Non Stop Nonsense

Migrating my blog to posterous

2010-08-26T12:17:00.001-07:00

I have signed up for posterous for a while now, but today I am finally migrating my blogs (non-stop nonsense and roadtalk) to it fully!

I have been really impressed with the site and its features (autoposting, imports, email blogging to name a few), and personally think its way ahead of the

traditional blogging platforms.

Hopefully, this would give me the impetus back to blogging. Its almost been an year!!

P.S: If you have subscribed/followed my earlier blogs, please update your rss-feeds/bookmarks ! I added a feed-burner for your convenience :)

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Sent from my Gmail :)

Posted via email from Vinod's posterous

Of Gods Ghosts and Galileo

2009-12-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

What kind of wife would you like? It all started with this innocuous question and then spiraled into an animated and sometimes passionate discussion about science, philosophy, math, gods, ghosts, religion and well Galileo too...

In the interest of keeping the discussion un-biased and to not give my viewpoint an unfair advantage, I won't link names with viewpoints. Suffices to say it involves me and a couple of my roomies. I will also interweave my views that were not necessarily discussed then, but hopefully you can't differentiate :) The I hereafter corresponds to different persons at different points of time.

So, our discussion about the wives wasn't terribly interesting so lets cut directly to the next one. Do you believe in Ghosts?, asked one. Of course not, said the other two. Why not? Well because there is no proof. Well, there are lot of people who believe that they saw ghosts...are they wrong? But, usually these stories almost always come from villages where there is lot of illiteracy...maybe, it has something to do with people attributing things that they couldn't explain with science to ghosts. Well, I have a story to tell. There was once this woman I met who is supposed to have higher powers. I met her at a friend's place and didn't believe her at first. I asked her if she can tell whether the front gate of my house is open now? My house was in a different city altogether that this woman had no clue about and I never met her before. At that time of the day it was usually open. But, she said it was closed. I called home and found out that it was closed just that day because of some work! I also told her I wanted to write civil services exam and be an IAS (Indian Administrative Service). She said I wouldn't become one and said I would go to foreign shores for higher studies! And here I am...how do you explain that? Well, may be the gate was just a coincidence and you might have been subconsciously influenced by her to not try for civil services and instead came here. Well then, do you believe in God?.....

God is a total farce. There are lot of wars and chaos in the name of God. It has brought more harm than good in this world. True, but may be its because people forgot the essence of why God came into being and are just following some religious zealots' interpretation of religion. I would like to think God as a belief that has been instilled by some of the intelligent few back in time for the masses to do good. Atleast if there is a fear that doing wrong leads to horrible things and doing good deeds gets you to a nice place after death, there is an incentive to be good. But, I hate both theists and atheists who try to wear their beliefs on their sleeves. Respect every one's believes as long as it doesn't hurt you. Atheism is a belief like theism after all. They are not on any high moral ground. So, looks like you believe in God? Well, I believe in the essence. What about you? I still don't because there is no proof about it..I will only believe if science can prove it? What is science?

Anything that has a logical explanation to the effect is what I consider as science? But how do you define logic? What makes you think the logic is correct? Well, anything that has a rigorous mathematical proof behind it, step by step from the smallest possible thing to the effect is science. Everything can be explained by math! What makes you think mathematics is such an indisputable theory? Why do you think whatever math has proof for is correct? Math might be wrong after all. Well there are lot of great scientists who have proved great results that we still believe in...like gravitational force. But, do you agree that it might be proven wrong tomorrow? Till Galileo proved that Sun was the center of the universe, people believed otherwise for eons of time. May be in next hundred years, people will prove that Sun is not the center of the universe after all. I don't believe it! Why not!? Well, he showed it with telescope..it can't be wrong. What makes you think the telescope is right? May be the theory of astronomy is itself wrong. But its based on fundamental properties of light...people have proven it for centuries based on solid math that it is true. But, you agree that there are lot of theorems that have been proven wrong after centuries. What makes you think the fundamentals aren't wrong....Math is after all a theory based on a set of axioms..may be the axioms are wrong! There are other theories like philosophy that are not based on proofs but have different conclusions about things..for eg: God. But, I don't believe in philosophy? Why not? They don't have any proof of what they say? Well, they do but its not based on math..they have their own set of axioms. Well, when there are multiple theories, I tend to believe in one that is based on the least number of axioms because it is the strongest. But, do you know what axioms is philosophy is based on? No! Even so, least number of is a concept of math..you can't use it disprove another theory! Now you are being ridiculous...! You are saying everything we believed in so far is wrong. No, you are being passionate! I just think you need to keep an open mind that what you believe as true might be proven as wrong tomorrow. Science is just a theory like any other. Just because science can't explain God/Ghosts doesn't mean they don't exist. May be they do, science hasn't caught up yet! Looks like atleast one of you now believes in Gods and Ghosts :)

So, what's the take away. Damn women..they are the cause of all the chaos in the world. That's how this discussion started. I think we all agree on that one :))

Princeton Junction, United and Murphy's Law

2008-12-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

...'If something can go wrong...It always will'. This version of Murphy's law aptly applies to the sequence of events transpired during the past couple of days. It all started when I went to NYC (I was visiting my sis' family for a week) this saturday to meetup with few friends. It was snowing in the city (which I liked btw) and I wished I had a few more layers on me. Coming from California, we never expect how chilly the weather can be :) I was seeing BS after a gap of more than 2 yrs and so it was nice catching up and talking about old friends from school. Over the must-try-NYC-local- pizza I came to know that Sathish , another school friend, recently moved to NYC and so we called him up to meet us. But, he couldn't make it because the snow was too bad for him to drive from uptown to Times Square.

We met Rajesh and Sharad (both from UCSB...visiting NYC the same week!) at Tussads and bade good byes to BS and Sharad. After eating at an Ethiopian restaurant and checking out live music of a local band at a pub, we debated whether to go to a night club or head back home. And this is where Murphy springs into action.

First my iphone decided to die on me. The Jesus phone is amazing at a lot of things but battery life is not one of them. Since the last train from NYC to New Jersey is at 11:14 (isn't it ridiculous for a saturday night?) , I decided to crash at the hotel where Raj was staying for the night. Since I only remember munni's (sis) landline number by-heart and she was not at home, I took Raj's phone and left a voice mail on Vicky's (bro in Seattle) phone to pass on the message to munni that I won't be back home tonight. But at 10:40, since Raj wasn't in the mood we decided to skip club and head back home. I decided I would rather go home than crash at Raj's place and it was already 10:45! Anyway, we ran to the nearest sub and caught a train to Penn Station. By the time I reached the track, huffing and puffing, the train was already boarding! So, I asked Raj to email vicky (since he wasn't picking up his phone) and tell him that I am actually going home and that munni should pick me up at Princeton Junction. Now, all I wished was that vicky is going to check his email and call on munni's mobile and have me picked up.

But...when I reached Princeton, it was 12:30 and there was no one. The platform was dead empty except for a few ghostly souls and it was freezing. The waiting room was closed, so I didnt even have a warm place to hide. The only option was the pay-phone but I didn't have any change on me! Luckily one of the old ladies had quite some change and I exchanged it with a dollar note. Now, for some odd reason the damn phone wouldnt connect my calls to either Vicky or munni's landline (I thot they would have reached home by now) and so I called up the operator and gave my credit card number. I heaved a sigh of relief when I heard vicky's voice...I am not going to freeze to death here :)) Since I didnt have more change, I asked him to conference call munni's mobile and came to know that they were still at the party and would take 40 min to reach me!! No way,...so vicky looked up a NJ cab service online and put them through on the conference call. Fortunately, they had a cab somewhere near the station and hence I was on my way home.

During the ride, the curious cabbie wanted to know whether its true that if you take a girl to the Taj Mahal then she would fall in love with you. Not so easy bro. I said I never tried, so I didn't know. But we agreed its like the Eiffel Tower craze and just cheesy. After the cabbie dropped me off, the security code (munni gave me over the conf call) for entering the house didn't seem to work. I tried like 10 times and I thought I am going to freeze right here instead of the station. And there weren't any pay phones nearby either :) Just to make sure, I tried another door and as luck had it that door was open (it wasn't supposed to be..but earlier in the day I actually forgot locking it!). Wow..this was amazing...I entered the house and was glad I didnt trigger any security alarms.

Sunday evening. Time to leave to SB. As dumb as it sounds, I actually forgot to put my bag in the trunk of the car and realized it only after reaching the airport. Since there was no time to go back, we debated whether to intentionally miss the flight and weave a story to the United airline staff about traffic jam and how I missed the flight and get rescheduled to next day. But, I was wary of this option, because I already had an experience flying Standby (if you remember). So, I decided to go ahead and travel empty handed and have my luggage shipped next day. Reaching home, I realized my keybunch (along with my lappy and phone charger) was in my bag and so my house is locked! I slept at Ponnuru's place for the night and got a duplicate key from the apt office. Complying with the tradition, my car didn't want to start and needed a jumpstart . So now....I am using duplicate keys for my house and the lab...my phone is going to die soon...no laptop till my luggage is delivered on friday...car doesn't want to start...but hey it was a fun trip :)

The Dark Night

2008-10-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

He swerved the car into the parking lot. The black shade of the car seemed to disappear into the shadows. It was dark outside. He stepped down from the car and looked around. It was deserted as he anticipated. He would have looked odd in this place, if there were people around. But there were none. Flickers of light in the nearby buildings told him all were still not asleep. May be its not time yet. He hesitated a moment.

