Resolutions '09

Ok, I haven't been a huge fan of New Year Resolutions, but just for the sake of increasing my blog count (Ya, I know, am a bit of a narcissist that way, thank you :D), I take up this activity. By doing this I am breaking my last year's resolution of 'Not making any more New Year resolutions'. So you see, I don't have an awesome history of keeping my resolutions. So anyways, what the heck....Here goes:

In the Year 2009, I resolve

1) To read more books- Everytime I go into a book store, I get a feeling that 'Man! I have so much to read.' Alas! this feeling lasts only up until I am inside the store. :) So, say around 10? Yes, not too high, not too low. The aim is pretty achievable, Lets hope so :P

2) To lose weight- Hehe, I am LMAO as I even write this coz I know this aint gonna happen. But anyways, will 'try' to lose 5Kg this year. That doesnt mean, I will let go of the ice creams, cakes, chocs. That aint gonna happen. Sorry.

3) To worry/cry/crib less and enjoy/laugh/smile more :)

4) To reduce the number of snap judgements I make esp. w.r.t. people

5) To spend more time offline.

6) To realise that "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." (With ack to Randy Pausch)

Hmmm, thats more than enough. Wait, theres one more

7) To write more blogs.
Hehehe....

Did I miss out on any? Well, then I also resolve

8) To resolve any resolutions next year,(hopefully)that I may have missed to resolve this year.

As I finish writing, I realise that "resolve" can also mean "re-solve" so that means I get another chance to solve if I fail to resolve? I should be right? As it is, I am re-solving which means I have tried it to "solve" it earlier but since I failed, I am re-solving?
What am I writing!!!! Seems like I have gone on a high without any liquor. High on Life probably....

Adios 2008, 2009 - what do you have in store for me boss?

Life sure is a Ferris Wheel....atleast for me.

The title has been borrowed/plagiarised/copied/inspired from Charuta's blog. Ack to Charuta. But the last 4 months have made me appreciate the analogy even more. Its been over 4 months of my graduate studies here in the US and it now feels like my ferris wheel has been 'not so gently' pushed, in fact it has been pushed pretttty hard. Great news, good news, ok news, not so ok news, depressing news, not so ok news, ok news, good news and back again to great news. The cycle goes on and on and on. You cant help yourself but just ride it. We enjoy the ride on its way up but become all grumpy on our way down. OK, maybe its incorrect to generalise, just replace the "We/our" with "I/my" in the previous line.

The last 4 months have been quite a learning and humbling experience for me. The disappointments were sad,depressing and hard to swallow, but the little moments of success did cover up for the disappointments, well almost. Us humans are so filled up with insatiable hunger, to the point of being haawrat(marathi). As the ad goes "Thoda aur chalega", everytime we lose something, we say, well atleast itna to milna chahiye tha. And when we get that, we say, ok this is fine, but should have got much more. I mean, when will this ever stop? Guess, this is what makes us humans go higher,deeper,faster,stronger etc etc. but it also brings in a sense of incompleteness, unhappiness.

Veered off topic, the point was the 4 months have been an education in itself. With 3 years of work experience, you get used to a certain way of life, enjoying on weekends, not thinking to much on daily/weekly/monthly spendings, eating out without the guilt.....all this changed. Coming to gatech, I soon realized that life aint that simple. My hopes of job and/or funding vanished faster than ummm...well something that vanishes fast.(hehe, couldnt find an analogy.) Rejections at job interviews, refusals and banishment from professors' office, all were bitter pills to swallow. Small incidents like the one at the grocery store when we had to remove some items from our basket as we didnt have enough money or the one at Macy's store when the security person mocked at us when we told him we had no car were unthinkable just a few months back. I had learnt my lesson. I had come to the US with some assumptions. The assumptions proved to be incorrect. I feel much more grounded and humble than I was ever before. Now the weekends dont hurt any more:)

Last week, seemed to find favor with lady luck and the ferris wheel has come a full circle but this time some things are different. I dont know whether to celebrate this little moment of success because I fear, that the dark clouds might just be around the corner, waiting for the moment when you think, things are fine. And then, they turn up like uninvited guests to ruin your moment.Gita(not the female, but the book :D) talks about the state of sthithapragya. I do understand its relevance, all the more at this moment.

