Me and Myself

My First Interview

2005-11-10T23:38:00.000-06:00

Not bad

Saints and Soldiers

2005-10-26T00:23:00.000-05:00

A war movie this one. Not entirely unique, though. Its a journey of 5 allied prisoners of war walking from behind enemy lines back to their base. Its a real good one. Mr. Movies has very less to offer these days, after all the movies have either been seen by me or else not attractive enough. But, this thing caught my attention because it won some awards. Its worth every award it won. It has some moments of itself that just makes you feel the humanity within a soldier. The scene when two friends meet in bizzare circumstances, only thing is both of them are from opposite sides fighting the war, is the best scene. One dialogue that touched me was the one an allied soldier tells to another 'Germans are just like us, only different uniforms'. And the guy replies 'Its not just uniforms, its more than that'. But the fact is, its indeed just uniforms, isnt it? Watch the movie.

Road Test

2005-10-20T14:11:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, things just dont happen. Its like they were not supposed to happen. You look back and laugh about the way they didnt happen, the way they got screwed up. I, usually dont feel bad about things for a long time, so the looking back happens pretty soon. Its been an hour since I screwed up my road test. Iam already laughing about it. Everything was going perfectly fine. The parking was so smooth, even I was surprised. I was like - "Not bad dude, we gonna get it today". The inspector was happy too. We were going back to the license office. I had to take a left turn. The signal was there to do it. A bus was obstructing my view and after I made the turn. After I made the freaking turn I knew what the bus obstructed. There were two lanes and on one of them construction was happening and no points to guess what happened next. It was such a stupid thing to do, but the freaking bus had to come just then to screw up my already not so perfect driving.

Heroic Greek Gays

2005-10-18T21:09:00.000-05:00

Read Homer or watched 'Troy', you might know what is the greatest one-on-one battle. Achilles and Hector fought what history says so. Well, the movie and the poem have different versions of the fight, but the heroes fought for glory, they were eager to be remembered for ever. I watched Troy today and I liked the fight sequence, if not anything else. Both knew they will be dead by the end of the Trojan war, but they fought for glory, for pride, if Homer were true at all. Hector kills Polydora Achilles friend or cousin, mistaking him to be Achilles and then Achilles gets his revenge. Pity, the Gods didnt favor any of them . But I asked the God Google about this fight. And what I found surprised me. Achilles and Polydora were lovers, according to Greek mythology. I mean, the greatest hero Achilles was gay. And so was Alexander the great. They did enjoy the company of women in bed, but for heaven's sake, they had male lovers. Well, either Greek mytholgy is a bit weird, or the God Google pointed me in the wrong direction, but it doesnt seize to amaze me.

Being a Team

2005-10-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

The World XI, will have to face two challenges, which I feel will lead them to eventually losing the Super Series. The first challenge is that they are not a team, just a bunch of brilliant individuals, something like a magnified Indian XI. You cannot make a team in a couple of weeks, it takes years. The second challenge will be the Australian side, desperate to prove themselves in their own backyard. After losing The Ashes in one of the greatest test series, against probably the best English team, they have a lot to prove. They will fire all their ammunition to claim their supremacy. There is a probability of them being out of confidence, but they are in their own home and they cannot be more comfortable. The Super Series should provide quality Cricket entertainment for the coming two weeks.

Indian cricket has hit the rock bottom, no doubt. After what happened, its hard to play as a team. Coach and Captain will start to have different views, different supporters in the team and different egos. One of them should have been fired, and Ganguly was the fit candidate. Time for Ganguly to realize that his era has ended, and to leave with dignity ala Kurt Kobain's statement "Its better to burn out than fade away", something like that.

Another era that seemed to have ended is the era of the Newengland Patriots. Tom Brady seems to be really down in confidence, the way he has been playing the last couple of weeks. They were trashed yesterday by SanDiego. Well, three super bowls is a lot and its time for a new champion, may be. And Iam sure that wont beVikings. No Moss and there strength - their offense has already started to become their weakness. I dont see them even reaching the playoffs.

Willi Wonka's Chocolate Factory

2005-09-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

Duluth has started to become a boring place for me for the absence of my friends I made here. With Sudip and Poorva in a trip to California I have been left with Kedar and Apurva among others. I knew Appu will be bored too, so I suggested a movie. She, in her-usual- excited-self said a loud YES. So, we walked to the IMAX to find Charlie and the Chocolate Factory playing there. For the next 100 minutes, we were the audience to a remarkable experience. It was a lovely movie. Johnny Depp played Willi Wonka, the owner of the Chocolate Factory and he was brilliant. The movie had moments, which as a child everyone of us wanted to witness. I enjoyed it and for some time I forgot that I was a child a long ime ago. The imagination of the writer should be really praised. And Tim Burton, in his typical style, created a wonderful movie. Iam sure its not to the liking of many Johnny Depp fans, but I should say my admiration for his talent just increased. I would recommend watching it, just to be a child again, atleast for sometime. Dont go to an IMAX, though, its too much for your eyes and things are a bit twisted.

The Malt Shop by the Lake

2005-09-09T00:34:00.000-05:00

I have been here in Duluth for more than two years now and I havent been to this place till today. I have been thinking about having an icecream there since my first week in Duluth. Now that I think about it, I couldnt figure out the reason for not going there for two years. I might say no one gave me company to have an icecream there. I went by myself there, today evening. I was out for a walk and was passing through the place and a lot of kids caught my attention and then I decided to go there, have an icecream looking at the lovely Superior. Its called 'The Malt Shop' and it was built in 1921 and the 'Thing' about this shop is one cannot go inside the shop. Order from the window, pay by cash (only) and wait till you get your order and walk off. Iam not a good judge at ordering food. It took me a long time to decide what to have. For a change, I didnt have chocolate today, which is a surprise if I think about it now. I had 'Butter Scotch' malt with a scoop of Vanila on it. It was the best I ever had. It had a unique taste to it and I totally forgot about the nice weather, the lake, the waves, the children around me and I was lost in my Malt. I dont see myself going there more than once or twice, now that these are my last few days in Duluth. But I will make sure I will have a chocolate malt there and hopefully not alone.

yaar mere ...

2005-08-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

I had this dream last night. I woke up with sadness in my eyes. I was sitting with all my High-School friends and we were talking about good ol' times. And it was an amazing talk that we were having. And it seemed as if we were missing those days. Those days when all the tensions we had were how to convince our parents to meet the principal, about what we had to say to our moms when we went home late for lunch after being punished off half-an-hour. Those days when girls used to giggle at us, quite impressed. Those days when everyone of us were the same, sailing in the same boat with no worry about the next year (untill we reached the final year). Those days when the teachers were eager to find a reason to punish us and those days when we had unlimited fun with all the pranks we did. Well what made me terribly sad is that one of the guys, after the talk we had, complained that I was no more one of them. Well, I didnt call any of them in the last 6 months and its been exactly an year since we got together.

I woke up and decided to call them. It was not an easy task to get their phone numbers. I got hold of an email one of em sent me. It is supposedly no more in use. I got the number after a lot of searching. And from that guy I got another number but I couldnt speak to more than 2 guys.
I was happy to know one of them is about to become a father and the other guy is about to get married. They suggested me to look for jobs in India and asked me to look out for a girl for myself and think about gettin married. I just laughed. They dont know the truth yet. I was so happy after I talked to them and I hope I will be in constant touch with them now.

I Had a Wish ....

2005-08-09T08:09:00.000-05:00

I had a wish, a wish to watch the skyline of one of the greatest cities of the world from the seawater that surrounds it. I had a wish, a wish to watch water falling down the greatest waterfalls of the world. Now the wishes form a part of the past of my life after I visited Niagara falls and Newyork last week. I have seen my wishes getting fulfilled in a span of 5 days, 5 amazing days of my life with only 10 hours of sleep in 4 of them. And those 4 days followed a 2 days of 5-hour sleep each. So I was tired even before the trip started, craving for some sleep. The trip didnt help the sleep cause at all. Except for a lazy, sleepy, tiring walk through the Time Square, it was fine. The awe of the breath taking sights just took control of all my senses. Not to mention the lovely girls on the streets of Newyork city. Oh! and I should mention the 4 hour drive on our way to Cleveland from NewJersey when Ajit, the driver and me, the navigator have no clue how me made it.

It was a trip that was short of sleep, but was definitely not short of awesome moments. The 'Maid of the Mist' boat ride to the Horse Shoe falls of Niagara was an experience that could not find any words in the dictionory to explain itself. It was just a moment, a moment that made me feel Iam totally in unity with nature, a moment that made me forget everything and a moment that made me think I can live forever cherishing it. The moment was a long one and I came back to my world after the boat took a turn back. If you, reading this havent been there yet, please save youself some money starting today, find some time and please go there, you wont regret being tired, being sleepless and whatever troubles you had to go there wouldnt matter.

Newyork is insanely concrete. Once within the city, you look in any direction and only find skyscrapers and till the point you can see you see only buildings. You dont seem to find the end of the concrete. The view from the boat on its way to the statue of liberty, is another view that just finds a unerasable memory spot in your brain. You feel its the downtown of USA itself. The WTC site still has an unbelieveable gloom associated with it. You just cant help leaving a lot of sighs. You just cant help cursing the idiots that created a large blackhole in the space of the mighty city. You just cant help a tear wetting your eye.

Its the last trip with my friends in Duluth and its a trip thats worth more than the trouble we had.

Whats Your Favorite Shot?

2005-08-02T00:27:00.000-05:00

If you wanna have a good drink, especially a good shot or may be even a good cocktale, go and ask the bartender "Whats your favorite?". It works very well. First of all the bartender quickly starts his act and he does the drink with perfect enthusiasm. And he is happy while doing it. And you get to have the best drinks, sometimes, you never heard of em. To come to the point, me an Ajit had three of em shots and another tequila shot in 15 minutes, 15 minutes ago. We walked into two bars and had two bartenders' favorites, both awesome in their own style. But the best of em all "Redbull + That German super hard liquor which I cant spell (May be its Jagermeister) " which we had on the 4th of July. Today I had some whose name I donno, but each of em were nicely done and done with excitement. And Ajit's a bit on the higher end presently. And me sort of dizzy but to get me high, it needs a lot more shots - my favorites. And if Iam high "I whont gte the spelilngs riht".

Its all about Movies

2005-07-31T23:53:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was all about movies, some good and some great and a stupid one. Evil Dead falls in the last category. When I was a child, which was not long ago if you think 15 years aint a long time, it was the talk of the school. I just found out it was made in 1981 when I was shaping up in my moms womb. But somehow, for some reason, it was a much talked about movie when I was a kid, when I could remember things. Anyways I was not permitted to see it then, but yeah its a super stupid movie. May be its not just contemporary, may be it was interesting after the first half hour.

The best of the weekend was definitely "Remember the Titans". Again a brilliant Washington and a story about being a team, no matter what. Though you are not perfect, you can be a part of a perfect team which the Titans were, then. Nice one.

Another good one was "MotorCycle Diaries". You gotta watch it. Its about two guys who dream to motorcycle through the length and breadth of South America. They end up walking thru most of it after their "Mighty One" craps down in Chile. It starts off as a comedy, as an adventure and slowly drifts into a documentary mood but no it never gets there, it just gives us a tinge of being a documentary. What amazed me is the photography, every frame was taken care of to look beautiful and it caught all the beauty of Latin America. Its a great movie.

Many more but hey Iam not a movie critic, I cant just write about every movie I saw. And by the way Aviator is good, the second time. Not to mention Spy Game

Kheer in The Church Kitchen

2005-07-17T00:39:00.000-05:00

Last wednesday will go down as a special day. I will cherish it for the rest of my life. Before getting to it I need to mention this - What do I love most ? - My country and kids. This special day I got the opportunity to speak about my country to kids in a church here, courtesy Kedar. I would like to thank Kedar and especially Shannon and Clyde for giving me this opportunity. And I got to cook, cook for kids and cook one of my all time favorites - Kheer. It was my first time cooking anything in such a large quantity and it was my first time cooking Kheer. So obviously it wasnt great, but it was definitely good, good enough that people finished it and they liked it. The kids not liking it was a bit of a disappointment. When asked about it one kid said "I dont Understand Spanish" with a blank cute face. A girl who seemed a bit disappointed said "Its different, what else can I say". It was different for them. One of them mixed pink lemonade with Kheer to bridge the gap.