Tiny droplets of sweat were beginning to break out on his forhead. He was slightly nervous. He held on to the cigarette, hoping it would calm him down. The ambers fell on his shoes like tiny snow flakes. Snow flakes...they brought back memories. It was a different time, a different place, a different life. How did he become the one he is today. He never thought capable of doing what he was going to do today. But, he had to do it. There was no other way. It was his calling. The phone call he got today gave him clear instructions. He was the chosen one!

He took a last puff and threw the cigarette away. He opened the boot and got the equipment out. It was not heavy. He wondered if it was really capable of doing what he was told it would do. He closed the boot, locked the car and began to haul the equipment to its destination. There was a military efficiency about how he did things. But, he was never in the military. His background and training were completely different. The training was excruciating. But he was glad, it was over and he could endure it. Not many did. He touched his back and a searing pain went through his spine, as if reminding him. The wound was fresh.

He setup the equipment in the abandoned ground. He looked at his watch. It was time, but he still didn't get the signal. Did something go wrong? He couldn't call back because he was never given a number. The sweat began to wet his side burns. He wished he could go back to his car and get another cigarette. But, he couldn't leave the equipment. He looked at the buildings...the flickers were gone, Everyone was asleep. He was relieved. May be it was better this way, when people were sleeping. He had principles. "Why do I still cling on to principles?After all...", his thoughts were cut off as his phone vibrated with an incoming text message. He got the code. He carefully punched it in the equipment. He let a deep sigh and pressed 'Enter'. It started transmitting...

Summer of '09

2008-09-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

This is the low down on my summer this year. I know a few of you have been waiting for it and I am sorry its a little late than I anticipated. Anyhoo, where do I start. From my pre to previous post you might remember that I finally reached Mountain View (the bay!) on the 23rd June after going through a bunch of twists and turns.

So, this summer I was interning with Bosch Research Labs, Palo Alto on a vehicular networking project. I didn't realize it was aGerman company and moreover wasn't expecting more than a couple of Germans. But guess what, you should expect a lot of Germans (90%) if its a German company...not that its a bad thing :) Infact, I made quite a few good friends there and learnt a few things about them. They are hard workers...some to the brink of not having a life :) They are actually shy (and I thought Indians were the only kings of shyness). They are smooth talkers; don't get carried away by their less than mellifluous, throat wrenching baritone :)). Most of them are very friendly. I really enjoyed our backyard fountain lunches, bbqs and some dinners and kicking the ass of Volkswagen in our annual soccer match!. I even tried learning some German, as I did in Austria back in 2005. But, all I remember is "Arschloch", which is exactly what you think it is :).

Other than work, bay area was awesome for a lot of things. I would highly recommend it esp if you haven't been to the west coast before. The options for food, sight seeing, movies etc etc are endless. I haven't seen as many movies in the last 2 years as I have seen this summer, in theaters! And Its coming from me, who usually likes going to the movies. Food...yumm...I can't begin to describe it. I haven't eaten out this much, again. Part of the reason being, all my house mates were google interns where they get free food day in day out. So, I was the only one in the house cooking and I did any respectable guy would do. Stopped cooking and started eating out :) (j/k...I actually like coooking). The new cuisines I tried this time were Ethiopian, Mongolian and Japanese (I had sushi once before). Oh, and bay is the place if you like great Indian food!! Tons of great restaurants serving authentic biryani, kabab,mmmmm. Ok ok, lets stop salivating.

I made a ton of trips again. And, I usually travel a bit. I had quite a few of my ugrad friends here (LA, Vsky, MC, Archit) in the bay ,working and studying. It was great to catch up and hang out with them. Also, I had good roomates this summer (Anindya, Rajesh and Rip). Susmit and Kamal were in the bay too. KJ came for job hunting and stayed at our place for 10 days. All this meant, I always had company for trips. Lets see what I did...

I went to Seattle for attending SigComm, which was great. I really loved the ambience of the city, esp the downtown. Luckily summer is the only best time there...it rains 9 months! I stayed at Vicky's place (bro) and we did the usual touristy stuff and played tennis. Also, met KK and went for a beach, which was a joke. Sigcomm was also great, being a top conference and all, and it was good to finally see and meet the big shots in your field after reading their papers for so long. There was a cruise again...and all in all it felt like Vancouver all over again. Only this time, I didn't meet any cute girls :))

I did a good number of hikes too, which was awesome. I am begining to get addicted to outdoorsy thingies. Oh, we went to skydiving too which was an experience in itself. Its the most scariest thing I have done in my life so far, though it wasn't that scary (Anindya might disagree :P). We went to Napa Valley for wine tasting and scenic driving which was pretty interesting too. First time, I had 4 glasses of wine in my life (still a kid..I know). Mom and dad visited me for a few days (they were staying at Sis place in NJ) and I just had a weekend to show them the beauty of CA. Now, you have to understand that they were just coming after visiting Vicky in Seattle and getting impressed by the huge buildings of Microsoft and their huge parties. So, to impress them was a daunting task. So, I started them off with a good Indian restaurant which they really liked and felt at home (I know the right buttons :)). Then, I drove 300 odd miles over 2 days covering Monterey bay, Half moon bay, Santa Cruz and San Francisco. Needless to say they were pleased. Yay.

Oh this is getting longer than I expected. I will cut it here. I will do a part 2 if enough people are interested and/or I have the mood. And just to give you a preview, it includes my first ever camping experience, alcatraz trip, google as our rec-cen etc etc :))

Is it Just Me...

2008-08-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

looking at people in nearby cars during red lights
prefer rolling down the windows to A/C
wondered why hot chicks always go out with jerks
stood in a corner in the club because you just can't dance with anyone
stared at the mirror in an empty restroom until someone walked in
you were lost so many times that there is no place left to be lost
wished you could turn the clock back
wished you could read her mind
hoped people were as interested in taking your pic as you are in theirs
thought life was unfair
wished things were more logical
wanted to grow up as fast as you can, when you were a kid...not sure now
missed childhood because the laughs were pure...people were nice...days under the sun and nights full of fun
never understood why your mom said you were a kid for some things and an adult for other
working all night gave you a high that nothing else ever did

...is it just me or any of these apply to you too? if yes, just write which numbers..so that I know I am not alone..or weird :)

Standby

2008-06-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

None of my long trips are without twists. It all started during my trip to Tawang during the undergraduation where people thought we almost got killed. Then the Yosemite trip where we had to camp at the valley coz we couldnt hike back in the night. Tahoe trip, this spring break, wasn't so bad except for the fact that we got lost in an almost un-inhabited rural place, no street lights, no signs, gas needle touching the 'E' and no cellular signals. I never blogged about that trip but it was kinda scary. My current trip to New Jersey wasn't so adventorous but it had its own set of twists and turns.

It all started when I decided to visit my sis and bil (bro in law) and niece after my spring quarter and before I start my intern. 2 weeks before I was supposed to leave, my niece poured hot coffee on her which caused some pretty bad burns. Poor kid :(..but she is doing well now. This prompted my mom and dad to come from India to take care of her for a while (both bil and sis hav full time jobs). Coincidentally, they landed in NJ on the same day that I did and we pretty much had a family reunion (except vicky was debugging code at MS in Seattle). So, on the upside I was able to eat home made Indian food for 10 days...hehe!

Now, I planned to drive upto Niagara falls with a couple of friends on the weekend I arrived. But, my sis had arranged for a party at her house and invited a hell lot of frenz on the Saturday (Jun 14th). So, I couldn't escape the event and gave up on my hopes on niagara falls. Suddenly, next week, sis tells me that we (the family) has to visit niagara falls on Sat (21st) because she wanted mom and dad to see it. What a good daughter :)) The thing was, I had to fly that saturday from NJ to LAX and take a bus to reach SB the same night. And then, I had to drive from SB to Mountain View on sunday (6 hrs drive) and start my intern from monday. So, I was on a really tight schedule but the good daughter was not ready to take any of it. I finally gave in, canceled my ticket from NJ and bought a ticket from Buffalo (Niagara falls) to LAX for sat evening 4:30. The plan was to reach niagara by fri night and see the illumination and do whatever we can on sat till 3 ish and drop me at the airport. One thing led to another and by the time we reached niagara it was 2 am!! So we missed the illumination and the fireworks :(

Meanwhile, X (one of the 2 friends) informed me that he is visiting niagara falls with his gf the same weekend. So, we thought, great, we can meet and do something. Now, considering we reached at 2 I just had 11 hours with me including sleeping time. So, me and T planned that we can do some hike early in the morning like from 7 to 9 and then I can do the touristy things with my folks. Anyway, he never called me at 7 coz he was too tired to wake up, so we decided to fuck it and just meet somewhere near the park. Now, he didnt want my folks to catch him snogging his gf during the romantic boat tours so we decided to meet in private or in the off chance that we met in the company of my folks I promised that I would pretend that I didn't know him:)) But as always, nothing happened according to plan and we didn't even meet in the park, despite he calling me like 6 times and I calling him like 4 times. So, I did the (apparently world famous...in america everything is world famous ;)) Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds, which were awesome btw, and by the time we reached airport, my flight had taken off! I could take the next flight but my last connecting bus from LAX to SB would have been gone so I was little worried. Anyway, I took the next flight and reached Atlanta to catch the connecting flight to LAX.

