Me, Myself and my Blog.

Prannoy Roy cornering Pakistan's Foreign Minister

2008-11-28T23:47:00.003-05:00

The video shows a telephonic interview by NDTV Chief Prannoy Roy with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mohammed Qureshi, who my friend calls The king of Digression. Check out the video here to know why..

Social Networking: Desi Style

2008-11-08T18:52:00.007-05:00

Since the time I came to US in 2005, I have noticed that there are 2 types of Desis here (or 10 types for the binary inclined) you meet . Of course, there are different justifications for the 2 types.

- The 1st one is the "Desi" Desi v/s the "ABC" Desi for which I dont have to offer an explanation (there are exceptions, of course).
- The 2nd one which I categorized after doing my MS is the geeky type of Desi, who is only interested to know who is doing his/her thesis and their research interests while he/she worries about their own, v/s the more Social Desi who likes to party and not discuss next week's assignment questions during the party..
I will not discuss about the 1st two types as it is very general and everyone knows the difference.

- The 3rd and the one which encouraged me to write this post is the type most of us can experience after we start working full time (again, there are exceptions I know of). This happens when you are new to a place and like to meet new people there/establish some social network. If you haven't guessed already, there are the Desis who like to talk to you as they have the same objective as you (this no. is few) v/s Desis who like to talk to you and get your contact information to make you join Quixtar. (This has subsequently created a small group of a 3rd kind, those who stay away from you assuming you are from Quixtar)

Those who haven't heard about Quixtar (formerly Amway), here is a wiki link for it. My advice: just skim through it, dont get interested and start digging your own pit.

Anyway, after I graduated from my MS last year, I moved to Atlanta after getting a job in December. Since then, I've met about 15 desis who I bumped into mostly in Walmart/Malls etc... The 1st one I met was on the 1st day I moved in to my apartment and the most recent one, about 2 weeks back in a Mall. All these people had some things in similar.
They seem very interested to talk to you and try to connect with you somehow. For e.g. they will ask where are you from, and if you say that, they'll say something like, "Oh, you know my brother/ some other close relative is also from there" (3 people have said it), or "I studied there" and in 1 case, "I am also from there". That way, some connection is established.
They are all doing their own business in Logistics/Supply Chain or somehow connected to Logistics.
After some nice probing talk (they'll ask so much about you as if they are writing a book about you), they will all pull out their visiting cards and tell we have to meet sometime and also ask for your phone no.
The call comes a few days later. (In one case, it came 1 month later as the guy met me in a train on the way to the airport. He was heading to India!! And Faithfully he had kept my no. till then and called me 1st thing upon coming back). They call to tell that they have an excellent business opportunity where we can work from home apart from our regular job and would like to meet sometime to give a presentation about it. Me and Naveed attended one such presentation just for the fun of it, only to tell that fool at the end that we wont fall into the BS trap. Anyway, once you tell them you don't want to do Quixtar, that's about the last time you will be speaking to them. You are Blacklisted, and they are no longer interested in meeting you.

Infact, I saw this guy who was sending friend requests in Orkut with a message that he has a business opportunity for us. What I think of that guy? He is a loser among losers.

What really grinds my gears is that aren't there people whom you meet who are genuinely interested in only developing a new social network? So far, I have been courteous to all these people who have approached me with Quixtar intent. I speak to them well, exchange numbers, and give a polite "No" when they start the business opportunity shit. But I've had enough and will use alternate ways to handle these people next time onwards. One of my friends gave a good suggestion and it worked for him. When the person called, my friend started asking him if he is interested in Quixtar, that guy was taken aback, and told him he didn't know my friend was already a Quixtar member, and I'd be interested to have a look at his face at that time!

Anyways, many people would have seen this already but here are some links about Quixtar scams:
Youtube video: Part 1, Part 2
some facts and figures can be found here

The interesting thing is, for some reason, I haven't met any non-desi who's a Quixtar member, I'm sure there are thousands but I dont know their approach methods.. but one thing I know, if a Desi stranger approaches me and starts talking, I now get to hear only the sounds of an Alarm bell ringing in my head.. "Quixtar Alert!!! Quixtar Alert!!"

And our government does it yet again...

2008-10-05T20:30:00.002-04:00

Today, sitting in my home in Atlanta, I have a fear in my mind...a fear every Indian is having now.Will another bomb blast occur? how many more lives are lost? People are scared to get out on the streets, hang out in the malls, go to markets...and our "Intelligence" forces have been reduced to nothing more than buffoons. I'm praying for those affected by the blasts and hoping that no more blasts occur. But this post is not about terrorism. Rather, in between all these horrible acts happening in our country, our politicians seem to be more interested in getting more votes from backward classes as elections dates are looming near. How much more ridiculous can one get?

It's time for elections again in the Centre and some states, and the Government has made a "smart" move by increasing the income ceiling of the creamy layer of OBCs. Smart because it will help them get more votes, and nothing else. They don't really care about the common man anyway.

Imagine this. A family A with an annual income of 4.5 lakhs, that is Rs. 37,500 per month before taxes, which amounts to approx. Rs.30,000 after taxes considering 20% for that income bracket. Now, there are a lot of people in India whose annual income is much less than that. For a family B who has an annual income of 2 lakhs p.a, the take home salary per month is approx. 15,000, half of the salary of the former. Now, apart from getting twice the salary of B, A also gets more benefits because A belongs to the creamy layer of OBCs. (and this creamy layer is getting more fattening with new castes being added to that all the time). When giving reservation based upon caste itself is injustice, what do you say about giving reservations to people who are not economically backward. I mean, in case of A, the person can still lead a decent lifestyle with that salary if not a lavish one. My dad often says, our system is becoming so hopeless, that pretty soon, if there is a 100m Athletic race in India, an athlete from SC/ST category will start from the 50m point and someone from OBCs will start from the 75m point while the General category will be standing all the way back. It might sound funny, but I wont be surprised if they implement that.

I'm sure with the introduction on this new rule, more people will push their cases to include their caste among OBCs, while the General Category people will continue to miss every benefit. As someone who does not belong to any backward community, I am not asking for any benefit or special reservation for general category, but to consider "Merit" as the main factor for providing a reservation, and family income as next main factor. I only wish that some day in the future, the goverment abolishes caste-based reservation...but wait, for a country which is always fighting to go backward, how can the future be in sight?

Early retirement for our cricketers?

2008-10-04T19:17:00.002-04:00

Its time for some cricketing action once again with the India-Australia series and I am looking forward to a good contest. What what really grinds my gears is the "Voluntary Retirement Scheme" for the 5 senior cricketers Kumble, Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. Though this seems to be just hyped up because of the media, it looks the new BCCI committee has laid out this plan.
In my opinion, this is just bullshit. How can anyone decide when one's career ends? Well, in the case of rookies, many of time BCCI decides by totally ignoring them after few initial bad performances, but I dont blame them entirely as there are hundreds of people looking for a spot in the team and only performance matters. I feel the same thing should be done for the senior cricketers too. If you don't perform, we'll drop you approach is fine, but you can't decide when he has to retire. That too when 5 world class players are in question. Well, the BCCI denies it saying its all rubbish, but then how did the media make such a big issue out of it? Though its a known thing that a media makes a mountain out of a molehill, they atleast need a molehill first and I dont think Ganguly's omission for the Irani trophy is any basis for a VRS scheme! Like Bedi says, if ever such a thing happened, it is cricket terrorism!! Atleast for a test series, the presence of a few seniors is needed anyway.

I hope the players dont get distracted by these things and concentrate on their game and I hope we will witness an exciting series!

The story of Joe v/s Angry Parking lot lady

2008-04-26T10:26:00.004-04:00

Disclaimer: Joe's name is used only because he was driving the car at the time of the incident. A more apt title would have been story of all of us in the car v/s angry Parking lot lady but the former is more catchy. Sorry Joseph!

How does it feel to pay a lot of money in parking lots when you want to park only for a little while? It hurts right? and it makes us think twice about parking the car in that spot. Well, something similar happened to us a few weeks back.

So we all decided to go on a weekend road trip to Chicago from Knoxville, for my friend's brother's wedding reception. Everything went fine and on Sunday, we decided to explore the city before heading back to Knox. I had 2 things in mind, Sears tower fast elevator and Navy Pier. We couldn't go on the fast elevator but we managed to go fast past the Sears tower as we did not have much time, and the girls were impatient to go to Devon street to look for Salwars, Mehndi and the likes, and eat in some nice south Indian restaurant!!

Anyways, so we head to Navy pier and we were getting lost searching for that place, and even our GPS aunty was getting confused recalculating every time we miss a turn due to either road construction, or heavy traffic. When we finally reached the place, we decided we are gonna stay for no more than 30 mins, and what do we get there? A parking lot charging $24 for 30 mins (or maybe 1st hour) which was ridiculous! But we drove straight to the lady managing the parking lot and Joseph, who was driving, asked the lady if there is any free parking available nearby, and she gave that mean look and said No and pointed towards the parking lot, which we happily ignored and drove past the lot.
After making 1 full round, we were again near the entrance when we saw this place where a few cars were parked inside a gate which opened up, like in the checkposts. We followed a car which was going in and the moment it went in, we tried to rush inside but the gate came crashing down and our car just managed to not get hit by that! In between this adventure, we saw 2 guys taking pics, one of them was giving a pose and other was taking his pic kneeling down and camera facing straight! We ran away from that place before a possible gay porno session was about to start..

So 15 mins, and still no parking, we decided to park it somewhere near but outside the entrance, we did find one asking $16 but still it was too much. So we decided to take one more chance and went inside again, this time as we did not stop near the Parking lot lady but just went past her. Believe me, if I had a chance, I would have captured the look on her face as she saw us pass by! We made another circle but decided to turn and come back the same way we came in, but this time, there were no cars on the road, so we just parked the car there, quickly ran out and took a couple of pics, ran back into the car and headed out again. During this, a tour bus did pass us and I bet the driver was cursing us..anyways, for a 3rd and final time, we passed the parking lady, but this time with our heads held high! She gave us one quick glance and turned back...but I can never forget the look on her face!

We dint have that problem in Devon street and we managed to park the car in one of those small gully roads. For free, thats important! Overall, it was a $23 well saved with enough adventure as a bonus!

PS: Devon St rocks!
PPS: Very happy in my heart to drink sugarcane juice after a long time!
PPPS: Does PS mean Post Script or Please See? Somebody please see and answer!

If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist

2008-02-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

The above line was printed on a bottle of Old Spice Classic body wash which I happened to buy once. Now, the line kinda ticks me off. How can a soap manufacturing company challenge my very existence in this world?
Now after reading this, should I wake up the spirits of my taathas (grandpas) and ask them who was the one wearing Old Spice body wash in his youthful days in the pre independence era and line maarofying with my respective ammammas (grandmas), thus eventually leading to my existence? Come to think of it, what were the chances our ammammas even saw their husbands before the marriage day? zilch.. or atleast close to it. And in those days, how did it matter if the husband used Old spice or a pack of old spices to wash his body, it did not change anything and a cricket team was still born to them.
Coming to the next generation, I can probably ask my dad if he used Old Spice body wash before marriage, but since it mentioned only Grandfather (why, was Old Spice out of production during the 70's and 80's?), I will skip that.

But now that I exist, I can safely tell that when I get really old and have grandchildren and they come across this post by chance, they will be enlightened to know about their existence ... much before the storks came and dropped them off at their parents doorsteps, and even before their parents met up, their grandfather had once purchased a bottle of Old Spice Classic body wash and worn it...

Now, this is what I call planning..Part 2

2008-01-17T22:25:00.000-05:00

Recently saw this ad in the Classifieds section of our university. It goes something like this..

Item/Desc: Greenwood Cemetery - four plots for sale

The plots are valued at $1895 each, but will be sold as a group
of four for $7000. The sites are located in the middle of the
North Knoxville cemetery.

It took me a while to figure out what this guy is trying to sell..was he selling a house plot or a graveyard plot? Now, who will buy a house in the middle of a cemetery unless that person is a ghost..well, I think the idea of ghosts starting to invest in "real" estate seems a bit far fetched. So it must be humans buying graveyard plots.

The US is one place where man really needs to pay a heavy price for his own death, everything is insanely expensive from coffins to funerals to graveyard plots, so looking at it, investing in your own graveyard while you are still alive is not a very bad idea... What is funny though, is the discount offered for buying 4 plots together, so that a family can stay together even after their deaths..now that is what I call planning..

The chamber of Shaolin in Knoxville

2007-11-06T17:02:00.000-05:00

Ever seen those old Chinese KungFu movies centered around the Shaolin temple? If not, try seeing them sometime. If you have seen them, did you ever think whatever they are doing is all stupid and laugh your ass off as they fly in the air shouting chang, choon, chan, chin, hoo, haa, huck, f**k, $&%#,^&#@,.. (ok, i'll stop here, but I think you got the idea). Well, I used to think that way and thought they are the Chinese equivalents of our Indian "superstars" who defy the laws of physics like Rajini, Captain, Mithun and a host of others from all over India..But one show proved me wrong; the Shaolin Warriors show which was held in Knoxville on Nov 5th '07.

For those who do not have any idea about Shaolin, you can go through this link.

The 2 hr show began on time sharply at 7.30 and started with some basic moves and stuff. As the show went on, we realized how good these monks are as they demonstrated various skills ranging from high level stuff like fighting with weapons to lower things like sweeping floor and having food!
We managed to capture some pics while they were performing some stunts. Here are some of them:

Here are some videos of their stunts..You will soon realize how amazing they are!!

To become a Shaolin Master, you must start practicing at a young age. In the group which performed, there were 2 young guys who, for all I know might be around 10 years old! But they were so good, you might have noticed them in the previous video. Here's another one involving one of those kids..

Apart from these stunts, there were also a few stunts which were very funny! Like, they have a crazy way of collecting food, why cant they just stand in line and collect them??
And sweeping the floor is now an art, thanks to them. I think they can kill all the cockroaches in our house if we invite them sometime!! Look at these videos and you'll see for yourselves..

Now, don't ever think that you can never be a Shaolin warrior..It is possible, but it would look funny in the beginning, like these people from the audience who were taught the basics of Shaolin KungFu...

The show ended on an amazing note with a superb stunt. Check it out!!

All in all, an outstanding performance!!
After seeing this show, one thing is for certain. We are not making fun of Chinese KungFu movies anymore!

Now, this is what I call planning..

2007-09-29T14:55:00.000-04:00

What would u do if there is a sudden alien attack on planet earth? You have nowhere to run and we will all be doomed!! well, most of us, except Tom Cruise and his family, because he will run to Colorado to his special "bunker"!
The best thing is, Tom even has an idea who is plotting to invade earth! The question is, does the evil ruler Xenu know that his plan has been found out?
I think the nightware called "War of the worlds" is still haunting him!

Transformers..my review

2007-07-20T12:11:00.000-04:00

When I saw the trailers of Transformers last month, I had decided that we are gonna watch this movie for sure! And then a few guys from our class went in the opening weekend and were praising this movie like anything. Then I found an online streaming link good quality print and we hooked it up to our projector and started watching, but my roommate was not interested in that idea and he wanted to watch it in the theater itself. And we also thought this movie is worth it. So we went to the theater last night to watch this movie. When we went inside, the entire hall was empty and we were the only guys. And this was at 10:20 PM for the 10:25 show. Was this a bad sign? we thought. At 10:25, few more people came but the entire hall had around 15 people...on a Thursday night..We were really confused at that..At around 1 AM, we got all our answers. Our heads were spinning, our ears were ringing, and we were all blaming each other for watching this piece of shit in the theater.

Yes. This movie sucks! For starters, this movie about the hugely popular in the 80's action figure toys, could have developed some better plot..It was popular then, but adding so much emotions to those robots make it look stupid now. And the movie is loud throughout, i dunno how we managed to sit through the entire movie.

Talking of emotions, some of those actions by the good robots may look funny to some, but I felt it was stupid, but that is just my opinion. The car peeing on the S-7 agent was funny though. The scene where they wait outside Sam's house could have been cut by 10 mins. It was long and boring, and I was utterly surprised when Sam's parents could not notice all the destruction to their lawn and those giant robots walking on it. How could they hide, I still dont know!

And what happened to the huge US army/air force troops? How come the same bunch of guys have to fight the transformers from Qatar to LA? Don't they deserve a break, that too at a time they were all set to go home?

The part where he tries to make a call to Pentagon routed through the Indian call-center was not needed. The director might have tried to make that funny, but a call to Pentagon traced through an Indian call center? And what was that crap about giving the best offer? Lots of explanations required for that scene.

The part about Rachel Taylor, the computer Analyst who tries to decipher the code is also funny. First, she stores the data on a Sandisk 2 GB SD card, takes it to her friend, who doesn't look like a hacker from any angle, and he just inserts it, types some random keys, and presto! They discover Sam Witwicky and Sector 7. And what software was that? I am interested... and how does he connect a computer to a radio? I initially thought he connects the microphone ports to the radio or something, but then he starts typing into the computer. If anybody understood that funda, kindly explain it to me.

There is an age-old movie formula where the bad guys have all the latest technology gadgets and the good guys just fight them and defeat them. Looks like this movie has adopted the same formula. Now, the Decepticons can transform themselves into so many different things from tape-recorders to cell phones to fighter jets, how come the Autobots just stick to transform between robots and trucks/cars and nothing else. They could have saved so much time if they could transform themselves to a jet and gone to the cube. And of course, all the car models have to be from GM.

Another thing which made the movie illogical is torturing scene of Bumblebee by the humans! Adding so much emotions was one thing, but how can you give it an electric shock and it starts wriggling like humans do? and then he has lost energy and is sporting a weary look before regaining his power to fight. Gimme a break!!

It did not make much sense to me as to why they carried the cube from Hoover dam to LA, destroying LA downtown in the process. The ending fight scene was good but very noisy. But the often repeated "It's you and me, Megatron" sounded very cliché.

On a whole, the movie can be a hit with the kids (and also elders who are only interested in sci-fi gadgets) but for people who look for logic, you wont find it anywhere in this film, even in minor things, like the heroine Mikaela who decides to walk 10 miles home just because her boyfriend does not allow her to drive the car! BTW, she is hot! Megan Fox is a fox for sure! And she is originally from Rockwood, TN which is an hour drive from my place! Tennessee girls are hot maaan!!

I will give this movie ** for its special effects and Megan. Stay away from it if you can!

Tension gone....

2007-07-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks had been one of the toughest times for me...I had to defend my project, lots of things were not working, had to work 20 hrs a week besides that..I was so busy I was not even doing my job searches! The last few days, I started praying that my committee will not fail me, and though everybody assured me that they dont do that generally, I was worried.

Yesterday was the big day. Gave my presentation, showed the results I got so far and told them I will be working on the remaining parts still..and they passed me without an problem! :)

So now, I am just 1 step away from MS graduation, and need to submit some work by Aug 10th so that my prof can grade me. But the tension is gone, finally!!

The great Indian trilogy..

2007-06-25T16:59:00.000-04:00

So even Bollywood has decided to make a trilogy..no, not like Dhoom 3 which has been announced by Aditya Chopra, which might deliver another truckload of crap when released, but a trilogy in the real sense, like LOTR. And the trilogy is about the Mahabharata! Check out this link about the movie..

Mani Ratnam is gonna be the director and the movie has a huge star cast, provided in this link (dunno how much accurate it is, but for now, it will hold)...good, but there are some things which make me wonder.

1) Look at the pic of SRK. Now, is this movie about Mahabharata which is set in Japan with a war amongst the Kauraba and Pandeba Samurai? Shifurukufu Kuhanu playing the role of Karanu? If u are wondering what the hell is this guy talking, these are the Japanese equivalent names. Anyway, the costume looks ridiculous for an Indian epic movie.

2) Salman Khan is playing the role of Krishna!! WTF!! (banging my head against the wall!). When he himself doesn't wear any clothes, what will he provide to Rani Mukherjee while Nagarjuna is pulling her saree?

3) Jackie Shroff, Vikram (from Anniyan), Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Mohan lal are the 5 Pandavas. Every one is acceptable except Mohan lal. He is playing the role of Sahadeva, the youngest of the Pandavas!! Even if this is wrong info, whoever thought of putting him for that role?

4) Madhuri Dixit is Kunti.... sad...she plays the role of Jackie's & Mohan lal's mother!!

5) some good matches..Amitabh for Bheeshma, Kamal Hassan for Duryodhana, Kabir Bedi for Vidur.

6) some better matches...Naveen Nischol for Dhritrashtra.