It was not strange about how little the kids knew about India. Well its not strange when compared to the knowledge a kid had about his country that answered "India" when I questioned "Against whom America fought its battle of Independence?" . No wonder one of them thought Spanish was the language spoken in India. And the others said "Japanese? Chinese? Indian? etc" The closest answer was "English". Well after the funny discussion and some Kheer the kids had to learn some craft and this week they got to learn how to make a paper boat. Many of them did it perfect enough and they got to sail them in a small pool of water. A small boy was apparently bored enough with his boat, he soaked it, made a ball out of it and threw it on a group of girls' boats. He shouted "I bombed your boat". Another one followed the same procedure of making a ball and repeatedly threw it on a parked car. Others followed him. The owner of the car came and was polite enough to say "Its my car. Please stop it" Others did stop but the super kid said "Just One more time" and threw the wet paper back on the car with a wicked smile. So many similar pranks and funny moments. I had a great time.

We Deal

2005-07-08T13:28:00.000-05:00

While London was busy in a super fast recovery from a terrorist attack, I was busy enjoying the company of macs and power pcs along with many state-of-the-art equipment at VDIL (pronounced we deal). Its my new place of spending time, for which I get paid, not a bad deal it is. Not a bad deal indeed, installing software, helping people taking printouts on huge posters, making note of the equipment borrowed and if nothings borrowed take it home, may be, and getting paid quite well for that. Only complain, I would say, which shouldnt be, is that I have to get up at 7:45 AM daily to get to work by 9. Iam not sure if this would help me in the future, but I can make it so. Photoshop, Premiere on which I had a hand in the past always interested me, I can learn about them more. But two things that caught my attention are Maya, the 3-d software and the numerous macs available in this lab. I think and I should, but I dont consider it a probability, try to learn more about these two amazing creations of man. Better do something else than installing software, to make these two months worthwhile in a great atmosphere, amongst some of the best talents at UMD and in the vicinity of so many apples and any software you name of. Not a bad deal at VDIL I'd say.

Sweet Memories

2005-07-01T03:41:00.000-05:00

"Sweet Memories" - Thats the tag line of a telugu movie I just finished watching. Since the last few days, there has been this nostalgic sense thats been occupying me. I wanted to write a blog about it, about my memories of the past near and far. The thought that its not easy to write a small blog about such large volume kept me off it. My advisor said that he cant meet me tommorow which prompted me to leave the unfinished work in the same state and my eyes scrolled through the collection of movies available online. This one caught their attention. The hero of the movie, ok lets put him as the leading character of the movie bcoz he performs no heroics, is about to get married. Now, this guy wants to invite his friends whom he befriended at various stages of his life and his childhood crush and his failed love to his wedding. He sets off and at each destination he recalls his past and he meets his friends, his teachers and most of the people whom he wanted to and his journey made a wonderful story. Memories, thats what the movie is about, memories of his first shave, about his first cycle, about his first kiss, about his first cinema, about his first smoke and many more, thats what its about. The part where he recalls about his failed love was a bit exaggerated and at times boring. The movie is far from being perfect, but the timing of me watching this movie with my mood in the last few days is perfect. A good idea, could have been well handled. Speaking about the idea, I had a similar idea a couple of years ago when I was dreaming about making a movie. The dream still recurs but the possibilities just keep fading off.

The charecter in the movie, at the end, says "Sit back and think about your past, about the memories and have a wonderful experience".I would say - I was in the same mood dude and now your statement adds to the nostalgia. I might try to put the memories in a single post and blog it soon. By, the way I forgot to mention the title of the movie - 'Na Autograph'. It means my autograph refering to the autograph book where your friends write their names, addresses and quotes on the final day of your school/college.

D - Disappointment

2005-06-28T01:06:00.000-05:00

Finally, I got to watch the much talked about 'D'. Iam disappointed, I have to say. Its not even comparable to 'Satya' or 'Company' . It lacks the punch of Satya and the style of Company. May be we saw it all before, may be we are fed up with Gangster movies and want them no more. Ramu should have thought about it, atleast should have thought about treating this one differently if he wanted to make another gangster flick. And whats the talk about Randeep's acting? May be he is talented, but he was not doing anything apart from smoking a cigarette with a ray ban on. He had a single expression through out. He was good at being silent and he showed flashes of good acting here and there but Deshu(his character) is no where near Chandu or Bhiku or even Mallik Bhai. He hardly had any dialogues too. And at the end of it you feel, the makers of the movie tried to glorify gangsters. Enough of such movies, is my opinion.

Lets see if 'Sarkar' is any different. Its directed by Ramu himself, so lets see.

Chain Tagged

2005-06-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

Got tagged by Ajit.

Total number of films I own on DVD/Video:
15 to 20 may be.I never counted.
The last film I bought:
Manmadhudu - a telugu movie.
The last film I watched:
In Theatre - Mr. & Mrs. Smith
On DVD/Video - Black Knight
Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
The GodFather - A timeless classic. Alpacino, my all time favorite, stars in the movie and its about mafia. Unbeatable.
Company - Again a movie based on underworld. Ramu brilliantly made this one with a realistic touch. Mallik bhai and Chandu will be remembered for a long time. May be Satya was better but this one was more stylish.
HeraPheri - The ultimate comedy. Can anyone beat Paresh Rawal's performance. I watched it around 100 times and my love for its comedy just exceeds.
Dil Chahta Hain - Its a great movie, but its a special one too for me. Me and my roomies used to watch it almost daily. Its about friendship and sometimes I could associate myself with it. Again I watched it for about more than 100 times.
Forrest Gump - What else can I say ?
Pick five people and have them put this in their journal:
Boo, Keets, Kedar, and any two more people who wanna do it.

Grandma's weekend

2005-06-20T14:17:00.000-05:00

Nah! It isnt something on the lines of father's day or something like that. Its the most festive weekend in Duluth. around 12,000 people from all over the world ran last saturday - some to finish half-marathon and some to finish a full marathon. And among this few were Nag, Hemal, Doug and Thatts - people whom I know. We had to get up at 7 in the morning which is our own personal feat these days. Nag was the reason to be there but he wasnt definitely the only reason for the fun we had there. We tried to encourage many runners shouting at them. Its a great feeling to make a tired person run by encouraging him while he is passing by us walking. We successfully made 7 people run while they were a mile short of the finish line. We contributed our part to the marathon. Thousands of people, many good looking girls,bright sun, nice weather and the amazing atmosphere made it a memorable day. And Nag - the dude made the half marathon after a strenous 2 month training, though tired himself.

Beyond Belief

2005-06-18T13:46:00.000-05:00

"The way we are playing, we shall have a tough time against Bangladesh" said a joking Ricky Ponting a couple of days ago after being murdered by Smith and Sanath. Well, did they have trouble today against the minnows of One Day Cricket. It was a perfect example of the improbable. But it did happen. Bangladesh won against the Aussies. Ashraful a wonderful talent and the new Bangladesh hero Aftab's six off Gillepsie in the last over made sure the unbelievable happened. The likes of Jason Gillepsie, McGrath and Kasprowickz were not enough to stop Bangladesh from hitting 170 in the last 25 overs. And what happened to Aussies batting? Whatever it is "Stop Joking" is what my friends said when I told them the news about this sensational victory.

Day when Gibbs dropped the Cup

2005-06-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

6 years ago, this day when Australia was reeling at 42/3 chasing 272 in a do-or-die match walked The Great Steve Waugh onto the field to script a magnificient innings. He was aided by Hershelle Gibbs who, though a terrific fielder, caught the ball and in a bid to throw it momentarily, dropped the ball only to see that it was declared not out. A great innings made sure Australia got themselves a position in the SuperSix above SA. This simple reason made Australia qualify to the finals followed by a tie in the Semifinals, which was one of the greatest cricket matches in one day cricket, against the same team. Once again Steve was the hero of the match. Australia went on to win the World Cup and Steve just said "How Does it feel to drop the world cup Hershelle?". Australia reached the top then and they are still there and they will be there for sometime now.

Netoholic Me

2005-06-07T20:06:00.000-05:00

May be I should have coined the term as Internet-oholic or something like it. But we all call it 'net' don't we. So the term Netoholic. Well, now I have to admit I do have an addiction. I might be having addictions but this one Iam admitting. Its been 7 days and it seemed a long time. Again, its not that I have been starved without any access to internet. I have been atleast having access for 2 hours a day, but its still as if something were lacking in my life. Anyways , now we do have a new internet connection in our new home and I will get to spend some time online. But I dont see myself doing anything purposeful on the net for more than 2 hours. But again thats being addicted.

Bombay Blasts - 1993

2005-06-04T15:39:00.000-05:00

Every Indian will remember 1993 for the Bombay Blasts that were triggered by some religious fanatics. Anurag Kashyap, a controversial director, went a bit ahead and made a movie - Black Friday which is again on controversial lines. A movie well done, not as stylish as Ramu's movies but very bold one. Anurag here is not afraid of telling the names of people involved and niether is he afraid about raising issues about the two religions involved - Hinduism and Islam. But as one might expect it wasnt accepted by people and politics back in India who, apparently, are always trying to run away from the truth. Anyways the movie states that Muslims were trying to seek revenge for the Babri Musjid collapse by Hindus. A bunch of stupid idiots (I would like my blog to be decent without the list of names I can give to such people) who called themselves Hindu activists killed a lot of Muslims and destroyed a Musjid to construct a temple claiming that it is the Janm Sthan of Ram. Then a bunch of Muslims backed up by Pakistan's politicians and Dawood planned these blasts killing many innocent people including Muslims. Well, f*** them and those people who say that Babri Musjid was to be collapsed.

Its unfortunate that some of my Hindu friends still consider Muslims as their enemies, as inhuman. Some think Pakistan as a country where all people hate India. Hardly do they understand that its just a small percent of such people in a country with a culture and tradition and human values just as India. They tend to generalize Muslims and then complain that Hindus shouldnt be generalized. Its such people and people with more stupidity that create a Musjid collapse or a series of blasts or communal riots killing innocent people. Politicians and religious fanatics take advantage of the emotions of such people to gain money and votes. And most people who have nothing to do apart from hating each other create violence trying to become heroes. As long as such people live in India and Pakistan , these countries will fight and so will the riots in sensitive areas in India continue.

As a Hyderabadi, I had some great Muslim friends and they respect Hindus and even they think the same way as Iam thinking now. In one of the communal riots in Hyderabad when a group of Muslims were chasing and killing a Hindu family, it was a Muslim family that gave them home and saved their lives. It was a true story that I read follwing communal clashes in Hyderabad. Its just one of many stories that I read. Respect Islam for such people. Not people like Dawood or Laden make Islam.

Cidade de Deus

2005-05-29T02:00:00.000-05:00

Its a Brazillian movie with an international title of 'City of God'. The tag line of the movie says it all. It goes like this 'Fight and you'll never survive .... Run and you'll never escape'. I have always been an admirer of Gangster movies which have a touch of reality like God Father, Satya, Vaastav, Scarface, Company and many such movies. They follow a different path. This one went a bit ahead. Its about reality. Its based on a true story of a press-photographer from Brazil. Its not the story of the photographer actually, its about a dangerous slum of Rio de Janeiro to which he belonged to. Its his narration about his slum, about his friends, about his love. Brilliantly done movie, it shows a different face of earth about which we cant even imagine. I never did imagine until I saw this movie. I said its a gangster movie. No the gangster in this movie is not an old guy or an youngman who had a bad childhood, infact its a teenager, an eighteen year old and all his co-hoods or companions are much younger and some even small kids and finally he is killed by a gang of 9 to 13 year olds. This movie shows reality from a totally different perspective. Watch it not just to admire the beautiful narration of the film, but also to see a nastiet violent angle of life. Watch it.

Chicago Blues

2005-05-26T01:52:00.000-05:00

It was supposed to be a trip to Northern Illinois to enjoy the country side, enjoy some water rafting followed by canoing (did i get it right?), watch my friends sky-dive and then trek along a state park. Sky diving was out of my budget, I guess its still some time before Iam financially ready for it. But its on my to-do list and you know nothing stays for long on that list. The water-rafting was not sounding a lot of fun for lack of depth in the water, so we headed to the 'Windy City' and man was it awesome. Just amazing. The most amazing part of Chicago is the Devon Avenue and in my 35 hours in Chicago I visited that street atleast five times. It has striking resemblance to Basheerbagh in Hyderebad, the Mohammedan air with a lot of Hindus was just like home, just like Hyderabad. No traffic rules followed and no neatness considerations, thats Devon Avenue for you ala Basheerbagh. Then there was the Hancock-Observatory to view a stunning site of the lake and Chicago. We had to head back to our hotel that night, but I didnt. Nitin was visiting Chicago so I met him and I spent a day with him. Was I a spoil sport to my friends from Duluth and their plans? May be I was, but again staring in the sky for a long time watching the sky divers wouldnt have been fun.

