in the fourth set tie-breaker and Nadal was serving to take the Wimbledon gentlemen singles championship for the first time in his career. At this moment only one amazing moment came back to my mind. The 4th set in the 1980 marathon five setter between the great Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. McEnroe took Borg to a tie-breaker and in a similar situation fought off Championship points that Borg had and forced a fifth set. I wondered if Federer was looking to do the same and take it to a fifth and final set against the unrelenting Nadal. And it did happen, with Federer playing some mind-blowing tennis to win the next three points and push the final into a fifth set.

What a comeback the spectators were witnessing. They had already earned their money's worth when they saw both the players play out-of-the-world tennis in the first three sets in which Federer showed his determination to come back from being two sets down (4-6 4-6) to take the third one in a tie-breaker 7-6(7-5). And now with every additional point being played, each person sitting in the stands of Centre-court at the All England Lawn Tennis Club was sure that they would witness one of the greatest comebacks in a Wimbledon final and also that they would probably witness the best ever Wimbledon final in the modern era. Federer, according to me, played the best tennis he has played in the year 2008.

He proved why he is the champion that he is by repeatedly saving break-points and closing the door for Nadal each time. How he did this is a different story altogether. He served those impeccable aces when he needed them most- the most significant being the four that he served in the third set tie-breaker itself- and also played some sensational ground strokes to keep Nadal in check. From the point when Federer forced a fifth set, there was only one thought running through my mind and that was - Is Federer going to win the match and set a new record of six straight Wimbledon titles to beat Borg's record of five and do it in an Epic battle like the 1980 finalhe won against McEnroe?? Well, the answer was a disappointing NO. I sat through the whole match which lasted nearly 4h 40' and when Nadal served out to take the final set 9-7 I realised that there was never going to be another better Wimbledon final for a long time.

Federer may have lost to Nadal after staging the greatest comeback, but according to me he has announced his return to form with a classic display of his skills. I believe he is better equipped to face the Hard court encounters that will soon resume as we build up to the last Grand Slam event of the year at Flushing Meadows in New York City. Nadal on the other hand has shown to the whole world that he is the one player who can keep improving with every single point that he plays and at a young age of just 23, he has a lot of tennis left in him. I believe he will remain the undefeated man on clay for the next three years at the least and will easily surpass the record that Borg holds at Roland Garros with six titles against his name.

I am soon heading for Syracuse University situated in Syracuse City, situated about five hours from NY City. I was planning to save up money to visit the Flushing Meadows next year to witness the great Roger Federer play in the final at the Arthur Ashe stadium at a minimum cost of 80$(thats a lot, but to see such tennis be played I consider it dirt cheap :) ). But having seen the quality of tennis that these two greats have brought out of each other I am thinking about reconsidering my decision and making a trip this year itself to the Championships to witness another staggering display of tennis. Will I get tickets after going there is a big question but if I do and provided that my parents agree, I will be the first person into the stadium on the day it will happen. For all you know maybe noe of them may not even make it to the finals with a player like Novak Djokovic around, but if either of these two players plays even half as well as they did against him then they will easily breeze past him. Such is the quality of these two greats.

I had earlier written about a great rivalry between these two players that has grown and grown over the last few years(The Great Rivalry that is... dated June 8th) and while I was writing that piece of text, I deliberately shied away from comparing this rivalry to the Borg-McEnroe and Sampras-Agassi ones. But now I am proud to say that this rivalry has reached the same standards, if not bettered them in terms of the sheer brilliance of the tennis, the emotion in the games, the extent to which each player pushes his own physique and also the magnificent tennis that each player is able to force out of the other.

Long live the rivalry and may these two entertain each and every soul that comes to watch them play(Well I want to be one of them... :):) And I am hoping to soon be one too!) and bestow upon them the best quality of tennis they can deliver.

QUOTA QUOTA QUOTA!!!

2008-07-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Am back after a brief hiatus. In my last blog I discussed how the absence of a state-wise quota would affect the student mix at the NITs. Today I would like to take up the issue of the most stupid move yet to be made by the ruling government's HRD ministry. The proposed introduction of SC/ST/OBC quota for lecturers and assistant professors in the best engineering institutes in our country aka the IITs can possibly have only one effect- The standard of teaching will come down. The great professors and excellent faculty at the IITs has been their treasure. It is a matter of pride to one and all that these brilliant brains have stayed back in India or have come back to their home country instead of staying abroad in the universities where they may have attained their PHDs from.

