Looking back....An Adieu to 2007

The year started with an inspiring experience of New years at the Times Square, with a friend of mine, Tushar. The 10 hour of standing out there in the cold that night was well worth it. Mom was still recuperating from her foot fracture that she had in DC, which eventually delayed mom and dad's return journey by a month and I bet munni (sis) wasn't complaining for the additional time she got to spend with them!

The winter and spring quarters were filled with the usual academic stuff with me trying to find my niche in research and an advisor to work with. On the extracurricular front, I took up guitar classes which turned out to be a dud and I had to drop out. I followed this up with beginners tennis classes the next quarter which was relatively ok but still useless as it was too basic. Spring break saw me going to a trip with ISA to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon which was fun. I met a lot of international students and it was a good socializing.

Spent the summer interning at Citrix Online, a local company, working on peer to peer connections and the stint was both fun and interesting. Fun included an overnight camping trip at nearby woods and building a functioning boat to row in the ocean! Also, met some cool people working at Citrix and was able to practice my ping pong there. God, I'm not sure how many hours I wasted playing ping pong during that whole 3 months ;)

Summer was great not only because of the weather but I got to meet a lot of my undergrad friends (Jaini,MC,Gopi,Tushar,Nikhil,Nune) and bro doing their interns in CA. We went around bay area and then came down to LA to Universal Studios. Gopi came down to stay with me for a week and me and Vicky went to Sandiego for sightseeing. Middle of summer took me to a beautiful city, Vancouver in Canada for my 1st conference talk after coming to US. Had a great time there (no not the conference...sight seeing) esp. with a new found friend, Anya (thanx for the sushi...but u still have to pay my bills and i didn't forget about the jacket..lol).

Fall quarter was nothing unusual...except for the dance performance for diwali celebrations. The 2 weeks practice paid off in the end, I think. Went to NJ to celebrate Ragni's (my niece) 1st birthday. Also research wise, I found my advisor and I kinda know what/where my research is going. Vicky (bro) graduated recently and I came home to spend the winter break with my folks, visiting Singapore on the way with Lee.

All in all, this year seemed similar yet it was so different. There were many firsts but I guess its bound to be. Personally, I think my perspectives have changed a lot regarding how I want my life to be. On a materialistic note, I visited lot of places, met some really cool folks and had some wonderful memories. There were neither major setbacks nor impressive successes. 2007 didn't suck but I hope 2008 would be better, as always..the optimist.

Trip to Yosemite

After an admittedly crappy post last time...I decided to write about more familiar territory...our long weekend trip to yosemite. For those of you that have no idea, Yosemite is one of the amazing national parks on the California-Nevada border and houses the Sierra-Nevada ranges. For hiking lovers, it has about 800 miles worth of hiking trails in it (ok i got to tell that this info was given by our shuttle driver/guide). Anyway, for any trip to be enjoyable there has to be a group of people and you know how hard it is to get people move their asses esp. the graduate kind! After countless emails and phone calls, I could finally convince 4 of my friends on thursday (we had to leave on saturday!). Now you have to know that it was a long weekend on a summer and yosemite gets crowded like hell and there was no way we could get accommodation for cheap, if at all we get. One of my main ideas was to set up a camping tent or two and really enjoy the experience (never camped before in my life:(). But since the group was finalized just 2 days before I could only get a hotel room 15 miles from the south entrance of the park.

Day 1:

Our (Me, Sandeep, Anindya, Naveen and Sarath) journey began on saturday morning because Naveen and Sharath had to come from sandiego by friday night. We rented a car from enterprise for 3 days and had two designated drivers (me and anindya). It was a 315 mile journey from SB to Yosemite and Andindya decided started driving. After almost 130 miles, his reserves were out and when it was decided he was going to kill us if he drove any longer, I took the steering wheel. This was my first time driving long distance, so was a little skeptical. Except the CA-41 highway which was too narrow and scary as shit, I guess I was ok. We reached our hotel by 3pm and to our surprise the hotel was different. It was an old rustic looking place managed by some old people and had this quaint laid back country feeling which immediately got us into the holiday mood. We dumped our stuff in the room and set out for the park in our car after taking some directions from the hotel. The manager was kind enough to give us the admission pass for the park free of cost (it was $20 per day). Yosemite park is a behemoth of a place and even in car it takes anywhere from 2-4 hours to reach places that you want to see. Our first stop was the "Glacier Point" at about 7000ft high which has an awesome view of the entire park (the valley, a couple of waterfalls and the half-dome). After taking our fair share of crazy pictures it was almost getting dark and we set out to return. But there were telescopes set up by some astronomy enthusiasts who were more than happy to show people jupiter and its 4 moons on their telescopes. This was my first time to watch jupiter from a telescope and believe me it was freaking awesome. Then we sat down for a presentation about astronomy by some ex-NASA guy who dressed up like a witch. But after 1 hour of wearing the 3d goggles and darkness we had enough and decided to go back to hotel. Since it was totally dark and we had to drive down the hill with sharp u-turns, we asked Naveen to drive (he had more experience and we didnt have balls!). After eating pizza at a nearby restaurant and some power bar/gatorade shopping for the next day hiking we crashed into our beds and promised to get out of the hotel by 7, the next day!