I think this time around with a few things going my way, i will be wary because the ferris wheel just keeps on going up and then down and then up again. I know that "This too shall pass", but deep down I hope that it doesn't.

I sure do hate Mondays........

Found this video. Dedicated to most of my friends in the software industry. Yeah, most coz a few of them actually wait for monday so that they can get back to computer, office and work. Man.....

P.S. For people with slow bandwidth - here are the lyrics.

Quantum of Solace, Dostana

It was my first movie theatre experience in the states yesterday. After months of dwelling as to whether spend so much on the entertainment, me and my friends decided that we indeed needed a change a. la. Obama and then the change did come to Westshire. Hehehe. So we thought to wait for the new Bond movie to be released in the states which was released one week earlier in India.(OK that was surprising!!)

If people were expecting that after the Casino Royale humanisation of Bond, the producers might take back Bond to the pedestal of invincibility, then they would be disappointed. James Bond is more human and more vulnerable in this movie and that is why I liked it. He makes mistakes, gets his tuxedo dirty, gets his aston martin all crushed, gets hit hard, gets a bloody nose.....unlike the previous Bonds, where you would need a lens to find a speck of dirt on his suit. The action sequences are simply awesome and worth a balcony ticket in the theatre. I enjoyed Craig's performance though his role demanded not many expressions. Bond babe-Olga has quite a meaty role in the action sequences - again a shift from the previous bond movies. The other babe has almost a non-existent role. Overall worth a spend. Caution: Watching this movie from the front rows might make you a zombie after you come out.:)

We came home and decided to watch Dostana - OMG why did we do that? The movie sucks. If you want to see how even a rock can have more expressions then humans-Bobby 'dagad' deol and Johny boy, watch this film. We had a laugh riot not because of any of the jokes but just because of how stupid a movie can be. Apparently it is a copy, albeit a pretty bad one. A few scenes have been picked up from F.R.I.E.N.D.S Typical KJo movie, all exotic locations, targetted towards the NRI audience, with all the actors, faking a US accent. Dunno why they do that?WATCH THIS MOVIE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The evolution of the westshire scavengers....

Ok, my roommates will kill me for branding everyone a scavenger. So sorry guys:).No offense intended.:P One of the things that non funded Indian Grad students do(atleast we do:P) is look around for stuff on the roads. US guys have this habit of use and throw stuff(In a more euphemistic tone, place it outside their homes....near their dustbins...:D) and many times in pretty good condition. So we now have stuff like sofas,radio,furniture,lamps,ovens,bose sound system(ya, but it doesnt work....damn). We have come a long way in our scavenging pursuits. Here are some of the stages that we have been through. Adding some examples of items that we have brought :P

Stage-1 a.k.a 'Fukat te paushtik' stage -
Utility - Who cares?!!!
Space in house - Who cares?!!!
e.g. Electric candle - Power cuts are a rarity, and even if one happens, what are we going to do with an electric candle?Hehehe

Stage-2 a.k.a 'Lets try to use it' stage -
Utility - Is it really useful? Well, may be or may be not, lets 'try' to use it :) which never happens. hehehe
Space in house - Shall make space for this!!!
e.g.Electric portable Fan - for a centrally cooled home, an electric fan?? So we 'tried' to use it....Now it lies somewhere deep down...dunno where:)

Stage-3 a.k.a 'Use it or lose it' stage -
Utility - Is this reallllllllly useful? Yes
Space in house - Yes
e.g. table lamps, infact we did get pretty neat ones i would say:)

Stage-4 a.k.a 'If we need it, we will buy it' stage
We are yet to reach this stage. You need funding to reach this stage.:)
Utility - Yes, pretty damn useful
Space in house - Yes

So all in all, its been quite a fun, learning and humbling experience. Learnt how fickle life can be. Few months ago, was quite seeing the good side of life and now this :)

Glorious foooooooooooood

Ok, the title has been blatantly plagiarised from the Ice age OST. But the song definitely resonates my feelings for food, all the more after coming here. Heres a list of top 10 items that I am desperately craving for......