They command a lot of respect and are able to rake in the funding required to carry forward all the research work that is going on in the IITs today. These R&D efforts have worked wonders in small and big ways. They have incubated several small but fast growing organisations from their own laboratories and are the base foundation for the way our nation's people are slowly being recognized on the global R&D platform. The cheap, intelligently made handy products are well appreciated and several other countries have started requesting for more such customized products. All this has been possible because the professors and researchers have constantly been churning out ideas with their brilliant application skills.

These esteemed members of the faculty have even turned down plum offers from new private engineering institutes and have stayed back in IITs because they realise the quality and standard of these institutes and want to enhance it further. But this stupid move to bring in 27% OBC, 15% SC and 7.5% ST will only anger these members of the faculty. And how will the administration choose which ones to send out and which ones to keep?? It is a move that is purely political in nature and will only draw flak from even the students who hail from those communities. The students will know the professors under whom they want to pursue their courses and they would always prefer that the quality of the professors is good and not that they are from a particular caste or community.

What angers one and all is the fact that the recent moves made by the government are all only going to degrade the standard of the IITs on the world stage. At a time when these premier institutes are gaining a good stead across the globe such a move is bound to only delay the same. It will take much longer now for foreign students to choose these engineering colleges as their destination to do pursue their education in. What the ministry claims is that if it finds a dearth of asst. professors and lecturers after a year then they can remove this quota system and revert back to the situation that prevails now. The thing they dont realise is that once some of them leave from there, it will be a dent in their pride and they may choose not to come back to the IITs.

The current sentiments echoed by the IIT directors council is very correct and I believe it should be taken up seriously. There should not be any such quota system introduced among the faculty. Lets just wait and see how this issue pans out.

What's happening?!!

2008-06-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago the central government announced that the other-states quota has been abolished from the admission into NITs. The reason behind this was that less talented and less deserving candidates from other states have made it into the NITs through this quota leaving better candidates high and dry. It is true that this has been the case with some states. But what this brought to the NITs and its students is a great diversity. There were students from all parts of the nation- Assam, Sikkim, Kashmir, Andaman, Gujarat etc.- and the students who made it in from these states were among the best talents. Only in very few cases were these students below par. As a student who has just come out of NIT, Trichy I believe that the peer group of which I was a part- NRIs, students from most other states and several from my very own school and city- was excellent and my learnings from the institute and the people who studied with me can be matched by no other place.

But soon all that is set to change, since from now on there shall be a 50% quota for the state in which the particular NIT resides and the remaining 50% shall be admitted through only on an All India Rank basis irrespective of which state the student hails from. Has the government not noticed or does it just choose not to notice that a majority of the top rank holders(AIR Top 1000) come from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and that this quota is only going to result in the loss of the great diversity that the NITs have been boasting of. What is even more funny is the case of NIT Warrangal, which is situated in Andhra Pradesh and hence will have a 50% quota for its students. The remaining 50% will also comprise mostly of students from the same state especially because it is the state which is able to produce the ranks. I guess simple math will result in NIT Warrangal effectively ending up with 100% state quota. This is not to say that the students from Andhra and Rajasthan who are performing well are are not worthy candidates, but I would like to stress that those students who are performing well in both their Board examinations and are able to cough up excellent ranks in these competitive entrance tests don't get their due.

A close look at the candidates from Andhra and Rajasthan will show you that more than 70% of them are at least a year or two older than the normal candidate and that they have been doing nothing else but prepare for these entrance tests after finishing their high school. This is what led to the IITs placing an upper cap on the number of attempts that people could give for the IIT JEE. Several reports have come in over the last decade or so claiming that many of these students from Andhra and Rajasthan have not been able to cope with the competition at the IITs and have buckled under pressure. Now that this new quota regulation has been impressed upon the NITs also, it is only going to dilute the quality of students and hamper the fast growing status of the former Regional Engineering Colleges(RECs).