The second day was fun with 9 boys in a minivan roaming in downtown Chicago and when its 9 boys, you know, girls' beauty would be appreciated and Chicago gave a lot of scope for that. I did shopping for my mom, bargained and bought her some Jades, well they say they are the latest fad in Hyderabad. Now dont argue that you get those in Hyderabad, infact much better ones. I tried arguing but thats how it is. We finished the day watching a telugu hit 'Badra'. A nice movie but the ambience was more enjoyable. Well then I had to go back to my hotel for which I had to trouble my tired friends, for which I feel sorry. Then again 'You aint be getting something unless you lose something' .Thats how it is.

The final day we trekked through the Starved Rock National Park. I tried a hand to capture some moments using my photographic skills. I did take some good pics which should be soon on my blog. It was fun, real fun. I didnt got to do sky diving, but still I enjoyed the company of my friends, both on the drive and in Chicago. In the end thats what matters, atleast, for me.

Busy being Lazy

2005-05-18T13:36:00.000-05:00

A long semister inevitably follows atleast a lazy week, maybe even longer. Iam quite enjoying this. Waking up no sooner than noon, having something to eat, going to school to play some tennis or some pingpong and then come back home to enjoy the nothing-to-do ness watching movies. Well, I can afford it with my advisor off for a week asking me to sort of take a break. But I should get on with it now to finish soon. I dont have much hobbies apart from cooking which I did well last week. But being really lazy doesnt help it either. I have decided to do some drawing or painting to wake up the old-talent sleeping right in there. The last time I decided to do that, I didnt finish it but it was shaping up well. It was an year ago. I have been thinking what to draw. I have something in mind now. Lets see

I watched some decent movies last week.
The seven samurai - A Japanese classic, highly recommended
Out of Africa - A nice movie, bit sad though
A series of Unfortunate Events - Good one too
Training Day - Brilliant Denzel Washington
Insomnia - Not a great one, not bad either

The G-Day

2005-05-13T12:14:00.000-05:00

Iam a graduate now, though officially Iam not. I have to present my project yet. It really feels like it was not long ago when I was sent-off by a crying relatives and friends from Hyderabad airport. That day is still afresh in my mind. I enjoyed a lot in these 2 years amidst some disappointments and partial successes. I learnt a lot both academically and as a person. Iam not the same person I was, may be, a five years ago. It would be routine to say- I made great friends and the moments I shared with them will be cherished for ever. But thats how its is and I have learnt a lot from each single one of them. One of the greatest moments was the stand-up ovation everyone gives to the graduate students, stunning and touching. It was great. Then ofcourse the shot of tequila after the ceremony was awesome too. It was a special shot cherishing a special day. Will go of as one of the most memorable day in my life. Anyways Iam looking for a graduation party to have a lot of Jack, hopefully. Well, now I think I will miss being a TA and most importantly the student life is ending. But thats how it is, we gotta get going.

Its all About Laughter

2005-05-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

On 11-may-2005, I had this great opportunity to attend a show of the great Stand-up comedian Jerry Sienfield. It was amazing, I cant express in words. The ovation and applause he got as soon as he entered the stage is awesome. I mean he is just a man, but he had the aura of a God. He started off with "Whats the season right now here in Duluth?". And then he kept people lauging for 90 minutes and all he talked about was TV News, internet, mobile phones and cookies. Imagine people laughing like crazy for 10 minutes hearing about cookies, just cookies. Making people laugh about such simple things is amazing. He did talk about the complicated issue 'marriage' though. He said "To have a successful marriage, keep your wife happy. Yourself, forget about being happy. Its simple". Its true, aint it. A lot of such jokes. Infact every line he spoke was a joke. The toughest thing in life is to make people laugh, and making people laugh for 90 minutes is just unbelieveable. And he wasnt talking crap. Everything he said is what happens in our daily life. If he is visiting some place near you, go and watch his show. Forget about the ticket's price. You will have a priceless 90 minutes.

Well I had the last exam of my MS here today. May be the last academic exam of my life. I just walked thru it comfortably. The last three days I had three exams. I didnt prepare much, I just surfed through the book and I thought that I was goin to do bad anyways - prepare or not prepare. But I did well, in all three, better that all of my midterms. The last exam was the easiest. Anyways I will be off to school in some time to get graduated tonight. Its the end of this road, apparently.

P.S: I have to thank Kedar for the ticket to the show. Thanks dude.

Anand - Simple as Coffee

2005-05-08T00:38:00.000-05:00

One of the few recent Telugu movies that was worth watching - Anand. The tagline of the movie is "Manchi Coffee lanti Cinema ( A movie similar to a good cup of coffee)". May be the movie makers wanted to emphasize the simplicity of the movie. Its totally different from Rajesh Khannaa's classic. Infact this Anand is no where near a classic. But its simple, its about a guy,Anand, who tries to make a girl, who just had a broken relation, to fall in love with him. The girl after her nakras finally falls for him. But what makes Anand visit the girl's place initially is interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and the music was good too, simple again. It had no big stars, niether it had that paraphernalia associated with a telugu movie release. It was released in a single movie theatre and then it picked up to run successfully, a rarity these days in Indian Cinema. It has its poor moments, but again nothings perfect in life, far from it actually. A nice movie, a routine story with a different treatement, could have been better though. Well, the review is made to follow the statement that I watched this movie over a span of one week admist the busiest last two weeks of the semister.

Iam 24

2005-05-05T15:41:00.000-05:00

Its been 5 days since I celebrated my 24th birthday. A special day infact. It all began with the guys making me to sort of solve a puzzle to get my gift. I did solve it, but not with ease, attributed to a long week. It was the birthday of the 'dude of Duluth'. So obviously everyone was there wishing me. I felt flattered, just seeing everyone singing the song for me. Another great thing was the guitar and song played by Keets, after calling me. People gave me gifts keeping in mind that I will be entering a professional life. Formals, perfumes reminded me that life is no more cozy that of a student. Anyways, it was pathetic that I had to go to school and work on a sunday and that too on my birthday. I had to do that though.

The evening was sort of cool. I watched the movie that Ive been waiting for long - "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". I liked it, funny and it takes the viewers into a whole new world, new galaxy actually. Watch it, its good. Then followed a dinner at 'Olive Garden'. Good company, great food, amazing wine all made up a good evening. Well a date at Olive Garden will be perfect, with a girl ofcourse. Expensive may be, but again who cares once in a while. I thouroughly enjoyed the day and thanks to everyone who made it so. Thanks guys.

Jack with Coke

2005-04-30T01:56:00.000-05:00

Its the most amazing thing I ever had. There are many an uncountable people who agree with me in my opinion about Jack-Daniels. The smoothness of Jack with the sweetness of coke just makes it flow perfectly in your throat. And the greatest fact, no hangover. Many people do believe in having it on the rocks to save its sanctity, as they say, but on the rocks is not my type of thing. Its been a long time since I have had it before today. It tasted really great today. After a tiring week and most importantly a tiring day with cricket, soccer and the never ending project, well well I needed a drink. Thanks to Nag-the dude and Poorva-the dudette, outstanding TA winners of our department, we went out and I had my drink - Jack with Coke. The first sip brought back life into me and I enjoyed another drink. It was great and Iam sober now and so I stopped by to blog before I take off to sleep.

'Dream' weaver and JVM

2005-04-21T23:46:00.000-05:00

Ive been dreaming. Dreaming about HTML tags, servlets, and those tricky database connectivities. The project's exciting and Iam thouroughly enjoying it. I dont see a reason why we can't give a good demonstration. But the tendency to make the HTML look better, like those colors and all, you know. That tendency is sort of dominating the actual interest in making the system smarter. A lots left to do, but even now I go to the HTML, change the colors or styles and once I change a color in a servlet , the consistency calls for change in the whole lot of servlets. HTML coding was always easy, a bit tiring though. But thanks to the wonderful Dreamweaver things became a lot easier. It definitely saved us a lot of time, but its easiness is prompting me to make a lot of changes to the servlets too, which aint so easy. Today was eventful though, we figured out how to update the database from a servlet and then there was some smooth flow in things. An earlier accomlishment was reading from the database and displaying HTML using servlets. Tiring week and the rest of the work calls for the same effort. But my neck and wrist cried for some rest, so I came home relatively early today, just to be invited by 'Java Complete Reference'. I dont know how Iam goin to fair in the interview next wednesday. Not to mention the presentation on Thursday and ofcourse the Network project due on monday. The good point is all of them are related to Java, and my love for Java just keeps increasing, though my knowledge in Java is in its infancy.

Wish me Luck. I might need it!

Events and Their Outcomes

2005-04-18T22:33:00.000-05:00

A great soul sometime before or after I was born said " Nothings coincidental. Everything that happens was destined to happen. And everything else helps this happening". Well if no one said it The God in me says that and I always believed in that. Iam not going to list all the events of my life, but they led to today of my life. One might say, it looks like one of Anoop's jokes. But let me enlighten those souls who had such a thought. I meant, some of the things which I hated to happen in my life are now to my good. Well, you had to bear my philosophy because I finally got a job interview. Three months ago, I was forced to take 2 additional courses. I cursed my fate. I had not many options there and I took a course whose soul and life is java along with servlets and JSP, xml and HTML. And the knowldege gained in the three months will be hell of a help in my interview. It was just an example to my philosophy, many instances do support it. I was off the blog for two weeks, Ill go ahead with some event-outcome pairs:

An event was India vs Pakistan cricket series. Outcome- Pakistan crushed Indians. Someone tell me whats with India's batting line up. Oh and they bat well just to be chased 315 thanks to some great bowling. A bunch of great players, no doubt, but not a great team at all. Now people say ganguly should never play again. Believe me if he doesnt, no one can replace a great captain. Indian cricket will further plunge down.

Another event - I bought an iPod, remember. Outcome- I sold it and Iam buying another. The other day, I was walking on the road listening to 'Aawarapan Banjarapan'. Suddenly there was a silence and my iPod was lying on its face on the road. A look at it , I was shocked for a second with all the scratches on it. I felt someone scratched my heart. But then nothing around me stopped and I went ahead. A kind soul from Africa is buying it for a good price with shipping paid by him. Iam buying another now. Now that I have used the 4GB one, I guess the shuffle cant replace it so its going to be iPod mini again.

Events- My projects and assignments and exams. Outcome- I lost 5pounds in 3 weeks. Now Iam 155. Hey if you fell 155 is a lot, lemme tell you Iam almost 6feet tall. Oh! was I trying to be self-praising again? May be.

Mooveez last week

2005-04-02T02:12:00.000-06:00

Sleepless nights, Lazy days full of sleep and sleep, some finished work and health not at its best and amidst all this I got to see some good movies last week. I have been wanting to watch some for a long time now and one Ive been waiting to watch.

Scarface:- Brilliant in its own genre. Ive been looking for this since ages now in Mr.Movies. I eventually got it. Al Pacino is my all time favorite and this movie just helped the fact. Just brilliant was Al Pacino. The movie might not be to many people's liking. Infact I was disappointed. I expected something different but still Scarface was always known for Al's acting and I came to know why. I observed that many of the scenes I liked in many Indian underworld movies have been taken out of this underworld classic.

Beautiful Mind:- Beautiful indeed. Another performance, stunning infact. Initially I thought it wouldnt be of my taste, it deals with a mathematician. But it was about a person who overcame his disability just with pure determination and love for his beloved. It left an impact on me and when I came to know it was a real life story, it just added to the admiration.

Ring-2:- Scary indeed. But I didnt find it as scary as Ring-1. The magic seemed to have faded a bit. It had its moments though. The climax where Samara climbs the well was scary enough but not as scary as Samara's crawl out of a TV at the end of Ring-1 (that was just awesome, my all time fav scene). Ring-2 is a must watch for horror movie lovers

Scary Movie -2 :- A reason to laugh. Infact a source of laughter. I just enjoyed the stupidity of the movie. I had a hearty laugh. But Scary movie -1 remains better.