10) Sandwiches/Pizzas at Zest
9) Gulab Jamun
8) Bun Maska Chaha at Mehendale
7) Pohe,tea at "Aishwarya" eat out
6) Cold coffee at Durga
5) Sabudaana khichadi
4) SPDP/chat/bhel/puni puri et. all.
3) Jhunka, kanda bhaji at Singhagadh
2) Varan,Bhaat,Bhaji,Poli,Koshimbir et. all.
1) Puran Poli

When I return back, I promise myself to gorge on the above dishes. Wut else can i stuff myself up with? Hmmm...point to ponder...until then, More rice and bread to eat...and that too cooked by me....Buaaahahahahahaha....:(

Alternate career paths...

Yesterday, I watched Hyderabad Blues 2 and remembered that the director/actor Nagesh Kukunoor did his masters in US. He worked here for a few years, but apparently moved to India to follow his passion of film making. So, thought of listing down a few alternate career paths if things dont work out here....
1) Chef - since you have got no choice but to cook your own food, unless you are filthy rich(read your dad's filthy rich) or have got dumb roomies who wont mind cooking for you everyday,(probability of that happening is miniscule) your culinary skills would certainly improve with each day.
2) US education consultant - Ya a no brainer, advising young students, who have absolutely no idea of higher education in US would be a cakewalk.
3) US accent trainer - 2 years in US, you will certainly learn to imitate the american accent. With a little more effort, you could learn the texan drawl or the western dialect. The innumerable call centers back home would fight for you.
4) Author - Just like five point someone, pen down your experiences and who knows, your book might just become a hit. If bhagat's novel can be published, all average writers should dream of publishing theirs too.
and finally
5) Philosopher - You may or may not master the subject that you came to specialize in, but if you dont get any internships, jobs and funding, you are sure to become an expert in philosophy.
To paraphrase Socrates' famous quote:
By all means, do an MS. If you get a good life, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher..

:))
any other paths??

Fall break is prison break time.........

With the fall term half way through, have a fall break of 5 holidays. Time to catch up on some episodes of Prison Break. I had finished season 1 back in India. So after a long hiatus, its back to PB time. The 1st season was awesome. All the characters have been done so amazingly. The actors have done a wonderful job and most importantly, the writers have been able to end episode with the viewer wanting for more. Abruzzi, TBag, Sukre, Lincoln and the hero - Schofield, everyone fits into their roles. Mebbe will write a blog on the characters. Season 4 is here and it would be quite a thing to maintain the interest. Lots of twists, interesting sub plots and those thrilling ends. As they say no one can see just one. You always crave for more episodes......As the tag line goes...."Breaking out was easy, getting away will be hard"

6 Flags nite

Quite a procrastinated blog....

Last friday was quite an amazing night. Another one of those when you got the feeling of being 'alive'. For some moments, let go of my tensions, stresses, inhibitions and had a whale of a time. Heres a rundown of the fun rides that I had at 6 flags. The descriptions are taken from 6 flags advert pamphlet.

1) Goliath - Standing over 200 ft. tall and approaching speeds of upto 70 mph. Goliath is a giant among coasters.

My take: You gotta be a freak to take this ride as your first roller coaster. Hehehe. Seriously, once you take this, the other rides are all paplu. It takes an eternity to reach 200 ft. You feel your hearts and other parts will pop off. And the seats are such that your entire upper body is open. the first fall when you fall straight down is one helluva fall. True to its name, it sure is goliath.5/5

2) Scorcher - Riders stand not sit as they head-over-heels across a looping inverted track.