I truly believe that the batch that was admitted last year into the NITs will be the most luckiest, since they are likely to be the last batch with the most diverse student population in their batch. As mentioned earlier, it has several advantages like bringing together people from all parts of the country. The bonding among students goes just beyond caste and religion. It is a period in their lives when we learn anything and everything. And being part of such a diverse group only enhances the cultural learning and brings to light the several values that people from various parts of the nation nourish and cherish.

I am sure that I echo the sentiments of many other students when it comes to all these matters because there is not a single student I know, who has spoken in support of this move by the government. Taking a closer peak at all this only makes me think more on the political lines. Why the hell is this ruling government taking atrocious steps with the sole aim of winning more votes for the upcoming elections! I believe I am very lucky to be out of the system before it was pushed down to such levels by the HRD ministry.

I started off writing this blog after reading the new quota system(SC/ST/OBC) being introduced in the IITs for the faculty. But I shall hold that topic for discussion on a later date. For now I think it is something we should all think about. Do we want this continuing to happen??

In Love with Cricket

2008-06-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

I was 12 years old people, when I was so crazy about cricket that I even ended up writing a poem. So here it is, my only work of poetry.

In Love with Cricket

Oh, Cricket is a spectacular game,
I fall into a trance when i hear its name,
If i were given a bat and the bowler a ball,
I'd make a score big and tall.
If i were granted a boon for Boon,
To play superbly,I'd surely swoon,
I'd like to represent my country,
And go an test debut and hit a century.
And even in my one day debut,
I think i'll hit a century too.
I may become a spinner,
Since he always turns out to be a winner,
I really like to bowl a yorker,
Which now isn't bowled by Prabhakar.
I could tryout a beamer,
Or who knows? - may be the seamer,
I can bowl the out and in-swinger,
And i could invent an on-swinger.
That's it from me, the little don,
Ans may cricket continue for eons.

PS: I was 'little' back then.. :P

One step at a time

2008-06-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

To all the few people who still visit my blog, I would like to apologise for the absence of posts after June 17th. I have decided to write only when I feel like I have something nice to write about. I do not wish to write for the sake of writing. I have taken this decision with a view to writing more general and non-biographical stuff from now on. Will write something nice pretty soon.

Choti Si Love Story......

2008-06-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time in a small village there was a well built guy who was studying in a well known engineering college. Velu nayaKKar(VN is what I shall call him from now on) hailed from the the nearby city which was close to his college. He was excellent in his academics and was planning to do a MS in the US of A and he had laid the perfect platform for it by getting a very good GRE score. I his pre-final year he took up a very important responsibility and joined a group of 10 others who had also taken up the same role for their own departments. This group gelled together very well and they had great fun with each other.

Their frequent visits to a very nice coffee shop slowly brought out some facts about a very special friend of VN. He used to speak to her regularly on the phone. AJ as we shall call her, was studying in a college nearby VN's and hailed from his school.She was someone VN called a very good friend and nothing more. Her placement season had started and she was gearing up for it. VN was a pillar of support for her and would keep feeding her tips and confidence boosters to equip her for the competition ahead of her. He also had another cousin of his studying in the same college as AJ's but he never cares to ask her about her placements or try to find out if she has been preparing well.

The placement at AJ's college kicked off and VN got all tense. This was a big surprise to all his friends GoBu, google, bumbum, AG et al. They all, though harbouring doubts in their minds about his feelings for her, would keep asking him why he was getting tensed up for his friend's placements. He would just escape by giving some silly reply like- "Close friend da". Company after company came and went and AJ was not making it through. VN would speak hours put together on the phone to console her and motivate her for the next company in line at her college.

And then came the fine day when AJ successfully made it through the recruitment process conducted by a company with a lot of Scope for performance and growth. VN was delighted on that day and even went to the extent of treating his friends Frisky and Baggar to ice-creams for her placement. All the 10 others in his group were taken aback by this action. More than being taken by shock they were all surprised and their doubts about VN's feelings for AJ were cleared up now. they could clearly see that VN had a very special in his heart for AJ, who people now believed was his long time crush.