7) and the best match is: Karan Johar for Shikhandi!! He is tailormade for that role! he just has to be himself!! :D

well, this movie is even listed in imdb, so we have to wait and see when this will be released. If some of these mismatched stars are really acting in the movie, even the writer of Mahabharata, Lord Ganesha, can't save it!

Can it get worse than this?

2007-06-04T14:30:00.000-04:00

I have made some stupid decisions in life...I realize that the decision is stupid because after I make that, things which were supposed to have happened before, happens. Last Friday was one such example...
2 weeks before last Friday, I lost my college ID card. Searched all around the house, and everywhere in my bag but could not find it. I had just started going back to the gym and before I could get more inspiration to work out, I lost the card. No card = No gym, and that way, 2 weeks tagged along. In between, I asked everyone, made another search in the house (searching for something in my house is no simple feat btw, there are layers and layers of trash to be rummaged through) but with no luck. And getting a replacement card costs $30. (WTF!!!)
Then I hit upon an idea and asked a friend of mine who had just quit our university but had already paid the summer gym fees to mail me his card. The assistants in the gym don't really care though a different face flashes on their screen when I swipe the card. He said fine and mailed me the card. But then, I could not use the card to pay my summer fees. I thought I'll pay it online before realizing that there is a $20 something charge for online transactions. Then I began to wonder what to do, and then made the stupid decision. I thought, rather than pay $20 and use someone else's ID for the gym, I'll pay $30 and get my own ID. And I did that on Friday morning.

All seemed well till evening when we decided to play tennis..I went to pick up the rackets from the room when I saw that extra racket. And I realized that it belongs to our apartment office where we can rent it for free. I had already started cursing myself when I went to return that racket, and they gave me my lost ID card!!! :(
If only I had waited for another weekend, this would not have happened. To rub salt to the wounds, I found out that paying the fees online carries a 2.5% charge and not a $20 charge. it used to come to around $20 because my fees used to be around $800 during Fall and Spring sem. For summer, the fees was $130, so if I had paid the fees online, the charge would be around $3! I feel like kickin' my own balls now...and I don't need assistance, if somebody is interested..

Only +ve I can think of: Now I have a shiny, new ID card only 2 months before graduation (if it can be some consolation)

Can it get any worse than this?

Now, this is what I call directions!!

2007-05-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

If you are in the US or Europe, you would have definitely used Google Maps sometime to get driving directions. Has anybody tried giving driving directions to European cities? We tried it that day, and had amazing results!
One ex. Try giving directions from New York to London. It gives you some road direction till Atlantic Ave. in Boston, and from there, you have to swim 3462 Miles! The best part, even for swimming, you need to follow your directions properly as there are some turns to be taken. Not following it might take you to Bermuda Triangle also if you get lost, so be careful! After that long swim, you will reach Le Havre in France, and from there, go through the Chunnel (no swimming here) to reach England and subsequently to London. Check out the image below if you wont believe me.

Now comes the funny part. I do not know if there is some facility in Boston to facilitate the swimmers from US to Europe, but wherever you are in the US, if you need to go to Europe, you need to go via Boston. I tried San Jose to Paris, and that journey takes 1 month, as you need to first make a cross-country trip to Boston and then swim 3462 miles again.
Again, Le Havre is the ending destination always. If you need to swim to Portugal, you cant swim directly, you have to go to Le Havre and then drive down from there!
Try playing around with some of the European cities and have fun!

One condition, you can swim to Europe, but not to Africa, not even to Cuba! This is what happens if you give power to users to create their own maps...

Anybody game for a road/sea trip to Europe?

Finally, an end to a sorry spectacle...

2007-04-29T23:26:00.000-04:00

I guess you know what I am talking about..the World Cup. Its been 2 months of sad tale, an utter flop show series, topped (or shall I say, bottomed) appropriately by the Final game.

I can't believe a referee and the umpires standing for a World Cup final were not really aware of the rules! Add to that, a horrible presentation ceremony, though Tony Cozier wasn't all that bad, he still forgot to mention Rudy Koertzen and Billy for the 3rd & 4th umpire's medals while Rudy was waiting to collect it and the camera focused on him! He however made up for that by announcing their names after Aussies took their medals. A horrible speech by Percy Sonn, where he did not even mention a word about Bob Woolmer was also very bad.

Apart from these, throughout the WC, there were hardly any interesting games and most of the teams lacked spirit. Even though India and Pakistan crashed early, I felt they were a bit unlucky as there were other teams like England & WI who were also as bad, maybe worse. Just that their 1st round was easier and so they got a chance to get raped multiple times at a higher level.

And there was nothing really special about the Proteas & Kiwis either. They had a few good games, against the bad teams, but they played like high school kids when they faced Australia and Sri Lanka. Compare the Aus-SA semifinal in 99 with this one, and you'll realize the levels that have been dropped by SA. And dunno what went wrong with NZ! Only Australia and SL played like true cricketers in this world cup, and SL was a bit unlucky to lose the finals. First, a reduced game for a final, then Gilly, and finally confused umpires made sure SL lost.

Another important thing which made this a poor show was the rule to not allow Musical Instruments to the ground, and of course, high ticket pricing. But no music, come on, this is West Indies! and calypso music on the grounds is like a tradition! No wonder people preferred to stay at home rather than come to the stadium. The organizers say that this is a profitable World Cup, but you can judge for yourself.

At the end of it all, even this WC had its good moments, when Gibbs hit 6 sixes, Malinga took 4 wickets in a row, and there were some high quality innings from De Villiers, Hayden, Gilli, Mahela etc...

It was good to see some good cricket from the Irish. The ICC made them a ODI team, but I hope their fate is not the same like Kenya, another ODI team, but playing real ODI games only once in 4 years, in the WC. My advice to ICC, if you give ODI status to a team, make them play games regularly and improve the cricketing infrastructure in that country. But will the ICC ever listen? No wonder cricket is a fading game...

Inspite of all this, I will still follow the next series and hope that India play well in the Twenty20 championship in September atleast (which I seriously doubt). And the organizers have ensured revenue by pitting India and Pakistan in the same group along with the Scots with 2 teams advancing. So lets see what happens then!!

Sachin relief fund

2007-04-03T13:56:00.000-04:00

Sachin Tendulkar is a very happy man now. He has now got a strong source for his pension income. He may not even have to perform ads, let alone play cricket! Check out the link!

http://tinyurl.com/2rm5xs

Behind every successful man, there is a woman, they say..now there is a new thing, behind every retired successful man, there is a eunuch! ;)

New jobs for our Indian cricketers

2007-03-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine forwarded the below pics as possible professions for our "mighty" cricketers now that they are jobless after an early exit from the World Cup. Nice job, whoever did that!

Now, this pic got me real puzzled and I was wondering what is a coconut seller doing among cricketers before realizing that this is Robin Uthappa!! This profession suits him almost perfectly! Maybe the perfect job for him is to make Onion Uthappas in roadside dosa stalls!

Ah! The Prince of Kolkata! May I suggest you something? Keep a timer and record how many times you can snip with those scissors in a min and compare it with the no. of times you bat your eyelids in a min!

I don't think he is fit for even this! But who knows what Sehwag ki maa taught him? atleast cook properly if you can't bat well!

Chai Chai!! "Ten" Rs. only!!
The official tea vendor for 2011 World Cup!

After "Jam Jam Jammy", everybody chant "Swam Swam Swami"

In my honest opinion, you are better off being a cricketer. You played well in the WC and the run out was not your fault.

Starting from Left: Dhoni and Babloo the monkey which taught cricketing skills to Dhoni. Now seriously considering trading places with him to restore sanity!

Dunno who came up with this idea!
Agarkar himself looks like a fish!
Checking who is fatter, him or the fish! :)

Zaheer bhai! Sambhalke! these flowers are for sale! Not for Isha!

Chicken Tandoori? What happened? Meerabai may be not out, but are you out?

I would have loved to see a new profession for bhaji as well but I did not get that in the forward. According to me, his ideal job is clean the trash thrown on the beaches, and he can be aptly called "Bhaji on the beach"!

More suggestions for the above/other Indian players are most welcome! There are high probabilities they may lose these jobs as well after some time..

Spring broke..

2007-03-22T18:48:00.000-04:00

That's the state after spring break, and that's what precisely happened to me! But not before having a week of fun and party! and Florida is the best place for that!
AGAIN??? u ask? Yeah! It's been a hattrick for me! Since coming to US in the summer of 05, went to the sunshine state in Dec'05, then in Sep'06, and now Mar'07, and I would enjoy going to that state many more times!

This time, we were a group of 5 with a 6th one joining us during the weekend. We started from Knoxville on Sunday afternoon and first went to Brunswick in Georgia where we had another friend working. Brunswick is a neat little town with a few islands. Sunday night, after reaching Brunswick, we went to a Mexican restaurant, where I had the best Mexican food I've ever had.

Mon:
we went to Jekyll Island, had fun playing baseball, mini golf, and spent some time on the beach. Planned to go to a casino on a cruise but I screwed it up by misplacing my wallet and wasting time searching for it. Eventually found it in the main office on the island, but by then, our cruise had already left. We decided to make up for it by going to Jacksonville which was an hour drive.

Tue:
Originally planned to drive down to Tampa but ended up going in the opposite direction. No, we did not lose our way, but decided to hit Daytona as we had to drive to Orlando that evening. And Daytona beach is the place to be during spring break! Had a nice time at the beach. Wanted to go parasailing but couldn't do it due to lack of time.... and money...came back to Orlando, went to Paddy's house and headed to dinner in Woodlands. That brings back some pleasant memories of having eaten there in our previous trip. My stomach was struggling, however, and was packed like a Mumbai local train in peak hour, something like this:

But, like how the train moves still, even I kept moving. This time it was a Mysore Royal Thali for me and I did not miss it! And by the time I was done with my filter coffee in the end, my state was somewhat like last time. Came back home and hit the bed early that night.

Wed:
Plan was to leave to Miami by 8 AM. but IST creeped in between EST and we left 2 hrs late. Reached Miami at around 2 PM after paying tolls at some thousand locations on Florida's turnpike highway. The irritating thing in that is, at many places, toll is $ 1.25. Hunting for those quarters every time is a pain. Anyways, checked in to the hotel, and left for the beach. Decided to go on a speed boat cruise as it was evening and the beach was empty, and that was a thrill ride! The boat had a 1000 bhp engine and was cruising at 60 mph on the water and it was amazing! After the ride, we thought of checking out the nightlife near S.beach. Drove for around 1 hr trying to find a parking spot before finding one. Walked along Ocean Dr. (the road right after the beach running parallel to it) which is just amazing with all the crowd and the clubs and restaurants and the cars! Found 2 Ferrari's, 2 Lamborghini's, and other top cars, and some vintage classics as well, all parked on the street! Miami is one rich city!! Checked out one club/restaurant called Mango's tropical caf e, and the Salsa there was mindblowing! I am not talking about the famous Mexican side dish made of tomatoes, but the dance form. Stayed there for a while, thought we'll check out other clubs, but after a while, came back to Mango's as that was undoubtedly the best! When we reached our hotel that night, we decided to wake up early next day as we planned to go to Key West.

Thu:
Had set my alarm for 6 AM and woke up at 6! Never in my life will I do that if I have to go my class! But this was different. Was ready in 10 mins and started to wake up others, but none of them were ready to wake up as yet! Checked my mails, had my bath, was beginning to get totally jobless, when I hit upon an idea and switched on the TV with high volume. That woke the others and everyone started getting ready. By the time we checked out and left, it was around 9 AM. IST and Desis always go together, whether they are in India or Antarctica. According to me, a desi trip is never complete without those initial delays! Anyways, we finally set out towards Key West but before that, thought of checking out the 1st key, Key Largo, which is famous for snorkeling activities. We stopped at the visitor center and they told us that all keys are pretty much the same and there is nothing much extra in Key West, and also its a place for old people. Drat! Key West canceled! Lets have fun in Key largo and head back, atleast it saves us a 100 miles, we decided. We however had some bad news when they told us that the sea is very rough and snorkeling is not advised unless you are an expert swimmer and has done snorkeling before. So we decided to go on a cruise instead on a glass bottom boat. They gave us sea-sickness tablets and asked us to take one before leaving, but I shrugged it off. As we set off in the cruise, I was sipping a classic margarita and standing in the front of the boat as it was rocking back and forth, enjoying the breeze. As we neared the coral reefs, the boat rocked harder as water was not deep.And then I realized why they gave us those tablets and hoped that I can go back in time by an hour and take those tablets! While they were explaining those different corals, I was making half-boiled eggs in the men's room! Came back, took one tablet and slept for the rest of the journey..
Headed back to Miami after the cruise and decided to go back and relax at the beach. More bad news was to follow and we were cursing that person at the visitor center as we heard that Key West had one of the best spring break parties! :(
But we still had fun in Miami and we headed back to Orlando that night and reached Orlando at around 3. All of us were totally exhausted and within minutes of reaching Paddy's place, the noise levels increased due to all those snores from everyone.

Fri:
I had enough of beaches by now. Luckily, most of them felt that way. So we all headed to Blizzard Beach. Crazy, you think? No, Blizzard beach is not a beach, but is a water theme park in Orlando. Its main attraction, the Summit Plummet, an amazing water slide which has a 120 feet drop, almost vertical, at a speed of 60 mph!! Check out this video to get a feel of that!!
Apart from that, it has many more attractions and is a good way to spend on a hot summer day!

Sat:
Our trip is almost coming to an end. But we decided to have a little adventure before that and so we headed out to Universal's Islands of Adventure. I have been there before, but that was in the night and I couldn't go to many rides. This time I made sure I will. One of the rides I had missed last time was the Hulk Coaster, and this time we took the front row. Had some delay there, as one of the guys had puked in the 1st seat and we started getting worried as we thought that we will have to sit in those seats, but luckily, there was an extra coaster, so the worries transferred to the people behind our group! The hulk is an amazing coaster, where you are accelerated from 0 - 40 mph in 2 secs during ascent, which is the best part unlike other coasters, and in next 2 secs, u are staring down 120 feet above the ground in the 1st of its several 360 degree loops! Check out this video and don't miss it if you visit this place.
Warning: Not for the chicken-hearted.

Sun:
Time to head back home. Had an awesome time in Florida and now its back to routine work. But this time, the drive back home was a big pain in the ass. End of spring break, Sunday, traffic is at its peak, and we got caught in 3 accidents before even reaching Atlanta and traffic was moving at a snail's pace. My friend who was in another car and was lucky to escape one of those jams and was way ahead of us gave us an alternate route through a bypass to prevent Atlanta traffic. But, to catch that road, we had to travel another 11 miles at approx 11 mph along with the traffic. So, Einsteins that we are, we decided to take another bypass route which will join on to the bypass that our friend mentioned before touching Interstate I-75 again. And there were many more Einsteins like us, and all of us were stranded on a 2 lane State highway. As we were inching along, we saw Lawrenceville Highway which is known for its desi restaurants. So we decided to have dinner at Udupi restaurant as it was 8.00 PM already. So another 45 mins was wasted trying to find the restaurant, but atleast we ended up having excellent Mysore dosas, vada sambar and filter coffee and we hit the road again by 9.45. (Why do they say, hit the road? we don't come landing on the road like a plane!!) By 12, we were 30 miles from Knoxville when there was another accident! Damn! This time, its not slow moving traffic, we were stranded at the same location for atleast 45 mins! And there was chaos all around, as people started driving on the grass inspite of all the cops around. Many people came out their cars and went for walks/jogs etc..., on the highway!! think about it! By the time we reached Knoxville, it was 2.00 AM, went to the parking lot where my friend had parked his car to see that his car's rear window was broken and someone had tried to steal the MP3 player but could not remove it from the car. More chaos, and some phone calls later, the insurance company had assured to pay the charges. Finally reached home at 2.45 after one of my longest return journeys ever!

and in this way friend, my spring breaks are now officially over, as I have decided to get out of school ASAP, and most likely, its gonna be this summer!

A Kind reminder: I already mentioned about my state after spring break, so donations are accepted, only cash or check. I am too broke to spend money on a card swiping machine, you see...

RIP Bob Woolmer

2007-03-20T22:58:00.000-04:00

You will always be remembered as one of the best coaches cricket has ever produced...

Chemical Weapon of Mass Destruction

2007-02-23T17:29:00.000-05:00

A smelly "fart bomb" had postal staff and firefighters holding their breath today when it burst at a postal sorting centre on Auckland's North Shore.

Supposedly, this was a giveaway in an internet magazine like those sample shampoo sachets!! When other postal items were placed on top of the magazines being posted out the sachet bomb burst and released its contents shortly after daybreak!! (:D ROTFLMAO!!!)

Even the fire service was called and the centre evacuated and roads in the area were closed!! This one can surely classify as a chemical weapon of mass destruction!! ;)

More details about that can be found here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10425038
(Alternate link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/3969550a4560.html)

If you've seen the movie, Jackass 2, *ing Johnny Knoxville (If u haven't seen it and if u are a guy, watch it, if not, better stay away, this is my warning to girls! don't curse me later), there is one scene where a fat guy farts through a pipe!! (no more details, too gross). That's one crazy thing, but Jackass is a crazy movie, but this one is too much! Who will fart into a sachet and put that in an internet magazine as a giveaway??? Imagine what will they be promoting it as? "Try the new fart in town, Fartene!! After smelling this, any other fart will be like perfume to the nose!!" :)

After this, I guess the guy responsible will be having the last laugh...

A trip back home...

2007-01-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

After desperately waiting for a trip back home, here I am, sitting in my office after finishing that trip last month..it was not a small trip, but not big either..it was for 5 weeks, and I had decided to make maximum use of those 5 weeks!

I wanted to give a surprise to my parents, so I decided to go 4 days in advance of the date I told them I would be coming. Luckily, my friend Adi said he's free and can pick me up from the airport, so that issue was solved. Landed in Bangalore, generously paid Rs.200 + 1 USD like an idiot to the porter for pushing my trolley some 50 meters, gave a call to mom using roaming service telling her that I'll call back in an hour and made sure she'll be at home. Went home and gave her a call from outside and asked her to come out. I wanted to go in myself but did not want to give too much shock! Mom was baffled as to why I am asking her to come out and thought maybe there is some celestial event sighting in Bangalore!! :) She came out and started looking towards the sky, and I asked her to look down!! :D Even my sis was present and both were pleasantly surprised, but we did not inform dad yet who was in office. When he came home in the evening, it was another shock! In between, I slept liked I've never slept before due to the jet lag and the long flight journey via Atlanta - Chicago - London - Colombo - Bangalore!

Oh, By the way, a special mention to the traffic..the first time I came from the airport, I was scared to shit looking at buses and autos and cars coming from all directions! Throughout my stay, believe it or not, while driving my bike, I was checking the rearview mirror regularly, stopping for pedestrians, and even stopped at a stop sign once or twice, before realizing the (extra) noise pollution it can create for the next 5-10 secs, and moved on. And once, me and my cousins decided to go to 'Kabul Express' 9.40 PM show at 8.45 PM. Called up another cousin who was near Inox theater to go buy the tickets. As she had a car, we decided to go by taxi, and called a city taxi service. By the time, he came to pick us up, it was 9.15 PM and we had to pick another guy, we picked him and left at around 9.25 types, pretty confident that there is no way in the world, we can reach on time. And we stay in Nagarabavi, 15 kms from Inox. The taxi driver was confident he can take us on time, and he did, almost, but not before creating a situation where 3 people in the car almost had heart attacks! Me, and my cousin and his wife who had come from Dubai. We reached at 9.45 PM and by the time, we went 4 floors and went inside, we had just missed the opening credits! and the movie was not bad, actually.

Bangalore (or Bengalooru, as some people want to call) hasn't actually changed that much, except for the traffic, which has increased 4-fold, and addition of 1 or 2 flyovers. And the BTM lyt flyover was completed (finally!!! I had never dreamt to seeing it complete in this lifetime), the airport road was partial, anand rao circle is complete and has something which is both good and bad, its closeness to Race Course. For those who havent travelled on that flyover, it gives a wonderful & close view of the race course, thats the good part. The bad part is that, it gives such a good view that people park their vehicles on the flyover to stop and watch the race!! I had heard of this before, I could not witness such an event, but I did witness something similar when I was driving on Mysore Rd. flyover. Around 20 bikes, including a police vehicle (wtf) had been parked on the flyover and everybody is watching below, and guess what it was, some stupid sports competition on Parade grounds, and a running race is going on!! If this can bring such a crowd, imagine replacing people with horses! Something needs to be done seriously!!