Unfortunately, in Atlanta I was told that I was put on 'Standby' and my seat isn't confirmed till all the regular passengers are seated. I didnt know what the heck this standby was, never traveled this way, so I googled it up. Apparently, non-revenue passengers (airport employees ' families) and misconnected folks like me are put into this. Pain in the ass, basically. At 9 I was told that the flight was full and I had to "try" (again on standby) the next flight which was at 9:20 am the next morning. Great! I'm 12 hours late, will probably reach SB by 4pm sunday and then I have to drive immediately to bay area for another 6 hours. On the upside, I will have a connecting bus from LAX to SB now :))

Luckily, I had couple of good friends (Jaini and Anand) in Atlanta and I called up Jaini who just graduated from Gatech and was working at Yahoo. I stayed at his place for the night and caught the 9:20 plane to LAX. Yea, I was finally given a seat!

Now, currently I'm at LAX waiting for the airbus to SB and writing this crap to while away time :P. Hopefully, I will be in the bay area by tonight if there are no more twists and turns except on the US101 :). I have a love-hate relationship with these long trips. Buttttt, for better or worse, these are the things that add spice to the life...what say?

Update: Looks like fate hasn't done with me yet. I reached SB at 4 pm and started the engine of my car and it didn't start! I opened the hood and found a squirrel inside! I hoped it didnt eat any wires...tried jump starting with Ankur's car and it didnt work. Finally called AAA...they charged the battery and it worked like a charm. I finally started my drive at 7:30 and reached bay by 12 ish! Whew....

Conversation with the Bike Shop Guy

2008-05-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the bike shop at our university to get the brakes tightened up. This, after I realized that those "Action Shoe" commercials, aired back in those days in India aren't very practical :) (The blokes in those ads stop their car with their shoe fitted feet scraping the road..and I used to do it on my bike:))).

Anyway, after telling him what to fix, we got into a conversation to while away the time. It went like this...

BSG: So what do you study...engineering?
Me: [aah..the sterotype] Well..Computer Science

B: I have heard they are having trouble finding more space on the ships?
M: Excuse me...ships..who?
B: Chips...The Intel guys
M: [Wow] Haha...I dont think so...Im sure they will find a way to increase the capacity.
B: But I think there wouldnt be space anymore..
M: They have been telling this for last 10 yrs..and they always found a way..they will
B: You mean by nanotechnology?
M: [Who is this guy] yea and quantum computing...blah

M: Did you study engineering?
B: No, I studied humanities. But I read stuff..I like learning every day
M: [Impressive]

B: So, do you want to start your own company?
M: Yea..I would love to. Its too early...I have to complete my Ph.D
B: You are in Ph.D? You look so young
M: [Thank you :)]
B: ...I am just kidding!
M: [WTF :)]

B: So what do you work on? software or hardware?
M: Umm..well..networks. I'm working on getting people connected while traveling in vehicles
B: Great...But don't distract the driver!
M: Haha..but it can be used by passengers too
B: But who wants network access while driving anyway?
M: Well..if there is an accident..you can get the info
B: Cool...But it has to be voice activated...shouldnt be touch based
M: [Man...this guy knows stuff] Haha...Yea it will be completely audio-visual..no touch..blah

B: Have a female voice on the device..and some soothing 'raagas' in the background
M: Haha
B: Guys will love it..they wont leave their car...their wives would say "Honey why are you always in the garage..."
M: Haha..but what about females?
B: You never know [with a wide grin]
M: [I could interpret this in thousand ways :)] Haha

Its always interesting to see how non-techie guys think about stuff...though this guy was no ordinary!

Are all friends created equal?

2008-04-30T01:27:00.000-07:00

My cousin has been pestering me for quite some time to write something more intellectual (in her own words) than those I have been doling out on my blog lately. So, I am going to take a stab at something I have been pondering for a while now. I would probably be opening up the Pandora’s box but I am open to discussion/debate, as always. Ok…enough introductions already.

So, the question is “What is the mantra for a friendship to flourish”? If you go by the book, its when all the individuals involved have equal say in decisions and there is probably a common interest(s) that binds them together. It’s essentially a democratic process. While I agree with the common interest thingy, I differ about the former. In contrast, I think a friendship between two (or a group of) individuals flourish when, loosely speaking, there is a leader and a follower! From what I have observed in my life so far, when two individuals have strong opinions about something and are usually the type that would like to lead rather than to listen then the ego clashes would eventually arise. A close bonding friendship is seldom possible in this case. On the other hand, if one of the guys usually takes the lead in decisions and the other is willing to follow then a very close friendship will be formed. The decision making role can change from event to event and person to person but there always have to be, for any given decision, one that leads and others that follow. This last sentence might seem to be a convenient fit for our friendship model (to pamper our egos), but the problem is, a person who likes to take decisions usually wants to take a decision of his own in every event, irrespective of his expertise in deciding over an event. He wouldn’t be willing to follow someone. So, it’s not as convenient as you think. All, I am saying is leaders can’t be good friends.

This might seem outrageous at first but if you really look closely at friendships near you, I’m sure you will find this. I did. Now, it needn’t be as obvious a decision maker – follower model as I make it out to be; in fact often times than not this relationship is very subtle. The societal upbringing and our own egos probably wouldn’t allow us to see this because we were always told that a good friendship thrives when everyone involved has equal share in decision making. Not true. Why does a company need a CEO, why does a country need a President…can’t everyone involved make a decision? No. Because when everyone is (equally) involved in making a decision it’s hard to reach a consensus. This is actually known as "distributed consensus problem" in computer science. Allow me to be a little geekier, when I refer to the interesting Arrow’s theorem from one of the classes I took recently: In a voting based election, the only procedure that guarantees 3 crucial properties (transitivity, unanimity and independence of irrelevant alternatives) that any fair election should satisfy is Dictatorship! Not a majority, not pair-wise contests or anything…only dictatorship. If we keep aside the atrocities, oppression etc, and look from a pure decision making perspective I think dictatorship wins hand down compared to democracy in efficiency.

Now, I know that friendship is not only about decision making but involves lot of complex yet beautiful mixture of love, comfort, kindness, happiness etc etc, but trying to see from one view point is always interesting and gives us a perspective. To me, atleast.

Indian Food

2008-04-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

As always, the gap between my posts keep increasing. One of the main reasons for this, I figured, is that I try to think too much about what I have to post. I try to think about the topic, whether it has to be intellectual, entertaining or plain non-sense. The other reasons being, I'm lazy and am busy... blah blah. Anyway, to cut it short, I decided to just post random short stuff more frequently than long spaced out stuff. Makes sense?

The reason for the title is, today Pon and Jalan invited over for dinner just before I decided to go out for dinner. And when I have to choose between home-made delicious indian food and any other food, the decision isn't difficult. So, I stayed back. And man, was the food delicious. Thanx guys!. I was remarking that, of all the varied cuisines that I tried so far in my life, none of them can beat Indian food. I know it sounds cool if I say I like some foreign cuisine like Italian, Thai or whatever, but if I said so, I would be lying. Maybe I am biased because I was born and brought up and was fed Indian, but seriously, how can you not like :)

I especially like the innumerable dishes that Indian cuisine has to offer...there are literally thousands of them. Every state/region of India has its own freaking dishes and styles. The intricate complicated recipes add to the allure. The aroma of the spices is enough to make one hungry. Its not your, "put noodles in hot water and add the sachet of spices". The convenience food that we get here is, lets say..just convenient. Nothing more. (Ok Ok..I do like different cuisines and enjoy the different tastes...but thats not the point) Cooking Indian food, on the other hand, is an art thats been perfected over centuries. You have to eat the authentic food to believe it. Enough said..this is going too long...

The Weekend

2008-02-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

It was the weekend. The corridors and the hallways were all deserted. The HFH building didn't show any signs of the buzzing activity that goes on during the week days. It was a complete contrast. No one comes to the campus, much less the HFH, during the weekends. Well, may be some graduate students who are lured by the coffee machines in their labs or the prospect of watching movies on the big screen monitors in the lab. Some come to appease their conscience by working hard on weekends. Professors have mastered the art of making their labs conducive for the unsuspecting grad students to work 24/7. Grad students, on the other hand, mastered the art of sitting infront of the computer and yet not being productive. Talk about evolution.

It was a bright sunny day after a string of gloomy rainy days. I couldn't understand why would any one come to campus during this time of the day instead of basking out in the sun in the nearby beach. The beach was just a few meters away, so there's no excuse. Me, I came to drop off my homework in the homework box located on the second floor. As I dropped it, I could hear the faint clicks of keyboard strokes...grad students at work. Or infront of the computer. On an impulse, I wanted to go to the top floor and catch a view of the ocean from there. I took the stairs to avoid the boring elevator. As I peered from the glass window of the top floor..the beach never looked more beautiful. Filled with families having barbecues, kids playing un-meaningful yet funny games, surfers showing off their skills and pretty gals sun-bathing. Tiny specks of fishing boats were at a distance. The green mountains were soaking in the sun, keeping a fatherly eye on everything thats going on in the ocean. Its always peaceful and inspiring to watch the beach...especially when your day is not going right.

Reeling back to the reality...I headed towards the stairs. Then it happened. I heard the foot steps which were amplified by the empty corridor. I looked back and saw K coming towards me. K was a very good friend of mine. We did our undergrad at the same college. He was always jovial and fun to be around with. But, there was something wrong in the way he was approaching. There was no hurry, just cold determination. When he was close enough I could see his blood-shot eyes. There was no mistake. Something was definitely wrong. His quick steps suddenly changed into a brisk run towards me, as if to attack me. Without thinking I started running away from him. I had no idea whether he meant to harm me or whether I was just imagining it, but I didn't want to take any chances. As I ran through the convoluted corridor, I realized that there was no line of sight between us during brief moments when I turned into the next wings. The corridor was long and the wings were many. The elevator was at the back and the staircases were way ahead. He was running faster than me and my panic didnt allow me to focus my energy. My mind was searching for questions...wondering at the bizare turn of events...why was this happening to me?