The more funny thing was that from a few days prior to her placement, VN had taken a vow to have a shave only on the day she got placed. And the day after AJ got her job, Vn finally got rid of his horrible unshaven look and seemed to have a head half the size it was without the shave. One other day at a restaurant in his hometown, he was enjoying lunch with his friends when one of his schoolmates walked in and greeted him. Their conversation shifted toward his girl and this schoolmate also made fun of VN with AJ. The blood in his veins rushed to his brains and in a fit of rage and a wild swing of his arm to call for the waiter, VN had knocked out a few thick glass tumblers from the table and in the process breaking them.

Well, now all that his friends hoped for was a bigger treat from VN after a successful proposal to AJ. That is yet to happen people. And when it does, I shall inform you all about this Choti Si Love Story......

National Anthem(By Vidyasagar??!!!)

2008-06-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

For the first time I got the opportunity to handle the music and computer support for an event at college. When the topic came up I was very eager to grab the chance and when I expressed my willingness, I was readily accepted for the job. With great excitement I set foot into the venue and set up my laptop and interfaced it with the audio system present in the hall. The students were all trickling in one by one and taking their seats in the hall. Sooner than we expected all the important people had arrived and the event kicked off with the inauguration and special lecture going off well.

Then it was time for me to play something during the snacks break and I used the superb 'Sand animation' video to keep the crowd entertained for a whole 10 minutes. After this break, Mr.Murali conducted a very nice group activity, basically a case study to help the participants develop their teamwork and leadership skills. Well that was the whole objective of the entire event. Brasstacks, the annual leadership skills development event conducted by Rotaract clubs from various colleges was, for the first time, conducted by the Rotaract Club of NITT. As a proud member of the club, I got the opportunity to rub shoulders with fellow members from the Roratact clubs of Urumi Dhanalakshmi College and National College. The participants were members from several Rotaract clubs which came under District 3000 region, which includes colleges from cities like Madurai, Dindigul and Trichy to name a few.

After the group activity went off well we set up the place for the valediction ceremony. It was all hush hush in the hall with people running from one end of the stage to another. Only when I stopped my friend and asked him why all this tension did I hear the words - "The Director is coming da". A slight fear gripped me. I did not know why, but I was a little tensed. My only job now was to play the national anthem when it was called for. In all my tension I did not want to mess that up. I had queued up only the anthem in the playlist and was ready to play it when I heard the words- "All rise for the National Anthem". Minute by minute, as all the prizes were being distributed to the winners the tension in me rose and I was even sweating on my nose.

Finally all the formalities were over and it was time for the national anthem of India. I heard the announcement and immediately clicked the Play button on Windows media player and moved to an upright attention position to pay my respect for the national anthem. What followed caused me to freee in shock! The following was what I heard - " (Beats)Dhum.... thak dhum... thak thak.. Ayyarattu Naattukatta... Ayyavoda Koothukatta". I immediately looked down into the laptop and tried to figure out what could be done. Lucky for me, I found the mute person and pressed it hard. Everything grew silent and my mind chose not to hear all the ooohs and aaahs from the crowd. I managed to notice the Director's face which now bore a smirk. Every second thankfully passed like a minute each and in no time I was able to stop the song and play the national anthem.

Thats not the end of it folks, for once I played the anthem and moved again into the respectful attention position, I could hear only silence for a few seconds. Fear gripped me again and only at that moment did I realise that I had put my laptop on mute to silence the song and that I would have to bring it back to normal volume. I quickly removed the mute and increased the volume and stood upright. "Bharata Bhagya Vidatha.."- thats from where we heard the anthem, and I had no option now but to let it run till its completion. I was sweating like crazy, for I had played a horrible movie song tuned in by Vidyasagar for the movie Majaa instead of the beautiful National Anthem written by the great Rabindranath Tagore.

I was glad that the great poet was no more to witness this mistake of mine, for if he had lived to see this day he would have not lived a single moment more. :) All my fellow rotaractors had a ball pulling my leg after the event was over. I had made such a big fool of myself in front of a huge crowd and more importantly in front of the esteemed dignitaries who had taken to the dais that fine day. Today, when I look back at it, I laugh for at least 5 minutes solid and enjoy my moment of glory as the member of the Rotaract Club of NITT.

For those who studied with me in Batch 2008 at NITT, you may be able to relate to this incident as the one mentioned in the comments section under my name in our "Reminiscence '08". If there is one thing I have learned, its that the national anthem was not composed by Vidyasagar. :)

EURO EURO EURO!!