Duluth and its Unpredictability

2005-03-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

The only thing predictable about Duluth is its unpredictability. After a bad night's sleep, I lazily got up and after the routines had a cup of hot milk and I was out in the real world to be welcomed by a nice looking weather. The sun was hiding and peeking through a vast cloud and I guessed it would be around 40 F . It reminded me of one of those Indian september mornings predicting rain later, where the sun is behind the clouds and I was out on the roads trying to learn my scooter amongst newspaper boys and milk vendors on Secunderabad roads. I was lost in my thoughts when suddenly a cold wind hit me at 40 kmph. There was this deadly howl of the wind which seemed to angrily remind me that I was in Duluth. That wind threw my earphones out of my ears and just shook me off. It was feeling like 26F out there and good that I was properly equipped (thats a lesson that I learnt after almost 18 months in Duluth).

The lazy me

2005-03-30T00:08:00.000-06:00

The last few days, to be precise after the trips, the lazy me has taken control. Not that I havent done anything productive. Well, Ive done my homeworks, I ve been walking a lot lately and finally I started some job searching (lack of any experience is affecting a lot) and I ve done my laundary too. But still Iam feeling laziness in whatever I do. Ive been sleeping crazily and I cant believe its me. I didnt go to school today and tommorow I dont see any reason to do that (no classes for me on wednesdays). I ve been starining cells in my brain thinking a lot lately, thinking about the next step and trying to fix some things in the current scenario. May be that speaks for the sleep. And when you sleep a lot you tend to get lazier. Anyways I dont feel good and Iam planning to do something more productive tommorow. Hopefully Ill shave my beard.

A fan's view

2005-03-27T22:25:00.000-06:00

Ive been reading articles about the final Indo-Pak test match. I found this particular article interesting. It was written by a journalist who went to the stadium as a common man to watch the cricket.

The Mountain Sculptures

2005-03-24T23:05:00.001-06:00

You need not be an artist to praise the skill of the guys who sculpted the 4 greatest faces of United States on a mountain. At Mt.Rushmore, art brought some life into a lifeless huge rock. It was an awesome sight. The talent that just took me by awe is what was behind 'Crazy Horse' memorial. Its a man's determintaion to make one of the greatest Indian leader immortal. I might not live to see it finished, unfortunately, but it would be magnificient once it's done. The road was good too. I got to see bisons and prairie dogs. Badlands was another cool place. No life to be seen for a long distance, scary and beautiful. On the road travelling about 3000 miles in 5 days was a good experience. It had its toll though.

P.S. : Ajith has posted maps of our road trip on his blog. Might want to have a look.

15 hours with my best friend

2005-03-22T00:34:00.000-06:00

Meeting a friend after 2 years is always an exciting thing. It was indeed exciting when I met Nitin after two years last weekend. It was exciting, especially the last two days when I knew that I will be meeting him. I was just counting time. But after I met him, surprisingly, it didnt seem 2 years since we last met. May be because we talk on the phone quite often. I donno, but it was strange. It was a great feeling though. We saw the pics of those days and talked about them, about how the life was so great then, full of fun. Eventful 2 years, in my case, changed me as a person though. But he stays the same guy with the same sense of great humor and I guess he is still carrying bad luck in his pocket.
The weekend has more to talk about than Nitin. It was good to see Archie, only two months after we last met. We gave her a surprise and she was indeed surprised. Well, for some reason I felt we are meeting after a long time. I donno how I felt but it was a strange feeling. She needed somone to talk to and I could only spend half-an-hour listening to this great friend of mine. Pity though, I could just listen.
We were on the road for almost 30 hours. Tired, sleepless and hungry. But still it was worth it. I met two of the persons closest to me. Not geographically though. Well, we will be on the road for more 30 hours of drive starting tommorow to see Mt.Rushmore. Iam excited about the drive, not the destination to be frank.

Time Machine

2005-03-15T16:03:00.000-06:00

Travelling time was a part of sci-fi movies. How many of us wouldnt want that to be real. Logically speaking its not possible. But sometimes science defies all logic and a technology pops up making something possible which was thought to be impossible earlier. Or sometimes stupidity defies all logic and someone intelligent makes use of this feature of his fellow beings and creates a fabulous story and makes some good bucks. One such story is about a guy who found a time machine in his basement and he sold it on ebay. Apparently it wasnt working and his car repairing friend tried to fix it. But he couldnt. So this guy put it on one of internets greatest offspring - 'ebay'. Believe me its true . you can even see it yourself here.
Dont forget to read the information this guy provided about the time machine. You can buy it to fix it may be and travel time.

Stop the Juggernaut

2005-03-12T22:13:00.000-06:00

The Aussies once again proved why they are number one by a long distance. I dont think any other team can win a match from the position where the Aussies were after the second day in the first test sgainst NZ. Its just amazing. No more words. They will be number one for a long time from now.

Talking about cricket, the Indians again proved what they are. After having a tight grip over the first test, they just couldnt finish it off. It was indeed a great performance by Akmal, but things just didnt go on Indias way with the pitch favoring the batsmen. Still India has a chance of getting to number two spot. They have to beat Pakistan 2-0 to do that. Its still possible.

Man's Greatest Creation

2005-03-09T00:44:00.000-06:00

What's it - The TV, Phone, Internet, Movies, TajMahal, Coffee, Alcohol ....... Each person has his own opinion. How about this now, I say Man's greatest creation is the concept of 'God'. Iam not an atheist of any sort, infact I have had some unbelievebale experiences which had an air of 'God' in it. But I some times wonder what if the earlier civilizations had no fear of Gods and what if man never thought that he was created by 'God'? What if there wasnt a concept of 'God' at all? Iam sure the first people might have reasoned a calamity to someone's unhappiness. Or they might have reasoned a good harvest or something to someone's happiness. Ofcourse they had no scientific knowledge about how things happened, and then they might have created the 'God' and blamed Him for everything bad. Its human psychology to always put the blame on someone else (Im not kidding here).

And then after the people appeased the God but still had unfortunate events happening, they might have wondered it was the unhappiness of another God. And different people in different continents might have thus given different names to their own God. Then the religions might have come into existence. Now you have to agree I made some good reasoning here. Now I began to wonder, if there wasnt a concept of 'God' at all, religions wouldnt have existed and many disasters of the world could have been avoided. Its all what a man created that hits him back.

My definition of a God was always someone or something on which you have total faith on, on which you can rely on, of which you are scared of. I have read some books about some saints like 'Sai Baba' and 'Ramana Maharshi' (Indain saints) and those great people stressed on the same point. Infact Baba supposedly said 'Take a stick and treat it as a Guru and worship it, believe in it and thats your God' . Iam a God too. There are people who ask me help (they rarely get it though) who respect me, who believe in me who have faith in me and so Iam a God too. Ofcourse Iam not trying to be one of those Saint men who make money by doing some magic stuff and claiming they are the Gods.

A weekend to remember

2005-03-07T09:02:00.000-06:00

It will be remembered for a long time from now. It will be remembered for the great food, for the great fun we guys had, for the pathetic movies we watched and for the way we fooled Moorthy. Incidentally the girls were out of town and well we guys had some good time watching wierd movies in the good company of 'gum ka saathi rum' . We did watch a non-wierd movie '8mile' and the next day we were in a rap mood. Nag was the target of our pathetic rap but it was all laughs. The food was great at Perkins and at some Yannis. But the weekend will be remembered for the lamb curry (it was awesome) and ofcourse the 'sambhar'. It might be our lastweekend together with Jain leaving for India and by that I mean it will just be a great coincidence if all the guys, who were present this weekend, will meet at a place for spending another weekend down the lane and I know its impossible.

My coolest possession

2005-03-02T01:05:00.000-06:00

Ah! finally, I got an iPod mini. It has been my dream for sometime now to possess one of those awesome, gorgeous music players. Iam excited but behind that excitement there is a slight inexplicable feeling that seems to mean "Did I really need it". Well, its been my dream and I donno if I will be staying in USA for long now, so I bought it even though I was at the cheap side these days with lack of any savings owing to the new laptop, Texas trip and stuff. But if I play it or even look at it, the predominant feeling is an excitement of buying one of the coolest things in market. Infact its the coolest thing I ever had and it will be in that position until some kind soul gifts me a Sony Vaio (cos I dont see myself buying it unless I get a job here which is sort of at the difficult end). I dont even mind an iBook, to be precise an Apple powerbook. And for the uninformed - my birthday is coming on May1. Interested people can start saving money.

Hail Hitler????

2005-02-26T12:42:00.000-06:00

Well when people get drunk, its always good to ignite a discussion among them and sit back and enjoy. I enjoyed a lot last night. The ignition was the man I admire (well now I have to admit), the greatest of the dictators, the tyrannist (I dont like this feature though) HITLER. It was enough ignition and enough fuel too. People started discussing about suicides and when you talk about suicides and if you are a music lover then you cant skip Kurt Cobain. And we didnt. The guys in the room talked about drugs and Kurt's suicide note. I just chose a corner and was happily eating a pizza. Then I felt " guys talk about the dude, Hitler" and I reignited the issue. This time it just lead us to WW-2, Russia and Japan. Now I dont remember why Japan came into the talk. Well anyways people talked about Hitlers greatest mistake, trying to invade the Boss Stalin's Russia. Some one said "I like Hitler. If he wasnt there we wouldnt have had Call of Duty made". And everyone complains drunkards dont make sense. I still dont remember why Japan came into the talk. Some one even said Japan's currency is Euro now. May be the poor guy meant Germany.

Now you might wonder what the heck(or something rhyming), why does Anoop admire Hitler. I admire him because of his determination. Well ofcourse lot of people died, but he wanted to rule the world and if you admire Alexander then Hitler wasnt wrong here. Millions of Jews died. It was just atrocity and I hate him from this angle. Again he was trying to take revenge for the Jews' atrocities over Germans. He just scaled it too much. If one guy changed the world and if he will be remembered till the last day of this planet, he should be great. I read some of Hitlers speeches and believe me that had the effect on me. If I were around in Germany those days I would have been a Nazi too. His speeches are spell bound, just brilliant. You got to have guts to even plan about invading the world about invading Russia and you got to have a brain to even finish half of the task. Hail the dude but pray there wont be another Hitler again. We cant afford too many determined brilliant people. We just cant. For poeple wondering- No! Iam not drunk.

The Past Few Days

2005-02-24T07:49:00.000-06:00

Lot of activity kept me crazily busy over the last week or so. It all started with my exam on last thursday which again proved that Iam not good in exams. Well when you work hard and still dont score well you have no one to blame but just you. I cant see any reason for not doing good in such an easy exam after a good preperation.

Then it was the play 'Amitabh' on the FON that just rocked. It will surely be remembered and it will also be remembered for a drunkard's role played by the actor in me. I walk in the corridor and see people smiling at me with that look 'Ah the drunkard'. Many people stopped and talked to me abou that role. Well thanks to Ajit for introducing that role in the script. It was designed for Nag initially but Nag had to take a much higher Mr.Kale which he did really well. It was fun and gave me a chance to act.

And then it was the day of two exams. I never saw that day before. Oh God! it was tough. I think I did well, as I think always, but lets see. Oh! I forgot to mention about the cricket that we played in a school here. It was their cricket awareness day. We just went there to play and teach those guys. It was boring initially but then they enjoyed a new game and they were just having fun. That made us finally think, we didnt waste our time. In between all these I had many meetings with my advisor regarding my project and some work on that lines was done too.

No wonder I have another red eye that appeared today. Now I didnt need that with four assignments due next week. Its fun, sometimes

Am I scared??