Coming back to my trip, I actually waited for 4 days before eating outside the 1st time! Wanted to get adjusted back to Indian conditions. My arch rival, cold with running nose, decided to pay me a visit pretty soon and did not want to let go of me throughout the trip. Thankfully, I did not bring him along to US. My journey to good actually started 1st day itself with wonderful rasam made by mom and many other home made dishes later. And boy, I enjoyed the chaats so much that sometimes, that used to be my dinner! And I did make some 8-10 visits to Indraprastha restaurant for its heavenly vada-sambar and dosas!! I could not afford to miss the pubs and paid visits to Styx, P.Haze, Mojo's and B11. Tried out Andhra style as well. And of course, a dhaba, where I used to have lunch 3 times a week during college times! Overall, it was a pretty satisfactory outing for me in terms of food, but my belly did not sound so happy. For it, it was like working during UAT (User Acceptance Test) phase of software cycle. I was accepting everything and it had to slog to keep me healthy without breaking down!!

I made an honest effort to meet as many friends and relatives as I could. Met most of the close relatives. My school buddies were all there, and 3 of us were making the trip to India at the same time, so it was a time for get-togethers and parties and bringing up lots of childhood memories! Also, had a good time with my cousins, one day we went to Wonder-la, Bangalore's new theme park, and believe me, it rocks! Met some of my college buddies , Infy team (I couldn't go inside Infy, but it looks too good with those new modern buildings) and few other friends. My good fortune: Deep Purple came down to perform in Bangalore, and I made it to the event this time after missing them last time and it rocked!! My bad fortune: Iron Maiden is performing in Bangalore on Mar 17th and I am in US. When they performed in US, they did not come anywhere near Knoxville. Anyways, there were some friends whom I really wanted to meet, but unfortunately, could not. If you are one of those, sorry! I hope u undertand my situation.

This trip couldn't have been complete without a visit to RVCE, where I studied BE. Luckily, I had company and my classmate from BE, Bandy, now (Bandy during college x 4) in body mass, decided to come. We spent a whole day in college and every moment was nostalgic, right from, eating samosa from the little shop near the parking lot, to the IT department, the canteen, sports complex, hostels, basketball court, and of course, Dreamland and its famous CP and KP parathas! However, it was exam day and most of the profs had left after exam duty, was just able to meet our HOD and few attenders, but the new building for our department is way better than what we had. Best part of the visit, a new "Center for Gandhian studies" in college, Gandhigiri RVCE main bhi shuru ho gaya mamoo!!

Most of the above activities were done in December, and New Year passed by, and for a change, i stayed back at home this time during New Year's, was too tired after roaming around in the morning. 1st week of Jan was spent running around for visa and tickets for the family trip to Singapore and Malaysia. We went there for a week in the 2nd week of Jan. It was a fun trip, and Malaysia is an awesome place!! Went to Genting and Kuala Lumpur, couldn't go to some of the other places as it was not included in the package. Genting is a nice cool hill station with an outdoor and indoor theme park. Worth a visit, best ride is the Flying Coaster where you need to stand in the coaster!! And it does rotate 360 degrees a few times!
Kuala Lumpur, in contrast, is a big, well planned city, and Petronas Towers is one of its best attractions! One amazing tower, it looks beautiful in the morning and even more beautiful in the night! Here are some pics...

Spent 3 days in Malaysia and 4 days in Singapore. Unfortunately, Singapore was raining most of the time, still we did not let down our spirits and visited the Jurong zoo and bird park with $1 raincoats and umbrellas! and it was a good experience! And the zoo is fantastic!! And this animal below was the most amazing! Of course, you'd have seen it in NatGeo. The Hamadryas Baboon and its big red arse!! Yuck!!

Also went to Sentosa Island for a day, and luckily, it did not rain that day..nice place, with an amazing musical fountain and laser show in the end!

Ended the Singapore tour with a city tour and a final visit to the Merlion (I see this statue everywhere in Singapore! This is the main one)

Reached back India on the 14th after a nice trip and it suddenly dawned upon me that I have only 1 week left! And I still hadn't met many friends that time. The week was spent meeting friends for lunch and dinner, pubbing, and DVD purchasing in the mecca for DVD purchases, National market! and in this way, Sunday came. Sunday was a house arrest for me as mom forced me to stay home one day atleast, and we hadn't even started packing! Started packing only in the evening, and went on till 12.30 AM as my luggage was 7 kgs overweight, and most of it was foodstuff!! Somehow brought it to weight limit.

I hate Monday mornings (who doesn't?). Monday, 22nd Jan, I hated the most. It was time to head back to US. And my flight was in the morning through Colombo and I had a 12 hr stay in Colombo. We were provided free accommodation and food. And boy, they gave us a 5 star beach resort! Amazing service! Went roaming around the city in the morning, and was gasping looking at the prices! someone said SL is cheap, I wanna find that guy and ask him what he found cheap! One Plain Dosa - Rs.55 (approx. INR 23), not so bad, but masala dosa - Rs.195!! Meals - Rs.350! No, this was not in a 5 star hotel, we spent for lunch as our hotel was far and lunch was free only there. Had free dinner in the hotel containing mostly American and European style food with a wide assortment of pastries. Then I went to make a call home and spoke for 4.5 mins. Guess how much the bill came to? SL Rs.890!! to India!! WTF!! SL Rs190 per min! I spend 7 cents per min from US to India! Crazy!!

Anyways, left the hotel that night to the airport, had no problems in any of the flights . When the last flight landed in Atlanta, I was so tired that the lady next to me asked me if I am alive! From the airport, took the MARTA service and went to the bus station to catch the Knoxville bus and reached Knoxville at 4.30 AM on 24th. Did not sleep much (went to sleep at 6.30 and woke up at 8 AM) and dressed to go to college! By 3.30 PM, was dozing off in my cubicle, when my boss woke me up and asked me to go home and take some rest! Came home at 5, slept at 5.30 PM and woke up at 9.30 AM the next morning, and my body was adjusted back to US time.

Now, Still, some of the snacks are left, and my heavy workload is driving my homesickness away. Still, dunno when my next trip will be, but I am waiting for that day again to come soon!!!

and miles to go before I sleep...

2006-12-08T23:11:00.001-05:00

...and most probably, I will sleep all along my journey..the journey i've been waiting for the past 1 year, a trip back home to namma bengalooru!! My exams got over and I'm in party mood! and I can't wait to set foot in India and go home to my family!! and pani puri, masala puri, gobi manchurian, beNNe dose, set dose, filter coffee etc... etc... here I come!!! :P

Random pics taken from the cell phone..

2006-11-07T13:08:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics taken from my cell phone (the camera had to be used sometime...). Lemme start on a "high" note..

"Mega"Rita

This seems like a standard picture..watz special? That drink..yeah, the glass may seem huge, and it was huge!! That contained 32 oz of Margarita (almost 1 liter) and was aptly called Megarita. I started with this drink and before I could finish it, even my dinner was over!!
Courtesy: Ruby Tuesday

The Other Door (Pic quality is a little bad..kindly adjust)

for the weak eyed, it reads:

This Door Sticks half the time.
Go ahead and use the other one
(We wont tell)

But be careful:
Dont hit unsuspecting people on the other side

This notice was stuck on the sticking door found near my workplace where there are 2 huge doors, one for people coming from on side, second for those going to the other side, so that people don't bang the door on someone's face coming from the opposite side. And yes, it does stick half the time. But this notice sounded pretty funny to me, especially the 'We wont tell' part! I appreciate the effort made in preparing the notice, but they could have just got that door fixed! Even the maintenance people walk past that everyday...it happens not only in India..

Papaya Can

Found this in the local Indian Store. Its a can of papaya in syrup and the brand name is

"Cock on the Mountain Top"

Papayas anyone??
(Googling on the name will give u better pics)

Color Color Color Color

2006-10-31T23:21:00.000-05:00

yeah, lots of them..from the trees..Went to Smokies last weekend to capture some fall colors pics and also go on a 5 mile hike. Needless to say, it was wonderful! Here are some pics of that..
http://picasaweb.google.com/yv.vikas/SmokiesSnaps

Our Diwali Event

2006-10-27T11:53:00.000-04:00

Had our Diwali event last week on Sunday, Oct 22nd... This time, me being the President of the Indian Students Association in my university meant much more work and running about for Diwali. Luckily, we have a good committee team and lots of volunteers from the new students batch with lots of enthu in them.. Dunno how many sleepless nights we have had before the event. Practice for all the programs started at a slow pace, and then built up in the last week. My head has gone bonkers after continuously listening to the fashion show song which was mixed and matched by me. BTW, I have taken part in a fashion show 4 times after coming to UT. I think thats one career option which I can take up if I am jobless after my MS!
Anyways, so while all the practice was going on, we also had to distribute fliers everywhere for advertising the event. The local newspaper contacted me and my roommate for an interview and published it before the event. The Funny part, I am called as "Yv" throughout, they thought thats my last name! I Bet even the Chinese cant pronounce that properly! Here's a link to that article.

So things were getting busier by the day. We had our final rehearsals at the auditorium on Friday. Most events looked good, there was also a Desi rap performance which rocked! Our Fashion show still needed some work to be done, both in the formations and in my music. Yet another night-out listening & mixing that song...

Saturday, the day before the event - we kinda relaxed during the day, there was a home football game which UT won by a close margin against Alabama. Their performance is much better this time than last year and is in the Top 10 now. Anyway, after the game, went back to our rehearsals and I also had to work on a video about India. After much brooding over the song selection, chose a fusion piece by Talvin Singh and started collecting the slides for my video. Never knew Windows Moviemaker is such a good tool!! Sat for the video till 5 in the morning, went to sleep for a while and got back up by 7. Added a few final touches to the video, showered & dressed up, and got ready to leave home by 10 AM.

D-Day: (Diwali-Day) We were in the Audi by 10.15 AM and moved some of the drinks and food supplies like plates, cups etc.. to the lunch area. We were waiting for the decorations group to arrive, and they could come only by 11.30 AM. They started work immediately at the auditorium. The food also came that time, and by the time we set up everything, there was already a queue of people for the food! By 12.15, started issuing tickets and boy, there was a pretty big crowd for the food!! More than 220 people ate the food while most committee members had to remain hungry as the food got over in time (in between, even the plates got over and there some panic for a short while before new plates came), around 1.45 PM. By then, the stage was set up, the lights, sound team was ready, the hosts were ready, and I hadn't prepared my speech yet! Thx to Arpit who suggested a few sentences, I put them together.

The show started pretty much on time, only 10 mins late which is pretty good by Indian standards! Started with the Diya ceremony which went very well, followed by National Anthems, and then my turn to speak! Blabbered a few sentences quickly and got off stage, have to check the video to see how stupid I looked...anyways, after that, there was a talk by the chief guest, and then the cultural events started. Things went pretty smooth after that, and before we realized, it was almost 4 PM and the last program was left, the Fashion show. Before that, my video was presented and some people liked it. So, not a wasted effort. Fashion show also went pretty well and by 4.15 PM, the event was over. The feedback for the event has been good and everyone liked it! A big burden off the shoulders and a job well done by each and every person. I enjoyed every moment of this Diwali preparation! Now, Its back to studies and exams! and the trip to India I am waiting for so desperately!!

Fllllorrriiidaaa.....

2006-09-15T12:36:00.000-04:00

in short, Florida!! The place that rocks! went to Florida for the 2nd time last fortnight, this time it was a bigger group (Had been there last December as well with 2 friends and had posted about it in the blog. Check it out here and here. This time, we were a group of 6, and the destination was Palm Coast in East Florida where our friend Paddy works. We went only for the long weekend and we went driving, so time was short.

We had a bad start to our tour, first there was danger of Hurricane Ernesto which hit Florida and going Northwards, we didn't want to end up going there and drenched in rain, so till Friday morning, nothing was finalized. Add to that, I hurt myself playing tennis Thursday night and was limping along due to ankle sprain, but did not want to miss the tour. Somehow, the weather turned out to be fine and we found 6 ppl interested, so we packed our bags, and left Fri afternoon. It was a long drive but had fun along the way, and we finally reached Paddy's place at around 3.30 in the morning (Sat) and had to wake him up from his sleep. Then we slept for a while and morning, prepared our plans. This guy Paddy will be a great manager, he started preparing a plan of action and after everyone finalized it, he used to update the plan of action every time after we finished a task whether it was successfully completed or not!

Day 1:
The PoA was that Sat we will go to Daytona Beach, spend time there, then go to Orlando in the night to the downtown or some other place. So we headed to Daytona beach which was like 30 mins from his place (what a place to be!) and the weather was sunny!! It kinda reminded me of Baywatch, with those hot lifeguards and all..we had a lot of fun there, and suddenly heavy rain started pouring, but there was a warning issued, so we were back inside the mall next to the beach. Surprisingly, by the team we walked back to the parking lot and took the car out, it was sunny again! Had Thai food for lunch, and tasted spicy Thai food for the 1st time. Headed back home, showered and dressed up and we left for Orlando in the evening. We decided to ditch Disney downtown and instead decided to go to 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' movie which had released that day. Went and bought the tickets, and left for Chaat House to eat something light..each one ended up spending around $20 for chaats! And boy, they were awesome!! Each of us ordered like 2-3 items atleast and there were 7 of us, but he got all of it done pretty quick though the place was crowded! and was pretty neatly packed as well (We did not have time to sit and eat, so we packed it up, ended up eating most of it in the Parking lot itself! ). After a long time, got to eat some good Papdi chaat, dahi puri, pani puri! yum yum!! Nirvana was attained! And the Mirchi Bajji put some fire in people's bellies, and there was a major queue outside the bathroom in Paddy's house later in the night. Oh, forgot to add, the movie was amazing! I think most of u know that already! In the end, we had a pretty action-packed day, awesome beach, awesome food, awesome movie!! Day 1's plan executed successfully.

Day 2:
No Trip to N.Florida is complete without a proper visit to Orlando. Sat night was just for eating and movies, so Sunday was reserved for one of Orlando's theme parks. In my view, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are the best, but I have been to Universal twice, so we ditched it. We had been to Epcot, so ditched that. Magic and Animal kingdom was more for kids, so out they go, options were Sea World and MGM Studios. We decided to go to MGM Studios. Well, MGM is okay, but not as good as Universal, there are a few good rides and shows like Tower of Terror, Aerosmith roller coaster, Indianajones, the bike and car show, Fantasmic show which we missed, but others are a bit disappointing..now, the reason we missed the Fantasmic show was because we wanted to have dinner at Woodlands restaurant at Orlando, a proper South Indian restaurant! They said they'll close at 8.30 and the Fantasmic show starts at around 8.30 PM till 9 PM and going out of that place and going to Woodlands takes 1 hr atleast, so we left at 8 PM itself, reached Woodlands at 9 and was surprised to see a huge crowd and we were put in waiting list!! I never expected that for a Desi restaurant in US!! It was a good sign! While entering our name for the waitlist, we realized that this restaurant was owned by Kannadigas from Kundapur, near Mangalore. Anyway, our turn came and we saw the menu and our mouths started watering looking at all those items. There was a Mysore Royal Thali which we ordered but sadly they had already closed the Thali. So we first ordered Gobi Manchurian, boy, it was more than an year since I ate that!! It was not the best I have eaten but it was good, we devoured 3 plates in a jiffy, after that great Idly-Vada sambar, followed by superb Paper Dosa, a taste of hot hot Bisi Bele Bath, a bit of Mango Lassi, one samosa, one kachori, and amazing Curd rice, ending with excellent Mysore Coffee! Man, I had to leave a bit of curd rice in the end, I was so full, and so were the others!! After eating similar food in Saravana Bhavan in Toronto, this was one of the best meals I ate in US! Ended up with a bill of $180 or Rs.8250 in all, worth every penny! By the time we finished our meal, it was close to 10.45 and though they had closed the kitchens, they were still open as there were few customers left incl. us. Wanted to have paan in the end, but it was over. We all talked to the manager and they were also very happy to see people from Karnataka and we spoke for a while and left. All of us needed a walk to relax ourselves, and this photo below describes our state!!

We came back home by around 12, saw some movie and hit the bed by 2 AM as we needed to get up early.

Day 3
Time to get back home! :( had an amazing trip, loads of fun and adventure, thx to Paddy for organizing it superbly!
Left Florida, reached Clemson late afternoon to drop Srinidhi and had a light lunch at Taco Bell, and reached Knoville by around 9.30 PM.

Actually writing this thing a little late as we went to Florida in the 1st week of September, and in the 3rd week, we went camping and rafting again, will write about that soon!! Planning started for next trip! :)

Social Networking WTFs

2006-09-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

All those hooked to orkut, check out this blog by my friend Ambar, where moronic WTF type posts are collected and published.. If anyone sees something like that, feel free to contribute. The link for the blog is
http://seenonorkut.wordpress.com

Thirsty kya?

2006-08-21T12:55:00.000-04:00

No, this is not the ad-line for Domino's new drink or something( and they are also not coming with any drink), rather I am asking this question to Indian God(s). Approximately around the same time, 11 years ago, there was this so called "miracle". Now, history has repeated. Coincidence: Both times it has occurred around the time of Ganesh Chaturthi. But this time it has extended to all the Indian Idols (not the Abhijeet Sawants, but the Gods) but am not sure if Khushboo or Silk Smitha drank them in their temples in Tamil Nadu.

What is happening to the people? First they throng to the beach to drink the "sweet" water, god knows as a result of what, now this one..with all the corruption and injustice happening there, people do look for miracles from god, but are these miracles? why does blind faith have to prevail all the time? Any Geology students out there hunting for a thesis topic? This one has a potential to be one. Lets see how far this will go and how many liters of milk is wasted...I am feeling sorry for all those cow and buffalo calves..

Sharjah, Toronto, ...., Knoxville

2006-08-15T15:39:00.000-04:00

Of Course, in between, there are many more neutral venues. If you still havent understood, these are venues which has hosted India-Pakistan cricket games! Dont be perplexed, the Indian and Pakistani national cricket team did not come to Knoxville or havent even heard about it. But the game was between the Indian and Pakistani students from UT, Knoxville. Still, its an India-Pakistan game!!
But what sets Knoxville apart was the venue for the game. The venue we chose, where we have been playing there in recent times, is a BiLo Shopping Center Parking Lot. Thanks to Food City which bought all Bilo outlets, but hasnt opened their shop there, as a result, there is this huge Parking lot, 80% empty, and is our new cricket ground!!

The game was held last week, and both the teams arrived. There was a slight imbalance in the teams. The Indian team, also the hosts, had 23 guys, while the Pakistani team, a group of undergrads who have come here on a 6 week exchange program all the way from Pakistan, had 9 guys and remaining around 14 girls (babes, rather), so the final team had 2 girls in their side (who did a fairly decent job in the field, considering they were playing cricket for the first time, one of them even scored a run!). The guys were better, but still they were no match to our Indian guys and we beat them comprehensively, though a few of them gave a fight. We scored around 135 from the quota of 15 overs while they managed some 80 odd runs. The atmosphere was electric with all the chicks cheering and singing songs from the pavilion while we enjoyed them! In the end, it was an evening of fun and friendship and some kick-ass time!!

What the hell??

2006-07-17T17:20:00.001-04:00

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/17/report_indian_gov_bl.html
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/17blog.htm

Today the Government blocks Blogspot. Tomorrow, every other Indian will be appalled when he wakes up first thing in the morning and opens Orkut to get a Message "This site is blocked. Sorry, no more donuts for u". After a while, he'll realize that he is not able to send or recieve e-mails.
Soon the government will pass an order to shoot at sight any postman or pigeon carrying a letter.
After all this, everyone will start using the telephone, every person will have atleast 3 mobile phones, one for official purposes, one for chatting, and one for recieving credit card offers. Of course, bosses will have more...some masterplan by the Department of Communications.

As I write this, I am feeling like an idiot because I know none of my friends in India will be able to read this. The crazy government has implemented a crazy rule, and I suggest they rather strengthen their Intelligence and prevent any further attack to the country rather than blocking harmless sites. This is frustrating...

Shine on you crazy diamond...

2006-07-11T11:21:00.000-04:00

Any Pink Floyd fan would have heard of this long and beautiful song. A song which was made as a tribute to the creator of the band and a gifted guitarist, Syd Barrett. Incidentally, the song title is also an expansion of his name, "Shine on You crazy Diamond" and talks about his contributions to the band (source: Wikipedia).

I am a Pink Floyd fan myself, and though most of my favorite tracks were all released after Syd left the group in 1968, from the albums, Division Bell and The Wall, I still am a big fan of him for the album "Piper at the gates of dawn" with the songs Bike, Scarecrow, Astronomy Domine my favorites among them.

Today, Syd Barrett is no more and the music world has lost a genius. RIP Syd...