As I turned into the next wing, I briefly lost sight of him behind me. In my hurry, I forgot to take a staircase that would have led me out of the building. There was another one, few meters ahead. But...it suddenly struck me as a flash...my heart skipped a beat. The hallway was eerily silent. It only meant one thing..K was not following me anymore. Where did he go? He might have taken the stairs I passed and might be waiting for me at the next staircase ahead. I could neither go back nor front. I was just stranded there unable to think what to do. I had to make a decision fast before time ran out. Then I saw a room to my left with its door partially ajar. Without thinking, I just ducked behind the door.Unfortunately, this door couldn't be locked from inside. Before, I could even move the door...I heard the foot steps again. I was trapped...I didn't make a move...I couldn't. He was close now...I could feel it...may be just infront of this room. Probably wondering where I vanished..or he already knew! Sweat trickled down my face onto my shoes. I prayed the drops wouldn't make a puddle near the door and draw his attention. I stopped breathing, so that the sound wouldn't give me away.

Why is K trying to harm me. Why is he so angry. Did he just snap after I made fun of him last night? It was made in good humor but it was not the first time people took offence at my friendly jabs. Of course, no one was offended enough to harm me. Not until now. These thoughts raced through my mind, as I held my breath hoping against hope that he would go away. After a few secs, I didn't hear any foot steps...it was completely silent again. I knew he was not near the room anymore. Has he gone? Or is he lurking at a corner just waiting for me to show up. I couldn't stay like this forever. I had to come out. Without making a sound I slowly came out from behind the door. I looked down the hallway to my right. No sign of life. Then I looked to my left. A silver light flashed on my eyes momentarily blinding me. I closed my eyes with my hand for a second. There he was, waiting for me patiently like a lion waits for its prey. The light was a reflection from the metal he was holding in his hand. It was a knife!!! He lunged at me and I knew I can't escape this time. As I tried to run, the metal scraped my back...but it was not deep. I wondered why he didn't kill me yet. I looked back and saw that N was holding K back. N came from no where. N was another friend of mine. He now pinned K to the wall and I could see K was wriggling to get free. But his stare was fixed at me. Then A came. I remembered A worked a floor below and he probably heard the struggle from his lab. Now A and N were holding K down. No one said a word. Everyone understood what they had to do...or may be everyone was clueless. There was no rope to tie K down and I motioned A to get one from his lab. A left us and went down to get the rope.

Only 3 of us were left. Me, N and K. N was holding K down on the floor. He was still struggling. I saw the backpack K had dropped just a few feet away and proceeded to see what it contained. I didn't dare to be near K, even though he was not free now. I hoped the backpack contained some clue about the way K was acting.I wanted to make some sense out of all this madness. While I was rummaging through the bag, I caught a glance of the knife that was lying on the floor next to N and A. Its tip was slightly red from the scraping of my back. I didn't find anything in the first two compartments of the bag. There was only one more compartment left to check. I looked back to see how N and K were doing. For a fleeting moment, it seemed to me that N and K were staring at each other. As if, there was some unspoken agreement between them. May be I was just hallucinating after all that I went through. N was a friend of mine. He could never harm me. I started searching through the last compartment and suddenly I heard the sound of metal scraping the floor. I was paralyzed for a moment. I took a sideward glance. The knife was no longer there...

Looking back....An Adieu to 2007

2007-12-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

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

2007-09-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-02-13T23:50:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-02-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-01-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

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!

Hey Ram...

2006-11-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Finally, am able to write this piece after a long hiatus....mainly delayed due to my persistence to wait till I get my new notebook. My ThinkPad has arrived and theres no more excuses to prolong this further,so here it goes....

Foreword:
The full credit to the (short) story goes to my wonderful grandfather, who penned this story during the times of freedom struggle of India and got it published in a national newspaper! Am just rephrasing this story in my own words with some modifications to the original story. Am dedicating this to my lovely grandpa and grandma.

Disclaimer:
All characters in this story are fictional and any resemblance is a mere coincidence :)

The Village:
It was the night of august 1947 when India was being given, or rather has been fought for, the much deserved freedom after almost 350 years. Gandhiji , armed with the weapons of non-violence and non-cooperation was able to convince Indians to finally unite against the colonial rule. Miraculously the system worked and Britons were forced to quit. It was the time for celebration, the home coming of many great heroes who fought for the country, lived and died for it. A young but ambitious secular India was born.

Though India was able to successfully vanquish their external foes it wasn't able to stay united, the only force which was the sole reason of its freedom. There was a growing unrest among two major religions of the society, the hindus and the muslims. The slogan of "Hindu Muslim Bhai Bhai" (hindus and muslims are brothers), the driving force behind the freedom movement, was no longer seen as valid. Disruptive forces within the country demanded for a separate country for the Indian Muslims. Unfortunately, the top brass of the Indian leaders decided to partition India into India and Pakistan and the worst nightmare began.

A village on the eastern border of India was witnessing the pain of the partition. The villagers were an equal mix of hindus and muslims living together peacfully. They never dreamt that they would be separated by fate and miss their dearest friends. For them, religion didn't hold any water....atleast till the partition movement. Rumours were spreading in the village that a train carrying hindus from pakistan was burnt by the muslims. Hearing this, the hindus of the village seethed with anger and were seeking revenge. Rumours were again spreading in the village that, some muslims were attacked by un-identified youth while they were returning from mosques after their daily prayers. No one knew the truth, all were rumours, but no one cared! The situation was going out of control.

On this particular night, the atmosphere was particularly tensed. The dead bodies of Amir and Ravi were found floating on the lake in the night. The bodies were sent to the respective families for the final ceremonies. Both the bodies were terribly bruised as if beaten to death by someone. There were no visible marks of any weapons but the bodies were mangled. The muslims of Amir's community blamed the hindus of brutally killing their son. Nobody saw a hindu attacking Amir but again no one wanted a reason (the truth being, both Amir and Ravi were secret friends playing near the lake when both of them accidentally drowned in the water. The bruises on their body were the courtesy of the fish and reptiles in the lake). It was decided that they would kill any hindu spotted on the streets tonight. They wielded the butcher's knives and ran amuck in the streets like mad men. Soon, the hindus came to know that their people were being attacked in streets by muslims and they weilded their own weapons. A riot ensured in the peace loving village and blood flowed like water in the streets. The red of the blood defied the black of the night.

A young girl was coming back from her friend's place on this fateful night oblivious of the blood shed going on. On her way home, she saw dead bodies on the side of the roads and was scared to death. She could see a few people with daggers running towards her shouting "Maaro Maaro" (Kill her, Kill her). She didn't know if the people were hindus or muslims, she didn't care. She just wanted to stay alive for the night and started running towards a dilapidated house with no lights. The house was empty and start dark, so she went inside and hid behind a cupboard. The people saw her movements, and came running towards the house. They called her to come out of the house or they would burn the house. The girl didnt budge, she knew she would be killed if she came out. She stayed put. These people were the relatives of Ravi and were in no mood to let any muslims stay alive tonight. They didn't know how many people were inside the dark house and hence didn't dare to go inside. They poured kerosene all over the house and summoned the gal one last time, "Bahaar aajao warna ghar jalaa denge" (Come out or we will burn the house). The gal was frigthened to death to move. She stayed behind the cupboard. With no response, Ravi's relatives lit the house and started to run away. As they began to turn round the corner they froze on hearing the dying girl's final scream reverberated in the air, her final prayer to her god,"Hey Ram......." .

Fire In The Belly

2006-08-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

In every person's life there comes a time when he stands at the cross-roads. One has to make a possibly difficult decision to follow the further path. No matter how much you wish to run away from the juncture there is no escape for that. Its inevitable. It doesn't matter whether you take the right or wrong path, for that matter no path can be fingered down to be a right or wrong path. In life, nothing is Black and White. So in that case, what matters is the Conviction with which you make the decision.....the Confidence you have in doing what you think is right...and the clear Conscience with which you need to move ahead to make the journey. These are the three essential C's for leading a satisfactory life.
Paraphrasing an interesting conversation between Lex Luthor and Clark Kent in Smallville...
"Lex: Hey Clark...Did you read 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' ?
Clark: What about it?
Lex: Its a great book. You should read it once.
Clark: Is it? What happens in the end?
Lex: Its not about the end. Its about the journey!"
The goal in life shouldn't be about trying to reach a dead end and be happy with it. Suppose you reach one such end then what next? You will find that there's another end which you need to reach and you set up on reaching that. Again reaching that end, you find still another. Sooner or later you will realize that you are not able to enjoy the ends (technically, its not an end) that you worked so hard to reach. So what's the purpose of life if you are not happy? One has to realize that its the journey that one need to enjoy...the whole process of reaching the destination. Life will then become much more meaningful and pleasant.