2005-02-19T11:48:00.000-06:00

I think Iam. When I first entered this house and sensed somethings wrong in this place , I just put it off. May be it was just a feeling, i thought so. Things arent outrageously scary yet but still the feeling of something being wrong is persistent. When the first long hair was sighted, I though it was one of the millions of Apurvas lovely hair. She never visited our house then. It was just a self explanation, may be we carried it from their house. The sightings became more frequent and the other day I woke up with the longest hair(just one) I have ever seen in my life lying on my bed. Man! was I scared?. Then I sat on the couch and was thinking about it and I saw something that was lost in the color of my tee shirt. It was a sticker which girls wear as bindi. I find no explanation whatsoever for that. May be its my split personality that goes around as a casanova with girls and then returns back before I woke up. Whatever it is, its strange and things are getting stranger. May be Iam just being stupid, but things are happening

The "V"- day

2005-02-14T09:29:00.000-06:00

A special day, aint it. Its the Valentine's day. Well I dont know, I dont see anything special this day. Its just another of those western adapted days for me. If you are in love then everyday should be special. I try to see a reason now, why this day is being celebrated. I guess people propose to their someone special this day. But again if you are daring enough, anyday is good to propose. I remember my college days in India when the color of ur dress would signify something on feb 14. I never thought about it though. It was yet another day for me. I had my own share of flowers though, from friends ofcourse. But as life gets busier we tend to neglect these occasions. I never recieved any special gifts from anyone ever on this day. There was some anticipation may be in teen days but not now. That could be the reason for me being not so interested in valentine day. There is this air of love , well dressed girls and guys, flowers everywhere, talk of love everywhere and happy faces that makes this day different, if you notice it.

But sometimes I wonder how people could be so stupid. There was a report that couples in many parts of the world were busy trying to concieve a child in the month of may so that they can have a baby on this day. Stupid aint it. Another bunch of not so sane guys are the Siva Sena activists. They wont let people set celebrate this day claiming that its against out tradition. They forget that this excessive love in our tradition caused 100 plus milions.

Anyways Happy Valentines day. If you have your someone special nearer to you, take some time and have fun anyway you want.

IT: Another Microsoft Failure

2005-02-11T08:49:00.000-06:00

Microsoft's much hyped Antispyware still in its beta version has been disabled by a Trojan. Good that it happend in the beta version. Microsoft still got the time to look into the reasons and take care of such spyware. Interested people can go thru this.

Emptiness

2005-02-09T02:47:00.000-06:00

A poem is something which lets you speak out. Atleast I think so. Surprisingly I donno why but my poems (For those who r unaware, I do write poems rarely though) tend to be on a sad note. may be because I admire John Keats a lot. People who know me personally think iam a bindaas guy, full of fun. But when I write something my mind just sways into darkness, emptiness and sadness. I complain myself but still as long as the poem is good it shouldnt matter. I get some unknown satisfaction. May be iam trying to convey myself, may be this is the real me who puts up a false smile and tries to be humorous. As nag said this capriciousness could be the result of a dual me and myself. Anyways heres one of my favorites written by me. I guess many people would say "Whats wrong with Anoop?"

I was trying to sleep
In the darkness
Counting those sheep
In the emptiness

I was trying to walk
In the Vastness
I had no one to talk
It seemed like emptiness

I was trying to cry
I felt sadness
No one did console or try
Leaving me in emptiness

I wanted a hearty laugh
To get some happiness
I dint even get a half
Owing to the emptiness

In all the time in emptiness
I had some company too
It was my loneliness
Wandering nowhere to

Mera Des

2005-02-06T01:48:00.000-06:00

Back in 1999, I read an essay on the "Reasons for India's Backwardness". It won a prize in some essay writing competition. An absolute beauty it was. It moved my heart. It had an impact on me, temporarily though. India changed a lot since but still something lacks there. After I came here I felt the change in every aspect. The way the people think, the way people respect each other. I have to admit, the pride in being an Indian has not so many reasons. Now I look back and think to feel truth in every point of that essay. Some great man said "A country is made of people not just water and land". My country is made up of 100 and plus million people.

People who boast about the tradition
Tradition of Sati,Child marriage and dowry
Tradition where a woman had no choice

People who boast about the culture
Culture that discriminates the rich and the poor
Culture where a dalit was treated worse than a dog

People who treat cricket as a religion
Win a match to be a God
Lose it to be a demon and have black on ur house

People who believe in false promises of politicians
and blame the same when they are broke
and just sit and hope and wait for a great one

People who build temples to actors
People who made a mere stone idol
The richest god in the world
forgetting that 30 million amongst them
are without food and house

People who curse being in traffic
Who curse being in the crowd
ans still do nothing
Just wait for someone to change everything

People who wants their child
to go to some other country
people like me who leave their country
and talk about changing the country

People who make men Gods or Babas
and see those godmen killing some men

My country is made of such people. Iam still proud of it. It will change when the people change. When people respect the poor, When a woman is not treated different than a man. Sometimes its strange feeling to get frustrated thinking about India. I feel what difference could I make. But if atleast 1000 of 100 million think together they could make a change, then my country would change. But I know 10 days from now I would be thinking of how to get a job here. Strange aint it.

SuparBaul 2005

2005-02-05T13:38:00.000-06:00

Vikings missed it. But anyways its still exciting, its a SuperBowl. Janet Jackson stole the show last year. This year I bet its going to be Tom Brady all the way. One hell of a guy, should be troubled by the Eagle's defense though. But he is gonna make it again. Lets see and lets see with some cold beer. What say Jain???

Feb 9

2005-02-03T09:02:00.000-06:00

Don't miss Aiswarya Rai on the David Letterman's show to be aired on the 9th of february. This blog is to remind myself and all other fans of Ash out there not to miss the show.

Hail the Dude!

Call of Duty

2005-01-30T23:53:00.000-06:00

Now I came to know why this game is termed as a classic. Its not just about shooting at Germans of the WW-2 era, its about planning, about making a strategy and then implementing it. It has some brilliant missions and aided by stunning sounds. The AI that helps the Germans in the game looks good too. Snipers, shooters, tanks - all are intelligent. I immediately fell in love with this game. I will not be surprised if I get dreams of myself shooting in a battle field.

I still think Age of Mythology is the best of all in terms of getting the player addicted, may be because of the time factor. But Call of Duty is addicting too.

Statutory Warning

2005-01-29T21:29:00.000-06:00

The warning is - "DONT WATCH KISNA" Its seriously injurious to health. Ive watched it and even after several hours Iam in a state of shock. Absolutely pointless movie. Dont watch it unless you have only 3 more options left over.

1) Trimurti - another Ghai movie
2) Abhay - the scariest of kamal's movies
3) Yaadein - you know what iam refering to

Ofcourse there are worse movies, but Kisna like the above three was hyped a lot and it affects more.

Cast Away at Home

2005-01-29T06:44:00.000-06:00

I was browsing thru thehindu.com when I came across this amazing story of a Tsunami survivor. Its truly unbelievable. In case you havent read it yet, you have to read this. After I read it I wasnt really sorry for the people who died. I imagined this poor guys pathetic position on his own home island. I imagined myself in that position and man that was scary. Its a must read article.

Thursday 8 AM

2005-01-27T08:58:00.000-06:00

Its not a good thing to be in school at 8AM. And especially if its an Office hour where no one comes, because its too early, its even worse. I wake up at 6:40, drink some milk, have a bath quickly, take a bus and come to school just to find myself still sleepy. And again its a worse feeling because I have the whole day ahead, with 4 classes from 1230 to 8 with just a gap of 15 minutes between them. And I usually dont have a good sleep the previous night because I know I have to get up early, so I wake up in intervals look at the time and then sleep again. The last night was another bad one. My stupid neighbour watches TV the whole night with a high volume every wednesday. I feel like going and kicking him. By the end of the day I would still be unhappy because friday 8AM I have to be back to take two back to back classes and teach the same stuff again. No wonder my students sleep in my class.

Naasamaj Yeh Dil

2005-01-27T08:29:00.000-06:00

"Maine Dil se Kaha Doond Lana Kushi
Naasamaj Laaya Gham, Tho Yeh Gham hi Sahin"

sings Kay Kay in the film "Rog". I was listening to this song for the first time which has a good tune and some catchy lyrics and it immediately caught my attention like many of M.M.Kreem's songs. Well whatever it is, I have to go with Dil being Naasamaj. No matter how many times it gets broken, it still goes out in search of getting lost. Once Dil finds some company everything seems at place, you dream many ways, you plan many things and suddenly everything is shattered. And then we put the blame on the opposite sex and be lost in nightmares for sometime and the stupid dil gets activated again and look for the same opposite sex that we hated a few months ago. How many times I have seen this happening. I saw many of best of my friend getting insane after a girl breaks his heart, getting lost for sometime, cursing girls and after sometime lookout for another girl. May be even I did the same thing. But invariably the dil goes out in search of some happiness and invariably it comes back to you with some 'gham'. Then we can sit back and sing
"Naasamaj laaya gham, tho yeh gham hi sahin"

I know many people would not agree with me but when a relation is disturbed, its not always the problem with the other side. I have seen so many relations geting broken the last few months and many of them ended because of either a lack of commitment or lack of plan when the relation first started. Iam sorry if this post sounded foolish or if it hurt any of ur feelings, but naasamaj mera dil, samajtha hi nahin.

Dell's Sleek Babe

2005-01-25T21:00:00.000-06:00

Its sleek and gracious. Silver in colour with an amazing screen. Well, it might not be as sexy as a Sony Vaio or an Apple iBook. But it has a grace of its own. Its Dell Inspiron 700m, my new laptop. After considering Vaio and not getting it for the lack of money and after ordering an iBook and cancelling it just because it runs on "Tiger" Mac (I know I was stupid), I finally bought this babe. I am enjoying this piece which just weighs 4 pounds and I simply love its screen. Anyways my dream of owning a Sony Vaio still lives. I know someday I will buy it. If anyone is interested in buying me a gift, the person has a simple choice - a 12 inch Vaio.

New Look

2005-01-20T20:11:00.000-06:00

I started to believe in trying something different. Soemone said "You dont change, pardon me but, you stink". I liked that phrase. I started with changing my hair style. After staying away from the barber for 6 months, I had a great look ala "Tom Cruise style" of Saif in HumTum. Well yes Iam exaggerating a bit. Girls seemed to like it though, but I had some critics too in the form of Aravind and Nag. But it definitely changed the way I look. Longer the hair, tougher it's maintainence. Dandruff and hair fall started to take control. So I finally ended up in a barber shop and asked the dude there to cut short. He asked "r u sure sir?". Then I started to think, but I went ahead with it. Now I have a hair style ala Forrest in Forrest Gump. Military cut, we used to call it. Again it changed the way I look. After two days of laughter after seeing myself in the mirror, Iam begining to enjoy the 'cool' feeling of it. I might not be looking good but definitely Iam feeling good which is what is important.

Weekend in Minneapolis

2005-01-17T01:47:00.000-06:00

I got to meet good ol friends Suchi and Kailash and not to forget I met the Fockers too. Got to eat at Indian restaurants, visit a temple and eat good food in the temple. I went to the Mall of America, where I visited the Apple store where I fell in love with the new Apple iPod shuffle. I wanted to buy one but kya kare out of stock. It was cold though but yaaa I missed the -42 in Duluth. It ended with a huge dissappointment after the Vikings lost the playoff match against Eagles.

Feels like -30

2005-01-13T11:25:00.000-06:00

Its not unusual to see the figure -30F (around -35C) on the weather report here in Minnesota. The wind adds to the already severity of the weather. Yesterday it was around 0 F though. But still we were at home owing to the 12" snowfall. Later when the snow stopped falling, I came out went out for a lake walk (should be stupid to do that) and saw the beauty of winter. The greatest lake Superior was covered by ice and snow. Sometimes even the mighty could be 'freeze'd. It was nothing short of a stunning sight. I tried to capture it in a camera but the light was not favorable to do that. The dried trees covered by snow, the roof of our house and vast grounds just covered by snow made some good frames though. Well on a day of heavy snowfall a Minnesotan can expect a cold tommorow. And its damn cold out there. A newcomer can be fooled by the bright sun outside but God it feels like -30.

Bhooth

2005-01-12T01:54:00.000-06:00

One movie that really scared me when I first saw it. I couldnt sleep till a week after I saw it. I just used to stare at the door of my room. I thought that some one might just come and stand at the door staring at me like the ghost stares at Urmila. It was one of the many magical moments of the movie that scared many a moviegoer. The first appearence of the ghost, the movie hall scene, the twisted neck of the watchman, the beach scene, Ajay imagining urmila stabbing him and so on. Right now Im watching it for the third time but the magic still has its effect. Ramu's wonderful direction aided by stunning background sound and brilliant performances by the cast, esp Urmila resulted in a good horror movie. I had to sleep in mom's room for the whole month till I got out of it.