The "F" act effect

2006-07-05T11:10:00.000-04:00

F1, Football and Fireworks...

We had a crazy weekend to last week. 2 days off for Sat and Sun, then work on Mon, then off on Tue for Jul 4th. so what did we do?

Sat and Sun:
We decided to go to Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world for the F1 race, it was a weekend trip, there were 6 of us, and we had to return back by Sunday night. I had reserved the motel sometime back to save cost as motel rates had increased 3 fold for that day. We reached Indy at around 6 PM, and headed to our motel, and were surprised to find that the motel rates were reduced by half of our price! We checked in, and then realized we are in the wrong motel. The one I had reserved was right next to it! Decided to cancel that one, but was late, and they said they'll charge my credit card still, so we decided to cancel this one, and surprisingly she agreed!! We then realized that we were not the only ones to do that mistake. Every month, atleast 1-2 cases do the same thing, so it was ok.
Later that night, we went roaming around Indianapolis downtown, had dinner at one of the Desi restaurants there, did some timepass and then we were back to the motel at around 2 AM itself as we had to wake up early the next day for the race.

The next day, woke up around 8, got ready, and we checked out of our rooms by 10 and left for the Motor Speedway, luckily the traffic was not very high till the speedway and there was delay only at the Parking lots. Reached the place, met a few of my Infy buddies, bought some Ferrari stuff and we headed inside. The security was so cool we could never imagine! Only 1 place, they asked for tickets, we said there are 6 of us and showed them a bunch of tickets, and they let us in! No checking of bags also! and thats it, inside the gate also, there was no checking, just an old security guard standing in a corner!! was wondering whether I entered a stadium which had a crowd of 130K that day (which was quite less actually compared to the capacity) or a dollar theatre.

Anyway, it was a hot day and I did not have a cap, even the chilled drinks started boiling after a while! By then, the inaugural parades got completed and the cars started the warmup lap and then the race began exactly at 1 PM, our stand was near the 1st chicanes after the start line, so we waited in bated breath, and all the cars came...and crashed! 'Dene wala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phaad ke', they say...We were hoping for 1 crash near our stand, and we got a major one with 7 cars out, I guess F1 followers would have seen that race. i was lucky enough to capture Nick Heidfeld's car flipping in the air, and that snap is given below:

We were too excited to record that video (or maybe, it might have got recorded, havent seen the video still), but after that incident, the race was pretty much standard and finally, Schumi won the race quite easily, leading to celebrations among us and most of the crowd. In between, I managed to cpature a few videos with my digicam and have uploaded them on youtube. Here they are:

If they dont work, you can try the Youtube links given below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KSONW_b34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dfPHSbsaLQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjzw3vrU8JI

After the race, we relaxed for a while, and then headed back home. We stopped at Louisville,KY in the evening and decided to have an early dinner there at some Desi restaurant again, and we found a place called Cafe 360, we cud never have identified it, but found that thanks to the guy at a gas station who recommended that. Now, it doesnt look like an Indian restaurant, infact it is a fusion of American, Mexican and Indian. So we see Samosas, Paneer Tikka, burritos, Salads all in the same menu. But the best part? Chole Batura, even better than those available in most places in India!Batura itself was mildly spiced up with jeera and something else, the chole was also good. Definetely recommended if you travelling to Louisville. Details are given in the website.

By the time we reached back home, it was around 1.30 AM, and we headed off to sleep as we had to get back to work tomorrow. Overall, we had a great trip, full time fun, good race, met up old friends, total paisa vasool!

Mon:
Boring day at work, not much work, was sitting idly at office, went back home at 6, watched a few movies, had a friend b'day, so went to his place at 12, kicked his ass and splattered some cake, and came back home. just another day...

Tue:
July the 4th, the day America got its independence. Thought we'll clean the house and gain independence from the cockroaches, but was too lazy to do that. By the time i got ready, it was 3 PM and the Italy-Germany game had started, saw the game in the recreation room in our apartment complex, along with 40 odd people, most of them rooting for Italy, including me. And what a game that was!! 1st half was great, both teams equally good, 2nd half was dominated by Germany in the attacking section and Italy in the defending section, started to lose hopes looking at the way they played in that half. But overtime changed all that with 2 fantastic attempts in the 1st 2 minutes which could have made the end score 4-0, we had our fingers crossed till the end minutes, hoping for Italy to score a goal before penalty shootout (they have a bad record in penalties) and what a goal Grosso scored!! Superb!! and before the celebrations died out in the room, Del Piero came up with another goal with a superb pass by Gilardino! The writing was made, Italy through to the Finals, the hosts out! Interestingly, Italy has entered the Finals every 12 years since 1970. They lost in 1970, won in 1982, lost in 1994, and most likely, will win in 2006. Go Italy!!

Tue Night:
We went near downtown around 9.30 to watch the fireworks display. it was very good, not the best compared to places like NY, Chicago, but still it was good. Managed to capture a few pics and 2 videos of that. See them below:

And the videos:

And the Youtube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgHprvlTcbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ba0uELb2q8

Overall, the weekend was centered around the 3 "F"s, F1, Football and Fireworks and we enjoyed all 3 of them! Now waiting for the Finals and the next long weekend...

and history was recreated...

2006-07-03T16:58:00.000-04:00

obviously I am talking about the Brazil-France game..not many expected this to happen. When they started, they looked like they wont go beyond the 1st round yet again, the French team was booed by its own fans, but they made the unimaginable happen, for the 1st time since 1990, there is no Brazil in the semifinal lineup, and for the 1st time since 1982, all 4 semifinalists are from Europe. Brazil did not lose the game, but France won it. Hats off to Zizou for his brilliant play. Their semifinals between Portugal will now be an interesting game..

Football fever..

2006-06-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

yeah..I'm also suffering from it. am no nostradamus or something, but just offering my opinion on the WC so far and beyond...

so, now the WC has boiled down to the Quarterfinals and what do we have here? A German side in awesome form, faced with an Argentinian side equally good, both teams with some newfound heroes like Podolski and Maxi. Anything's possible, Argentina is planning to employ German tactics of attacking right at the beginning. Its gonna be a cracker of a match..but I feel Germany can go through..

There is the normal Italian side who are yet to lose a game since 2004, my favorites, though it was a bit lucky the way they got through to the quarters due to a bad decision (but they were in the recieving end last time, so their luck evens out), but hats off to the Socceroos, they played really well. Playing the Ukranians. Should not face much of a problem, though Ukraine is playing well, I dont think they can break the Italian defence, but lets see. Go Azzurri!!

England, the football equivalent of our Indian cricket team, studded with stars, play like fools. They just managed to beat Sweden because of that yet another awesome goal by Beckham. I dont think they can go beyond Portugal. I like the team, but its useless. Portugal will struggle due to Valentin Ivanov but should still be able to get through.

And Finally, France suddenly seem to have found their class and played superbly against Espanol. Good to see Zizou for yet another game. But can they beat the Brazilians? Brazil, I dont think is playing to the best of their form, though they have improved against Japan and Ghana, but they are still ok, its gonna be a close game, but I feel its gonna be curtains for Zizou and his team.

so, my semifinal lineup is gonna be Germany v/s Italy, Portugal v/s Brazil. 1st game, will be a close game with great German forwards and great Italian defenders, but I guess Germany will prevail, though I'll cross my fingers for Italy. The 2nd game is gonna be fun, with Portugal's coach, Scolari being Brazil's former coach. What tactic will he implement? whatever he does, I guess its still Brazil who'll go through making it a Germany-Brazil final yet again, and I really cant tell what can happen in that game, will be watching the game on big screen and supporting the Germans..

in between all these, the Wimbledon is taking place at exactly the wrong time, India still havent won after that 1st ODI, there is no stopping Alonso, and I dont care a shit about some of the other sporting events taking place.

will be missing the Eng v/s Portugal game as we will be on the road to Indianapolis. Will reach there in time to catch the Brazil v/s France game, and then shifting focus for a while to the F1 race on Sunday!

The Great Madhatters Reunion

2006-06-15T19:08:00.000-04:00

If you are wondering what reunion is this, the Madhatters is a group of current and ex-Infosyians who, by chance, did their training together in Mysore from Aug-Dec 03, and who are also devoted Calvin fans. Now dont ask me why that name, that is irrelavent.

So, some of us Madhatters decided to meet together. The plan was to meet during the Memorial weekend and the venue: The Niagara Falls. All of us were pretty excited about the trip. From the group, 2 of us, Me and Sid, decided to take a long holiday and come to NY a week before and while off in Manhattan. A 3rd member, SS, who works in Manhattan, stays in NJ, was there to recieve us and we stayed at his place. I first went to Pennsylvania with my roomie, and I met SS at a place called the Pocono Mtns, where we played paintball. Now, that is an awesome game for playing once-in-a-while. I thought paintball is all about shooting madly at people in a closed room or something like that, but this place was no room, but a forest! and we were dressed like US Army soldiers, and we had several missions to complete! This required us to hide and shoot behind trees, guard the Pentagon, among other things! In the end, I realized I can never be enrolled for the army! The max I can get is being called a paintball veteran, nothing more...

After that, went back to NJ, picked up Sid from Newark, came home and slept. The next day, I went to meet my cousin while the others went shopping and the movies. During the next 4 days, me and Sid roamed around every corner, Streets and Avenues of Manhattan, Sid extending a bit and travelling to Bronx also for a brief period. Now, there are many roadside sellers who sell the "I love NY" at $2 a shirt. I did not pick that up, but I definetely loved NY!! That place rocks! After coming from small towns like Knoxville, u'll love that even more! Took a photo of the 1st skyscraper i saw, and after a while, got bored of taking pics of each and every building! We visited the Brooklyn bridge, Staten Island, Wall St and broadway, Times Square, Liberty Island,Empire State Observatory, a few museums like Madame Tussauds etc..In between, we also went and applied for our Canadian Visa and got them. All along, we also had a taste of great Desi Khana, topped by the Samosas at Cafe spice and the rolls at Kati Rolls. One more thing I saw, large crowd of Desis, they are everywhere in NY and NJ!!

Anyway, after spending the week travelling in NY, we had to start preparing for the Niagara trip. One more member, Moo joined us on Friday and went for his Canadian visa with SS while me and Sid went to pick up the car. Had a scary ride back, getting lost around NJ, before finding home finally. We planned to leave NJ by 4 PM but as usual, IST was maintained and we left at around 5. The next 1 hr was spent circling around NJ itself, completely lost and had covered only 5 miles! We could have had a party out there when we finally found the right direction! After that, things were pretty smooth, crossed Pennsylvania and entered NY state again, stopped from Dinner near Binghampton, and finally reached Buffalo at around 1.30AM, passed through Canadian Immigration and Customs without any problems and finally reached Canada! the 5th member, Kiran had come over there from Toronto where he works and had booked a hostel room. We arrived there around 2.30, but not before giving him a scare, saying that we were not allowed inside Canada!

So finally, after an year almost, we met up again! before that, we used to meet everyday for lunch at Infy,Bangalore. Hmmm..those were the days...2 more were supposed to come, but could not make it.

The next day entirely was spent at Niagara Falls. Do I have to say anything about this place?? I dont think its required..All I can say is we had a great time over there. The best part is the "Maid of the mist" ride which takes us close to the Falls. And boy, there is so much mist out there!! Some snaps of that ride..

After that, we went around some of the other attractions before heading to Niagara-on-the-lake in the evening, and thats a small town near the Niagara, spent some time there throwing stones into the lake and came back to Niagara to the Casino Niagara with the hope of making some money. Kiran decided to take the 1st chance at the slot machines and lost $20 trying to find the right combination. Moo went elsewhere to pursue his luck while the others sticked together. I tried my hand at Blackjack with the computer, won some, lost some, and ended with a loss of $6. We then decided to go bigtime and me and Kiran went to a Blackjack table which had people betting in 100s while we were betting $25. Again, I won some, lost some, bet upto $50 and ended up with $55. Could have won more, but it was already late and we had to drive to Toronto after dinner, so we decided to call it quits. Not too much of a loss for me, just $1, Kiran lost some $30, Moo had lost $35 before he won back everything. In the meanwhile, some 80 year old lady won $10,000. What is she gonna do with so much money? How come we never win?? Too many questions to be answered...

After the casino, we left Niagara to Toronto, had dinner in one of the subways we found. Reached oakville (near Toronto) and stayed there in a motel and went to Toronto in the morning. Roamed around the city, then we went for lunch at Saravanaa Bhavan, and it was one meal we can never forget! We ordered idli, Vada, Sada Dosa, paper dosa, Rava dosa, pongal ,Bisi beLe bath, loads of coconut chutney, and every plate was empty in seconds with 5 hands going for it! After everything, we ordered Meals! Rounded it up with excellent madras filter coffee served in the Indian way in a steel cup and bowl, covered with froth, and we also packed some badam halwa as it was to tempting and we could not have it there after coffee. Also, got to eat Paan after a long long time! In the end, we had a bill of $100! worth every cent!
We thought we'll relax, watch Fanaa which had released that day and was showing in the same complex and come back for evening snacks, but decided against it. We went downtown and visited the CN Tower, one of the world's tallest buildings which has the world's highest public observation deck at 447 m or 1465 ft. The queue there was very long and was painfully slow, but it was definetely worth the wait to watch from the glass floor. Yes, the tower has a section where the floor is made of glass, and if u step on it, you'll see the ground 1,122 feet below. It was a great sight and some pics of that are given below.

We could not go to the highest point as there was a huge queue for that and we had no time, so we headed back, went to Oakville and dropped off Kiran, rested a while, and left at around 9 back towards NY. We had to come quick as Sid and Moo both had flights the next day morning at 8 AM from 2 different airports, located in 2 diff directions, one in Newark in NJ, other La Guardia in NY, and the journey was a 10 hr journey through the night!! We arrived at Rainbow bridge at exactly 10 and we were lucky to catch the fireworks show at Niagara, which happens every Fri and Sun night, at 10PM for 5-10 mins. There was a delay at the US Immigrations counter but once we were through, it was a long drive. We reached Scranton in Pennsylvania at around 4 AM where I got down and went to my roomie's place, while the others continued to NY, reached there around 7.30, and just made it to the flight, while I slept well at my friend's place and we left his house the next morning for another long drive back to Tennessee..

We were greeted home with a sink blockage and water flowing out from the kitchen right up to the front door, but thats a different story and we can ignore that. Thus ended a memorable trip and the great Madhatters gettogether. Whew! now, let me get back to work!

New Zealand anyone?

2006-05-15T15:31:00.000-04:00

When I was young, I had seen a kannada movie *ing Jaggesh and Doddanna, which had even come in hindi with Shakti kapoor and Kader Khan, i guess its called "Baap numberi beta dus numberi". In that, these guys are shown selling off places like Taj Mahal, Vidhana soudha(in the kannada version) to some foreigners. At that time, it sounded funny but we knew thats impossible to happen in real life..well, it seems like we were wrong..such things do happen!!

This link was forwarded to me by a friend of mine. According to that, some guy was auctioning on eBay, and guess what the auction item was?? New Zealand!! It turned out that that guy was Australian, another example of Australia - New Zealand rivalry.

This is not the only crazy thing which has been auctioned on eBay, there are many other cases. Here are links to some of them..

Forehead

University

Toast

Cornflake

and the top 10 strangest items sold on eBay - Top 10

Inspite of all these, how come eBay does not make any checking of what people are selling? Atleast in the cases mentioned above, the items were personal items, although strange, but new Zealand? that too by an Australian?? what will these guys do about it now? Is NZ government suing him? I dont think so. Is eBay suing him? Why should they? atleast they prevented the sale (as if it was gonna actually happen). So does this mean people are free to auction whatever they want? well, I wanna find out what happens if somebody auctions eBay itself!! I guess, after that, eBay will prevent any other strange bids happening...

Swalpa adjust...

2006-05-01T15:03:00.000-04:00

My department has 2 toilets, or to be more polite, restrooms, for Men, out of which, one is for Faculty and one for students and others..and of course, there is a restroom for ladies as well!
Now, this restroom seems to be undergoing some repair or something like that, so now there is a board on the restroom of Men Faculty; "This restroom will be temporarily used as Ladies Restroom"!
A Ladies restroom converted to a men's, understandable, but a men's converted to a ladies'?? hmm..classical case of "swalpa adjust maadi.." ;) (Kindly adjust)

Playboy's top 10 partying schools

2006-04-10T17:37:00.000-04:00

found this link today..according to that, our university is ranked 7th among the Top 10 US schools for partying!! :P
http://www.fanblogs.com/ncaa/005842.php

apni to paathshala masti ki paathshala...

My California trip

2006-04-09T22:24:00.000-04:00

I know the title sounds shitty..but heavy workload has demented my brain and I cant think of nice titles, so I gave up on the titles part and decided to start writing before I forget what happened in the trip..

Anyways, I had spring break for 9 days and I decided to go to California instead of spending time doing some useful work..One bloke from my college, Kiran, wanted to come along, and so he came along..Our first stop was Santa Clara, where I stayed with my cousin Amith working there. Plan was to spend the weekend visiting N.California, then go to LA during the next week. Friday night, i was treated with some amazing dinner in a S.Indian restaurant, with food served in steel plates and small bowls like in a thali!! one reason I want to work in California bay area, amazing Indian food! and its just the opp in Knoxville. with 2 Indian restaurants to boast of, both serving lousy, bland food, our cooking skills have improved and we are all better than them! anyway, had an amazing dinner there.

Saturday:
We decided that we'll go to San Francisco as it is an hour drive. Now, San Francisco is one beautiful city, and its quite different from most US cities. It looks more like a holiday town to me. The first thing you'll like about SF are the houses! So closely built, its a nice sight. If you have seen the serial "Full House", you'll know.
We first went to the Pier area and spent some time there. We were at Pier 39, Its a fun place, looks like a carnival, and you get a nice view of the pacific bay and Alcatraz island, and also Treasure island (Alcatraz island is known for Alcatraz prison, where Al Capone was housed, and Clint Eastwood escaped in the movie 'Escape from Alcatraz'). But actually, Alcatraz is a totally hyped up place...wherever you go in SF, you get Alcatraz prison clothes, prison mugs and plates, caps etc..!! so if ever had that urge to be in jail, but always chickened out at its consequences, you can atleast look and feel like a prisoner by buying these stuff. You'll also be a famous prisoner, mind you, as it is Alcatraz!! The most hyped up thing about it is one stall where an old 80 odd year old guy sits, and he was once an Alcatraz inmate. So if you go to his stall and pay him money, he'll give you an autograph!!! an autograph from a former prisoner, dunno what crimes he committed, and that too, paying for it..even for Bollywood stars will give their autograph for free!! this just shows the hyped up levels of that prison...

After lunch at the Pier, we decided to go to SF's most important landmark, the Golden gate bridge, that architectural wonder. How much ever you like it while watching it on TV/Photos, you'll just fall in love with it when you actually go there! its just a combination of beauty, brilliance, and magnificence! the only sad thing was my camera ran out of battery when we went there, but somehow we managed to take some pics with whatever power was left in it, and also by loaning batteries from other tourists!!
Funny moment: There are some restrooms provided there but there is no separate one for Men and Women. You just have to lock the door. My friend forgot to lock the door and was pissing away to glory when a lady entered the room and immediately came back and was saying that she's like to forget what she saw right away!! ;) me and my cousin were literally in splits laughing!! :)

After Golden Gate, we went to Lombard St, the craziest street known to man!! while climbing uphill on that road, your heart will be in ur mouth and you dont need no rollercoaster ride after riding this!!

With automatic transmission, it is ok. But if your car has manual transmission, it is one hell of a ride as traffic is high on the road and you have stop repeatedly. Best part is the stop sign at the topmost point!

Now, at this point, if you see that crooked sign and havent heard abt Crooked st., you'll be in for a surprise!! Because what follows next is the most crookedest st. you can get to see!! Here is crooked st. shown below:

See it to believe it!!

by the end of it, it was getting dark, so we decided to round up the trip with a visit to Telegraph hill and Coit tower from where you can get a nice view of the city. But the tower was closed and so we had to contend with some nice views from Telegraph hill. We came back home around 9.30 PM, and hit the bed early as we had planned to go to Napa valley the next day.