Everyone stands at one or more cross-roads in their lives and currently I am facing one. Having decided to pursue Ph.D in computer science I have to decide the way I have to go about it. Essentially there are two ways, one is to get it done with by adapting to the system and get out. The other, more difficult one, is to be true to one self. I am not completely satisfied with the way I have completed my under graduation. Sure I have got some offers from universities, got placed in a company and earned a decent grade point but that's that. It might be merely because I have adapted to the damn system and just trudged along. I really didn't do any path breaking stuff or made a mark of my own. I don't want this to be repeated during my doctoral studies. I really want to learn something very interesting and implement it successfully. I don't want to fall into the norm of being a publishing press and churning out papers during my study. Rather than publishing numerous papers which are no good except for publishing I would rather prefer to publish one paper which I am really proud of. My idea should be able to be patented...should be implemented successfully in real world not just test-beds....and most importantly should be Commercially Viable. What's the use of publishing tons of papers if the idea cannot come out of the conference rooms into the public. Academic research with tight collaboration with industry will provide the right platform for doing innovative (pardon the cliche) stuff. No Co will be satisfied with just high-five ideas unless they can be made commercially viable because at the end of the day they are in the business for profits not charity.

Money is something which everyone likes no matter what phony things they say. Sure I too want money but I don't want to work for the sole purpose of getting it. There are other ways to earn dough more quickly than research. What would happen if you are earning envious amount of money but you are not satisfied with yourself. Would you be really happy if you sit idle and your bank balance will make your life more than comfortable? I won't be able to live like that and I guess no one can and should. Rather I want to work in the field I am passionate about (again pardon the cliche). If I really enjoy the work I do then I will definitely do it with sincerity and commitment and money will automatically come. The satisfaction that comes from living this way is unparalleled. But I am afraid I will be pulled back into the system and do what most others do. I can't and will not blame the system or the atmosphere if I end up that way..because I will be solely responsible for all my actions. I just hope this fire in the belly continues in my doctoral studies n my life ahead....

As a matter of fact, I don't know if research is my cup of tea...may be I won't like it after some time...or may be I will like it. But am now willing to take a chance...to the test the waters..to see if I can enjoy it. My current aim or rather the aim of my life is to find where my heart lies...I mean what exactly do I love doing....to find my destiny!

Memoirs of a Kone - Part II

2006-08-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Continuing from the previous post ......

Third year was the most exciting year both academically and other wise. The course load was comparatively less and moreover we began to understand the tricks of the trade (read getting grades). Here in IIT, a grade point average is not a true indicator of a person's intelligence or capability. Its a totally different ball game where the qualities of sincerity, dedication, determination and all that crap come into picture. Ofcourse for those who want to get good grades by hook or crook, there are other means like CCP(Cut Copy Paste), licking the profs in and out and myriad other such things. By this time, the scenario was clear among the students..those who wanted grades knew what they wanted to do..and those who didn't give a damn (mind you there were some excellent students in this category too) about grades stopped worrying about them. I realized that IITs are IITs not because of the faculty and the infrastructure...but because of the great bunch of students and the atmosphere. All in all it was peace.

The most exhilarating time during the 3rd year was the custom of doing internship abroad during the summers. It was a great avenue to improve your academic credentials on one hand and experiencing a new culture of western countries. Ofcourse, this was preceded by countless no.of emails by students trying to woo the profs of european, canadian and even australian nations. The resumes and skills claimed by us would put to shame even the most accomplished professionals in our fields :P. Such was the dedication or desperation whichever you might think among us. Some lucky bastards got intern offers after a few mails itself and other poor souls like me had to spam 200-300 emails to bag the offers. There were two other kinds, those who got internships passed on from their friends (yeah most of us were blessed with good souls with a ring on top of our heads) and those who didn't get offers or those who didn't even try. After the offers, began the running around police stations and going to embassies for visa stamps. For some it was hell n for others it went smoothly. Thus began our exploitations abroad.....

Me, I accepted the offer from one Salzburg Research center under a Mr. Hofmann working on Synchronized access networks. Work was fun because there was very less to do (though the folks out there felt we had done some excellent work ;) ) and the work culture was totally cool. After running at the heels of the profs bak in iit for every little thing, it was a welcome relief during internship where we were treated like equals. My prof was especially cool...he sponsored my trip to Berlin and Dresden and also drove me till Dresden in his car with his family. I had made some good friends in my hostel during that time and they were really good to me. My room mate, Jaffer, was a turkish guy studying law and he showed me around the city of Salzburg apart from playing tt with me. Gerald and Teresa were the two other good friends of mine who invited me to parties. Teresa even cooked turkey for us on Mother's day and wanted me to cook her an Indian dinner, but I never did for some reason or another. Coming to sightseeing, I had been to Vienna, Venice (the most beautiful and different city I have seen so far), Verona, Dresden, Berlin and Paris. Many of our friends were able to meet at some or others place and used to hang out. Myself, I hosted 3-4 groups of my friends when they visited my place. Suffice to say that it was a memorable 3 month period in our undergrad life.

There came the 7th semester of 4th year and then started struggle. It was the most crucial period of our lives coz we had to decide what we wanted to do or be in future atleast near future. I had plans to write CAT and do an MBA from IIMs (infact I mobilized the students of our batch to join IMS coaching in our campus) but after internship I decided that I wanted to be in the technical field. So I decided "I don't want CAT , I would rather stick to my mouse" :). Some of my frenz were preparing for giving gre (I had given it in the previous year itself) or going for CAT coaching or both. Then came the apping period...where we had the arduous trouble of selecting universities, trying to make pacts with frenz to avoid clashes (tho we ended up clashing almost everywhere) and preparing sops, resumes and all that shit. As all things come to an end, good or bad, the apping and CAT was done with by the end of 7th semester. Due to change of plans among iits, we had the placement period after 7th semester. CS placements were great as usual (I was placed with Microsoft IDC, Hyderabad) and the overall scenario was also quite successful compared to previous years. The management realized that the placements would have been even better, if companies were allowed in 7th semester itself as most of them couldn't wait and went to other colleges.

The final semester was the most enjoyed in our entire iit life, never did we feel better about being in IIT (intern being an exception). With only the thesis in hand, we had loads of time left and we utilized it the best as can be expected from a bunch of blood sucked bodies...yeah we played games (computer games mostly) like hell. The multi-player games in hostels and the computer lab were unforgettable. As the semester was coming to an end, the results of apping and CAT started pouring in. Anoop, a friend of mine, secured All India Rank of 1 !! and that was an highlight in the CAT results. On the apping front, many people got offers from top 10 right from the biggies of MIT and UCB (both to Mohit, another friend of mine) and the scenario in CS was better than others. Me, finally accepted PhD offer from Univ of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Time raced swiftly with project presentations and it was time for (under) graduation. Emotions started flowing left right and center as we realized that we won't be able to hang out as before. We promised each other that we would keep in touch though we knew that its very difficult. I would have cried if my tears can bring back my friends, but I didn't coz I knew the times are not gonna come back.I might not able be to bring back the times...but I have the memories which can bring a smile on my face whenever I feel nostalgic.I would like to take this opportunity, to thank all my friends who have helped me and been there for me when I needed them and am sorry to all those who have been hurt by me either knowingly or unknowingly. We may not meet each other in future or even be able to be in contact but my friend I ask you only one thing...Never forget Me....Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa.

Memoirs of a Kone - Part I

2006-08-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

This piece has been in pending for quite some time now as its already been more than 2 months since I have (under) graduated from iitg. This is intended as a retrospection of my 4 year undergraduate life.

It all started on a mid-summer afternoon when I entered into the iit campus at guwahati along with my mom and bro (dad had been away on official trip n couldn't make it). Like all others starry eyed teenagers present there I was nervous and excited at the same time. Will iit education change our lives? Is our future set and on the track ? Is IIT a myth or truth ?....countless such questions dogged us as we went through our initiation ceremony. After setting up the essentials my folks had left for home and I was all alone in a new world or was I !?

I had 4 friends from my junior college and another 3 (who were our seniors in our college but joined iit along with us) and so it was not difficult to start. Also, there was Prasanth aka Pressy (as he was popularly known), my high school mate. Our initial trip was a trek up the famed hill spot inside the campus where one can have a wonderful view of the beautiful (ah! i have to admit it finally) campus. All the first years were stationed in Dihing hostel with no seniors present to curb ragging. But as fate had it, I was digging my own pit ! We had an intra-iitg mailing system called pine (one of my favs in my iit life) where we had an option of sending an email to an entire batch or all batches as we please. As my innocuous brain conjured up a brilliant idea, I sent an email to all batches, including seniors !, stating "I am a freshman and I want to make friends. Anybody interested pls contact me ....". Till date I wonder two things 1) Who the fuck told me the alias of sending mail to all batches 2) Was I insane. Anyway, the second yearites smelt bold and the bakra was summoned. Though I had a few ragging experiences by then, they were relatively mild compared to this. First I was given an eye-opening sermon by a senior, on the nature of true friends and importance of family friends which I had to endure for a good 60 minutes. Then from 10 pm to 3 am I had to bore the brunt of a bunch of seniors, esp kiki n homo, who made me do all silly things till (to quote from my cousin's book) ' I unleashed my weapon.... tears' . Apparently kiki was infuriated that I wasn't practicing TableTennis (guess i made an impression during the TT tournament held for freshmen in the initial days) and told me to resume practice. He also ordered me to do 2 things, to send an email to the entire batch saying that I only want girl friends and to write 10 points on why I think I was handsome. It goes without saying, that his wishes were not fulfilled :)

First yearites in our college were like a pack of wolves when it came to attending classes and having meals. They used to flock class rooms a good half an hour before the scheduled time to grab the coveted first seats (though in later years the back seats became coveted). The bland meals of the hostel meals were not to spared either. My room, 57, was a hub during the initial years for all sort of activities, mainly during exams. To my one side was Jaini and to the other was Nune (we both spoke to him only after 1 month !!). Jaini was laid back n easy going whereas Nune was a kind of tutor for us during exams (he studied undergrad an year before he re-attempted JEE). Computer games became an obsession among the students and we spent all our free time scouting for free PCs in our computer center to play AOE, Quake etc....n ofcourse the adult content passed down as a legacy by our seniors. We had a semester system which was interspersed with vacations. The first vacation of one month in december, made us to stay at home for longer and the second one of three months in summer had us yearning to get bak to college. After the first 2 semesters the inevitable happened...the realization that grades aren't easy to come by had dawned upon us and the entras (the students from AP were called so) began herding together most of the times as a band of brothers.