Day 2

I did get up at 6:30 and got ready by 7 :) but by the time all the others got ready (bad thing, everyone decided to take a bath) it was past 9! After having an american style breakfast at the hotel we headed to the park to start our hike. I called up my friend Tushar who had been here before and asked him about the best and doable (he did a 18+18 mile half-dome hike!!)hikes. We decided to do the Panorama + Mist trail hike (8.2 miles -- 6-7 hours) from the glacier point down to the valley. Trouble was, since we started so late we couldn't even get tickets to the shuttle that took us from the valley to the glacier point. We had to take a shuttle because there was no way we could hike 8.2 miles down from glacier point to valley and 8.2 mile back up !! So, we had two choices, either do a small 4 mile hike which starts and ends at glacier point or do the 8.2 mile hike and go down to the valley. But since the last shuttle from valley back to glacier point is 1:30 pm we had to stay in the valley for the night and take the shuttle next day morning, if we decided to do the big one. Luckily (because it was so crowded) we were able to reserve a tent cabin in the valley for the night and decided to go for the big hike. We couldnt even cancel our original hotel reservation because all our stuff was there and we didnt have time to go back to the hotel and vacate. So we had two rooms that night!

By the time we started at the trail head at the glacier point it was 1:20 pm and we were all excited and raring to go. After 2 miles of downhill hiking and clicking innumerable pics we reached a water hole. We got enthralled by it and kinda gone overboard and spent almost an hour playing in the water and taking pics (this costed us later as you will soon see). Then started the 2 mile uphill and undoubtedly the difficult part of the trek. Huffing and puffing and taking pit stops for water breaks we finally managed to the uphill. The main reason we took this trail was because it passes through 3 waterfalls (Nevada, Vernal and Illilouette) and the views are unbelievable. When we reached Nevada falls we were more than half-way through our journey and totally exhausted, so couldnt resist the temptation of taking a dip in the pond there!! After 20-30 min of swim in the cold water, we got revitalized and resumed our journey. Mist trail starts from here and god was that steep. Almost a mile of this trail was just steep rocks with no proper trail and it was little creepy. Then we got to Vernal Fall and it was so close that it was breathtaking. It was 7 already and there was an hour's journey left with sun already going down. We were literally racing against the twilight and it was little scary to hike in dark but we managed to reach the valley by 8pm in darkness. The rest of the night included catching sight of a bear (another wish come true!!) , me accidentally entering a womens' restroom (in my defense i was too tired to look at the sign :)) and finally crashing in our tent-cabins (closest we came to camping).

Next day, we had an american breakfast (loved it) and took a shuttle from valley to the glacier point. The driver/guide kept blabbering about the facts of yosemite valley as they usually do and i almost dozed off after listening to his endless drone. Then...drove back to hotel..vacated...returned to SB by evening. A great trip and when I come to think about it was actually more fun and exciting because we didnt (couldnt) plan a lot of it ahead. My friend says its more fun when its unplanned...maybe its right!!!

More pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/vinodkone/yosemite

Some misgivings with English

Don't get me wrong...I like English. Those beautiful expressions with a play of words always get me. Infact, that's the main reason I read novels... I love the way authors express certain things which completely takes the reading experience to a new level. But having said that, English is one of the most ridiculously difficult languages to learn, esp. to speak. I am never sure how a newly encountered word should be pronounced. The problem lies in the fact that, many a time, there is no correlation between how you write a word and how you pronounce it. For example, how am I supposed to know that 'Calle' is supposed to be pronounced with a 'y', when a 'pillar' or a 'collar' have their double l's intact. If you want 'll' to be pronounced as a 'y', why can't we just have the word as 'Caye' and get done with it already. One of the reasons for this inconsistency is the fact that lot of words in English have been incorporated from other languages like Spanish, Arabic etc. Ok, I can agree with that to an extent but that excuse is not entirely true. For one, instead of blindly incorporating words from a foreign language into the English vocabulary, we can adapt them to suit the nativity. Second, this ludicrousness is not limited to imported words...what about those silent k's in 'knight', 'know' etc. I don't think these are foreign words...so I don't understand whats the need for a letter to be present in writing but silent when speaking. How simple would life be, if we had words like 'nite' and 'no' (ok, this second guy has a different meaning already..but I guess you got my point). And don't even get me started on the various styles of English out there, like U.S, U.K etc.

In that regard, I love the other two languages that I know, Hindi and Telugu. The beauty lies in the fact that What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). If you tell me any new word in these languages, I can exactly tell what it looks like in writing (with a high probability...i am copping out here). I think its easy to learn a language if its like this. If I come to think about it, the reason why these Indian languages are not as ridiculous as English is probably because of the existence of a large number of 'vowels' (if they can be called so). English has just 5 (a,e,i,o,u) but Telugu and Hindi have loads of them. What this means for us, is there are lot of combinations of vowels and consonants that one can play with and coin new words...no need for those strange rules and silent/differently pronounced letters. On the flip side though, it might take a bit longer to learn the alphabet but its worth it as long as its not too extreme. I was once told by my Chinese lab mate that their alphabet has 100s of letters if not 1000s and they take like 3 years to master it!!! Needless to say I didn't sleep for next two days :) I wonder how those guys chat in IMs. God bless those 'em.

For English, though the alphabet is shorter the import is very high. But, thats one of the side effects of trying to make a language universal,.....it has to cater to all the sensibilities. Since, I cannot influence the 'whoever' defines the English language and its rules... I guess I have to deal with my love-hate relationship with it.

Thanks...But No Thanks

Living on the western side of the globe has its share of eccentricities involved. The first thing that amazed me , and later pissed me off, is the so called "courtesy" of this culture. They find it imperative to inject "thank yous" and "sorrys" in almost every damn thing. I mean, saying it when its due is one thing but using it for just the heck of it is........well..... useless. It was so ridiculously (mis)used that sometimes I used to get confused whether the mistake was mine or the other person offering me his "sorry". When I accidentally hit you and you say sorry then you got to be kidding me.

Anway whats the deal with all this superficial bull shit. I don't get it. Back home in India, things were simple. If I made a mistake I would apologize...if someone did something good to me that they were not obligated to do then I would offer my gratefulness. For example, I never remember thanking my bus driver for driving me to school...coz it was his duty..he was obligated to do that..he's being paid for that. Same goes with waiters in restaurants, shopkeepers etc. This might seem uncultured to some of you...but I dont think there's anything wrong with this culture. Atleast in our place...if someone said Thankyou or Sorry it meant a lot...it would really have an impact. Now, in USA, if someone says the same, I seriously dont give a fuck...because I know they dont mean it and they say it just for the heck of it. So whats the point of saying it..when there is no impact of it on the other person...just for the sake of courtesy. It seems so superficial. If these everyday thanqs and sorrys make your day...by all means have fun. I hope it doesnt become another "boy who cried wolf" story..where people don't care even when you mean it from the bottom of your heart (pardon the cliche).

Strange thing is, I'm so battered with all these courtesies for the past one year that I am gradually, and unfortunately, getting used to it. I have almost reached a point now, wherein I would feel indignant if some one isn't courteous (read TY and S) and on the other hand dishing out courtesies to other people has become involuntary. Grooving in is always a difficult thing to do....being adaptive and holding on to one's identity is always an eternal struggle and one has to be cautious when treading the thin line between them.

po(u)wnce

Today someone in our office sent a mail to the mailing list that he is giving out invites to a "pownce" and asked people not to bother about it if they don't know about it! For a second I thought..rather guiltily...What the heck is this pownce? Is it something basic every geek is supposed to know and I don't? Now, I admit that I am not neck deep into the latest happenings of the websphere but I do tend to pick up things here and there during my daily dose of net surfing. Anyway, turns out this is some new web-application, ( pownce ), whose lead developer is a chic named Leah Culver (looks good btw)! Yeah I know ... female .. developer .... good looking...thats an epic combination..thats one of the main reasons I decided to check it out. Also, since the digg guy (Kevin Rose) is behind this..the expectations are kinda high ...after seeing the overwhelming response (err..requests) to my invites. my colleagues were pouncing for the pownce, hence the title.