2008-06-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

I guess its finally time to pour out my views on the most happening thing in the sports world- EURO. Holland on a rampage, sensational playing from Portugal and Spain, some of the best goals, great saves, horrible defending, even more pathetic finishing - we have had it all.

Ronaldo has shown the whole world why he deserves to be adjudged the best in the world right now. His impeccable skills and his amazing ability to effortlessly set up goals for his fellow teammates to score is surely going to intimidate any opposition. And he is not the only star in his team, which boasts of Deco, the gifted midfielder with a Brazilian origin and players like Simao and Nuno Gomes who can, on their day, deliver the killer blow to their opposition. This automatically makes the in-form Portugal team one of the favourites to win this championship.

The Spanish Armada seems to be doing really well too. Their smooth and swift movement on the football field, as always, has been very beautiful to watch and with players like Torres and Villa's prolific scoring up front they look a better unit than they were 2 years ago in Germany. But the Spanish have always known to choke once they get past the group stages. We shall soon know
if they have what it takes to go the distance and make use of every opportunity they are presented with.

The Flying Dutch!! Well I think the rest of the world has spoken a lot about them already. Arjen Robben and Van Persie with excellent support from the likes of Sneijder, Nistelrooy and Van der Waart look all set to rattle any opposition's defense. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if they lift the coveted trophy at the end of this month.

I must commend the efforts of some goalkeepers in this tournament. In particular, I would like to cite out the match between Italy and Romania which ended in a disappointing draw. The goalkeepers from both teams made some breathtaking saves and Buffon's penalty save just proves why he is ranked high among the best in the world.

I dont want to speak out all that i have observed because I feel the media has already done that well. The match I am watching as I write this post(Czech vs turkey), I think will go down to penalties. Both the teams lack pace in the midfield and their strikers are not the best finishers around. It should be an interesting watch nonetheless. Both the teams will give their all to this match and will want to go through to the knockout stage. I particularly liked the confidence exuded by the Turkish players during the pre-match press conference. I believe that may be a key factor that could help them

Lets see. In a couple of hours we will know which team goes through. And in 3 days time, when the group stages end, we would have witnessed some very entertaining and gripping contests, especially in Group C where Italy takes on France, and I hope to be hungry for more and more of this contest.

We lost, yes... but its for our own good.

2008-06-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... I believe this loss actually augurs well for India. The billion people in our country were on cloud nine after the Bangladesh game before the finals of the tri-series that just concluded. They felt this team was on its way to unseen glory. Praises were thrown in for the team from every corner of the nation. And I actually believe they did not deserve all of that. The Pakistan team were very complacent after their comfortable victory over the hosts. And they were buried dead by the Indians who fired as a unit. But it was all just too good to be long lasting.

If they had won today, then they would have been hailed as one of the best ever teams. And the media would have celebrated them like they achieved a phenomenal feat. But now that they have lost, I think it is only right that the media take note of the successful players from this tournament and not criticise their loss in the finals, after they were touted to be the favourites. All the players are slowly recovering from their IPL hangovers.

They will now sit down and analyse their bowling, which still lacks that sting. They are unable to contain the opposition when they start scoring at a good rate. Now that they have been silenced, they can start over and prepare well for the Asia Cup, which is of more importance. I believe they have a very good side which can bring home the trophy. This loss today shows the potential of the Pakistan team. And this can easily be bettered by the current Indian team. They can, through proper discussions and observations make out the strengths and weaknesses of this Pakistan side and use this knowledge against them in the upcoming Asian championship.

As Harsha Bhogle has written in his column on espnstar.com, there is a nice pool of about 20-25 players which the Indian selectors can choose from. It has a very good mix of experience and youth and this is very essential in building a well balanced team for the not-so-far-off champions trophy and the 2011 world cup scheduled to take place in the subcontinent. MS Dhoni is a worthy captain and I believe he can, with a little learning, marshall these Blues to a successful campaign in both these big events.

Medi(a)ocre...