Second year is the strangest time in an undergrad life...u feel liberated coz u r no longer a freshman ducking at the site of a senior, u can have the revenge on ur seniors by taking it on ur juniors :) and yet ur confused to understand the system. We had one other thing to look forward to in our second year. During our first year, some of the seniors had the pleasure to share a hostel, Manas, with the gals (as we had verrrry less ratio of gals they didn't have a separate hostel !!!). Many if not all were secretly hoping to land in that hostel by hook or crook. But as are the ways of fate, a new hostel was built entirely for gals in our second year and they were shifted. Thus we were deprived of the company of non-males (as they were called here for obvs reasons) for better or worse. Again all of us, second yearites, were put in Manas without any seniors. The turning point of my life happened during the initial days of second year. Studs who are in top 10% of their branch had an opportunity for branch change. As we were the first batch of bio-tech students in iitg I was eager to change to either to ece or cs. But I was standing 5th in a class of 20 after the end of 2 sems and clearly didn't stand a chance to branch change..only students had a chance to branch change in our bio-tech class. But miracles do happen...the first and third rankers didn't want to change branch as they liked biotech. So the 2nd and 4th rankers opted for a change and got ece and cs respectively. Now there was this pal from mech who was enamored by bio-tech and decided to opt for branch change to bio-tech from mech (many of us didn't undstand why). Anyway, as one outsider came to bio-tech , I got the chance to change branch and got Computer Science !!!. Even now I feel I was lucky to get CS branch and will never regret that decision. I love CS :)

Unlike in first year, most of the classes of students of different branches were different. Core courses were started and I had the first touch of computer science. For whatever reason, I couldn't cope with the course load in the 3rd sem and my grade point average dipped. The 4th sem was a nightmare for the CS guys...we had this hardware lab where we were supposed to build a raw CPU.
The effort put was no match for the low credits allotted to it. Finally our group couldn't make the CPU working on time, and we borrowed the CPU of another group and showed it to the instructor (yeah...it was total fraud). Surprisingly we got 10/10 in that course where as the group from which we borrowed the CPU got 9/10 !! But again logic takes a back seat sometimes in iit.

Forgot to mention about the festivals in our iit. The cultural fest Alcheringa and the technical fest Techniche were quite famous in the north-east region. Alcheringa became a hunting ground for the desperadoes among us. As the chics from the NE region flocked the campus, the iit guys bored with the chics inside the campus preyed upon them. Many of the liaisons were abruptly cut short after the end of the festival, which was held for 3 days but some them gingerly clinged upon their catch. The good thing was, it brought out the talents of the studs as it was totally organized by the students right from getting the sponsors, publicizing the event in local colleges and organizing events. The best Alcher we had was in the first year where we had a rock show by Brahma and an eastern music show by Euphoria. Though Techniche was not held at as big a scale as Alcher, nonetheless it had its share of followers who were determined to show their technical skills. We also had an intra-iit festival called Manthan where all the batches used to compete with each other (which later was competed among hostels) in various cultural and sport events. This list would be incomplete, if I don't mention the two sporting events we had Inter-IIT sports meet and Spirit - NE sports meet. It was a welcome relief from the mundane routine of the college and all the pupils looked forward to it enthusiastically (though the enthu slowly died with years).

I would cut this blog here before it becomes any longer......I will be writing another blog about our effervescent third year and happy-go-lucky fourth year...So long

The Matrix - A Perspective

2006-03-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

This not just a mere review of Matrix, the film. A sociological perspective is interspersed with the narrative. Here it goes....
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Before delving into the discussion, it would be better if we understand what "Matrix" actually is. According to Morpheus (one of the main protagonists of the movie) "Matrix is a computer generated program. It’s a world that has been pulled over the eyes to blind the people from the truth. It’s the truth that all the people (well most of them) are in a prison, a prison of mind, where they don’t know what they see, what they feel or what they think." In the sociological sense we can think Matrix as a cyberspace where people live without knowing that it’s a virtual simulated world controlled by someone else.

The main plot of the movie revolves around the self-discovery of one Thomas Anderson aka Neo aka The One. He leads a double life as a computer programmer at a reputable firm and a hacker. He doesn’t believe in fate because he doesn’t like the fact that he cannot control his life. He knows that there is something wrong with the world but he doesn’t exactly understand what. His routine life takes a turn on a fateful morning when he wakes up to see his computer talking to him. It tells him to follow the White Rabbit and when he does so, he meets Trinity. She tells him that people are watching him and she knows why he is there. Though Neo is initially confused and intimidated by all the strange things happening around him, he decides to meet Morpheus to know The Truth. Face to face with Morpheus, he embarks on a journey to know the truth the about himself, the world and the Matrix. Morpheus tells him that one can’t be explained about Matrix but it has to be known by oneself. He offers him a choice of Red Pill and the Blue Pill. If one selects Blue Pill they can forget everything about the Matrix and just wake up and live life as they have lived till now. Taking the Red Pill on the other hand, takes them into a new world where the reality of the world is revealed. Without any hesitation Neo accepts the Red Pill and thus the wheel of events is set into motion.

In the first of his training programs, Neo is taken inside a computer program along with Morpheus. There is an interesting dialogue between these two protagonists during this simulation. Neo asks Morpheus “Is this Real?” for which he explains “What is Real? If reality is simply what we feel, what we touch or what we see then reality is simply electrical signals interpreted by the brain.” He further explains that the world that people are living is just a dream world, a simulated environment. Some time during the end of 21st century mankind has united to celebrate the true birth of AI, where machines had a single consciousness. Man had been dependent on the machines from the beginning but fate it seems doesn’t exist without a touch of irony. Initially the machines were dependent on solar energy for their working. Later on they realized the potential of human energy and started “Fields” where human growth combined with fusion technique was developed as a perennial energy resource. So, humans were no longer born but they were grown.

In this process, the machines have gained supremacy over the human beings and so they have been relegated to a place in the underground. At present there is a small population of Real People living in a place called Zion hoping to gain back control from the machines. Morpheus, Trinity and other crew members of the ship where Neo is taken are a group of fighters from this world who are trying to sneak into Matrix and gain control. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One who can do this daunting task of fighting the Matrix and getting back the power to the real people. Of course for this to happen, Neo has to first believe in himself. He has to believe that he is The One and that he is capable of doing it. The entire theme of this movie centers on this realization of Neo.

Deviating slightly from the context of the movie, it would be interesting if we try to visualize a world as depicted or rather prophesized in the movie. Can Artificial Intelligence reach to such levels where the machines can actually overpower the human beings in every walk of life? Will a time come where the machines can actually think for themselves? This of course is an eternal debate and there is really no clear answer. Rather than fighting over the issue of whether machines can think or not it would be interesting if we can divert our attention to the issue of whether we would like it that way? To answer this we have to revert back to the main idea behind the invention of the machines. The concept of machines has been shaped by man to reduce his work load. Machines were expected to do the jobs in an efficient manner in less time than a human being. Probably the man of the industrial age hasn’t thought about the modern concepts of artificial intelligence and virtual world during that time. So, machines started literally as slaves to human beings and slowly developed into a state where they can be autonomous systems now. However, we have to be cautious regarding the independence of the machines from the man. Are they really independent? Any autonomous system, even today, relies on a basic code which has to be coded down by man. There is still not a system which can write that basic code for itself. Even in AI, the machines are fed with a basic set of rules. The
beauty of AI lies in the behavior of the system in new environments. Though the response to the basic rules is known, it’s difficult to predict the behavior of the system as whole when a new environment is encountered. The same is the case with Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and such. Hence, for time being we can be assured that man has still an upper hand to the machine.

Coming back to the point of discussion here, The Matrix, another important beings in the Matrix are the “Agents”. They are the gatekeepers of the system. They can move in and out of any software potentially hardwired to the Matrix. Agents are sentient programs and every person who is not unplugged is a potential agent. Since agents are the guards that hold keys to all the doors of the Matrix sooner or later they have to be dealt with. All the people who have so far tried to defeat them have failed because they are guarded by the rules of the Matrix. Only when a person breaks those rules can he fight the agents. Morpheus tells Neo that, he believes that Neo can succeed where others failed just because he can break those rules. At this point Neo asks whether he can dodge bullets when Morpheus tells him that when he is actually ready he doesn’t need to! Agent Smith is the main agent in the Matrix. He is the anti-hero and is always on the look out for keeping the enemies of the Matrix at bay.

Oracle is like the prophet of the Matrix. She knows enough about the machinations of the Matrix and makes prophecies which never went wrong. She tells Morpheus that he will find The One and Trinity that she will fall in love with him. The confrontation between Neo and Oracle is one of the remarkable sequences of the film. When Neo confesses to her that he honestly doesn’t know whether he is The One, she tells him that being The One is like being in love. One just knows it through and through, bones to bones. She also prophesizes that there will come a time when he has to make a choice between his life and Morpheus’s because only one of them is going to live.