Year of Mixed Emotions - 2004

2005-01-09T18:00:00.000-06:00

I never believed in predictions done based on Sun signs. On 2004-Jan 1st I read that the first 5 months of 2004 would be tough and then it would be a great year from thereon. Then I was happy with my life and I never imagined that 5 following months would be tough at all. A week later misfortune took control and 5 horrible months followed. Everything went wrong and I was lost. I hardly slept and I almost went into depression. I never thought I would recover. The semister was a disaster too which added to the misery. Then came the India trip by the end of which things took a dramatic turn. Strangely my insomnia disappeared. My eye troubled me less frequently. The semister gave me a huge satisfaction. Life and School made me learn a lot of things. Now I look back into 2004 and I can just laugh about how foolish I was to waste 5 months of my life thinking that I was crazy and worthless. I admit that some people whom I considered special made me think I was worthless and some made me feel that I was special. I learnt that its not how people think about you that matters but what you think about yourself that matters. Simple things make the difference. Its all in how you approach life, how you handle good and bad times. Now I hope everyone out there will have a happy new year.

Dont Mess With Texas?

2005-01-04T13:50:00.000-06:00

So many hoardings, sign boards and posters saying "Dont Mess With Texas" all over I35 going thru Texas. Well to speak about it, we did mess with Texas. We messed with it bigtime but thanks to the fortune on our side we got away with it. Travelling 2000 miles in 4days with just a single driver, who got license just a week ago, and unexperienced navigators is not possible without some mistakes. Missing exits, going in the wrong way, almost hitting vehicles in the blindspot, getting lost in a vast city like Dallas and finding the way out, losing maps and finding them in the pocket after reaching home, cops giving warnings..... the list goes on. It was an amazing experience. Finally after visiting Padre Island (southern tip of US) we didnt need any map for the last 400 miles . The best part of the drive was a 2mile bridge joining Padre Island with the main land, the bay drive in Corpus Christi, passing thru Austin's downtown and looping around the same exit for ten times to find a drive that did not exist. Sunil was the only driver we had and thanks to him we reached home safely.

North to South

2004-12-26T13:42:00.000-06:00

It started off normally but finished out not so normally. Sudip dropped me and Kedar at the airport, the flight was delayed, still we checked in our luggage and got the boarding passes. We were about to go to the security check when NorthWest realized that the flight is cancelled. If we didnt catch this flight we would automatically miss the Dallas flight from MSP. They gave us two options - come back next morning or go to MSP in the next flight and catch the next days flight to Dallas while they would provide us accomodation for the night in MSP. We opted to go to MSP. A flight took of from MSP to get to Duluth but went back due to some mechanical problems. So no more flights to MSP that night. NorthWest called a cab and 30 minutes later we were in the cab on our way to MSP. It was an SUV, so I laid back and took a nap on the back seat while Kedar was sleeping in the middle seat.

We reached MSP and we were accomodated in Ramada (the agent said it was Radison but gave a voucher for free stay in Ramada). We reached Ramada at 1030. The kitchen was closed. We could have ordered food from elsewhere but it would take 2-3 hours for the food to reach us. So we grabbed some beers and had a good nights sleep. Kedar did not eat anything the whole day except for some chips. I had breakfast in Perkins and that day and that was it. We woke up, had some coffee, packed our stuff and went to the lounge to find no breakfast. We reached the airport and then had something to eat at Tacos. Kedar, even though we had vouchers to eat anything in the airport, still paid for the food. So the vouchers for eating at Ramada and at Airport were wasted.

We boarded the plane and I was telling Kedar that NW should have given us seats in business class and we laughed it off. The hostess asked if she could take my jacket and then I realized that we were indeed seated in business class. Finally we reached Dallas at 1230 to find Sunil and a warm weather waiting for us. Here Iam in Dallas enjoying the weather and Sunil's so called dosas (they are good) . All in all it was a good experience. But these things usually happen to Ajit and we laugh over him. Anyways being in such situations is something to be remembered .

System gone Wrong

2004-12-21T13:17:00.000-06:00

No its not the essay grading system we developed. Its my system, its my body, its me thats screwed up. In the last 20 days, there were only 2 or 3 days when I slept before 4AM. Either it was my insomnia or my project as it has been in the last 3 days or the exam preperation or doing some time pass. Infact 10 of those days were spent in school till 3AM (just to let people know we've worked hard for our project). Whatever the reason was my whole system got messed up. I dont feel like eating anything, I dont feel like sleeping at all, the nature calls me at wierd times and due to lack of any fluid intake the visits to the restrooms have gone down remarkably and my body is freaking heated up.

I havent talked to my roommate , infact we were together for just 15 minutes in the last 3 days. Apparently hes working hard too. Not just my body, my house is messed up too. The stinking vessels cry to get cleaned, the haunting ghosts in my house complain about the mess (they r making lot of noises these days) the gas-stove is unhappy because we havent used it in the last 3 days. I threw the garbage though. My friends and parents complain that I havent called them in ages. kya kare....

I need a good drink, a good meal and a sleep in which I dont worry about waking up after 4 hours. I need some rest which I will be hopefully getting at the end of today.

The Unforgetable

2004-12-17T08:39:00.000-06:00

Its been 5 years. I still remember the first day in Nizamabad(AP, India). A new place, away from home. Every one was a stranger. I was there to persue my BTech(engineering). The feeling that I had to be away from home for 31/2 years was hard to digest(though I used to go home evey month). The feeling that I was there to achieve something I never wanted to was hard too. But it was the begining of a glorious 3 years in my life. The best 3 years. Ajay was the first guy I met, then Suresh and then David. They were my roommates then. None of them are in-touch now. Two nights later a guy came and he was busy arranging his stuff in our room. He was sort of fun. Nithin he was, one of my best buddies ever. Then came a tall dude, who looked arrogant, handsome and silent. Aravind (Hrithik or 'builder' we call him) is one of the best too, bit arrogant though. 5 of us were in a single room, with just enough space for our cots.

I met two more guys on my first day in college. One looked confused and the other was clever but lazy. Anil and Abhilash, they were the local guys . No words can describe the good deeds they did for us in those span of 31/2 years. I slowly began to get used to this place, where we played cricket in a small area surrounded by walls. Smash cricket it was. While the game was on, no one could ever see the ball, throw it hard and wack it hard. 5 months passed by when all the boys in the hostel thought that the owner was being unfair and we fought for our rights and it was the time when 40 of us got together and vacated the hostel leaving the guy with no option but opening a tea stall.

14 of the 40 went to another hostel. We were given a whole house, (out of the town). A house surrounded by huts, snakes and full of insects. It was hard but we lived there for 1 year. A room was converted into an indoor stadium, where we played cricket, kabaddi and hide&seek. That room was totally battered, everything including lights, windows, ventilators and even the fan was broken. Thats when I had my first beer. Pavan was my mentor. Pavan is a talent thats getting wasted . These 14 had to go through some difficulties. The local guys of our college were jealous of the fan following our Aravind had. The girls of the college were supposedly talking only with boys in our gang and so the problems that ensued. If not for Anil and Abhi's local influence either we or the local guys could have been beaten. College politics, so childish. We 14 were ready for everything but later everything was peacefully resolved.

14 guys did everything except for studying. So we got divided, just for the heck of it and got 3 seperate rooms. Nitin, Aravind, Vijay and me were supposed to be roomies. We all paid rent for a single room, small in size but a huge one for the good natured owners and Anil bhais neighbourhood. It was a rarity when we 4 stayed together for a whole single day. Divided we stayed but united we lived. No one used to have money to buy even a tooth paste but almost every night was a party. The money manager Abhilash was so damn good at that. Though the 19 (14 + 5 locals) almost fell apart for issues regarding a couple of girls, we finally managed to get thru it. Those 31/2 years left some memories and some great friends. I know I can go on talking about those memories. I went thru some hardships , some great moments and some days where I didnt have a single rupee in my wallet. Yet it was a royal stay as they say.

Now that I talked about BTech, I need to mention about keets (Keerthna). Well , well she is special , clever, witty, sometimes stupid but the only girl who left an impression on me in those 31/2 years. She was, is and will always be a special part of my life.

The Last Week

2004-12-15T21:38:00.000-06:00

Its tedious, tiring, tensed and sometimes messed up. Its the last week of the semister. This time its not messed up though. No exam for graph theory. Just had to give a presentation and Im done with it. One exam on saturday and then a project demo on tuesday (though we can do it even tonight) and then I will be done. I know Iam not gonna do well in that exam. Its been the same the whole sem. I just cant put the right formula for the right problem.

Then I will be flying to Texas. What a change it would be to go to a warm place away from the cold Minnesotan winter. Iam waiting for 24 when I can meet my pals and hopefully a really warm weather.

Right now I cant sleep and I donno why. My whole day is just getting wasted. I am niether asleep nor awake. May be I need a good drink , a good option which is far away for the time being

What to blog?

2004-12-14T02:19:00.000-06:00

What should I blog about?
About the daily activities
Or about the great cities

About current affairs
Or about my current affair

About the restaurant I visited
Or about a movie I watched

About one of my good friends
Or about the present trends

About my unforgettable past
Or about the present that goes on very fast

About the people around me
Or about the things I see

About the weather here
Or about my near and dear

My knowledge is limited
The time is not befitted
I have a lot to talk about
Which I cannot speak out
I wanna open the mysterious book
of my life that just lies in a nook

I wanna gather your interest
So iam writing a poem though not the best

I need to sleep

2004-12-09T04:07:00.000-06:00

It seems as if insomnia is back. I wrote something which i call a poem. Its bad but atleast I passed some time. Comments are welcome

I need some sleep
Something I can term as deep

I lay on my bed trying to find it
But pity me I always fall behind it

My eyes burn and my head does pain
I swirl around as if iam insane

My nights go lonely and my days go weary
As sleep evades to embrace me dearly

I wanna dream, dream about my love
And see her everyday, somehow

I tried a lot like counting sheep
But no luck with the sleep

No reason such as for
Ive been sleeping lately at 4

I need some sleep
Something that I can term as deep

NZ beats AUS

2004-12-05T12:55:00.000-06:00

A bunch of good players lead by a great captain beat Australian cricket team under the lights of the Metro Dome. Cairns' who decided to play only the one dayers played a key role aided by a brilliant fielding team the Kiwis are. Sinclair's catch was superb as can be seen below. I always had a kinda admiration for this team esp Astle, Cairns and Flemming (the best captain in my view) . Astle's out of the ground sixes in that test match against England where he went berseck and Cairns' centuries against India always linger in the mind of the Cricket fan in me. Not to forget Flemmings brilliant innings against SA in the world cup where he won a match for them.

I kinda liked the picture not just for the brilliance of the catch but also for the expressions on the face of the audience in the back ground. Anyways way to go Kiwis , go ahead and win the series creating history.

In the Memory of...

2004-12-04T13:59:00.000-06:00

Its been three years since one of my good childhood friends Raja Shekar took poison to end his life. No one knew the reason for his insanity , may be it was a girl, may be it was his missed hall ticket but the thing is I never saw him again, though he is always in my memory. May God bless his soul, wherever it is and dear friend I will always miss you

The Flesh Trade

2004-12-01T19:37:00.000-06:00

Last night I was just surfing the channels on TV when I saw an Indian woman talking in Hindi on channel 'eight'. Well I was happy that channel 'eight' is airing a programme about Indian women. Atleast I thought so until the voice on the TV said that the woman was a sex-worker in one of Mumbai's red light areas. She was HIV-positive. She is one amongst the 80% of sex-workers in Mumbai who carry the HIV virus. In Mumbai city alone 70 cases of HIV are reported every hour. I was startled. This was just the begining of the statictics that stunned me.

Every sex worker in Mumbai's redlight area has to satisfy around 15 - 20 customers almost each single day. Some even have 40 - 45 customers each single day. Girls from an age of 12 are in this business in Mumbai. Many sex-workers have around 14 to 15 abortions in their career. Many of the abortions are done in the red light area. A girl said that she was back in business just 40 minutes after her abortion. Well I couldnt stop tears rolling down my cheeks. I was spell bound. After all the mental and physical torture these women undergo to earn some money, they have to pay the policemen a huge sum.

Some women tried to save these sex-workers. But how many can be saved. Ms. Anuradha a founder of a home that rescues these sex-workers tells about a girl,whom she rescued from a red light area in Nepal, who was beautiful and 24 years of age, who loved to visit temples but was HIV positive. When the girl died Anuradha took the body for cremation. People refused to cremate the body because it was HIV positive. Anuradha had to pay 10 times more than for a normal body. Anuradha said with tears in her eyes "People all over the world speak about human rights. This girl did not get her rights even after her death". USA spent billions of dollars on a senseless war. If only they could spend a small fraction of the amount, they could have saved a lot of people.