2008-06-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Kindly read the Breaking News and Headlines in the pictures shown below:

Very nice is it not?!!!! These pictures, I received today from a friend of mine. At first, I was shocked to see how stupid these news channels could concentrate on even the most idiotic matters to the limelight. I feel that the public anger against today's media is totally justified. We the people, have every right to question the competence of these umpteen news channels that grace our TV screens day in day out. I would like to say that at least one of the above pictures does look suspicious, with a possibility that someone may have morphed the news line into the picture. Still I was really put off looking at these pictures.

But then i remembered about a channel called 'Headlines Today'. I recollected how well they discussed the MMS scandal. They attracted all the viewers to their channel, not because the discussions and arguments were informative, but because they screened a slightly(very slightly) censored version of one of the famous MMS's where a naked girl is making poses for the cameraman lying on a bed. From that day on, I have never ever tuned into that channel. Because I always knew they are up to no good. I am sure that last night 60% of the airtime would have been spent discussing the costliest film that hit the cinema screens today.

I believe that there are very few news channels that still hang on to their credibility. One of the them is CNN-IBN. Everything right from the reporting to the language and quality of presentation are better with this particular channel. It is one of the very few channels that people immediately tune to, be it the daily dose of news or the exceptionally accurate Opinion polls before the elections.

Many of the channels today have been started with one sole aim- to make big bucks!! And that they are able to provide some Mediocre news coverage and exceptional entertainment coverage. I doubt they will showcase the growing inflation as a concern on par with a bleeding finger that Aishwarya Rai suffered during some shoot.

Well these channels ever improve their standard to serve the people better??
Only time will tell!

My Finest Entertainment Experience... Not quite

2008-06-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today me and my friends decided to go watch the latest sequel to the Indiana Jones trilogy. The venue was the Satyam Cineplex, and we were looking forward to a enthralling experience with excellent visual and sound effects aided by the new RDX technology employed by one of the most famous multiplexes in South India. We were a big group of 12 guys who had assembled at the venue well ahead of time and had purchased the tickets worth 90 bucks a head. We were very eager to take our seats in the Satyam hall in the cineplex - capable of hosting 1200 members for a show it is one of the biggest screens in Asia.

The previous day we had doubts if we would get tickets for the movie since it had shattered all Box-office records world over and carried excellent reviews. As we entered the hall we were greeted by the last few frames of the Trailer of 'Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na'. I was a little disappointed to have just missed it since I wanted to listen to the music-composed by AR Rahman, the maestro- that the trailer would carry. I also was surprised by how empty the hall was. We were seated in row M and all the remaining rows in front of us were all completely empty, but for the Rs 20 tickets right up front.

We took our seats and waited for the long series of advertisements that would usually follow. But this time it took a little longer for the screen to change from its blank state. We decided to make use of the short delay to get some drinks and popcorn from the atrociously high-priced food outlets of the cineplex. We waited for ten more minutes and were still faced with a nice blank screen and complete silence in the cinema hall. We then decided that our great icon from college, his highness, the Great MANUJ should be remembered and honoured in the cinema hall. This idea arose he was present in the same hall seated in the balcony area with a ticket worth 120 bucks. So, I just called him up and asked him to peep from the balcony area to right under the balcony where we were all seated as one big group in a single row. The moment all the people around me noticed him they all went up in unison - "MMMANUUUUUUUJJ!!!!". The guy was totally embarassed and went right back to his seat. Only moments later did we notice that the whole crowd in the hall was looking in our direction. We had realised how famous we had made Manuj!

A few minutes passed and we came back to our normal state and only then did we realise that 20 minutes had passed and the gigantic screen was still blank and nothing had appeared since the 'Jaane Tu...." trailer. All of us in the hall were now getting frustrated and restless. The people in the rows right next to the entry doors were being offered free popcorn to make up for the delay. Time just kept passing. We were enjoying our popcorn, no doubt about that, but more importantly we wanted to see the movie. It was almost an hour past the scheduled starting time of 1:15 pm when the theatre employees finally informed us that the screening was cancelled and that we could collect our refund from the ticket counters! Everyone was thoroughly pissed and stressed out after wasting so much time in the hall without having even witnessed a single frame of the movie.