For the sake of the movie, we have to discuss two other things, the squids and Cypher. Squids are the machines designed to do just one thing, Search and Destroy. To keep them from attacking the ship, the crew uses EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). On the other hand, Cypher is the rat among the crew members. He is foolish enough to believe in the material pleasures of the Matrix and is ready to leave the reality and get back into the Matrix. Agent Smith capitalizes on his weakness and tries to destroy the crew members.
One of the fascinating things in this movie is the transportation technique used by Morpheus and his crew to enter into the Matrix. They use a kind of tele-transportation where by plugging them into a networked system they can enter the Matrix. We can visualize this as a kind of back door to the Matrix. We will again take liberty to stray out of the current topic here to discuss about transportation. Do we have any analogous techniques in today’s world for this technique? The answer is yes. Take for example the virtual reality (VR) embedded computer games. By strapping the player to a machine and connecting him to sensors the user is taken into a virtual world where everything seems so real. The sensors are used to give the feel to the user as if the things he touch and see are real. The flight simulators used in pilot training programs are also a good example for VR. So what happens in The Matrix is also a similar phenomenon. Since it’s a VR world, the crew members are transported into and out of that world.

Back to the movie, after meeting Oracle Neo is apprehensive about his real identity. Whether he is The One or not? He is almost convinced by Oracle that he is not because he himself is not sure. On their way back to the telephone, which is their means of transportation back to the ship, the agents attack the crew members. Some of the members are killed by Cypher by unplugging them from the ship. Morpheus is caught by the agents while Neo and Trinity get back to the ship. But Neo wants to get back to the Matrix because he thinks he is not The One and that Morpheus is unnecessarily sacrificing his life for him. So he finally convinces the remaining crew and he along with Trinity go back into the Matrix. After a typical fighting sequence, both Trinity and Morpheus are back into the ship whereas Neo is trapped in the Matrix.

Into the climax of the movie, Agent Smith shoots down Neo. He is about to die when he wakes up again to face Smith. At this juncture, he understands his true destiny. He realizes that his identity is The One. This is shown in the movie in an amazing way where bullets sprayed by the agents stop in their tracks in front of Neo. We can recall Morpheus’s words earlier that once he is ready he no longer needs to dodge the bullets. Neo is faster than the bullets now, he can break the rules. Bullets can no longer damage him. He is the ultimate, the hero, The One. In a sociological perspective, we can discuss about the question of Identity of Neo. We can draw parallel to his identity to the identity of any being in the cyberspace. What is an identification of a person communicating in cyberspace? We know that a single person can have multiple identities at the same time easily in cyberspace. In that case, how can we pin point a person based on his cyber-identity? I believe that as long as there is no restriction on the online identity that a person can use, for example like SSN, it’s very difficult to identify a cybernetic user.

For digging deeper into the aspects of Matrix and the identity of Neo, discussing about the next parts of the sequel (Reloaded and Revolutions) is mandatory. Without those two the story is incomplete and we are, to say in Morpheus words, “Like Alice… tumbling down the rabbit hole”.

Y Not Voice Blogging?

2006-03-11T05:23:00.000-08:00

I was just wondering why there hasn’t been a "voice" blogging system instead of this traditional text blogging ? Or may be there is and i dont know of it. I have googled though n cudnt get hold of ne meaningful stuff. So I was just thinking about the odds against voice blogging and got some points.

First of all, I have nothing against text. The beauty of words can never be sidelined and as an ardent lover of great books I can’t refute it. But when we talk about the two things that have prime importance in today's world, time and flexibility, I think voice has an upper hand over text. Speaking wat you want is generally 10 times faster than if you write it down. Flexibility wise, of course we all know that its much easier to speak than to type stuff.

Another important thing is that voice carries more emotional attachment than words .Now dont start rising from your seats...saying that there had been great novels with powerful words that influenced people's minds and hearts more than wat voice/visuals could do so let me put it in another more acceptable way.... getting an emotion across is easier through voice than text. For example....wat do you like better on your b’day , a greeting card written in an effusive way or a phone call with that person and a heart to heart talk? I definitely prefer the latter. Bottom line is that pain to mouth is much better than pain to hands.

So, Iam looking forward to the day when I am not hindered to blog wats on my mind just because Im lazy to type the stuff on the keyboard. I just speak my heart out in my microphone and (voice) blog it. Wouldn’t that be nice.!!?? Of course it can’t stop with voice, it will go till video n god knows wat but every revolution starts with a single step!

.an afterthought.....its funny to think of the place where i got these thoughts...Im sure that u must have understood!..now dont ask me :)

The Unforgettable Adventure -- Tawang

2006-01-19T10:50:00.000-08:00

This is a trip turned into an adventure !. 17 of us planned a trip to the hillstation, Tawang (in Arunachal Pradesh) as we had 5 days of holidays for sankranti. We hired two sumos (i'll call them: red, white) and one bolero (call them: black). As you can imagine, all the vehicles were jam packed and there was little place to move inside. This was the initial problem we faced...but the worse was yet to come !!!

Day 1 (11th Jan): The Journey
Since some of the guys hadnt yet got the inter-state license to enter arunachal pradesh (its a sensitive area , so the restrictions) we decided to wait for those guys(black) at Khanapara(in guwahati) till they can get their licenses and join us there. There was a small hill near our stop..so me,pressy,vpk,varma,jaravind and vinay(l to r in the pic) decided to do a little trek up the hill to kill the time. Though vinay was scared in the middle of trek due to the slippery path, he continued with us after a lil persuasion. Finally we reached the top of the hill and waved to our remaining guys standing near our vehicles. After spending some time on top, we returned back along a different path. Surprisingly the downhill journey was easier than the uphill one which is not usual.

Next surprise was Prof. Mishra (of mech dept) and co. joining our group for the same trip. Seems he too planned the same trip with his family and a trio of his phd students as he was happy with the just concluded conference which he organized. Initially we thought that he would be a pain in our ass as we probably coudnt enjoy with him being around. But guess what, our journey was made easier because of his generous help which you will find out. Finally, the black guys arrived after getting their licenses and we resumed our journey to tawang at 12:30 pm with 4 vehicles (brown scorpio of Prof. Mishra).

Our initial plan was to stay in a place called Bomdilla for the first nite. But as fate had it in our trip, nothing took place as planned. This was a pleasant change though. Mishra had arranged for accomodation at a place called Tenga which was 45 km ahead of Bomdilla in a military camp. We were thankful to him, that we could call it a day 1hr before than planned as all of us were tired. Brahmi had already vomitted in the black sumo due to the twists and turns on the hilly path. We got three cottages for ourselves and also delicious dinner ready by 8 pm. As all of us were famished (you know how the hostel's food is like esp. iitg's) we pounced upon the dinner like hungry dogs. The cooks didnt except this and we were soon short of dishes. The people who ate last had to be satisfied with only one or two items. Since we were 17 guys (excluing Mishra's gang) with 3 cottages, we had 6 in each of the cottages except one. In our cottage... 6 of us cramped in one double bed and you can imagine how it would be like. For an outsider it would seem like an orgy for sure! Since we were tired we didnt mind and simply dozed off after watchin some television.

Day 2 (15th jan): The first of the twists
After having a nice breakfast (Poori) we took some snaps and started our journey. Since the whole journey for today was mountaineous we decided on a round-robbin rule for people who sit on the back side of our sumo. We had our initial twist just after we stopped for soup enroute. Our driver was young and relatively new to this trip so he was cautiously slow. 5 min after our stop, Mishra's scorpio slipped on the route and fell into a ditch on the right side of the road. This was because of the ice formed on the road. Luckily there was no casuality and with so many guys around we could literally lift the vehicle and put it back on track. Then Mishra and we guys parted our ways coz he had a different itinerary. So we were back to the three sumos -- the red (i was in this), the black and the white.

My main motive for making this trip was to see the snow for the first time in my life. Though I had been to europe, last summer for my internship, i couldnt play in snow there because of the season and place (austria). We were told that there was not much or no snow in Tawang but there was little ice. This disappointed most of us and especially me. I had already seen the worlds' biggest ice caves in Salzburg and was not so enthused by the ice. But fate had something else in its store for us !!

After an uneventful journey we reached Tawang at around 8:00 pm. We already booked our accomodation in Hotel Budha so we all collapsed there. Here we had 5 rooms for us and so two of the rooms required 4 guys. Again I was in one of those two rooms (im not gay btw). As we had blowers in all the rooms save one we had no probs. We had a pathetic dinner at a nearby restaurant called Gauri Chen and hopped back to our hotel. I was skeptic about eating non-veg outside as the place was notorious for mixing dog meat with chicken (can you believe it ?) Back in hotel we played cards (kyaa kare aadat chodi nahi jaati) for sometime and then dozed off.

Day 3: Final Destination
Our main destinations in Tawang were the Madhuri lake uphill and the Buddhist Monastry. We decided to finish off the lake because there was a restriction to not stay on the hill after 3pm. Some time through the uphill journey (we were at a height of about 13k feet.) all the three sumos got separated ! To our utter surprise, we found snow on the hill and were excited about it. We, the red ones did a halt at one of the snow filled places and played like hell. It was great, believe me.