My take: Initially we thought that my friend was joking. How can you have a roller coaster with people standing?? But then, there we were, standing and thinking, ok what have we got ourselves into. You actually feel the extra g force. Quite an experience standing. Best part is when it inverts you and you are doing shirshasan in motion.:) 5/5

3) Superman (Ultimate flight) - The South's only roller coaster dives head first through tortuously twisted turns and a pretzel shaped inverted loop.

My take: No, they dont quite make you wear your inners outside to ride the roller coaster, come to think of it, that would have been the easier option :P. You sit in a bucket and strap. The floor goes down, and the seats turn so that you are facing the ground. Sounds easy..eh? 5/5

4) Batman (The ride) - Fly with batman on ski lift style trains suspended from the track.

My take: In other rides, theres some breathing space for the riders between loops. This one has none. And the worse part is turn 360 along the length of the track, which is like flipping in a car along the side. Just waiting for the ride and watchin people go all screaming put us in a spin.

Some advice for people taking the roller coaster:
1) Eat/Drink after you have taken all the rides.
2) Think of the thrills/adrenaline rush, instead of the fear of the rides. The moment you think that you wont be able to do the ride, you are right:)
3) When in the ride, just enjoy the ride and yes scream at the top of your voice ;)

Sabse vadda rupaiyya

Recipe for disaster:

Humans of different characters/personalities - 9
Some real psychos/crackpots - 1 is enough, but more the number, larger the explosion
Friendship - Few kilograms
Camaraderie - Lots of it

Wait a sec I thought this recipe is turning into a yummy recipe. Hehe, a potent ingredient is missing

Money conflict - One drop is more than enough

and Boom!!! there goes the entire kitchen up in flames.

Its been only about 3 weeks out here and its disappointing and disgusting to find people squabbling. More than people squabbling, its the fights between friends that disturbs me the most. And the amount of money involved is not that significant. Don't know if thats the 'American Money mindededness' that my fellow indians are getting polluted with, or maybe they are just an exception and I am reading just too much into it. Whatever the case be, the frenzy it has caused is really not worth it.

I am of the opinion that if you can "purchase" peace of mind, you really shouldn't think twice before buying it. Oh! how badly I miss my friends back home where money was the last thing on our minds, in fact it wasn't there at all.

So thats the simplest and quickest recipe for a disaster. If you wanna see the friendship bridges go up in flames in one sec without an atomic bomb being dropped on them, the above mentioned recipe should work well. The sad part is, theses bridges cant be rebuilt at all, no matter how strong the original construction was.

Tamatar waale ki kahani

As I sit and write this blog, I realise that the next 5 months would be crucial. With no funding from the college, my resources are burning up faster than a rocket burns fuel(yikes, what an analogy....hehe) 42 point something something times faster than it would have burnt had I been in India sitting idle. With the insecurities gradually turning into fear, I happened to receive this mail from my friend telling me of a story of the fallen tomato cart. Heres the story. The mail claims it is written by some CEO by the name bagchi. Cant really comment on that but that is unimportant anyways. I found the story interesting and it made me sit up and think. Its interesting that the when I see and compare myself against the tomato vendor, things seem so much better. I have a roof over my head, I have been admitted to a good school. Its true, that we ponder with the what ifs and what if nots that we forget about living in the present. Although the story hasnt lifted my spirits to an extent to which I would have liked it to, but when I see the bigger picture, the longer run (some of the mgmnt mumbo-jumbo that I have learnt), I realise that things will hopefully change and change for the better. I guess I will have to just wait a lot more, dunno how much, but seems like lady luck is still aint impressed with me. Will need some magic for things to change. I hope the wait isnt too long. 5 months to go and the clocks ticking and with each tick, my pulse rates increasing. I just hope that my hope is not hoping against hope. Else work on the backup plan of Wada Paav stall at times square would begin. Beware McD, you guys better hope that things change at my end, else its bad news for you guys.......