Finally, we all decided to proceed to I-NOX to watch the same movie at 4:15 pm. All went well at the I-NOX multiplex and the movie experience was thoroughly satisfying as far as the quality of the hall and media systems were concerned. But there was one thing that still irked me , and that was the prices of the food items available. It was even higher than what rates were quoted at the Satyam cineplex. While a 650ml cup of Coke costs 45 bucks at Satyam, a 400ml cup of the same costs 50 bucks at I-NOX!! We did not feel too hungry thanks to all the free popcorn we were showered with, especially because it lasted till the gates to Citicentre. :)

I think the owners of Satyam cineplex are really lucky not to own the same facility in a country like USA, because then such a technical lapse would have resulted in a severe consequence. The moviegoers would have happily sued the owners for mental torture and walked away with thousands of dollars. But they are in such a nice country like India, where Free popcorn and ticket refunds are enough to keep the people quiet. This is not the first such occurence. One of my friends who went through the same experience today with me had gone through a surprisingly long 75 minute intermission while watching the new Narnia movie.

Thanks to all this I will, for the first time in my entire life, think twice before booking tickets at the (in)famous Satyam cineplex. Not quite my Finest Entertainment Experience(Something the cineplex boasts to offer to its customers).

About the movie, I think its been really well made to suit the aged Harrison Ford who has given an inspired and breathtaking performance. I would recommend this movie to all moviegoers since it was a thorough entertainer which made me laugh on more than one occasion with its witty dialogue and kept me interested in all the action sequences which had us guessing as to how the great Professor Henry Jones would get out of each situation.

Verdict for the day: Watch Indianajones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at I-NOX preferably. :)

"If you wish today(june 11th)..... Its Two days(too) late!!! " :)

2008-06-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

It was the day we were planning for, with the gifts all ready. The cake already ordered, and the venue all made to look normal. No traces of a surprise party to be thrown. But the room next to this one was filled of activity, full anticipation on all the faces. Very crowded and host to the excellent chocolate cake that Classic Foods had baked on our orders. One by one they people started trickling in.

"Why so late da?? We have been waiting for you... And Where the hell is Ashish?? Not yet come?!! Late as always... Call him da!!! "

"Hi Vatsu... I am coming man... I am outside TP only... Had some work in octa..."

That monday morning was full of activity and everyone was doing there work a little too sincerely in the Office room since they wanted to make "The old man"(As Cecil[senior from Mech] calls him :P) happy and also not to give away the impending surprise. It was the first and last time we would, as a team have an opportunity to throw a surprise party for this person we respected and regarded highly. We wanted it to be as perfect as possible. SK had called and expressed his sorrow for not being present able to attend the occasion.

"Finally!! Ashish has come... Are we all ready to do this?? Ok check if sir is there..."

After casually walking into the office room, I found that he was not there. He had been in that big wheel chair of his just a couple of minutes prior to that moment. Then we heard that he had just gone out and would be back soon. This wait added more to our tension and we were too eager now. An hour had already passed from the time we were supposed to spring up the surprise celebrations. 15 minutes passed and finally The Old man finally walked in and took his seat. I walked back into the next room and closed the door behind me.

"Ok people.. He has come. Time to do it.. Come on"

We picked up all the necessary things and as a big group assembled in front of his big table. The cake was placed on top of the glass slab and he was pleasantly surprised.

"Happy Birthday Sir!! A very Happy birthday to you!", we all said in unison.

He initially had no words for a few seconds, but a few moments on he said :
"Oh! What a pleasant surprise?!! I never expected this!! Thank you so much!! But I am sorry to say ITS TWO DAYS TOO LATE!!! My Birthday was over on the 9th of June itself! "

Terror and shock gripped our faces!! We had absolutely nothing to say! We were short of any words!! The only thing we managed to utter was a muffled "OHHHHH!!". After a few seconds we all git back to our senses and realised our blunder. We all passed on our apologies to the Old man who now said that both us and our seniors had committed the same mistake. We felt a sudden hollow within us and did not know how exactly to react after hearing those words from sir's mouth.

But the great man that he is, he brought us into cheerful moods by expressing his happiness at being totally surprised. He then cut the cake and kicked off the party, one surrounded by an invisible cloud of disappointment. How could we have done something like this??!!! But then we moved on and gifted sir the books we had neatly wrapped. He was definitely not expecting this and was taken by further surprise. This brought us back to our spirits and we motioned for Sruti to do the honours with the cake. She ceremoniously cut the cake into a uniform grid of pieces, much like she managed to do several times in the following year.