Sunday:
I had heard of Napa valley before, but only through the racing game 'Road Rash' which I used to play many years back and one of the races is through Napa valley. Anyway, even Guru, my cousin's roomie joined us and it was a long drive and weather was perfect. On the way, we had to ask directions in a gas station and it was run by an Indian sardar. He asked us if we were Indians, and when we said yes, he started speaking in Punjabi asking us lots of stuff about India as if we were the first Indians there after years!! we didnt understand half of it, somehow we muttered a few thanks and escaped from there. There was a traffic jam ahead which stretched for an hour, but we finally entered wine country. Yes, this is the place where most wineyards are present and the entire valley region is a beautiful sight! and each winery in itself is different in architecture and is worth visiting. We visited a few wineries with Opus One being the best of the lot, and I tasted 6 different wines (Would have tasted more but you have to pay for each, so I was done after 6) before settling on the cheapest one!! (It was also the best tasting white wine, so i had the best of both worlds). We came back to Santa Clara and went for dinner before settling in for a late night movie..

Monday morning: We left to LA for the week and were set to return to San Jose/Santa Clara the next weekend. More about LA and the remaining part of the trip in the next post...ok, gotta go back to work now have 3 project submissions due!

Is god listening?

2006-04-03T11:10:00.001-04:00

I saw an ad on TV today which shocked me. The ad goes something like this, people go to a church, out of them, some of them,the "sinners", maybe, are thrown off their seats while some remain on their seats. Then the tagline goes something like, "Jesus didn't turn people away, neither do we", "God is still speaking". This is an ad for a church!
I later browsed through the net for this and found a similar ad by the same church, but this ad has been banned because it shows "gay" bouncers outside the church. Anyway, the link for that ad is given below:
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=6931

Is this all really necessary? I mean, the idea of a church having an ad for attracting people seems outrageous to me! This is my personal opinion.

What I feel is even more surprising ( and good for the church authorities) was the response for the ad. Click below for people's reactions to the ad:
http://www.stillspeaking.com/campaign/quotes.html

Going by the reactions, the ad has had a positive response and we can term it successful, considering the fact that American youth do not go to church nowadays. Imagine, if such a thing happens in India, what all could happen..
1) Visit Temple A during happy hours and get a 50% discount on "abhisekham"!
2) Buy Prasadam from Temple B and get extra Prasadam free!
3) Visit the temple of only God X. He wont desert you. Other gods might.

Well, I myself, am a guy who rarely visits the temple, but its only because I believe in the fact that I dont have to go to a temple to see god, a place where they say you get "peace of mind", but we get everything apart from that.

People seem to have got "awareness" after seeing this ad and now visit the church. But is it really possible to be enlightened and have awareness about god, just by seeing an ad? If that was the case, how come people still use drugs, though they are numerous ads which talk about the ill effects of drugs? or if you take a general case, why do people continue to use an old product even though a new product comes up with a flashy ad? Is this awareness for real or is it just material? God only knows...

Anyway, the church people may have made people to speak to god in the church through an ad by making people believe that god is still speaking. But hey god, are you listening? If yes, then God bless America.

My Sleep Analysis.

2006-03-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

I seem to have forgotten the art of sleeping these days (atleast I thought).
Reason: Heavy workload,which is more than enough to set your ass on fire and make u jump around like crazy! My schedule since last Friday is put up here which explains what I've been doing in the nights..dont get nice thoughts because it ain't nice!

First, set a variable sleep = 0;

Fri Night: Poker party, win some, lose some, booze otherwise! slept at 5AM, woke up at 10AM Sat morning --> sleep = 5;
Sat Night: party again! after the party is over, driving around the city at 4 AM, buying icecream and Ginger Ale at Walmart..sleeping finally at arnd 6 AM, woke up at 11 AM -->
Sleep = Sleep(5) + 5

Sunday: Realized I have 2 Proj submissions on Tuesday and Wednesday.Alarm bells ring. Party over, slogging start..working till 1.30 AM..woke up at 7 --> Sleep = Sleep(10) + 5.5

now the fun starts..
Mon Night: Slogging my ass off for Tuesday proj submission till 5 AM. Woke up again at 8 AM to work/study. --> Sleep = Sleep(15.5) + 3

Tue Night: First proj submitted in the nick of time..2nd proj start, due Wed. started that Tue night, Slogging till 7.45 AM (yes, not 7.45 PM), that too, designing a IC layout using Cadence (if u know cadence, u'll understand), came home by 8.45 AM, slept for 15 mins, woke up again at 9, freshened up and got back to work. --> Sleep = Sleep(18.5) + 0.25

Wed Night: looked like proj wont be completed on time, thought will seek extension till tomm., and expected my sleep curve to be decreasing exponentially!!
Sleep = Sleep(18.75) + (0.005) (due to the occasional dozing off while work)

so overall, in almost a week, I wud have slept for only about 18.755 hrs, not so bad, but in last 3 days, 3.25 hrs, thats bad!!
But there was a turn of events and proj submission was delayed as more than 50% of junta had to complete the project!! Came home early, few friends came over for Holi, and welcomed me by smashing 3 eggs on my head along with colors, and off we all went, to celebrate Holi and screw up every Desi's study plans and clothes! Played till 9, ordered a Papa Johns Pizza and some Irish Cream Bailley (oh, that lovely drink!! but damn expensive), slept at 11 and woke up at 11, so my sleep variable is not 18.755 but 30.75, bring the average up to arnd 5 hrs a night and compensating for the earlier loss!

For those, who do not understnd this or too bored to read, I have prepared a chart of my sleep analysis of the week..

Tonite, have to submit my project and then will have to sleep late again and wake up very early tomm (arnd 5 AM). No, not another bout of slogging!! There's always light at the end of the tunnel..(no its not an incoming train), spring break is here, and California, Here I come!! :)

and to those who've been thinking how i am spending my time doing sleep analysis and blogging despite having so much work, that's time management for u!! ;)

Late nite liners...

2006-03-13T19:02:00.001-05:00

Found this link yest. Has the huge list of one-liners from late-nite showmen Jay Leno, Conan O'Brian and David Letterman..Have fun!!

Newsmax.com

Personally, I am not such a big fan of Letterman, though Conan and Leno rock!

If it ain't broke..don't break it

2006-03-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

This link was found by my friend Jyo and we had a discussion abt this sometime back..Felt this article is worth to be mentioned in the blog and so I am posting it..

Click here for the article

Freestyle Motorsports!!

2006-02-21T23:49:00.000-05:00

Had been to the Freestyle Motorsports event held in our university arena a few days back. It was an awesome show with some of the best bikers from USA performing. I have managed to capture some pics and videos of the stunts and am presenting them below:

The stage is set

Some videos:

The guy in the above video performed some nice stunts of which I took some pics.

Here are some more videos:

This was one of the best performances with several 360 degree turns!!

For the best experience, be there to see it live!!

Mamoo!!

2006-02-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

Was browsing through some files when I found this photo I had downloaded some time back, but had never posted it before..The police "seem" to be on a environment protection drive..

Translation: "Use cycles - gain health" - Bangalore city traffic police.

Well, they say, "Practice what you preach"..I guess the rule does not apply to the mamoos!! ;)

The rise and fall of Plaza cinema

2006-02-15T15:13:00.000-05:00

If you are a Bangalorean, or lived in Bangalore even for a brief period of time, you obviously know what I am talking about. For others, Plaza is an old theatre complex on M.G.Road,in downtown Bangalore (closed now).

Why I am discussing this? Because, the location of Plaza will serve as a station for Bangalore Metro East-West corridor in the future. (Though the future is still far far away) and I am feeling both happy and sad. Anyway, the theatre was already closed and I believe a multiplex or a mall has opened there. Am I right guys?

The theatre premises used to be a venue for ball dances for English soldiers in 1930s. Later, it was converted to a movie theatre, screening mostly good movies first and later, only movies which sucked. No, I am not talking about B-grade movies, but basically, movies that sucked, not all, mind you. And I have been a victim of seeing only sad movies in this theatre. I dont know why, if ever a good movie was released, it was either exam time or it was already available on CD and I did not have enough money to watch it in the theatre. However, these movies were few in number. Some of the movies I remember watching in Plaza:

1) Chal mere Bhai - an insult to Hindi cinema and Sanjay Dutt, with routine acting by Salman Khan. This movie was "recommended" by Meghna who suffered first and then decided to turn sadistic for a while and wanted everyone else to suffer. I guess all the boys who came with me share my view.

2) Shaft - was that a movie? YUCK!

3) Sleepy Hollow - ok, this was not as bad as the 1st two, but still it was a comedy show of a horror movie, with Johhny Depp's acting the only saving grace. I can never forget the day we went to watch this movie. It was after internals and there was a large RV Gang on MG Road. Shailesh was with us and was all tensed up as one of his "girlfriends" had also turned up with her boyfriend and was sitting behind us, and this guy was getting lots of thoughts in his mind! ;)

4) MI2 - Another movie which sucked, though it had good action. No more comments on this.

5) Charlie's Angels - Do I need to tell more?

6) Hawas - 'B' grade Hindi movie, no, it should be 'D' grade. Apart from Bhagat Singh, when 4 movies with same story opened at same time, this came along with Murder and had the same story, and both were desi versions of an English movie, starring Richard Gere (I have forgotten the name, I have seen that movie as well)

I have been to some more movies but I am not able to recollect them.

But, as a matter of fact, this theatre has also shown a lot of good movies and was very popular in Bangalore, but that was before I was born. Some of them are Ten Commandments, Gone With the Wind, Godfather, Indiana Jones series, An Officer and a Gentleman,and of late, Meet the Fockers.

One more thing about the theatre was that it sucked and it was one of the worst theatres in Bangalore.

Anyways, now that this movie theatre is no more, I am kinda happy. But, somewhere inside, there is a tinge of sadness as I feel that I am going to miss this theatre now. This was a place I came regularly only with friends most often and many times during college, this was our meeting point. (After college, the meeting pt. got moved to Barista, just a stone's throw away).

Now lets hope that the Metro project gets completed soon, so that the meeting point can be Plaza station!! :)

Unmaad 06..

2006-02-03T13:35:00.000-05:00

was going through the e-paper when I noticed the event schedules for Unmaad-06, the annual IIMB fest and I was amazed!! Jethro Tull performing, Thermal and a quarter, the Pakistani band Jal, Sivamani, along with a host of other usual events!! and I am sitting here, missing the fest for the first time after last 2-3 years!! :((
people in bangalore, dont miss this given a chance...

Lose Control!!One more time

2006-02-01T13:09:00.000-05:00

(I'm a rebel..)
na koi padne wala, na koi seekhne wala,
apni to paathshala, masti ki paathshala...

These are the 1st few lines of the song which is present in every desi's MP3 player nowadays...and if you are one of those rare kinds who hasn't heard of these 2 lines so far, it's from the movie "Rang De Basanti", the latest Indian blockbuster movie and surely, one of the greatest..

The movie was released in the US last Friday and some of us from UT decided to go to the movie on Saturday. Oh, BTW, it was released in Atlanta, which is the nearest place for watching the movie, approx. 215 miles from knoxville. I had never imagined before that i'll travel 215 miles to watch a Hindi movie in a theatre!!

Anyways, there were 12 of us who were going and we had a Cherokee jeep and a Kia SUV. The jeep was the smoking section and the SUV, the non-smoking. (well, almost..). We had planned to leave at around 9 AM but left at around 10.45 AM, with all due respects to IST. The plan was to have lunch in Minerva, a famous Desi restaurant in Atlanta and later watch the movie, and then come back the same day.

We made an auspicious start by putting the same song mentioned in the subject line first, followed by all the latest Hindi hits. The journey was fun, and we reached Atlanta at around 2.20 PM and we were in Minerva at around 2.45 PM. It was a little late for the buffet lunch, and the chat section was wiped out, but the other sections were still there and I started hogging. Ate Idlis, Dosas, Pooris, Naan and sabjis, Gobi Manchurian, kesari bhath, pulao and gulab jamoon. The non-veggies had many other options. By the time I ate the last jamoon, my stomach was ready to burst, but what the heck, it was an awesome lunch!! :)

After the lunch, we went searching for the theater. Finally managed to find the theater, Galaxy cinema, after a long search at around 4.45 PM. Went and bought tickets for the 6 PM show. Ticket price was $8 (cost of a black ticket in India! ;)). We had around an hour to kill time, so we went to Global Mall nearby. BTW, Global Mall is a complete Indian Mall. Went around roaming there, thought I'll buy some chats, my stomach refused to comg along as it was house-full and so I decided to ditch it...and by 5.45, we left that place and went back to the theater (this is a Desi theater BTW, it was running RDB, Zinda, Bluffmaster and some Mallu Mammooty movie).

The theater resembled Plaza cinema in Bangalore. The crowd was okay and the movie started on time (no ads, thankfully). Once it started, all of us were mesmerized! This is one awesome movie. i guess most of you would have seen this already, atleast in India, but those who havent should not miss this. Every one has acted superbly in a superbly narrated story, a very novel idea.

The 1st half has loads of fun and laughter with Aamir at his best and even Sharman Joshi (remember Style?). Once the 2nd half starts, the movie becomes more serious with a major twist and during this time, the movie stirs your soul. There is one scene in which Aamir weeps after the death of his friend. One example of terrific acting, and also an instance where you can put yourself in his place and feel the pain. The ending has a little unncessary stuff, but, if you ignore that, the movie overall can be termed top-class and can compete with any top movie throughtout the world. There is one song Roobaroo and the timing for that song is amazing!! Music by A.R.Rehman is also top-class with amazing songs, which go along with the movie without interrupting the flow. Don't miss the movie!

Some funny things during the movie..
The movie has English subtitles and during the song Lose Control, the subtitle read, "Loose control.."
aamir refers to a kid by "eh chhote" and at that time, the sub-title reads "eh short-stuff"!! :)

After the movie, there were major arguments about the ending, where one person liked it and one did not and argument went on for some time. By the time, we left the place, it was around 9.30 PM and so we decided to start driving back to knoxville and have dinner somewhere on the way. The journey back was all RDB, discussions, songs played over again and again and enjoyed everytime by everyone. Had dinner on the way in a Denny's and reached Knoxville at around 1.45- 2 AM.

Overall, had a fantastic day, super lunch, super movie. complete paisa wasool!! :)

Childhood revisted..

2006-01-27T15:15:00.000-05:00

a group photo taken when I was in primary school..I am the tallest guy in the middle..

Another one, even older..but I had bunked this session! :) ..u can find some familiar faces found in the above photo..

A new achievement!

2006-01-22T13:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday me and my friend beat a Chinese pair in Table Tennis twice!! :) :)
(we lost 5 games though..but 3 of them were close, one went to deuce as well!)
and they were playing quite well actually!

All my hardwork during engineering to learn this game paid off!! ;)

Now, we have registered for a ping-pong tournament! (overconfidence??nah...participation matters!)

Epcot, Disneyland..

2006-01-15T18:16:00.000-05:00

...continued from previous mail.

We had 4 days in Tampa and out of this, 2 days were reserved for Orlando. We had to decide which 2 theme parks to go to in these 2 days. Disneyland itself had 4 theme parks, Epcot, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic kingdom. Also, there is Universal Studios, Sea World and also Kennedy Space Center nearby. We ruled out Magic Kingdom first as it is for kids. We also ruled out Kennedy Space Center as we decided to go for theme parks completely. After much confusion, we decided that from among the rest, we will go to Epcot and Universal Studios, as MGM is similar but not as good as Universal and Animal Kingdom does not have much rides or anything like that, and Sea World had to wait. Actually, my friend Preetham, in Tallahassee also referred to that. He kept saying Shamu is in Seaworld and I was wondering, who’s this guy Shamu? We do have a friend Shyam in India but what will he do in seaworld? Who else is there? Have I met him in Bangalore? All these questions were answered when I realized Shamu (atleast that’s what the name is, I think..) is the name of a whale which does lotsa tricks!!

Anyways, so we had decided Epcot and Universal. Since Meghna also hadn’t seen Universal, we thought we’ll go there on Thursday and Epcot on Tuesday. Meghna and Mahesh dropped us off at Epcot and picked us up again in the night, around 9.30 PM. This place, Epcot has the 2nd largest Parking lot in the world (or US??, whatever), so don’t worry about Parking problems before coming here. And there is a tram which takes us to the entrance from the parking lot!!

The Entrance to Epcot is a huge dome which is really huge! It has 2 main sections, one part containing most of the rides and shows and another, which is basically a showcase of different countries. Once we enter, we have to plan our day properly in order to enjoy the maximum and get a full worth for the $60 ticket per head. Now, the good thing here is that, you don’t have to stand in queue at all places all the time. At every sow entrance, it displays the approx. waiting time and a “Fast Pass” time. If you cant wait till waiting time, you can go to the Fast pass counter and insert your ticket and it will give you a time when you can come back and also a time, only after which you can use another fast pass for some other show, generally, is after a gap of around 2 hrs. So you have to decide where all to use fast pass and where all to stand in queue. Nice system!

We decided to finish most of the rides and shows before evening and then to the world showcase section. We first went to this ride, where they take you across time and show how communication evolved, starting from pre-historic age to the modern age. Nothing scary, just a nice little dark ride for starters. We then went to a future world which was a total waste as we waited 30 mins just to see a futuristic house demo, typical family stuff, and we would need to win a lottery twice to get all this stuff! Our next stop was “Mission Space”. This is a really good place where there is a simulation ride to space. As the rocket launches and you go up, you actually feel as if you are flying to space! You are part of a team and you need to press some buttons from a console in front of you when you are asked to do so to ensure that the rocket lands safely on Mars. We really enjoyed that ride. After that, we did some time pass playing some video games and recording some videos showing our face which will be added to a prerecorded cartoon video as if we are a part of it! Here are some links of those videos. (You might be required to install some plugin for viewing it.)

http://ms.go.com/retrieve?card_id=4B0685D64071C26F000050BE9E13A489 http://ms.go.com/retrieve?card_id=3D1E7D6F1043F012200914B1CA585673 http://ms.go.com/retrieve?card_id=502498F42551EC76917B96719003A5D9

A few more small shows later, we went to the show “Honey, I shrunk the audience” at the Imagination institute. This is a 4-D show and we will be wearing 3-D glasses to get the effect. This is an awesome show where the shrinking machine is targeted towards the audience and suddenly we feel as if we are very tiny as the characters on the screen are blown up. The 4th Dimension is basically a feeling effect, like mice running over you, and also, there is a dog which sprays water on us and actually, there is a sprinkling of water! So that was a very good show.

After this, we had one more ride, the GM test track left but we had it on Fast pass at around 7.30 PM and we had around 2 hrs to cover the world showcase. We first entered Canada and it had some restaurants and a waterfall, there was nothing special there. We next went to UK, and there was nothing there as well, except for a few English pubs and a castle. Next was France, and there was a replica of the Eiffel Tower but we could not go near that. There was also a show about France on a 180° screen and it was good. After that, we covered Morocco, Japan, Italy, Germany and 19th century USA. After that, was wild Africa, followed by China, and it was pretty good. We then entered Norwegian territory where we spent some time checking out different Viking helmets and swords. We finally rounded our world tour with Mexico, which was undoubtedly, the best. Situated inside a Mayan pyramid, there is a huge Mexican market with a boat ride which shows Mexico in full light as it goes along and was good. So, in around 2 hrs, we covered the entire world. Who needs 80 days for this?
The only bad things during this “trip” was my camera battery which went down and so the snaps came out bad as it was dark and flash was poor, and also the “hot” peanuts which we bought and which turned out to be sweet and bad! :(

After the world tour, we were pretty much tired as we had been walking all day, but we had the GM test track to cover. This is also an awesome ride. They show you all the tests which are performed on a car, like hi-speed braking, surviving crashes, different environments like extreme hot and cold and corrosive etc… After seeing them, we will see them practically as the cars we sit in are made to undergo these tests! The crash test and the speed test are particularly awesome, in which our car touches speeds more than 150-200 mph! let me tell you, life begins at 150 mph!!
After this, there was a car display in which you could actually sit in the car and take some snaps, and so it was time for some showoff. By then, it was around 8.30 PM and we rounded out trip with one last show which was something about universe and energy with TV host Ellen Degeneres hosting it.
Finally, there was a fireworks display which was really superb and I managed to capture a part of it on video (approx 1 min as I did not have enough memory left). The video weblink is given below:

http://www.youtube.com/?v=XJ4pyHuzIR4

It was 10.15 PM by the time everything got over and we were out. Meghna and Mahesh were waiting for us at the parking lot by then, and we left Orlando at around 10.30 PM and reached Tampa at around 12. All in all, a fantastic day, and we were in so much josh when we left Orlando that we were ready for another round, but by the time we reached Tampa, all our josh had sizzled away and hit the sack and fell asleep immediately.

Our next day was meant for local sightseeing and so we woke up pretty late. Lunch was a buffet at Udipi café! The buffet menu included Masala Dosa, Poori, ghee rice, carrot halwa among others and we savored it! Knoxville does not have any place like this except 2 lousy Indian restaurants serving bland food, so we never miss chances like these!