Having said that, I dont really understand the USP of it. I mean the site says we can transfer files, send links, notes and events to friends. But I can already do all of this with my gtalk or ym..so why bother? for the free account the file size is limited to 10mb....atleast gtalk doesnt have any limit afaik. I dont understand whats the big deal about sending links..aren't they messages (or notes in their lingo) anyway? Sending events to friends is probably new (I don't think ym or gtalk have this option) and cool...but I am used to facebook events.

Probably it is too early to comment on the site...or rule it out...or I just don't get it. If any of you have any comments let me know...my ears are open. Oh yeah, if you want an invite lemme know..I can probably get one for you from some of my frenz. In the meanwhile...I wish the pownce team all the best.

so far so good

I was waiting for a profound topic to blog about but I decided to write something anyway coz its been already 3 months since my last post. And yeah, I didn't want you guys to keep checking my site and turning off dejectedly every day ?! :P

So my summer break has begun a coupla weeks back and as such given me yet another excuse to relax my tendons. The first week was busy with moving outs...first from my apt to Rajdeep's place (temporary) and then to my summer abode near the place of my internship. We caught up on Oceans13 on the weekend, just for the heck of it...though we were pretty sure it sucked despite the all star cast....our only reason being there was no better alternative. I am actually wondering whether there are any good flicks at all this summer...infact I haven't seen a good one after Departed.

This weekend was more catching up...this time old frenz from not so distant iitg and dear ol' bro. I travelled up north to bay area for the first time, after coming here! Though the journey was a long 8 hours I managed it with chit chat with a fellow passenger, a book (When will Jesus bring pork chops -- George Carlin) and yea some sleep. Met our (me and vicky's) high school friend Shwetha, after 7 yrs! Somehow I didn't get to meet her back in India for some reason or other, so it was good to finally meet up. We all had dinner together before she zoomed off to LA. Come next day, met Jaini, Nune, MC, Nikhil and Tushar (iitg buddies) in SFO. We did Union Square (didnt understand what to see here), Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate and China Town. We all headed back to Berkeley for the night as most of our folks were living there. We had dinner at an Indian place called 'Pasand'....ate idli and dosa after almost 6 months...so was happy about it though it wasn't that great. We (except nune, who skilfully skipped and dozed off in Jaini's room ) then played cards (bluff and some new game, coined on the spur by Tugga, as 'wrist') on the terrace of Jaini's apartment complex. We called it a day at about 12 pm and me and bro crashed at MC's place for the night.

We planned to do some china town again the next day morning, but I couldn't coz I had to hurry back to San Jose for my Grey Hound back home. Unfortunately, also missed the famouse GLBT parade in SFO...though could snatch a glimpse of it while changing stations. Next week Gopi is flying down from canada and am planning a trip to LA with bro and his friends. All in all, a good start to a hopefully great summer.....as i said...so far so good. For those interested...some pics are at Vicky's

People love to show sympathy

hey am bak! am almost done with my winter quarter...just a project paper submission left and some TA work. am waiting for the spring break and the trip to vegas and grand canyon..yay

anyway...this time i wanted to talk/write about people's love to show sympathy. yeah..you heard it right...people actually love to show sympathy. though many of us wouldn't agree or probably may not realize it there is an inherent inclination towards it. if you have a friend or relative in some trouble, you would actually like to give him advice, fundaes , make him feel better etc. In all probability you would become more close to him than before when he/she was not in any trouble. So subconsciously you want people to need you and hence perhaps actually want them to be in a little trouble! this may sound over-stated but i believe its true...whether you agree or not. The reason for this is probably the self-high one gets by helping others. The mere thought of helping others makes people feel good about themselves. when you come to think of it, its actually selfish! its more about you than the person you are helping. i actually read somewhere that parents are in general more attached to the kid who needs them. that is to say..if you don't actually depend on them for a lotta things they probably wouldn't be that close to you. i don't know how much of is it true...am too young for that.