Finally we found the other 2 vehicles near Madhuri Lake. Since we were already late we, the red guys, decided to not go down to the lake but wait for the other guys to come back. There was another small slope filled with snow rite at the place where we were waiting for the guys. So when the black guys came back, we played with the snow again. We had a funny snow battle, with everyone throwing snow on each other. Myself, Bharagav, Ciddu and Grc decided to take a paradox pic and removed most of our 5 layered protection (dont worry...only the upper portion). U can see the pic for yourselves. During that time, Brahmi started throwing snow on us and ciddu tripped in the ruckus that ensued. He got senti and sweared at Brahmi but then everything cooled off and started our way back. The white guys were still down at the lake and so we waited for them at the nearby military camp. They finally after a 90 min wait.

We succesfully came downhill before the 3pm deadline despite the delay but most of the guys wanted to eat something as they were all hungry after all that happened. So we decided to eat lunch and then go for Monastry. After having lunch/dinner at the same pathetic place it was already too late for monastry and we decided to cover it the next day. The rest of the day was uneventful with the usual television and card games.

Day 4: The ultimate Adventure
The day started off with snow fall outside. We were finally happy to see the much awatited snow fall. Our desires were fulfilled. But it didnt stop there !!! With the cars going to garage for some repairs, we had to start our back journey without covering the monastry. Many people were upset by this decision but we had to do this because of the deteriorating weather. Our hotel manager urged us to start early because there was heavy snow fall on our way back.

On our return journey we had to pass through one Sela Pass which was the highest peak around there. We had an inkling of danger as we progressed through the snow capped hills which were pleasant on our forward journey. The roads were covered with snow for the most part and it was difficult to drive. We halted at the Frozen lake which was quite an attraction in itself. Brahmi and others made a tiny snow man (if you can call it that! ) and we played again for 20 min or so. Few minutes after resuming our journey, we were into deep trouble. We , the red guys got separated from the blacks and whites. Hoping that they were safe we just tugged along the impossible roads. Our sumo skidded on a U-Turn beacuse of the heavy ice/snow laiden road. Though i was happy seeing the snow fall and 1 feet high snow, it was clearly trouble. Instead of immediately helping the sumo to get back on track, i was taking pics of our sumo. After facing some music from my frenz i also helped them and we got the sumo back on track. Other bypassers advised us to go back because the further journew was even dangerous and already many vehicles were stuck. But we didnt want to wait for one day and also we had to catch up with our other 2 vehicles which were quite ahead of us by now. By 4:30 there was complete snow fall, the path was covered with ice and to make it worse we had fog. So, we were travelling on damn slippery road, with dangerous curves, valley on one side and snow on the other and top it all with zero visibility. and almost zero fuel We decided to call it a day and save our ass asap.

As luck had it, we found a guest house just in time our fuel exhausted. By that time we were travelling at a speed of 1 kmph with hearts in our hands. It was so damn cold outside that the water on the windshield was turning into ice within seconds and every now and then we had to stop our sumo and scrap the shield to remove ice. So this guest house was like a life boat in the middle of an ocean. The situation reminded us of the old horror flicks where a group of frenz stop in the middle of the journey due to some car trouble and end up in a purani haveli (the guest house resembled the haveli). The cook/watchman of the guesthouse cooked us a sumptous lunch with eggs,dal,cabbage and we were full. Even the rooms were having fire places so it was really pleasant to have these comforts in such a drastic situation. Though it was chilling cold outside, we were happily playing cards in the warmth of our room. All the time, we were hoping that the black and white guys have safely halted at some place.

Day 5 : The Reunion
After having maggi prepared by our cook we resumed our journey. Everything was nice except the fuel. It was almost zero and we had to refill the tank before we got stuck somewhere. So, we started asking every tom dick and harry on the way for fuel. We got an ass hole who tried to sell us kersone in place of diesel but luckily one of us spotted the blue liquid and we could the disaster. We came across a military camp and narrated our sad story. Here I would like to add that, the military people throughout our journey helped us in many ways. Without them it would have been a different story altogether ! 4 of the guys went to talk to the Colonel there and finally convinced him to give 5 litres of diesel. Luckily this guy was from Andhra Pradesh (like us) and so helped us. Finally we were happy, despite the 45 min blah blah of Col.Prince, that we had a enuf fuel to reach the nearby gas station.

Finally we were able to refill our tank at a place called Dhirang. At a checkpost near Tenga we came to know that the black and white guys passed the same point 1hr back. We were happy that the other guys were also safe in their journey. At Bomdille to our utter surprise we found the two vehicles parked near the road. When we disembarked our vehicle, we met our remaining frenz. The atmosphere was totally different than we expected. They were very relieved seeing us finally after our separation the previous day (we were too ofcourse!). We came to know that, they thought we stuck somewhere in the mountains in the yesterday's snow. They were so tensed up that they called up Mishra (he was back home to guwahati by then) and told that we were missing. He ordered these guys to stay at bomdilla till they can find out about us. He also contacted the military at the nearby area and it seems 5 patrol jeeps were sent to find our probably stuck sumo. After all this happened, they were really excited seeing us alive ! So it was a happy reunion for all of us and we vowed not to be separated again. But as i said...nothing went as planned

1 hr from Guwahati, at a place called Tezpur we decided to stop for dinner. It was alreay 6:30 pm by then. Suddenly , at a junction, the black and white vehicles took a right turn (for a short route). But our driver, did a wrong turn and the traffic police asked the driver to sideline the vehicle. In the tension, our fellow took a left turn and drove at 100 kmph in fear of being caught. Thus again we got separated ! Cursing our luck, we stopped at a restaurant and informed the other guys (mobile connectivity was working again as we were near guwahati by then) about the situation.
After having a light dinner we headed for our destination. By 11 pm we were back in campus (others came 90 min before us), and may be for first time in our 4 yr life here felt good being in the good ol campus.!!!

MS vs MS !!!

2006-01-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Donno how many are following (thats a big word..i know) my blog..but i will keep going whenever i have time

so im back after a long hiatus from my last blog during internship...

Got placed in microsoft-hyd in campus placements. tho i was lil unhappy initially that i coudnt clear the written of google, i am happy that i got placed in just my second interview. Best part of the placement is that its in hyd (tho im not from hyd im a telugu guy and what gulti will be insane enuf to not like to do job in hyd). on the other hand i am waiting for my apping results for my ms/phd. actually i just sat for placements as a backup option. since the US univs give out their decisions only from feb end onwards its a painful waiting. now i have to decide whether to go for ms/phd or take up microsofts offer and then apply after 1 year experience. i really hope that i get a gud univ and do my ms (tho i applied for phd in 6 univs im little scared now for committing 5 (more) yrs)....i really dont have any mood to do job right now.

btw...i hope the title of this post is clear ..... my dilemma of chosing between MS (Microsft) and MS (Masters in US)

so long....

Society in general..n Chics in particular !

2005-08-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

well...when u see the lifestyle of europeans u wud definitely think most of them are very cool.First thing i noticed is that they are very comfortable with their bodies..be it boys or gals.They wear wat they feel like ...dependent more on the weather n their comfort but not to show off or make a fashion stmt.

In contrast, in India people want to show off their clothes etc.branded clothes,labels etc are stmt of status in india.people give more importance to these than the comfort level.

in europe, when its a particularly sunny day , u can see chics wearing very less clothes (its comfort for them... n feast for us :p ).tho it took me some time for adjusting to this environment nonetheless in those inital days i used to gawk at them.

talking abt girls ...i n jaini were discussing n woabout their 'perennial youth'.let me explain this term first : here high school girls look like blooming teenagers (jainis take on this is that they use cosmetics n stuff to look older)..so tho she is 12-15 or so..u think she is 18-20+.And as they get older say 25+ or so ..they still look quite younger(our joint claim was that they do exercise n have nutritious diet for maintaining their physique)..isnt this great...wish same had been the case in india too..

chal neway..i got some work to do..catch u later

Living in Europe

2005-07-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well..I guess most of u guys would be dreaming about living abroad.so thot ..i wud share a few things regding this..

First of all living outside means living independently...and its tuff ..atleast in the beginning.You have to cook for urself unless ur planning to spend all ur bucks on pizzas and burgers (mind you...v cant live on them entirely in anycase).If you are lucky, u can get enrolled in your univ's canteen where u can have meals at subsidized rates.

Language barrier is most important thing...when ur living in Europe.I dint expect this problem wud be so great.If ur in an international studs hostel..well n gud.Ow its really tuff since the local studs gen. prefer to speak in their native language.So,if your planning to stay on a long term here taking a language course is seriously advisable.In austria, there are no fking translations in supermarkets or for that matter anywhere.Every damn thing is in German and unless u get the hang of things its real difficult.On my first shopping here,I could barely buy a drink n some rice..phew.

Making frenz is very important ow it would be hell esp in weekends.One thing you notice here is the diff btw weekday and weekend thinking.Lots of planning goes on for spending weekends.Try to make frenz with ur hostel mates (its easier said than done..i agree..but ) n gel with them.

Enjoying urself..hmm.well this is one thing i havent come to terms with yet.But when you are abroad its very important that u should be able to enjoy urself...without frenz.If u can do things like going alone somewhere,shopping,sight seeing etc then u can really have much fun here ow...

Nonsense regding society...esp chics in nxt post..
till then..chao

Intern in Salz

2005-07-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

Ive been staying here in Salzburg , Austria for the past two months for my internship.
Though my work aka research has been dull in the beginning its quite interesting now !

But I really dont know how I feel about this place.The place is like a laid back small country town, tho sophisticated compared to India.The night life is also pretty much dead (Not that Im a serious pub hopper..but still I like to see the crowds at nite!).

My experiences here...well...in the next post.

byee