That afternoon, we went to a place called St. Petersburg (not the one in Russia), a nice town with an awesome beach with white sands, St. Pete beach! Before that, we went across Sunshine skyway, a superbly constructed cable-bridge and it kept my camera busy for a while. Some views of that bridge..

We could not swim in the beach as the water was cold but we did take some snaps of the sunset and it was a glorious sight.

We later had dinner at an Indian restaurant, run by an American! During this journey, I was again interrogated about my many “girlfriends” who do not exist. Wonder why I am only asked these things all the time??? My friends even selected my wedding venue and all I had to do was to arrive on time as they’ll do all the other hard work like inviting guests, arranging food and drinks, selecting a bride etc…! Anyways, we were back in Tampa early as we had to get up early the next day and go to Universal studios. All revved up for that trip, we called it a day. More about that trip coming soon...

Tallahassee and Tampa.

2006-01-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

We reached Tallahassee on Christmas morning. 5.15 AM to be exact. My friend Preetham came to pick us up from the station. We drove to his house and slept for a few hours, and got up at lunch time. Had lunch and then we guys went to play cricket in the tennis court. We later made plans to go to some "interesting" places that night but every thing was closed that day because it was Christmas! Man, I thought Christmas time was for celebrations everywhere but it was just the opposite! All the streets were empty and the only place which was open was Hooter’s and there was no place inside to even stand as it was filled with buggers like us! So we ditched all plans and decided to roam around Tallahassee and later go to the movies which was also open. We went to see the Capitol building (or tower) and took some snaps there. Some buggers were working that day too as only 1 floor was lit.

After that, we decided to go to the movie. But before that, we also found this Chinese buffet restaurant and had our dinner there and it was decent enough. All along, another friend of mine, Raghu who is also in Tallahassee was interrogating me to spill out all secrets about my love life, and the interrogations were hopeless as there was nothing :(. (Any babes out there reading this? U can contact me..)

So, the movie we decided to go goes by the name “King Kong” and is a hugely popular movie these days (wonder why? It’s just old wine in a new bottle… (hic)). For those who have seen the movie and liked it, no comments. For those who did not like it, join our group. For those lucky people who haven’t yet seen the movie, you do realize why you guys are lucky, don’t you?? Well, anyway, the movie is a slightly modified English version of the Hindi movie “Saajan” starring Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri and Salman. Surprised?? Yes, it TRUE!! The comparisons are told in the brackets. There is this hero (in place of Sanju Baba. Incidentally, even this guy is tall, slim with a long nose) who is in love with the heroine (in place of Madhuri) and is all caring for her while she doesn’t yet realize that and she is also an admirer of his plays (like his shayaris). All the action takes place in a deserted island (in place of Ooty) and filled with a set of “scary” tribal people (in place of the Ootians) who haven’t eaten a chocolate for years and mistakes the director’s hand for the chocolate when he offers one to them (unlike in Ooty, where they make chocolates!). So the scene is set, and suddenly, out of the blue, comes King Kong (in place of Salman) and starts jumping around & acting crazy (just like Salman, without clothes, but this guy used to wear them those days, but this is a new movie you see) and the heroine falls for him and a major love story develops between the heroine and King Kong . Our hero waits patiently till the end when King Kong sacrifices his love when he accidentally slips from the Empire State Building while prancing around with the heroine. (This was the modified part, Salman doesn’t slip and fall in the movie but just sacrifices). So hero and heroine are united at last!! See, just like Saajan, but a much sadder version of that.

To further prove my point, check out this photo and u'll realize..

By the end of the movie, even our state was somewhat like those tribes and so we decided to come back home and hit the sack as we had a long day ahead.

The next day, the plan was that Preetham will take us till Gainesville and Meghna will pick us up from there as it comes midway between Tallahassee and Tampa. Raghu also joined in for another round of interrogation. All along the 2 hr journey, we had a lot of fun and a mini chase with some redhead in a chevy and reached Gainesville by noon. Meghna and her hubby Mahesh arrived after a while and we took leave of Preetham and Raghu. The drive to Tampa was Nostalgic time as me, Megz and Nidhi discussed our college days while Mahesh was getting bored and Deepak fell asleep. 7 out of 10 times, the discussions involved Muddy (cant help it dude, u were so popular! ;)), not just that day, but every time we discussed college. We reached Tampa in the evening and it had beautiful weather which reminded us of Bangalore (sigh….). Megz hasn’t changed one bit in nature but she definitely has turned into a great cook!
That night, we had a taste of good Pulao and to complement that, there was this Hindi movie ‘Kyun Ki’ starring Salman (not the gorilla, but Salman himself, not that it matters… but the gorilla is a better actor). In this movie, he plays a madman and so he was very sober throughout except for some occasional scenes during the flashback when he’s not yet mad. And there is also Kareena, Jackie and Om Puri who are all doctors but behave like madmen while the patients are more normal. After seeing this movie, I began to get serious doubts as to which is worse, this or King Kong!! I decided to award that to this movie because King Kong atleast had good special effects!! So 2 bad movies in a row…

The next day we decided to go to Epcot, Disneyland in Orlando which is an hour’s drive from Tampa. Meghna and Mahesh could not join us as they had some work and so they dropped us off at Epcot and picked us up at night. More about Epcot in the next post. Till then, do drop in the comments…

Vikas and Srinidhi go to chatpatti - Start of a very long adventure

2006-01-10T13:12:00.000-05:00

It was decided a long time ago that we will be going to florida for christmas vacations. So after a lot of deliberations, me, Nidhi and deepak, my roomie decided to start our journey from atlanta on 24th december.

The action plan for the day was to have heartful of chats in a famous resturant called chatpatti in Atlanta, GA. As good ex-s/w engineers, we didnt make any concrete plan but decided to go with the situation. As usual we didnt take any address. And also we decided to travel by marta which is the subway train service.

we met in one of the subway stations and decided to keep all our luggages in a locker. First we checked out the greyhound stop but the lockers there were not working. We decided to go to the airport. Al these times, we were travelling by marta. If you are in atlanta, please travel by marta - It is not the greatest of experience but you will thank it anyways..

We deposited our luggages in the airport. Venkataramana Yellagondanahalli Vikas, thats me, decided to give my name at the counter. The counter guy blinked for 5 complete seconds and wrote down the name VY Vik.

This was just the start we never expected and dictated the mood for the rest of the day.

We had no clue about any indian resturant in atlanta as even Nidhi’s cousin who is in Atlanta was out of town. After getting some basic info from Kanth about the whereabouts of that place, we called up the Chatpatti people but they themselves did not know where they are located or how to reach their place from the nearest Marta station!! Not knowing what to do, we gave up our desire to eat Chats unlike Harold and Kumar as we also had to catch the bus to Tallahassee, Florida in a few hours. If not, maybe even we might have found some chick with a screwed-up husband or some despo TV star!

Neways, that did not happen but all we found was some scary and hefty looking Kallus who used to come and start talking to us and begging for some money. One said that he did not mean to scare us in a scary way, and another said that he does not like stealing on Christmas eve…boy, those guys were scary and u can get freaked out by their size itself!! we just decided to ignore them and walk on and look for more crowded places.

Meanwhile, our hunt for some other Desi restaurants near downtown continued. I was positively sure that there is one somewhere around as I had seen it in the afternoon while I had gone looking around for a restroom...(even the f*****g toilets were closed!!!). We finally found the restaurant named “Haveli” (after I found a restroom which was open, in the bus station…) but it was closed and the board said that it will open again at 5.30 (not 6). We came back at 5.30 and waited for a while but it was still closed!! So we decided to go back to the airport, roam around there, look out for chicks and also have some dinner there itself, and collect the bags and come back. No chats or Indian food that day for us and we had to settle for a pizza at Domino’s, but we made a vow that we will eat at Chatpatti’s after we come back from Florida!!!

We finally collected our bags and returned to the bus station around 9 PM while the bus was scheduled for 11.15 PM and so we had plenty of time to kill. And we somehow managed to kill it. Also, the bus was late by half-hour so more waiting for us. We finally left Atlanta around 11.45 PM to Tallahassee to begin a long, eventful trip…

Fall colors of my university...

2005-11-23T15:38:00.000-05:00

Some snaps of fall colors in my university (UT, Knoxville)...

The pathway near my office...

View of the hill area. 4 trees, all different colors!!!

Some more colors....

nice view of downtown with diff tree colors

View of the hills and the lake

and finally...

Thats me amidst fallen leaves..

Karnatakada bandugalu

2005-11-23T00:14:00.000-05:00

English Band	Karnataka Version	Complexity
ACDC	CurrentuByattree	High
Aha	Oho	Killer
All Saints	Yella Saadhugale	Low
Audio Slave	Dhvani Gulaama	Low
BabyFace	MaguMaka	Low
Back Street Boys	Hind beedhi huduguru	Low
Bad Boys Blue	Neeli Poli huduguru	Medium
Bad Company	Kettu Kharkane	Medium
Baker Street	Iyengar Raste	High
Bananarama	Devuru Baalehannu	Killer
Barenaked ladies	Nagnavaadhu Hengusuru	Low
Billy Idol	Bekkina Vigraha	High
Black crowes	Kappu Kaagigalu	Low
Black Sabbath	Kari Sabbakki bathu	High
Blind Melon	Kurudu Kalangri	High
Chemical Brothers	Rasayane sodharegalu	High
ColdPlay	ChaliAta	Low
Collective Soul	Atma Chow Chow	High
Color me badd	Kettudage banna haki	High
counting Crows	Enuso kaagigalu	Low
Creed	Vichara	High
Culture Club	Samskaradha Ispet Kendra	Killer
Cutting Crew	Hajam Nan makalu	High
Deep Blue Something	Aallla Neeli eno	High
Def Leppard	Kivdu Chirute	Low
Dire Straits	Sakkath Ayomaya	High
Duran Duran	Maadu Ood-dha Maadu Ood-dha	High
Eagles	Garuda	Low
Everything but the Girl	Figar bittu bere yalla	Medium
Faith Hill	Nambike Betta	Medium
Faster Pussycat	Bega bekku	High
Fine Young Cannibals	Valle yuva nara-bakshakaru	High
FireHouse	Benkimane	Low
Fools Garden	Huchura udhyanavana	Medium
FourPlay	Nalaku Jana Aadodhu	High
Garbage	Kachada	Low
Gipsy Kings	Lambadi Raja	Killer
Go West	Paschima Hogi	Medium
GodSmack	Devuru Kapala	Medium
Goo goo dolls	gugoo (peddu) gombegalu	Killer
Grateful Dead	Aabhari Sattavaru	High
Greenday	Hasuru Dhina	Low
HoobaStank	Yarappa bittidhu?	High
INXS	Solpa Jaasthi Aithu	High
Iron Maiden	Kabna-dha Kanya	Medium
Journey	Prayana	Low
Kansas	Krishnan maavan-dhu	Killer
Linkin Park	Jodso Udyana	High
Little River Band	Chikka Nadhi Baaja	Low
Lou bega	Ousara	Killer
Matchbox 20	Benkipatna ippathu	Medium
Maxi Priest	Langa-ony Poojari	High
Meat Loaf	Mamsada thundu	Medium
MegaDeth	Vishaala-Saavu	Medium
Metallica	Kabna-nekkan-a?	High
Modern Talking	Aadunika Maathu	Medium
Moody Blues	Neeli Feelingu	Medium
Naughty by Nature	Modhlinda Thunturu	High
NickelBack	Childre vapas	Medium
No Doubt	Anumanane illa	Medium
Noble Savages	Punyathma baddi makalu	Killer
Papa Roach	Jirle appa	Medium
Pearl Jam	Mutthina Gojju	High
Pet Shop Boys	Saakuva Praani Angadi Huduguru	High
PM Dawn	Sandhye-ne Bellagge	Killer
Radio Head	Aakasha Vani Thale	Medium
Rainbow	Indradhanusu	Low
Red Hot Chilli Peppers	Bisi Bisi Kempu Menasinkai galu	Medium
Red Nex	Kempu Kathu	Low
Roxette	Yella Thara Kallu	Killer
Rush	Bega	Low
Salt N Pepa	Uppu Kara	Low
Scorpions	Chhelugalu	Low
Seal	Mucchu	Killer
Simply Red	Sumne Kempu	Medium
six pence none the richer	aaru kaasu astay saaku	High
Smashing Pumpkins	Vadadhuhogthairo Kumblekaigalu	Medium
Smashmouth	Moothi vadee	High
Snoop Doggy Dogg	Thika-nai-mari	Killer
Soul Asylum	Atma ke Lodge	High
Spice Girls	Sambhara Hudigiru	High
StarShip	Nakshatradha Dhoni	Medium
Stone Temple Pilots	Kallidha Devasthanada Pushpaka chalakaru	Killer
Take That	Thogo Adhu	Medium
Tears For Fears	Bhayake Kaneeru	High
The Byrds	Pakshigalu	Low
The Police	Hoysala	High
The Who	Yaaru	Low
Third Eye Blind	Moorne Kannu Kurudu	Medium
U2	Ninu kuda?	High
UB40	Mallya Nalavatthu	Killer
Uncle Cracker	Vadiyo mama	Medium
Uriah Heep	Shagni Kuppe	Medium
Weather Report	Vaathavarna Soochane	Medium
wet wet wet	vadday vadday vaddy	Low
Yes	Howdu	Low

Bands banned in Karnataka, Translation Problems.
Jamiroquai
Jethro Tull
Antharax
Queensryche
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Credence Clearwater Revival

Bands that have always been welcome, (Names already sound like kannada)
Beck	Cat	Pre-Trans
Nelly	Tap	Pre-Trans
Madonna	Shall we?	Pre-Trans

The "Vikas" Identity

2005-11-18T16:48:00.000-05:00

No..this is not the latest book by Robert Ludlum..rather, it is about this guy called Vikas, that's me, whoz kinda lost his "identity" in the US of A. How, you ask? Read on...

Firstly, this is a crazy place where people are tightly bound to the rules of calling someone by their firstname and lastname (I had also posted an article abt this once, remember??), and right from the day I have landed in US, I've had problems with my name. For those who do not know, my entire name as per the passport reads:
(Given Names) Venkataramana Vikas
(Last Name)Yelagondanahalli
Some examples of reactions which people have had reading my name...
My first day while registering, at the International Students House: Your name!!... Your Name!! God!
At the Social Security Office:
Officer:While you were 4 years old, did your parents ask you to remember THIS name??
Me: No, in India, I go by Vikas.Y.V.
Officer: Oh, thank goodness me!!!
My VLSI prof: So you are the guy with the super long name!!
Another Prof, reading out my name: Yel..Yala...Yalago...(triumphantly)Yalagondanaal!!!

With all these problems, I advice people to call me by my First Name, Vikas which is much easier. If they can do that well, my identity would still remain intact..but how do people call me????
They call me Vikas (Pronouned: Y Kus), or Vikas (Pronouned: Veee Kus). Can't help it. Viking is spelt as "Y King" and not "V King"...A few days I tried correcting them and told them the actual pronounciation, but after a while I gave up.

Recently I met a guy from Sri Lanka and we were talking and he asked my name. I pronouned my name as VeeKus, so he asked, Vikas? (The Indian way!). That's when i realized I have lost my identity...

An exhilerating experience...just missed

2005-08-25T15:51:00.000-04:00

You all must have heard the proverb..."u got food in your hand but you couldn't put it in your mouth".Well, something similar happened to me.

My orientation ended recently with a trip to a camp near the Smoky mountains, a really beautiful place and a 45 min drive from my college, though we did not exactly go to the mountains. It was a nice trip but the journey was not like how we have in India, with Dumb C, antakshari etc..., it was just sit and talk as there was a mixture of a few Indians, lots of chinese and a bit of europeans and canadians.

The place was good, as soon as we went there, we had some salads and bread to eat (for veggies, non veggies had lot of choices), followed by some activities like canoeing, riflery, wall climbing, zip line(going from one end of the rope to another end at a lower elevation tied from the top) etc..we wanted to go canoeing but the bus was full, someone said there's gonna be a 2nd trip later, so we went to riflery. That part is run by a guy who's a shooter in the US military. The targets were not some 100 balloons in front of you like in India. It was a sheet of paper with those usual concentric circles, 50m or 50 ft away (dunno exactly) and we had to wear those googles, headphones etc. and shoot them. Well, my career as a sniper is out of the question...I missed all 5 as I could not even make out the target properly with goggles over my goggles!well, we went back for canoeing, they said, no more trips :(

well, we went to zipline and wall climbing instead, but it was so crowded we ditched it. we went swimming then. man, what an awesome sight that was! we were swimming along with blonde babes in bikinis and playing waterpolo with them ;). this went on for about 2 hrs..

Then we went to archery, I was much better in bows and arrows, infact i even hit a bull's eye (almost), came back for dinner and had lasagna.After dinner, there was some group activity where we were supposed to talk about our expectations and aims and some bullshit like that, that took a lot of time. there were 5 topics, but it was cut down to 3 (thankfully!).

By then it was dark, around 8.30 PM (it gets dark only then). There were 3 options for us then, a bonfire (no way!), a night swim (hmm. interesting..), but we took the 3rd option, the V-swing.

There were 8 of us for this, 7 indians and 1 chink. now, this V-swing requires 8 ppl, 7 to pull a rope and 1 person to swing. First you'll have to wear all protective straps, then go up a ladder where there is a rope and they'll tie you to that. then, all of us, will start pulling a rope tied to him and he is carried upwards, more than 100 ft from the ground. then he jerks the rope open and starts swinging like tarzan!! the best part of that is, it is pitch dark and in the middle of a forest and we swing from a rope for around 5-8 mins!!! one by one, 3 guys and the chink finished swinging, I was next in line, all ready with straps and helmet etc.. The time was 9.35 PM, we were supposed to go back at 9.45 PM. everybody thought I'll finish it and probably the next guy in line. The person before me gave us a scare first, he started swinging, went some where and did not even shout! and after a while, he realized that and we heard a 'Aaaaahhhhhh....' from the trees and he came swinging back, much to our relief. Anyway, he finshed, I was all set, and then..the damned rope got stuck somewhere in the trees and they started looking for it, and after a few mins, they said, "guys, its gonna take some time, please remove your harness and get back to the main area, or u'll miss the bus!!" man, I was so f.....g close!! :(

All in all, an exhilerating experience...just missed in the end.

My Pre-US experience

2005-08-14T13:23:00.000-04:00

Hello everybody, I am in the US right now, Knoxville, Tenn to be precise, enrolled for an MS degree. So far I haven't had any interesting adventures as I am just settling in, but I am confident there are loads of things to come in the future.

Right now, I am hunting for part time jobs, though I have got one as a tutor for undergraduates( This is a little tricky one. I get paid by no. of students per hour, e.g. 8 students, $8 per hour, something like that. The problem is, this is not a regular class, only extra tutorials. If 1 student bunks, I get $1 less that day, also, students who register pay only for classes they attend. Also, getting 8 students is no easy task!!). Anyways, I might get some other job at Dining, tech support etc... and if I get one, I'll take that.so thats my life right now...

I had resigned from Infy on the 6th of July itself and sat at home for a month. Before that, I had taken 20 days leave(LOP) for "preparing" for my Masters. But the only thing I did in those 20 days was watch some 100 movies, hog like a pig and gain a few kgs. So i decided to compensate by working harder after the resignation. So first day, I actually took out a book on electronic circuits, got stuck for an hour trying to understand how equation 1 got differenciated to equation 2, left all hopes after 1 hour and threw away the book. Did not touch study books for the next few days, while I again started watching movies, but was also shopping for some time.Meanwhile, mom started to teach me cooking and I showed deep interest in that. Now, I have learnt so many dishes that i can start a catering service business here!! But i think I need a B1 visa for that ;)

After a few days, I took out the book on digital design and started studying. This time I was stuck with K-Maps (not that i struggled, I started solving all exercise problems just for fun). After a while I realised, it is not so important and proceeded further.

My dental experience:
My visit to the dentist is one thing I can never forget (who'll forget??). The doctor has a huge clinic and it looks really good. He is also a professor and gets many students to his clinic to explain things. BTW, all students were girls, some babes also!When I went inside, there was a patient withhis mouth wide open and the doctor and some 5 girls seeing inside. I sneered at the man's plight. Well, my turn came and the doctor told all the girls to examine me!! I got shit scared, being treated like a guinea pig by final year students!! luckily, the girl who treated me had some experience and did a good job, though I gave her a tough time, she admitted later. BTW, I had some 15 cavities!! (2 months in switzerland, atleast 4 chocolates a day, chocolate supply athome for next 1.5 months. 15 is a small no.). All the 15 cavities were filled in the same day and it took 1.5 hrs, with my mouth fully open most of the time. OMG, that was one horrible day!!