thinking about this the other day, i was actually wondering what kinda people are more attractive. if you think people who are almost perfect, too-good-to-be-true, fully independent etc are the types who attract others then you are terribly wrong. on the contrary , i think people who have some flaws actually get more attention. thats because being not perfect actually is more "humane" (though i dont agree with that, but we wont go there for now) and appealing. if you are lacking in something, you will need someone to fill that gap. now don't get me wrong here..am not saying that you need someone only if you have some drawbacks. rather am asserting the point that, you having some drawbacks is actually attractive to others. if you are too-good then the other person cannot help you and hence cannot feel good about himself. For example, lets take the case of drinking. if you are a tee-totaler and have been complete sober all your life then you don't attract anyone. on the other hand, if you drink and lose control of yourself you probably would have lot of friends. your friends actually like to take care of you when you are completely wasted. they might admonish you the next morning but they still like it. thats because you need their help, they get their high and the balance is perfect!

i often wonder why some jerks who obviously have lot of non-desirable qualities have good (number of) friends. perhaps this is the reason. i don't know. the bottom line is people don't want you to be perfect. they want you to be flawed, infact everyone to be flawed...so that there is a reason for you to depend on others. thats how this system works. now before, you say the killer "Nobody is perfect"...let me say that's not the point of this topic. i know that nobody is perfect. So why am i saying all this? beats me...

my heart goes on....

for all those of you for whom this matters...happy valentine's day. and for all the others, like me, whatever. every year...feb 14th comes and goes by...but (un) fortunately its not a different day in my life. there is nothing out of ordinary that i do. i admit,though, that its nice to see the love birds scrambling in gift shops and flower boutiques trying to give a present to their special some one and express their love.

i wanted to raise this question today which has been bugging me for quite some time now. forgive me for being totally un-romantic on this day for bringing this up. but i thought this is the right time...anyway the question is "Why is love associated with heart?" I thought love was a feeling like any other emotion....and every feeling originates and culminates in brain. So, whether you love someone or not, its a thought process and seems logical to be associated with brain. Where does heart come into picture? I don't think it can think! Can it? Someone told me that brain has some nerve endings which go into heart and these emotions are carried on those nerves. So when the brain generates any emotions the signals are carried to the heart and it might be biologically affected. probably thats the reason of increased heart beat / pulse rate when you see someone you love. why is the dear brain neglected and not given any importance in this phenomenon then? why does heart get all the credit? i always believed brain is one of the most complex structures in the human anatomy and should be given its deserved respect. if you had to choose between heart and brain...what would you choose (assuming you would be alive with only one of those)? i would go with brain ...whats life when you are not able to think?

so when people say "you dont have a heart" or "he thinks with his mind rather than heart" what it essentially means is that part of brain which deals with emotions is responsible. thats how i see it . now dont get me wrong, i love the heart shaped balloons and all those beautiful songs written on heart and love...but it just gets me thinking you know. why did our ancestors romanticize the heart and not the brain. i dont have a clear answer...i hope you would give it a thought next time someone says something about the romantic-heart. if u have something to comment i would be glad to discuss.

anyway...i wish you all a happy valentines day once again. hope u get to celebrate it with your loved ones. ... luv V

about me....

though every time i blog, i promise myself and my paltry viewers that i would put up stuff more frequently from now , i never get around doing it. so this time i wont make any promises...but i would try (again a promise?). lately i have been reading this interesting blog by an anonymous blogger who calls herself "Violent Acres" (u can find the link in my link's section). apparently this blog has raked up lot of interest and web traffic due to its "devil may care" nature of the writing. i wud recommend this to people who have some time to spare...anyway without further ado i will delve into the topic i want to write about.

i have often described the "about me" sections of various social networking and other such websites with corny statements like "its tough to describe oneself", "simple man with complex tastes" and off late "currently retrospecting". i think it was my defense mechanism to avoid trying to answer the question directly. infact i never gave much thought about it. am sure most of the people out there fall into this category. at last i have decided to describe myself , more for the benefit of myself than others.

when people write "about me" sections...what they write is what they think about themselves probably not what they actually are. i hope u agree that there is a difference. so what i am writing now is what i think about myself. to start with...i am a very conventional person i.e., a normal person, i don't want to be a rebel - don't want to be different just for the heck of it. am what a person is supposed to be, atleast according to myself. i hate it when people say but i am only a human being or am not a saint when they do any mistake. i simply fucking hate it. am not saying that one is not allowed to do mistakes...but one has to take the full responsibility of one's actions but not blame the human nature. when u say "i can't stop drinking coz am only human" or "i cheated on my girl because its only human to get attracted to other woman" etc etc...i would simply say "Fk U". perhaps am influenced by the notion of a true man by Ayn Rand ...but thats me. coming back...am not a very emotional person...i don't believe in cheesy talks or mushy-gushy things. if you are truly attached to a person it should be in your heart whether or not you express it cheesily. i agree that expression is important but am sure if a person truly understands you, he will know how attached you are even though u won't express it in words. as a side note...am not a very expressive person either as u might have guessed by now. also....i think more with my mind than my heart, (i want to write a blog about how a heart can think... in future)for better or worse. what i mean is, if a person very close to me makes a mistake and a complete stranger is doing right i would most probably support the stranger. unconditional love is not something i can fathom. and...i cannot hate a person no matter what.in my 22 yrs of life so far, there is no single person i hate ...being mean and hating a person in this short life...i think is a waste of time. adaptive is an adjective i would like to describe myself with...i can adapt to almost any situation and become part of a group easily even if the groups are on extreme ends of the spectrum.