'Advice' is what you get when you ask for money

Yep, these are the words with which my previous CTO described the condition which they faced when they went to VCs for funding their startup. I am reminded of the same words as I face almost the same condition. Well, not exactly the same condition, but am looking for money.Anyways, so have met many people and them for funds, and each one has one same advice. "Commit for a PhD, We need long term commitment". So my take is, isnt 2 years long term? Theres this one project which has funding up until 2010. So if the project is not going to last for the entire duration of my PhD, why should these guys expect a long term commitment from me? Anyways, So everyday, my routine has been to pick up my sack, go to some prof, beg for funds, tell him that I am undecided on a PhD, and see the change in his expression, hear the same old advice, thank him, walk back dejected every single day. Dunno how many more times will I have to face the same thing. Seems like this number is going to be high.
Some days I ponder whether this is what I deserve? But then, life wouldnt be life had it been fair you see, atleast in the short term, atleast that is what I would like to believe so.
So here I am, having forefeited a fairly comfy life in search for a more comfy life. I just hope I havent screwed it up. Only time shall tell.
Yeah, "Advice" is surely what you get when you ask for money.

Missing my company.............

Having left my job in the last month and getting back to the old grind of academics, heres the list of things that I am missing.....(not in any particular order)

1) Evening snacks and the long chat sessions with my friends
2) Weekly movie
3) Friends
4) Night outs in front of terminals
5) TT Table
6) Free beverages and biscuits
7) Sweets at desk
8) My Salary :(
9) Flexi timings
10) The parties - birthday, team lunches, release parties.....
11) Entertainment server
:(

Missing everything :(

Trip from Pune to Mumbai and back - Rs 500
Food costs - Rs 250
Tickets - Rs 2200

Watching the IPL final cliffhanger match at the stadium LIVE !!!! - Priceless.

There are some moments in your life that make you feel so ALIVE that you feel so . One such moment happened to me watching the nail biting finish of the IPL final match. Heres how it all started.

It was Thursday afternoon when one of my friends told me that the tickets were available online. But the catch was the price was 2k. My threshold initially was 1500 but then thought, what the heck, lets go for it. And Thank God for my decision.

Plagiarising heavily from the Mastercard Ad, the one liner sums up the entire experience "There are somethings money surely can't buy.....

Shock Market

I opened my DeMat account long time back but it took some time to put my first penny into the Stock market. Guess, I shall attribute my reluctance to my gene pool as coming from a middle class family and that too from a Marathi middle class family where "Thy shall not put your money into the stock market" is the 11th commandment which has to be followed very religiously. For a long time, I watched the stock prices like a spectator watching a game from the sidelines, applauding, shouting, hooting, expressing a lot of emotions but all as an outsider, someone who has nothing to lose or win for that matter, no matter what the result is. All the emotions were essentially second hand experience(theres a GRE word for this but damn cant remember it[:D]). Then one day it all changed and I put my money in some stocks. Life has never been the same.
I remember participating in some mock stock competition in college some years back(finished 3rd out there btw earning around Rs 350 for an investment of Rs 50:D --- yeah apne muh miyaa mithu) where people traded mock stocks and the principle which most followed was ......If a company has some good news, people would throng to buy it, and if some bad news is put up against it, everyone would start selling. I used to wonder that although this principle was correct, it was amateurish and I was convinced that real stock market buy/ sell would not be based on such near sightedness. But having seen the stock market and some stock prices in the past 8 months, I have realized that the principle still holds true. In the recent black mondays,tuesdays.....fridays, it seems that people sell or buy on just pure good or bad sentiment. The recent mega crash in which the market crashed from 20k-21k to about 13k-14k saw lakhs and crores being wiped off in a single day. I guess people want instant money and when they see the prices of their stocks reduced to a rubble, in such a short span of time, the first reaction to the selling pressure is to run away with as much as you can take.
I sure have learnt something. People looking for large short term profits need to have big hearts and deep pockets. People do get themselves screwed in their quest for quick money. Greed is one human quality and many including me have fallen prey. Long term profits can be gained on most big companies, again theres some risk involved but then stock market means some risk. You try to wonder if you can have a scientific explanation for the stock market prices and you realise that if at all theres one, it would be something beyond my comprehension. The only explanation is good news == more buyers == increase in stock price and vice versa.
The quintessential sermons that are given in a maharashtrian family that "Stock Market हां एक जुगार आहे " now doesn't sound that wrong i suppose. In the short term, it sure is no better than BlackJack.......But then again, even blackjack can be cracked open.........