My other visits to doctors went fine, I had to make a lot of visits in the end as I caught viral fever with one week to go. had all sorts of medication one can think of, but now I think i am allright.

In the meanwhile, we had some gettogethers, the class one did not go well, because of have rains. Only me, nidhi, Harris and Yogs met up on a sunday evening and later, most of the other guys at the airport, that too for 5 mins. Had a big problem with excess baggage and started throwing things, some back to mom, some in my friends bag, some in my cabin baggage etc..Anyways, thanks guys, all those who came to the airport to see me off. I never had the chance to talk properly then.

My flight was Ok. Met a friend of mine in mumbai who came to the airport and we went to dinner and had pav bhaji. Well, all those who want to taste pav bhaji of aamchi mumbai and think Bangalore is bad (many people in Infy were complaining about the abd quality in Bangalore compared to mumbai), think again. It tasted the same. nothing special. Anyways, London was boring. Sat for 5 hrs doing nothing as the airport is expensive. Even to browse the internet, i had to shell out 1 pound! Anyway, I had a friend for company and a book, and I spent time. From London to Chicago, there were some good movies in the flight like Kung fu hustle, some jlo movie, monster-in-law, million $ baby among others. Chicago is a real busy airport, and immigration took more than an hour. Anyway, I had lots of time for the next flight and everything went smoothly. The local flights there are real small, 40 seater capacity and they do not serve anything other than juice and peanuts. Well, not a big problem, and I landed in Knoxville at 10.39 PM, Indian students had come to pick me up, so went with them to the apartment.

Well, hopefully everything goes well and I get assistantships ASAP. do pitch in the comments (i know there is nothing special in this post, wrote it just for the heck of it. No posts for a long time, thats why).

Cheers,
Vicky

Sequel to the sequel

2005-07-14T03:10:00.000-04:00

So many days have gone past since I wrote the 1st part of my 2nd trip experience to Switzerland. Frankly speaking, I myself have forgotten what happened in the rest of the trip. But I am completing this for the sake of completeness, and also for the very small percentage of people who seemed interested. I have tried my best. This one is a real test for my memory.

so where did we end last time?
(scroll down)
.
hmmm...ok
(scroll up)
.
So after having visiting the art museum and all, the next week was spent with me most of the time in office, many time going out for dinner and then coming back to work till 1 AM types, though we went bowling one night and it was awesome! The bowling alleys are dark but the pins, the ball glow in the dark and it is quite a different experience from the amoebas and the megabowls here.(Latest News Update: Infy Mysore also has a similar bowling alley now!)

The next weekend, we went to Luzern for a boat ride in lake Luzern. This is one awesome place, the lake and the boat ride. During the ride, there are many mountains like Mt.Pilatus, Titlis etc... and the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful. By this time, I had bought a digicam but took my normal camera that day which had only 10 shots left, thinking it just a lake and some scenery, more than enough. One of the biggest mistakes of my life. Anyways, our boat dropped us at a place called Vitznau if I remember right. From there it continues till Brunnen, another beautiful place with a small village along the lake and a Fjord formation. We thought of roaming around in Vitznau for an hour, maybe sit in a pub or cafe till the boat comes back and then catch it to head back home.

In Vitznau, we saw this small cogwheel train and we were interested. When we enquired, they said it is a mountain train and goes to another mountain, Mt.Rigi. We decided to take that train and take the next ship after 1.5 hours as we still had lot of time and it was around 4 PM still. Now, how can I forget this place. If heaven was on earth, it would be there, atleast for some time!
As the train goes up, since it is ascending a mountain at an angle, everything looks inclined outside, the mountains, lake, everything! and what a beautiful view of the lake and mountains! Terrific!We spent some time in Rigi and decided to come back by cable car which was operating that time. and that is another wonderful experience, as it comes down, you feel you are falling down! Anyway, we came down and took the boat, and this boat was unique. It was working on the piston-shaft principle which made the turbines to rotate and take the boat forward. and these were not small, they were huge. Not as huge as those shown in Titanic, but relatively huge. The boat itself was pretty big and we could call that a mini ship, with 2 decks, cafetaria etc....Then we took the train back to Basel after getting down the boat in Luzern, bringing an end to a wonderful weekend.

Again, the week was filled with loads of work, and I had to interact daily with someone from the client side, who acted like a joker, and a guy from a rival company also providing part of services to the same client. This client guy was really strange, and dumb. He works only from Monday to Wednesday and is off on the other days. And on these 3 days, he wears the same set of clothes, a red Corduroy shirt and a cream Corduroy pant and sneakers. And he was wearing the same dress for 3 continuous weeks, and also for the next 3 weeks, my friend there told me. I think he spends the long weekend washing them. On the other hand, the rival company guy was speaking in a tone more monotonous than a robot, and was very irritating. We used to hate him big time.

During this week, one of my colleagues was looking for a house and had the following conversation over the phone with someone he thought was a house owner, the no. he got from the net somehow.
C - colleague, O- other person on the phone (he was speaking in broken english, with european accent of course, but I am mentioned more or less what we heard)
C - Hi, I am looking for an apartment
O - ok, you need an apartment!
C - yes. I work in Hammerstrasse and I am looking for something close by..
and the conversation went on for some 5-8 mins and we could not understand anything.
..after some time...
C - ok, I want to come and see the apartment today
O- Yes. you can come today!
C - Thank you. What is the rent for the apartment? the cost?
O - Ok, the cost is 35 CHF (swiss francs)
C - 35 CHF!!! (thinking - either this is a steal in broad daylight or something's gone terribly wrong)
C - ok. Is this a house for rent?
O - No, this is a hairdressing saloon.
by this time, we were all ROTFL while he was looking like a fool!
C - I am sorry. I do not want the apartment.
O - Oh. I am sorry you had to cancel the appointment.
Moral of the story: Listen carefully, learn local language, don't trust the internet for everything.

Another instance.
This happened to me when I went to a shop having a sale on bags and suitcases. I just wanted to know how long the sale will be held.
M - Me, S - shopkeeper
M - Guten Mitaak (good afternoon)
S - Guten Mitaak
M - English?
S - Nein. (No)
M - Ok. Ich (I) need large bag. (I am not good in German. I just know some basic words)somehow she understood bag and started showing me some bags
M- No sale, no sale. how many tagen rabat? (how many days discount)
dumbass she is, she did not understand that.
S - Rabat? Yes, rabat..this one, this one (in german)
M- Noooo! no sale. HOW MANY TAGEN RABAT?
S - Rabat? Yes, rabat on this one (and she started showing me those bags again)
after a few more tries in asking her and failing, I was fed up, my friend was laughing at my plight, the shopkeeper was very confused and I decided to chuck that and come after a few days and buy it off if the sale was still being held.
A little gyan: Wie viele (pronounced Vee feealay) is the german equivalent for how many. I learnt later.

Well, back to my "adventures". I had one more weekend left in Switzerland and I knew I won't get another chance, atleast for the time being as I was planning to resign on coming back. So we decided to visit some place that weekend. We had planned on Meiringen, a very beautiful place with deep gorges and the Riehenback falls, where Sherlock Holmes dies according to the book. But as the weathermen predicted rain in that area, we decided to go to another place called Appenzall or Appenzellerland. Now, I remembered seeing this name somewhere but could not remember where. I got the answer recently when i was checking some old mails and this place was part of a mail whose subject line was something like "Some places you need to see in your life", along with some other beautiful places in the world.

Now, this place is a very traditional place. You get to see the traditional swiss culture only in this place. The houses, the streets, the restaurants, all are quite different from ones in Basel, Zurich etc..There is greenery everywhere. A really beautiful place and a must see for all those who have planned a trip to Switzerland for a few days. This place has got some good restaurants but they are different from the other conventional ones, though we did find a Pizzeria onthe way back. The menu was in German and from the words, it lokked like only ham, pork, veal etc.. available there. Luckily, one restaurant had a small veg menu also and some of us veggies ordered spring rolls (one of the best I have eaten so far), while one of them ordered thai rice (same thing), veg curry and banana chutney which was available!!
Highlight of the day: I was posing for a snap in my digicam (this time I was not so stupid) in front of a huge field and I knelt down and caught hold of a wire for support. It turned out to be a live wire fence! Luckily, it was Sunday and it was switched off!! (wonder why?). Anyways, I would have been dead meat that day and this story would never have been written...

The last week in office was to be my last onsite assignment week from Infy and there were some celebrations, some treats from my side (Those guys demand treat for everything. I almost ended up treating breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 continuus days!). Work was hectic though. My last day was pretty tough as I took some time off in the evening to buy the chocolates and the suitcase and so I had to work late to finish it. Worked till 10.30 PM, then left to a pub where my friends were waiting, sat there till 12 AM,went towards home but my colleague who stayes in the same building in another floor invited us for some tea, sat there talking and sipping tea till 1.30 AM till my colleague got bored and threw us out as she wanted to sleep, then me and my friend contemplated on going to those "interesting" places but we decided otherwise as I had to catch the 6 AM train to Zurich and I still had not packed. Was done with packing by 3.30 AM, slept till 5.00 and left home by 5.30 to the railway station to head back home.Had a lot of problems coming back like excess baggage, army knife in cabin baggage etc...but finally I reached home safely (not before having a small accident on good ol' Mysore road), thus bringing an end to an amazing trip.

Whew! I have remembered most of it! Thanks for being patient!! :)

Vikas

Sequel

2005-05-08T23:54:00.000-04:00

Hi there,

Here I am, back again to describe the sequel to my first article 'Why Yash Chopra....'. Those who have read the 1st part will be knowing about the things that happened last time, for those who haven't read...read them, lazy bums...I do not have the patience to do a recap. BTW, the old disclaimer should hold good for this also...be careful.

Well, to begin with, I was given another assignment in Basel and I was to go there for 1.5 months, I celebrated the news by attending Mark Knopfler's show the same day after giving an excuse in office. Unfortunately, my flight tickets and visa did not arrive on time and I had to postpone my trip by 4 days. I was patient enough and the big day came..again. No irritating passengers sitting next to me this time, thank god! (Part 1, remember), no babes either but :(.

Landed in Zurich without problems, took the train to Basel, had a seat when a girl in front of me who looked Indian invited me over to her seat. Turned out that she was a South African. Just chatted with her for some time and then both of us got bored. Anyway, the journey was only 1 hr, so no big deal.
After checking in to my apartment, refreshed myself and left for office. Had a good start there, 2 projects were signed off after UAT and it was treat time followed by onsite project party..Had the privilege of attending both onsite and offshore project parties! :) Got a chance to taste the "real" Black Forest icecream, Boy, that was good!! what we get here is crap after tasting that.

Highlight of the party: the large pizza ordered by my colleague and his wife which was meant for 2 according to the menu, but was actually meant for 10, according to its size!! 2 people had to carry it over to them. In the meanwhile, I made a foolish remark that I like olives ( I meant those tiny black olive pieces which we get here) and everybody started putting green olives (full fruit, not a piece) in my plate which tasted yuck!!

Well, more good news was to follow when i came to know we had 4.5 days holidays next week for Easter. So 7 of us decided to go to Lugano Friday morning, a beautiful place bordering Italy. As it was holiday season, we could not stay in proper Lugano, but we got a house in a place called Ponte Cremanaga, which was 5 mins from Italian checkpost. A beautiful house, planned superbly, we could never believe that it could hold 7 beds along with hall, kithen and bathroom from outer appearence! BTW, you can check the photo of the house and the places in the yahoo! link http://photos.yahoo.com/vikasyv_2000 and select Swiss Tour 2.

Lugano is a very beautiful place with Lake Lugano and few mountains which we could hike. Sadly, it was raining Saturday for most of the day, so our entire morning was confined to our house, sipping tea, playing games and having fun. Noon, we set out to the lake and took a walk to a place called Caslano along the lake and then we did a bit of hiking on one of the mountains, but could not do much as it was raining and it was slippery.

Sunday morning, we decided to go to Locarno, another beautiful place close to Lugano. From there, we decided to go to a place called Valle Maggia, which looked really good on the brochures. After getting down at the stop, we looked around for info. But as it was Easter Sunday and everything was closed, we had absolutely no clue as to where to go. Just walked around, found a nice river which was filled with stones and ice cold water..took some snaps and left the place by noon after lunch as we had to come back to basel by night. Overall, not much adventure, but a nice relaxing trip.
Some info: Switzerland does not have its own culture and generally will be similar to the neighbouring country to which the town or city is located. In Basel, everything is German, place is clean, dogs are polite etc...However, in lugano, everything is Italian, not so clean, dogs start barking etc...which reminds us of India.
Fart in Swiss Italian means Travel in English. I was really confused wherever I saw a bus stop in Locarno as I saw the message "Fart Locarno". Somehow I felt the atmosphere as not so good around...;)

Monday was a record day for me. I was in 3 different cities on the same day! Let me explain...In basel, there is an annual exhibition known as Baselworld where people all over the world(mostlyIndia and China) come to exhibit their diamond jewellery and watches. During this time, there is no accomodation available for us, so I had booked a hotel in a city called Olten, around 40 km from basel. (Takes 35 mins avg by train, still much better than travelling from my house to E-city by bus). So Monday morning, I had to checkout form my basel (count =1) apartment and travel to Olten(count++) with all my luggage. Checked in there, had lunch, had no clue as to what to do there and so I decided to go to Bern(count++). Bern is a beautiful city, in a U shape and bordered by a canal along the 'U' and a complete covered market. All along the city, there are fountains and monuments. At the end after crossing the canal, there is a small hill with a rose garden from where u can view the entire city...Awesome!
so after a nice journey, came back to Olten (to Basel for dinner, in effect, count = 5) in preparation for a long week ahead...

The next weekend was spent in Basel, roaming over the city, visited some Art museum, compared the last supper of Da Vinci with the paintings there. There is so much difference between them, like a holy "grail" in the middle, 13 men, no lady etc... that my respect for Da Vinci grew by leaps and bounds!!
I was in office as well on both days for sometime..so the weekend passed away without much action.

More to come later...First some feedback on this. till then
Adios!!

Nice article by Dave Barry

2005-02-25T05:41:00.000-05:00

Survival of mankind rides on the successful pickup line

BY DAVE BARRY

This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Sept. 26, 1999.

So I was at this party, and I wound up at a table where three attractive
single women were complaining about - Surprise! - men. Specifically, they
were complaining about the pickup lines that had been used on them in a bar
a few nights earlier.

One woman said: ''This guy comes up to me and says, 'Are you a teacher?' I
mean, is that supposed to be romantic?''

All three women rolled all six of their eyes.

Another one of them said: ''This guy says to me, 'I've been looking at you
all night!' So I go, 'Hel-LO, we just GOT here.'''

At this point all three women - and I want to stress that these are
intelligent, nice women - were laughing. Not me. I was feeling bad for the
guys.

I realize that there are certain hardships that only females must endure,
such as childbirth, waiting in lines for public-restroom stalls, and a
crippling, psychotic obsession with shoe color. Also, females tend to reach
emotional maturity very quickly, so that by age 7 they are no longer capable
of seeing the humor in loud inadvertent public blasts of flatulence, whereas
males can continue to derive vast enjoyment from this well into their 80s.

So I grant that it is not easy being a female. But I contend that nature has
given males the heaviest burden of all: the burden of always having to Make
the First Move, and thereby risk getting Shot Down. I don't know WHY males
get stuck with this burden, but it's true throughout the animal kingdom.

If you watch the nature shows on the Discovery Channel, you'll note that
whatever species they are talking about - birds, crabs, spiders, clams
it is ALWAYS the male who has to take the initiative. It's always the male bird
who does the courting dance, making a total moron of himself, while the
female bird just stands there, looking aloof, thinking about what she's
going to tell her girlfriends. (''And then he hopped around on one foot!
Like I'm supposed to be impressed by THAT!'').

Male insects have it the worst. The Discovery Channel announcer is always
saying things like: ''After the mating, the female mantis bites off the male
mantis' head, and then she and her girlfriend mantises use it to play a game
that looks a lot like Skee Ball.''

Because I live in Florida, my patio is basically a giant singles bar for
lizards. On any given day during mating season, I'll see dozens of male
lizards out there making their most suave lizard move, which consists of
inflating and deflating a red pouch under their chins. They seem to think
that female lizards really go for a guy with a big chin pouch, but I have
never once, in 14 years of close observation, seen a female respond.
They just squat there looking bored, while all around them males are blinking on
and off like defective warning lights.

Every now and then you'll see an offbeat TV news story about some animal,
usually a moose, that has for some reason fallen in love with, and decided
to relentlessly court, something totally inappropriate, such as a lawn
tractor. This animal is ALWAYS a male. On the TV, they show it hanging
around the lawn tractor with a big, sad, moony look, totally smitten, while
the lawn tractor cruelly ignores it.

My point here is that, in matters of the heart, males have the brains of a
walnut. No, wait! That is not my point. My point is that perhaps you women
could cut us males a little bit of slack in the move-making process, because
we are under a lot of stress. I vividly remember when I was in 10th grade,
and I wanted to call a girl named Patty and ask her to a dance, and before I
picked up the phone, I spent maybe 28 hours rehearsing exactly what I was
going to say. So when I actually made the call, I was pretty smooth.

''Hello, Dance?'' I said. ''This is Patty. Do you want to go to the Dave
with me?''

Fortunately Patty grasped the basic thrust of my gist and agreed to go to
the dance. This was a good thing, because if she had shot me down, I would
have been so humiliated that I would have never have been able to go back to
school. I would have dropped out of 10th grade and lied about my age and
joined the U.S. armed forces, and as a direct result the Russians would have
won the Cold War.

That is the awesome power that you women have over us men. I hope you
understand this, and the next time a guy walks up and uses some incredibly
lame, boneheaded line on you, I hope that, instead of laughing at him, you
will remember that he is under the intense pressure of wanting to impress
you enough so that you might want to get to know him better and maybe
eventually, perhaps within the next 15 minutes, mate with him, thereby
enabling the survival of the human race, which believe me is the only thing
that we males are truly concerned about.

In conclusion, let me just say to all females everywhere, on behalf of all
males everywhere, that you are very beautiful and your eyes are like two
shining stars, unless you're a female fly, in which case your eyes are more
like 2,038 shining stars. So please give us a chance. And if you're not
interested, could you introduce us to your lawn tractor?

Bachelors....

2005-02-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

It was not "someone" who called me a bachelor the first time. It was "something". The white official-looking envelope I received by registered post that day had my degree certificate in it. 'Bachelor of...', it announced in somewhat gaudy letters as I stood smiling. Bachelor!

Till then I was a boy, a brother, a student and whatnot -- but not a bachelor. All of a sudden, that important piece of paper had given me a new identity. I know you are dying to tell me things like 'this bachelor is not that bachelor', but believe me, the very next day my phone rang. It was my real-estate agent, an uneasy reminder to the approaching expiration of the initial company accommodation. "Sir, you are a bachelor, are you not?"

"Sure, I am," I said, almost adding, "and now I have proof of that, if you need."

"Sorry sir. The owner is not willing to give the house to bachelors. But don't worry, sir, I have many other houses. You see..."

So that's how it is. No country for the people of Palestine. No food for starving Somalis.No trees for migrating birds. And yes, no houses for poor bachelors. They are not welcome in residential areas. Bachelors party and make noise round the clock. They go after the neighborhood girls. They don't respect the norms of the colony. They come in groups...

Anyway, I learnt my lesson: Bachelors don't have all the civil rights that 'normal' citizens enjoy. But then, what do we have that makes many a married guy cherish the memories of his long-lost bachelorhood? Palestinians have to cling to their land. Migrating birds are bound by directions. But a bachelor has few restrictions. Except for renting an apartment and walking into one those stupid 'couples only' clubs, he can have everything else.

He gets up at any time and sneaks into the office unnoticed when others get ready for lunch. He sits to almost any time in front of the computer without worrying about anxious where-are-you calls. He stays away from the house for days and no questions are asked. He does whatever he wants on the weekend, in the company of his friends...

Yes. Friends are the most important aspect of any bachelor's life. Without them he practically has no existence, especially if he's staying away from home.

But then one day, over the thundering music and the first round of cold beer in a dimly lit pub, he announces his plans to get married to this cute girl that someone else had found for him. Over the double cheers, the naughty comments and laughter, I become aware of something that hurts me somewhere.
My friend's getting married. Of course it's something to celebrate. But then, that also means he's leaving the gang!