my well wishers want me to be smart but i want to be good. smart is the one who achieves what he wants, no matter what affect that has on others...good is the one who might not achieve his goal because it hurts others. strangely this world admires smart people... they don't care whether u r good or not. god bless people. one thing i would like to change about myself is not being assertive... i want to be but somehow can't. instead of arguing i just shut the fuck up and hope the other person will understand in due time. being cool is a phrase i don't approve of either....atleast in the form its currently being perceived. wtf is being cool anyway? if acting as if you don't care what happens...or trying to look carefree in the eyes of your peers is cool..then i don't want to be cool. if you like what you are doing ...thats cool for me. and finally i would end this with what my friend Sai aptly described about me "i am the kind of a person who would like to play the game within the rules...and don't care for the result".

An eventful winter break....

This winter 06 break had been very wonderful for me. Apart from finally being to get a break from the grind of grad school routine, I got to meet my new born niece, Ragni (meaning: Cosmic goddess J). After a long time and not probably sooner again, we had a family reunion! Though this is kinda strange, the point is, me studying in west coast, my bro in raleigh, sis’s family in nj and mom and dad in India, it some times becomes difficult…believe me. We were all very happy to get back together and share some laughs like good ol’ times.

I would like to put down the events as chronologically as my notorious memory would remember them. Me, vicky (bro), BIL (brother in law, coined by my bro) and a friend of his kicked off the weekend with some street cricket. We were joined by a coupla awestruck kids who perhaps thought it was some kinda of weird baseball variation. God bless America ;). Anyway we let them join us and tried to teach some impromptu nitty gritty basics and all went well. At the cost of sounding pompous, I would say I rocked at the game that day :D. Then came nune , kj (my undergrad mates) and kiran (nune’s roomie) and we planned NYC trip. On the first day we covered Times Square and Madam Tussads (the NY branch) which was really good. The horror room was really scary and we were glad to come out alive (just kidding). After posing with all the wax chics we could lay our hands on (literally!), me and kj moved to empire state building. It was nothing like I imagined (which mostly happens with these hyped structures) but we got a good bird’s eye view of NY at nite. On the next day we could only cover statue of liberty, due to some stupid mix up of ours (me and kj) in the subway trains. Then in the evening, our BIL rented a SUV and we drove off to DC. DC and VA were more beautiful than I thot (a paradox!?). We did the Air n Space and Natural History museums, the capitol hill and white house (from very far). When we were returning back to NJ, mom slipped from steps infront of the house and fractured coupla toes in her left foot. We had to scramble to reach the ER of a nearby hospital and relieve her of the by-now unbearable pain. She had a casting done for her foot coupla days later and now my parents had to postpone their journey back home from jan 18^th to feb 15^th, for better or worse. I bet my sis is happy that they can stay more time with her. Then all the males of our family went to Atlantic City to do some gambling! The unlucky person I am, I was quite shocked to won $225 profit in the roulette (if you know that game) within an hour at Trump’s plaza! Whoaa! We followed some weird strategy of our dad…and it worked…it was not logical...but who cares!

Then came the new years and NY in NY was gr8. Tushar (another undergrad mate) and myself spent the 31^st nite at the Times Square and the crowds were unbelievable. We were lucky to get a place right infront of the concert stage (where Christina Augerilla and others performed) and near the place where the ball drops. We also met some interesting folks and had nice fun, if you don’t count standing for 10 hrs on a windy day without having access to rest rooms J. All went well, my only complaint being that the sound system of the concert absolutely sucked. It was as if the concert was meant for the TV viewers…crap. Anyway…that’s how my winter break was...and currently am on my flight back to SB via Salt Lake City. Back to the grind of grad school. Btw…am now sitting between two not-so-good-looking chics…the pervert I am!