Happy .....er not so Happy Birthday

Birthdays come and birthdays go, but this birthday was my weirdest. It was different as it wasn't preceded by any excitement but on the contrary filled up with a feeling of trying to hold on to my previous age. When you are a child, you always want more and more birthdays, you want them to come fast as you look forward to get rid of the 'child' tag and become an adult. I have concluded that this eagerness lasts until the age 24, after which you want just the opposite. Birthdays should come as late as possible, try to delay the inevitable, well in this case you cant even try. So birthdays will no longer remain birthdays. As Ronan Keating sings, life is surely a roller coaster and you gotta ride it. Just that roller coasters end with a steep drop where all the fun is, life begins with a steep drop and then at some point of time, the fun ceases and the ride turns into more of a slow, gradual upward movement against the gravity, with no more steep drops where one can scream, shout, laugh, wave......[:(] I came across this interesting and real funny perspective on how life should be.
Anyways, this birthday was weird and memorable, made even more memorable by employees of ATN. Thanks to them, I remembered my bday for the next 4 days.......ouch it still hurts.....
Some thoughts:
1) Age could be made expressed always as keeping 24 yrs as base value. So 25 yrs would be 24 yrs 12 months..........
2) Use of different numeric base. So 25 yrs would be 19 in hex......(Thanks to phdcomics for this suggestion)
3) Tax people who ask your age but do not accept it in the above two formats.

Bryan bhaiyya says 18 till I die. Worth a try.......

Ratzzzz.....its 2008

Well, its that time of the year again when everyone wishes "Happy" new year. Point to be noted ...."Happy". And its the Rat year....ye!!!! So, I decide to look around for Chinese astrology. Why? Well I have enough time to kill. So any random topic is good enough.[:)] Google throws up this site http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/2008.htm
The site has enough material for me on which i can waste time since i do not believe in too much astrology, let alone chinese one. But the results that this site throws up are really interesting.
Apparently I am a Green cow born in the year of black pig and it can be said that i am a wood cow.Hehehe. So far so good. My lucky element is Metal. Now the real fun starts. The site concludes the following things about the green cow, wood for the year 2008, the rat year.
1) Rat is the Romantic Star only for people born in year of Rabbit, Sheep or Pig. If Rabbit, Sheep and Pig people look for the love, they have more chance to meet the opposite sex. (Oh ho.....sahi hai dost, sahi hai)
2) Therefore Female Water and Wood men have more chance to meet the female in 2008. If they have good relationship with their girls now, they can think about the marriage, specially for the ones born in years of Rabbit, Sheep and Pig. If the marriage doesn't happen in 2008 for above-mentioned people still have very good chance and relationship with their boy or girl friends.(I am already starting to love chini astro)

The site also charts my rise and fall of my life and believe it or not predicts it too.
3) I was luckless between ages 10-19.(Yeah....I would second that)
4) 20-29 my luck improves big time as compared to 10-19.(No signs of that currently happening.......)
5) 30-79 my luck is the best, and I shall have the best years.(Now you are talking........Hehehe;))
6) And finally 80-89 would again see a fall in my luck.(If I live that long......)

So in conclusion, this year as per my Chini dost log hopefully
1) I shall meet my lady.
2) My luck should rise and become better.

Tdays Jan6 2008, shall retrospect on this post on Jan6 2009. So keep an eye on that post.Hehehe

So what do 'Your' chinese stars say....eh?

P.S. All conclusions have been derived using the prediction results as told by the site http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/2008.htm which uses state of the art equipments and cutting edge technology.