Thinking back 364 days from today, it all seems so funny and stupid. How we had made the mistake of finding out the wrong birthday and goofing up what should have been a very special day for the Old man. The old man, of course, is none other than Dr. A.K.Bakthavatsalam. Our mentor, our guide, our teacher, our friend, our Head. We owe so much to this man who has inculcated several good habits, values and ideals in the lives of all those who are part of STUD BATCH '08!!! Am sure I am speaking on behalf of all of them when i say He is the best for the job of finding jobs for the students and no one else can take that place.

But today was very different. I made sure I wished him at 0000 hours by message and then gave him a call when he was treating all my juniors at Sangeethas as he always does. A couple of my friends almost made the mistake of forgetting this special day. June 9th, a date that shall never be forgotten for all the reasons I just wrote about. But I am quite sure there will be at least a couple of defaulters who will call up on the 11th and wish him(thanks to the fake orkut profile showing it as 11th).

Well here is a modified version of our theme song for all those who commit that mistake:

"If you wish today(june 11th)..... Its Two days(too) late!!! " :)

Happy Birthday Sir!! Many more happy returns of the day!! :)

The Great Rivalry that is...

2008-06-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Fresh out of the french open final where Fedex was thrashed by the Raging Spanish Bull Nadal, I have accepted that Rafa(as people call him) is the undisputed king of clay. I believe he is the only worthy man on the face of this earth to deserve a shot at even coming close to breaking Borg's record of 6 french opens. The level of tennis he unleashed in the final was simply a class apart from anyone else on the ATP tour right now. I think even the great Bjorn Borg would have been totally impressed with the strokes in this 22 year old's repertoire.

He had the audience spellbound right from the word go. The Federer Express was derailed pretty convincingly by the World No. 2 with renewed vigour. But what was really nice to see was the words that the two players had to share at the presentation ceremony. Federer was very quick to commend Nadal and mention how great and unbeatable he was on clay, while Nadal sprang a slight surprise by extensively praising Federed for being a great player, the World No.1 and an excellent competitor.

Nadal with his new and improved game which boasts of extra-special shots from his backhand seems to be better equipped for Wimbledon this year. The rivalry between these two greats of modern day tennis is all set to go that one step higher. If the two players play to their abilities then come 6th July and we should witness a breathtaking final between the man in his three-fourths and the Swiss maestro with the best single-handed backhand. It should be an awesome treat lasting two weeks from 23rd June culminating with the final for all those ardent tennis fans.

There is not much doubt about a good performance from Nadal, but the doubts arise with the five time defending champion, Roger Federer. We have to say his form this year has been dismal to say the least. He looks much more beatable even at Wimbledon. But the Swiss smartie will be looking to turn the tide and go past Borg to take his 6th consecutive Wimbledon singles title to regain his form. He will also be aware of the challenge he is likely to face from the youngster he lost to at Melbourne this January. Novak Djokovic has proved how tough and intimidating he can be as an opponent.

Whichever of these players - Nadal, Federer or Djokovic- comes out victorious at the most prestigious and respected Grand Slam Tournament this July, the overall winner will be the Game of Tennis and its numerous fans across the globe. Guess we will just have to wait n see...

But for now... I guess I wil just enjoy the great football unfolding at Euro 2008 for the next 3 weeks. It should one cracker of a tournament.

At last i am here..

2008-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Its something several people have taken to. Right from the famous celebrities who brave the flashlights from the cameras to the happy go-lucky college dude sporting his Tantra T-shirts and i-pod. Blogging is something that seems to help people freely express their thoughts and views and have some fun by poking jokes at their friends.

I think this blog is something that will help me kill sometime everyday till at least i fly off to Syracuse, NY. Please try to appreciate my writing, for its never ever been commended by anyone i knew at college. I must say i was surprised to score a 4.5 in my GRE analytical writing section, cos i really felt i did not do total justice to that stupid para of an argument.

For those people who want to take a trip down memory lane at NITT i can promise that my blog will do a good amount of justice on that front. Anyways, welcome to the blog of TP anna. :)