After I watched the program I felt "If only I had millions , I could have saved many of those girls". But I know if I had so much money I would be busy thinking about how to increase my bank balance and not worry about them. But for the time being I wish I could help atleast a single girl from Mumbai's red light area.

Back Hom

2004-11-29T23:08:00.000-06:00

Goodness gracious! So many things happening back home. Now I always had great respect for 'Kanchi Jayendra Saraswati' and the dudes from Ambani family. That Kanchi dude was involved in a murder. Why on earth did he do that? This is another instance which makes people like me hate those swamis. I really had great respect for this dude because he never went around and say that he is the God. Well I was shocked. Now that he confessed I had to believe it.

Ambanis fighting over is the root for another surprise. They have 90,000 crores. Its around $20 billion. Now they are fighting for the ownership of the Reliance Industries. Well the share market has experienced some unexpected things because of this.

Money was the root cause behing the occuring of these two events in India. These events left many Indians shocked.

Illusions and Omens

2004-11-26T18:28:00.000-06:00

Well talking about scary experiences, experiences of seeing a ghost or having such an illusion, at 2 in the night is a scary experience itself. Every time we do such a talk here in Duluth, usually its the same stories that repeat. But its always scary. The answerable questions at the end of such talks always are "Do ghosts exist?" "Why are we afraid of them?" "Is is that they kill us?" "Are they just human illusions?" People who supposedly saw them might have just seen an illusion or may be they saw a real ghost. But they believe in what they saw and its justified. We might laught it off until we had a real experience for ourselves. Personally I had some strange experiences which scared me or left me spell bound at that moment, but later when I thought about it I could find an explanation. May be I was just trying to convince myself that it was nothing strange.

Talking about strange experiences I sometimes sense whats to come. Incredibly so , mostly they turn out to be true. May be its the same case with everyone. But personally I sometimes tend to know ahead if something bad is to happen. Omens we call them. May be premonitions too. But they too are inexplicable. I read this book 'Real Magic' which stresses on this aspect of life. It says the whole universe is on a predefined course and omens tell us whats up next. Its just that we have to catch them. Well this leads us to nowhere but its always an interesting talk

Kriket

2004-11-23T23:43:00.000-06:00

Well , can some one (or some team to be precise) stop these Aussies. They have to make another Australian team to beat this one. There is so much talent and they have some great backup too. Michael Clarke, Gilchrist, Ponting, name them and you will be going on and on. Kiwis were looking good when they were hit by the Aussie hurricane. Iam looking forward to watching the Australia vs Rest of the World series. I dont think The ROW can beat the Aussies. They say it takes years to build a team. Lets see it should be fun.

India vs SA. Two highly talented teams lacking fuel. Well I hope this series gets one of them going and in the future they can beat the Aussies. Its a long long way to go.

7even onederz

2004-11-19T12:10:00.000-06:00

God, the dude has created some wonders. Man tried to compete with the dude and created some of his own wonders. Artificial they might be but ofcourse God coudnt make them himself. The dude's followers might argue that man uses resources of God but neways I would like to mention seven wonders (according to me and myself) that only man coud make. Note that there is no particular order in their mention.

1. Chocolate - Ask me what is my first love. This is the answer. I wud like to die with a piece of Cadbury Dairy Milk in my mouth. Snickers, Kisses, 5 star , m&m ..... the list goes on. But the king of them all is the Dairy Milk and especially if its from ur beloved it tastes sweeter.

2. Me cooked shrimp - Let me tell you this is the best. Atleast no one in Duluth can cook it better. Ask anyone who had a taste of it. No competetion here. Talking about food mom's food can be considered a wonder but they say mom is the living God so it would be a Gods wonder. so no mention of it in the list. Archie's chicken or dal can come here for some competetion but me not as modest as her.

3. Cricket - Can any other sport beat this. Me was never a good player but just loves to play cricket. Wake me up at 2 in the night and ask him to play, me will never say no. Thats the love for this game.

4. Music - Never a great musician was myself. But myself just loves listening to it when in tanhayee, especially. Talking anything about music would be less.

5. Java - Well one doesnt expect mention of a computer language in my list. But this one is a beauty. Me though not the best programmer, loves it. May be because I was the TA for 2 semisters now. But this is unbeatable.

6. Tom and Jerry - There are many good cartoon shows but I love it since I was a kid. I still love it and I will always love it. Hope my kids dont love anything else and fight with me in this issue.

7. Alcohol - Last but not the least. No more words.

Well there are many other things which amaze me but in a blog we cannot mention everything. so this is it.

A Warm Shower

2004-11-17T14:21:00.000-06:00

currently listening to: Khilte hain ghul yaha....... sharmilee.

Its magical, especially after a tiring week. Usually I dont spend much time in the shower. But today I wanted to take a warm one. I couldnt stand for long. I just lied down in the tub with the shower on and it was majical. With my eye hurting a lot and my brain still starving of sleep I almost fell asleep. I came back had my supper and now Iam listening to old hindi classics as the one mentioned above. Its the time to sleep and Iam looking forward to having a good sleep.

A Lost Battle

2004-11-15T08:27:00.000-06:00

Finally I had to give up after fighting with it for about 7 hours. Two days ago I was happy that I finished my part of our team project. I never knew that I would have to fight with the web interface of which I had no idea until I had alook at it 10 hours ago. I still have no idea but I just couldnt give up. I might not have figured out anything even if I began working on it from the last two days. But given a weeks time instead of 7 hours I could have done it. Poorva did her best to finish it off. She worked less than a day on it apart from working on everything else. Just one more day and she would have done it. She was the inspiration. I came and sat here trying to continue with it but my login is locked due to disk overspace. Now I have no option but giving it up. Sigh! all the hard work just got wasted. But again we atleast came to know not to underestimate the complexity of certain things. Hmm, its not the end of it still got a lot of scope to improve. Wish the team 'RiverPlate' some good luck..

3:30 AM

2004-11-14T05:31:00.000-06:00

Thats the time now. No, I wasnt partying. I wasnt with a girl. I wasnt spending time chatting with my friends. I wasnt watching movies. I wasnt coming home from a trip. I came home from school at this time on a saturday night. I was always a believer of not working on weekends. In the last month three saturdays were spent in school. I had no other option though. Today was the most eventful one. Almost everything of the alpha-version of the essay grading project is done except that a minor issue is to be dealt.

I came home, tried to sleep but couldnt sleep. So I just decided to blog. The silence is killing me. I need people talking around me so that I can feel secure and sleep well. I could have gone to Ajiths place but then I thought let those guys do their project. Why disturb them with my stupid talk?
Anyways sleep is knocking on the door . Let me go and welcome it.

Strange but True

2004-11-11T12:24:00.000-06:00

Here are some strange facts. Some facts are what we never observed. Some are just funny and some are interesting which are worth speculating.

1) The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card!
Man! I ve been playing cards since I was a kid and I never knew that.

2) There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos!
This can be a trick of the trade.

3) More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones!
I have a blue one.

4) A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.!
What about a fart? he he

5) Every second, Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate
Goodness Gracious

6) A person uses approximately fifty-seven sheets of toilet paper each day!
I should count that tommorow. I dont believe this

7) Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women!
Lightning is female, sometimes its a lesbian. what a discovery??? This is another strange fact.

8) In Miami, it is forbidden to imitate an animal.
But why??? . Can we imitate humans

9) In Kentucky, it's the law that a person must take a bath once a year.
Ha Ha. Any laws regarding Shitting??/

10)In Missouri, a man must have a permit to shave.
Good I have no trouble when I go to Missouri.

If you want more such amazing facts visit this.

Red Eye Effect

2004-11-09T23:23:00.000-06:00

It gets red, red as blood, feels like someone is pulling it from inside, someone is pulling it with just a nerve and so its reluctant to go in. People who have been with me for the last couple of years know what iam talking about. Its my eye friends, its hurting again though its not as red as it used to get but that someone pulling from inside feeling is back. No doctor ever gave a reason, I tried to follow the pattern and find the reason myself. Continuous staring at the idiot box or genius box (computer) cannot be the reason. Lack of sleep? thats what me and Nag concluded the other day but na i slept a lot yesterday and today. Lack of vitamins? god knows. Tommorow if people see red in my eye its not that iam angry, not that i cried , not that i have that conjunctivitus, not that i drank a lot (thats what people always mistake it for). Infact its just that God forgot to remove the red eye effect while framing my picture.

Of Essays and Their Scores

2004-11-08T19:45:00.000-06:00

Nearly two years ago I was looking at those Toefl essays getting myself prepared for the test. Well I got a 6 then. Today I had to write another essay worth a 6 which I dont think is worth it. Now that Iam doing a project that grades the essays which I was looking at 2 years ago, I just thought about these 2 years. How much I wish I could go back and stop myself from writing that test just me knows that.

Well last week was a nice one. Got to spend some time with my friends, got to eat some amazing food ofcourse cooked by the great chef myself and got to see some movies. Not that I wasnt working. I never browsed the net so much looking for some essays and for some ways to grade them. I am a part of a good team and Iam just trying to match them.

As I write this I cant stop a tear rolling down my cheek just watching Forest Gump. For some strange reason I want to go back 2 years and .......

4 More years

2004-11-04T06:35:00.000-06:00

4 more years of Bush. We have to accept it. But I did not expect him to win. Not that Im an expert in American politics. I just did not want him to win. Not that Im a Kerry supporter, I just didnt want to see the same face for 4 more years. I didnt want anymore wars. But as it appears Kerry might not have made a good president himself. Its just one of them had to win and so Bush won. Anyways it doesnt matter really for me. I might not be here to see the next president but does it matter at all to anyone else????

7 Days and 7 Nights

2004-11-01T18:41:00.000-06:00

There was an air of freshness today when i opened the door leading to the exit from my house. It was the morning breeze , it was the breeze that made me stand where i was just forgetting that I had an assignment due in a couple of hours, an exam in the afternoon and a bus to catch in 5 minutes. I stood there enjoying it until I realized that i needed to move. I had a strange feeling that things are going to be better than expected today. There was this lovely woman smiling at me with a strange look in her eyes. I donno who she was but she appeared to be a good omen. It atleast signified the end of a tiresome 7 days and 7 nights. A week which had me in school even on the weekend, a week which had me doing nothing but an assignment and preparing for an exam. It ended finally. And I feel satisfied that I did well in both the assignment and the exam. Sense of dis satisfaction appeared about my report and a couple of exam questions but that happens always. I am never totally satisfied.

Can the Aussies be Stopped??

2004-10-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

Currently Listening to :
allah ke bandhe ..... waise bhi hota hain

Its been the dream of every Aussie cricketer to win a test series in India. They are close to achieving their dream. Well, can the Indians stop the Aussies? They have to. This Indian team is definitely the better one than the earlier teams that stopped the Aussies. But with Harbhajan out of the team and Rahul and Laxman (the men who stopped the juggernaut last time the Aussies visited India) out of form it seems difficult if not impossible. Lets wait and see......

Beauty Incarnated

2004-10-25T15:29:00.000-05:00

Presently listening to:
Yuhi chala chal rahi ..... Swades

Beauty Incarnated thats what she is. If someone asks me how beautiful a woman could be I would show her as the example. She is smiling at me as I write this. She has this innocent look in her eyes. I set her picture as a wallpaper on my solaris. I just logged into it and I was awestruck, though not for the first time, by her beauty. She is Aiswarya Rai. May be her smile is artificial, may be the color of her lips is made up, may be her looks are of artificial lens but no doubt about the fact that she is beautiful. Anybody questioning here about the beauty of Aishwarya??????

Naked Truth

2004-10-25T07:46:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows what I mean when something is a naked truth. Its the obvious. I never knew people were told news the naked way. Yes its the naked reporters who are telling the news on a news channel. I was wondering about how to post something interesting when I came across this. Well I tried to get the link for this news channel which is available online too. Even the master 'Google' couldnt help me. But this channel is planning to go mobile (for cellular phones). If this is not a news for many of you guys then I failed miserably.

Power of One

2004-10-24T03:55:00.000-05:00

One man can make a lot of difference. This man Iam talking about had always made a difference for his team. He has been Srilanka's premium player for the last 8 years. He won them many matches single handedly. He is doing it again against Pakistan in Pakistan. Sanath Jayasurya scored an amazing double century. He had a partnership of 101 runs with Fernando out of which Fernando just scored one run. Well as if thats not enough he did that in 16 overs. Thats how he does it he just destroys the opposition.
Talking about how one person makes a difference we can always take Sachin as an example. He is playing the third test and according to an article this news increased the ticket sales. This guy is simply the best.

10 Ingredients of an Indian soap

2004-10-21T23:18:00.000-05:00

Well many of my friends started to complain that my blogs are predominantly philosophical. Well for some change I wanted to be humorous. So, here are some facts about the TV serials in India.

1. The title of the serial begins with 'K' else its not a success
2. There are is atleast one huge family that is very rich with a servant who has been there before the eldest son was born (now dont doubt the leading lady of the family). Interestingly the servant has no family for himself.
3. All the ladies in the rich family dress very rich in silk sarees and precious jewellery.
4. Invariably there is a saas - bahu pair. Either the saas or her daughter or her co-sister is trouble some and always wants to see the bahu in trouble. No reasons explained though.
5. The leading actress (Tulsi, Kusum, etc) bears all the troubles in the world.
6. There is an ex-wife or ex-girl friend of the leading actor who is out to take revenge on the leading actress. Or the leading actor falls for a woman and neglects his wife.
7. The family business runs into an irrecoverable loss when the leading actress works at some place and feeds the family. Now every body in the family is ashamed of troubling this woman earlier. The servant finds some job too and he contributes to the income. Luckily he has no family to look after.
8. In many serials one of the family member meets with an accident and he is assumed to be dead. A body is cremated too. But he survives the accident and is taken care of somewhere else by some one else.
9. The paintings on the walls and the carpets are the same in all the serials (why dont they change them)
10. Last but not the least. Dont watch the serial for an year. Then go back to it. You can tell what happened in the whole year. And the leading actress keeps crying and crying. Ironically she is the person with the strongest character in the family.

The most amazing fact is that in every serial the person who suffers is a woman and the person who creates trouble is a woman and the person in every family who watches it is a woman.
In my house life comes to a stand still from 8 PM to 10 PM. No cricket, no news , no movies. Only the saas - bahu saga during the prime time. If you cant bear it you are free to go out.

There is one positive aspect though, it atleast keeps my mom engaged for sometime. Else she keeps thinking about her children far away from her.

Being my Roommate

2004-10-20T19:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday someone asked me to post something about my room mate. Thats when I had this thought - how does a person feel being my room mate. In the past I had so many roo mates. But Nag is unique because he is the only room mate I have now. Sometimes I do feel if he is happy being my room mate. He never complained ever though. Even if he has some complaints against me whom will he complain to.
I never had any complaints against him though. A decent guy who minds his own business, whos ready to help me anytime shouldnt give much scope to complain. He is a good cook too, ofcourse not as good as me. He can improve though. I wish him all the best being my room mate listening to my stupid jokes.

Love or Friendship

2004-10-20T17:41:00.000-05:00

"One day LOVE asked FRIENDSHIP why are you in the world when i am here? Friendship smiled & said TO SPREAD SMILES WHERE YOU LEAVE TEARS...!".

When I got this message as an offline, today, I was lost in thoughts. Well, is it true? There is no question about the fact that frienship spreads smiles. But does love always spread tears? Needless to say that the love we are talking here is not the general love - love between son and a mother, between siblings etc..,. We are talking about the specific girl - boy love. Is it always the case that love culminates in tragedy? Is it always the case that tears is what love leaves? Sincerely speaking I donno. But one thing is for sure, friendship is the most amazing relation. It has no bounds no limits. If I had to chose between love and frienship I would chose friendship. Personally love had its grey shades over my life and friendship had its beautiful impact.

I wonder sometime what if I had no friends? Thats a scary thought. My life would have been totally lifeless. What if I never loved anyone. I could have done well. But how long? There will come a stage where I would need someone who loves me. Its a great feeling to be loved, to be in love. Its totally illogical to say that love always spreads tears. Ofcourse, there is a sorrow ending to many love stories. But as some body said " You meet so many wrong people before you meet the right person, the right love of ur life". These wrong people do bring sorrow to you, but believe me the love the right person gives u should be priceless. Look out for the right person and give that person the love you can. Its this man-woman love that runs the whole world whatever the name u give it.
I will always remember what one of my friends Anya said " When you are in Love you feel its the best thing ever happened to you. Its the best feeling. But when something goes wrong you feel its the worst thing ever happened to you. Its the worst feeling". Indeed its true.

Even if you love someone that someone might not love you. But its not the case with friendship. You treat someone as a friend, then you will be treated as a friend. True frienship never leaves tears, true love might. Ofcourse there are traitors who call themselves friends but there are exceptions. A true friend will never ever leave you when you are in trouble. But a person whom you truly love can throw you into trouble. Thats the difference. Love is just a feeling an emotion, Friendsip is not a feeling its a relation, a relation that is the best. Even if I love someone I would treat that person as a friend. Thats how much I worship friendship.

Iam sure I would go on talking about friendship. But I would like to say "My dear friends if u are reading this then note that you guys are the most important people to me"

Finally ....

2004-10-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

Finally the STF killed Veerappan. For almost 14 years no STF personnel could even go near him. Well atleast we were said so. They say it was a brilliant plan that took to nab him. Do they mean that in 14 years no one ever sketched out a brilliant plan. Or was Veerappan too brilliant that he laid counter plans spontaneously. Well one might argue that catching a man in a dense forest of 6000 square KM is highly impossible. May be yes but Veerappan was always able to hunt his hunters in the same 6000 square KM of dense forest. He was quite familiar to the forest may be.
I always believed that Veerappan had his men within the forest and within the government. Finally it took one brave K.Vijay Kumar to nab him. Well a brilliant plan indeed and Veerappan was trapped. Kudos to the STF personnel.
Well Veerappan in the jungles of TN , Kerala, Karnataka is dead. What about the Veerappans spread outside the Jungle, in the real world. No one can eliminate them. We need thousands of Vijay Kumars to do that.

To be Awake

2004-10-16T12:55:00.000-05:00

Well its amazing how things change. The changes in my life always surprised me. Here i was in Duluth 8 months ago trying to find some sleep somewhere, sometime. Sleep seemed to forget to embrace me in its hold every night. Every single night I was waiting for sleep. Sleep or the lack of it made me almost insane. Insomnia it was, my all time enemy. One of the few enemies i ever had. It always reappeared. "Insomnia. With it u are never asleep and u are never awake" . I understand and experienced each single letter of this line from 'Fight club'. Strangely I was awake thinking that I cant sleep. Irony isnt it?
And now here Iam still in Duluth sleeping whenever I could. Its been two or three months since I have been sleeping well again. Change one might say, beauty of life I say. But the amazing part of the story is I have no time to sleep. Irony again. Doing mind tiring assignments, trying to meet the deadlines I think Iam losing it again. But yaa the capriciousness of life is to be accepted. Philosophy again. Better bear it.

Entropee of Life

2004-10-12T23:27:00.000-05:00

What a novel ideal will it be to calculate the entropy of life. Predicting the average unpredictability of life would be quite popular in the fields of psychology, paranormal psychology, and philosophy. Imagine Anoop's game where the user guesses what happens next in a randomnly chosen persons life and then there would be quantified estimate of the unpredictability of life. But what would be the probability distribution on, what would be the random variable. Well I couldnt figure out, yet, the entropy of english ive been working on the last few days. Now I sound like Calvin who is out of primary school and is presently doing NLP in U of MD and is in his usual imaginary world. Now I might sound stupid too, for some people. And again people might say 'u were always stupid dude'.
After a whole day of stress on my neural system thinking about the entropy, the graph theory I think iam saturated. Just took a break and I had this amazing thought of entropy of life. May be that would be next assignment or the final project, who knows, life is unpredictable. I ve been listening to this lovely song
Jeene ke ishaare milgaye
Bichde the kinaare milgaye

I tend to write some of my own creative shayari
kya patha kab kinaare bichad jaayenge
life ka entropee jo jyaada pad gayeeee

Do I make sense ?

Movie Mania

2004-10-10T13:36:00.000-05:00

Its not charecteristic of me watching 4 movies in a span of 24 hours. Infact in the last week i watched 8 or 9 movies amidst meeting a thesis deadline, lot of tennis, some cricket, cooking and perl program. Its really not been charecteristic of me in terms of parallel processing. People say ive changed, may be i did. But why am i deviating from movies to some bragging.
The last week's movies were predominantly war movies and award winning flicks. They will be lingering around my memory lanes forever. It was not preplanned, they just happened. Some of my postings in the last week were about these flicks i have seen. The week concluded with another classic 'The Schindlers List'. Its one of the very few movies that brought tears in my eyes. Nothing else can explain this master piece. Its amazing how one man managed to change so many lives. He saved Lives. He was a God. Hats off to him.
I think Iam getting addicted to movies. Its fine as long as iam able to meet my deadlines. I guess I have changed.

Begining of the Fall

2004-10-09T10:57:00.000-05:00

I was able to get a dose of all the seasons here in Duluth. Unlike in Hyderabad, back home in India, where only twos seasons exist, severe summer and summer. Many of my friends here in Duluth have posted about 'Fall' in their blogs. I guess its my turn. Last week the fun loving 'Me' has had some unforgettable encounters with 'Mother Nature'. Surprisingly things have considerably changed in the past week. The leaves have started to change their colors. The Fall has begun with all its colors. The beauty of fall, ironicaly though, is that its short lived. But 'Me' is scared about the winter that rises at the fall of the 'Fall'.

The Wall ...

2004-10-07T13:29:00.000-05:00

In the first innings against Australia, the wall collapsed early. And then the whole line up collapsed. Rahul Dravid the ICC player of the year, the MTV youth icon of the year has scored a zero in his home ground. And the worlds best batting line up couldnt put up much. I expected it, though. Without the great Sachin in the team and Rahul getting out early, the score card was not surprising. But i will not be surprised by a second innings comeback. The wall might show some resistance , Shewag might get crazy, Saurav might get his off-drives rolling, Laxman might get a huge ton, Yuvraj might send the ball smashing. You never know with this team. Lets see....

Vasili Zaitsev

2004-10-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

'Enemy at the gates' - another war movie, another classic. This time it was about the Russian sniper Vasili Zaitsev. A Russian hero from Ural, who in 1942 shot 400 Germans in Stalingard when the Germans tried to invade 'The Boss' Stalin's Russia. I always believed that heroes are not made, they are born. This one was a true hero. Another hero was the German sniper who, according to Vasili, was the best. Its amazing how people fight for their country with death staring them. As Jude law ( guy who played Vasili in the movie) said 'every night is a celebration for us for we are not sure of tommorow, every tea every cigarette is a celebration'. Salutes to the soldiers, no matter what country they are fighting for.

No Mans Land

2004-10-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

It was one of those movies which i always wanted to watch. Though i was not awed by it, i liked it. A simple story but a serious concept. It can be termed as a classic, but i dont see the oscar winning element in it. May be i feel so because it overtook Lagaan to win the oscar. My heart was filled by a strange feeling after i saw this flick, its the same sort of feeling that arises whenever i watch any war movies. Why do people fight for, what do they fight for? A piece of land vast or small. In the movie just a part of land near the borders was termed as a no mans land. But is the rest somebody's. Infact the whole world is a 'No Mans Land'.

My love for Superior

2004-10-03T23:47:00.000-05:00

This vast body of fresh water never ceases to amaze me. It just creates a perfect picture frame everytime i look at it, whatever be the season, whatever be the time of the day. The sun rising over it creating orange ripples, the full moon glowing over it creating a vast silver bed, the winter freezing it, creating a snow bed over which each man on this planet can sleep on a blanket just add to the grace of already a stunning beauty.
In the last two days i took the road and rail over the scenic drive. Words seem to get scarce when i try to explain my experience. If the drive was pleasant with the songs of ajit and mahesh, the train was full of shouts and laughter of kids (not mine though).
Whenever i go for a lake walk or whenever i sit on a rock near the lake, i feel the lake is talking to me. The sound the waves make when they hit the shore, the sound of water, makes me feel that this beauty wants to speak to me. May be iam exaggerating but I feel God did exaggerate a bit when he was creating this wonderful Lake Superior