We attend his wedding, the most colorful function of his life, in full spirits. All of us. We give him gifts, wish him good luck and retreat to our good old world, one member less. It does not take much time before we find him reduced to much-delayed replies to our bunch of mails -- and as for phone calls, that comes only once in a blue moon.

For my part, I watch the pile of wedding invitations in the corner of my desk grow at an amazing, alarming pace. Before I know it, most of my cool buddies are gone. And the rest of us soon realize that we are not always welcome to the new circle the married men have formed. So we seek solace behind those office doors where the sun never sets.

I do meet my married friends occasionally. In the office, on a casual walk, or in a busy restaurant. They are my friends still. And they are still friendly as much as their new lifestyle and added responsibilities permit.

But...

Oh heck, there's my telephone. I think it is my real-estate agent again.

Specifications!!

2005-01-31T04:14:00.000-05:00

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4feet,
8.5 inches. That is an exceptionally odd number.

Now, why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in
England, and the U.S. Railroads were built by English expatriates. Why
did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines were
built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's
the gauge they used. Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the
people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they
used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? Well, if they
tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of
the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of
the wheel ruts.

So, who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in
Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions.

The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads?The ruts
in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their
wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the
chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the
matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5
inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war
chariot.

Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.

So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's
ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial
Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back
end of two war horses. Thus we have the answer to the original question.

Now the twist to the story... When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its
launch pad, there are two booster rockets attached to the side of the
main fuel tank. These are Solid Rocket Boosters or SRBs. The SRBs are
made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the
SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to
be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad
line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The
tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track
is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, the major design feature of
what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was
determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass!!!

Don't you just love engineering?

--
Disclaimer: Any errors/misstakes in spilling, glamour, tact, or fact are
transmission errors

If ur a Tintin fan ....

2004-11-23T22:24:00.000-05:00

Captain Haddock's Insults
I've always admired Captain Haddock, since I got "The Secret of the Unicorn," way back when I was seven. People say it's because I take after him so much... I especially admire his tickling turn of phrase: the way he states his thoughts: " By rights it should be black as the inside of a cow!" ("Flight 714"); "Wait till I get my hands on the miserable molecule of mildew who dreamed up this balderdash!." Click here for more of his idiomatic idiosyncrasies.

His abuses also are the most wonderful collection I've ever had the fortune to read... and actually use. They sound so hilarious...But they're not only funny, but also very informative. Some are simple (saucy tramp, poor loon, etc.), but others like anthropophagus, phylloxera, nyctalop...not so easy. With my favorite ones first, I have collected as many possible, and defined them to the best of my ability...

Almost all the definitions are adapted from: New Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language, simply the best encyclopedic dictionary ever.

Dictatorial duck-billed diplodocus!
Wonderful! One of my best reigning aces! Click here for the individual definitions: duck-billed platypus and diplodocus.

Macrocephalic baboon!
Macrocephalic is anything with an abnormally large head. (A favorite of favorites!)

Two-timing Tartar Twisters!
Tartars were fierce mounted warriors, who conquered like a tornado.

Whipper-Snapper!
A young, under-sized boy who behaves with more self-importance than proper.

Prattling porpoise!
Small- to medium-sized whales, having a rounded rather than a beaked snout.

Scoffing braggart!
...
Squawking popinjay!
A silly, conceited, but mannered fop.

Bashi-bazouk!
A soldier or old Turkey's (the Ottoman Empire's) irregular armies, notorious for cruelty and plundering.

Ectoplasmic by-product!
Fuzzy on this, but it sure sounds funny!

Miserable blundering barbequed blister!
Oh, ho! ho! ho! This is hilairious! Read it "Tintin and the Picaros!"

Infernal mileage merchants!
...

Anacoluthon!
Sounds hilairious... Grammatical phrase, where a grammatical construction is abandoned at the middle of a sentence for another.

Pithecanthropuses!
Genus of now extinct primitive humanoids with small skulls and apelike faces.

Odd-toed ungulate!
Ungulate is a hoof of an animal.

Bottled bilge-water!
Bilge-water is foul water collected in a ship's bilge (the bottom of a ship from the keel to where the sides begin to rise).

Carpathian caterpillar!
The larva of a moth or butterfly, with no distinct body parts, and a voracious eater.

Freshwater spaceman!
...

Interplanetary goat!
...

Diplodocus!
Genus of gigantic herbivorous dinosaurs. Growing up to 80 ft in length, it had a very small brain...

Thundering misguided missile!
...

Guano gatherer!
Guano: droppings of seabirds, valuable as fertilizer. Usually found off Peru.

Brontosaurus!
Colossal dinosaurs, growing up to 65 feet in length.

Rhizopods!
A sub-class of protozoan, small single-celled or colonial organisms, usually restricted to water.

Anamorphic aardvark!
"Anamorphic" means genuine, and an aardvark is a large, heavy ant-eater.

Tapiocans!
The Captain is referring to the supportors of General Alcazar's archrival: General Tapioca.

Sub-tropical sea-louse!
A louse is a small, wingless parasitic insect, with a mouth adapted for biting and sucking.

Abecedarians!
One who knows only the basics of everything.

Abominable Snowman!
...

Aborigine!
A native, usually in the derogatory sense.

Anachronisms!
Use of something in the wrong time context (like Julius Caesar smoking).

Anthracite!
Form of coal, carbon-rich & very hard.

Anthropithecus!
Sorry... pass.

Anthropophagus!
A cannibal.

Artichoke!
Plant, closely related to the sunflower, with edible tubers (like potatoes).

Autocrats!
An absolute ruler, despot, or dictator.

Aztecs!
A race which ruled Central Africa in splendor, before European contact.

Baboon!
General term for a monkey.

Bagpipers!
...

Balkan beetle!
...

Bandit!
...

Beastly things!
...

Beasts!
...

Belemnite!
A squid-like creature, extinct since the Mesezioc Era.

Black marketeers!
Someone who illegally sells goods.

Blackamoor!
No idea!

Black-beetles!
...

Blackbird!
...

Blackguard!
An utterly unscrupulous person.

Bloodsuckers!
...

Body-snatcher!
A kidnapper, often referred to in alien abduction.

Bollard!
A post on a ship's deck or to the quayside to which mooring ropes are tied.

Bone-idle builder!
...

Bootlegger!
Import of goods without paying legal import duty or tariff.

Borgia!
An Italian family of Spanish origin. Their creulty, crimes, profligancy, bad faith, and ambition made many Borgias despised by Italians.

Bougainvillea!
Genus of luxuriant tropical creepers.

Breathalyser!
A portable device which measures a person's alcohol consumption by his breath.

Brigand!
A member of a band of looters; bandits.

Brutes!
...

Buccaneer!
A pirate, historically from the Anglo-French confederation, pirating against Spain in the Caribbean.

Bully!
...

Butchers!
...

Cannibal!
Person who eats other people.

Carpet-seller!
A seller of carpets, of course!

Centipede!
Voracious and predatory arthropods, some which grow up to a foot long.

Cercopithecus!
Genus of long-tailed African monkeys: baboon, rhesus, etc.

Cheat!
...

Clever dick!
...

Cockleshell!
The shell of a cockle, edible mollusks found in Europe.

Coconuts!
...

Coelacanth!
A family of ancient fish, existing for 300 million years. It was thought to be extinct, but a number have now been found.

Coleoptera!
Scientific name of the beetle and it's relatives.

Corsair!
A privateer of the Barbary coast (in and around the Mediterranean.)

Cowards!
...

Crab-apples!
Wild apples with a bitter taste.

Crackpot contraption
Brain-child of a mad scientist.

Cro-Magnon!
A paleolithic race of tall, long-skulled "men."

Crooks!
...

Cry-babies!
...

Cyclone!
Tornado-like, but with violent storms.

Cyclotron!
A particle-accelerator, usually with protons.

Dipsomaniac!
Someone with a morbid craving for alcohol. (Rings a bell!)

Dizzards!
???

Dogs!
...

Doryphores!
I have no idea!

Duck-billed platypus!
A primitive aquatic mammal, native to Australia. It nurses it's young and has fur, but lays eggs.

Dunder-headed Ethelreds!
"Ethelred" was the family name of three English kings who fought against the Danes.

Dynamiter!
Someone who uses dynamite, or someone who destroys.

Ectoplasm!
I'm not sure, but it has something to do with holding a cell together.

Egoists!
A pompous and selfish person. Fancy-dress facist!

Extravagant dictator.

Fancy-dress Fatima!
Fatima is a common name in Muslim countries: the daughter of Mohammed (SAW).

Fancy-dress freebooters!
Flashy plunderer.

Fat-faces!
...

Filibuster!
A freebooter, living by looting and plunder.

Flaming Jack-in-a-box!
Someone who is usually still, but suddenly moves violently.

Fraud!
...

Freshwater swabs!
A swab is a mop used to scrub the deck of a ship.

Fuzzy-wuzzy!
Anything small and covered with soft fur or hair. (Somewhat affectionate... strange.)

Gallows-fodder!
People for who gallows exist.

Gang of thieves!
...

Gangsters!
...

Gherkin! (sea- !)
Plant yielding fruit like a small cucumber, used mainly for pickling.

Gibbering ghost!
...

Gobbledygook!
Complex and technical junk talk.

Gogglers!
???

Goosecaps!
Can't say...

Gyroscope!
A wheel spinning is a way that the wheel's plane can vary, but it doesn't, because of the Earth's inertia. Useful in navigation.

Harlequin!
A buffoon wearing bright colors.

Heretic!
One who advocates heresy.

Highwayman!
A horse-mounted robber.

Hi-jackers!
...

Hooligans!
A rowdy youth, usually in a gang.

Hydrocarbon!
A large class of organic compounds consisting only of hydrogen and carbon.

Iconoclast!
A person who destroys religious images, or opposes their use in worship.

Interplanetary pirate!
...

Invertebrate!
Any organism without a backbone.

Jackanapes!
A conceited, impertinent young man or boy.

Jack pudding!
...

Jellied-eel!
An eel jellied for storage.

Jellyfish!
You know...

Kleptomaniacs!
A person with a neurotic urge to steal purposelessly.

Ku-Klux-Klan!
In Haddock's sense: anyone who wears the traditional robe and mask of the Ku-Klux-Klan white supremacists.

Liquorice! (now, licorice)
A black extract of a dry root, used for flavoring tobacco.

Logarithm!
To diminutize something very large. Technically, a mathematical statement: if a=bn, n is the logarithm of a to b.

Lubbery scum!
A lubber is a clumsy, unskilled sailor wannabe.

Mameluke!
From the Muslim sultanate which virtually ruled Egypt. Originally composed of mostly converted Turkish or Circassian slaves.

Meddlesome cabin-boy!
...

Megalomaniac!
An insane person with delusions of grandeur.

Miserable earthworms!
...

Miserable molecule of mildew!
Mildew is the white fuzzy growth fungus makes on a plant or other organic matter.

Monopolizers!
...

Moth-eaten marmot!
A relative of the woodchuck, thick-bodied short-legged rodents.

Moujik!
A Russian peasant.

Mountebanks!
A quack who sells "miracle cure" medicines, exploiting public ignorance.

Mule!
...

Nanny-goat!
An old, often troublesome, female goat.

Nincompoop!
...

Nitwits!
...

Nitwitted nine-pins!
A bottle-shaped pin (usually used in bowling), and dim-witted.

Numbskulls!
...

Nyctalop!
Someone or something with abnormally poor vision in dim light.

Olympic Athlete!
...

Ophicleides!
An obsolete musical instrument, like the keyed-bugle.

Orangoutang!
(now orangutan) A great ape native to the forests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Ostrogoth!
Goths who settled in Ukraine, and were eventually conquered by the Huns.

Pachyrhizus!
I'm not sure, but "pachi" is Greek for "thick," and "rhiza" is "root"...

Paranoiac!
A paranoid person.

Parasites!
Anyone who lives off the earnings of others.

Patagonian!
An inhabitant of Patagonia, the southern region of South America.

Pestilential pachyderm!
"Pestilential" is a deadly epidemic disease. A pachyderm is a rhino, an elephant... any hoofed mammal with thick skin.

Phylloxera!
A genus of destructive plant lice.

Picaroon!
A rogue or a pirate; or his ship.

Pickled herrings!
...

Pig-headed...
(The Captain never managed to finish this curse. A pity... Read about it in "The Crab with Golden Claws.")

Pirates!
Too simple...

Pockmark!
A pit-like scar, on skin, ground, etc.

Politician!
...

Polygraphs!
A lie-detector, use of which is still controversial.

Polynesian!
From Polynesia, where people are either fishermen, or coconut farmers.

Poor loon!
A loon is someone very silly, especially after he's done something very silly.

Prize purple jellyfishes!
Someone wihtout self-reliance and firmness of will. Technically, jellyfishes are marine
coelenterates, consisting of a transcluscent umbrelly, and sometimes deadly tentacles attached.

Profiteer!
Someone who makes exhorbitant profits, espcially in times of scarcity.

Psychopath!
Insane person.

Purple profiteering jellyfish!
Profiteering is demanding outrageous profits.

Pyrographers!
Pyrography is the art of making pictures with fire or heat.

Rats!
...

Road-hogs!
A reckless driver.

Rubberneck!
An indefatigable site-seer.

Ruffian!
...

Saucy tramp!
...

San Theolodite!
Here, the Captain is referring to the Tapiocan politician of the country of San Theodores.

Savages!
...

Scorpion!
...

Sea-lice!
Lice found on the sea.

Shipwreckers!
...

Slave-trader!
The words say it all.

Slubberdegullions!
God knows...

Snake!
...

Spitfire!
Anyone, but especially a female, who gets angry very quickly.

Steamroller!
A steam-driven vehicle with a heavy roller attached, used to even roads, etc.

Swine!
...

Sycophant!
Someone who flatters others for self-gain.

Technocrat!
Someone who governs by technical details.

Terrapin!
An edible fresh-water turtle.

Toads!
...

Toffee-noses!
I dunno...

Torturers!
...

Two-timing troglodyte!
Anyone (prehistoric or otherwise) who lives in or above a cave.

Traitors!
...

Tramps!
...

Tribe of savages!
...

Turncoats!
Renegades.

Twister!
(in the Captain's sense) someone who distorts things.

Vagabonds!
Wandering, without a fixed home.

Vampires!
Mythical creatures which awake only at night to feed on the blood of humans.

Vandal!
A barbarian people who attacked the Roman Empire. Now, it's someone who destroys for fun.

Vegetarian!
Sublime...

Vermicellis!
Very thin threads of dried pasta, often made in soups.

Villain!
...

Visigoths!
A Western Danubian division of the Goths who, in 410, invaded Italy and sacked Rome.

Vivisectionists!
Someone who dissects animals while they are still alive.

Vulture!
Large birds of prey, which often feeds on carrion.

Wildcat!
Any of the big cats in the wild.

Woodlice!
Lice existing on wood.

Wreckers!
...

Zapotecs!
No idea...

Note: these words of art are contrived by a famous ancestor of Captain Haddock, Sir Francis Haddock. He's in "The Secret of the Unicorn."

Why Yash Chopra makes his movies in Switzerland

2004-11-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

DISCLAIMER:
After seeing the title, if u are thinking about Yashji'smovies and trying to recreate them through this pile of b******twritten below, there won't be a bigger dumb-ass than you. Just for thesake of the title, I have given a few good points about the beauty ofSwitzerland ( I guess!!).

To begin with, if u are too bored to read the entire story, I candescribe Switzerland in one word: Pure (am being ideal here :)). If ur patient enough, read on...

Was pretty excited about my first Onsite trip, though it was only for2 weeks. That too, if the client location is in Switerland, u havemore reasons to be excited. Well, I did not have the best of journeyswhile going. On the way to the airport, we had a small accident nearBangalore football Stadium with an auto for no fault of ours (auto,obviously!!), at a time when that place was swarming with autos.Somehow the driver made a settlement and dropped us at the airport ontime. Went inside to find that my flight was delayed by an hour. Iguess my mom was starting to get the creeps!! Met a group of softwareEngineers who were going to Zurich in the same flight as mine,befriended them and was with them till we boarded the flight inMumbai. My troubles continued in the flight when Kalpesh, the guysitting next to me in the flight, started talking to me. He was goingto Antwerp to a diamond industry. He asked me if I am going toBrussels. I told him, I am going to Basel, not Brussels. He started talking about Basel, told me he's heard a lot about it, and then askedme…Are u going to Brussels? Somehow explained him again. He kindareminded me of Dori, the fish with short-term memory loss in FindingNemo. He was a strict Jain and started complaining about the food,whatever they got him. Finally, they settled for 2 apples. I feelsorry for the airhostesses! All along, he was explaining some diamond manufacturing, which I never listened to. Morning, before alighting,he asked me, Brussels? My mind was half inclined to kill him, but I just said Basel and came out of the plane. Not the very best of starts for a journey to a place like Switzerland. And to think of that gorgeous Bangalore babe who was in the same flight to Mumbai andZurich and was sitting right in front of me! Anyways, Zurich airport is wonderful, u can never get lost, even if you want to! One thing I observed as soon as I came out was the no. of pet dogs. Every otherperson has a dog, and every third person in the airport gets his/her dog along! And I am really scared of dogs!! So lets forget this.
From Zurich to Basel, the train journey was just awesome! I saw theSwiss countryside for the first time and was really impressed, I had 2 other Indians for company and they were OK. Switzerland on a Sunday looks dead. Nobody comes out of their houses! Basel is a nice littletown, but can get boring after a period of time except summers where nice chicks walk around the Rhine river in bikinis or minis at themost ;-). Sadly, I could not witness that as it is nearing winter there. I wont describe my Office work here as it was hectic. Somehow,I managed to pass off the 5 working days.

Saturday:
My first day of sightseeing. Had 2 colleagues with me for company. We decided to go to Montreaux and then to Lausanne. Montreaux is a honeymooners paradise, they say. The train route is called Golden Pass route and the journey through the countryside was absolutely breathtaking!! You can see them in the first few photos I have taken from the train. We reached a place called Spiez where we had to change trains. This is one beautiful place! Check out the photo of the hill and the lake with boats and the chapel. The place is much better than what is shown in the photograph. Well, we had a train to catch and we took the train to Montreaux from there. The journey to Montreaux is also very beautiful, particularly as we near the place and get a glimpse of lake Geneva from the top. Montreaux is a nice little town,famous for shopping and the lake. It also has a chateau, where u get proper Swiss cheese. We couldn't go there though. The lake is supposedly 100 km wide and boats start from here to France and also from Lausanne and Geneva. After spending a few hours here, we took the train to Lausanne. This city is much better than Basel and is known for its numerous chapels and old style buildings. It also has an Olympic park. Check out the photos of the churches and the buildings there. By the time, we left Lausanne, it was almost 7.00 PM and the journey back was 4 hrs. Reached Basel and went straight to sleep, in anticipation of the next day's plan. Overall, had a great day.

Sunday:
The plan was to visit the Alps. All of my colleagues were busy and had to go to office, so I went alone. I first went to Interlaken, which is like a main junction to reach the different places in the Alps. I had3 options with me, there is a beautiful place called Lucern and from there, you can go to Mt.Titlis, highly recommended. The 2nd option is to a place called Meringein via Interlaken, a place famous for its deep gorges. The last option and the one I selected was to Jungfraujoch (spelt: Yöngfro), the top of Europe via Interlaken. It is around 3454m above sea level. The reason I selected this was because of the snow. A really beautiful place, u can see it for yourselves in the photos of the snow. The best part of Jungfraujoch was the ice palace. This place is completely made of Ice, the floor, the walls,and the sculptures inside. I went inside the palace wearing a casual shirt, jeans and a jacket. Boy! Did I freeze! The temp. was around1ºC. & my hands were totally numb! After the ice palace, I went out to the snow. It was a wonderful sight, snow everywhere around you.Sadly, there were no sledge rides then. (These are driven by a specific breed of dogs, just like the Eskimos). After a walk in the snow, I went in an elevator whose speed was around 150 kmph (not sure but I heard itsomewhere) that takes you to the topmost point of Europe. Saw almost a 100 Indians there, most of them Northis, but there were a few Kannadigas too! Dunno whether they were a part of a film troupe or something, but there were a few babes in that group. This place has a restaurant called Bollywood, where u get Indian food. Thanks to Yash Chopra for making this place popular.
After roaming around the place, finally, I took a train back to Basel via Berne, the capital of Switzerland. Had an unpleasant journey up to Berne where I was surrounded by ladies on all sides (aunties to be precise, except for two, one okay okay babe and other was a granny). Except for the granny, who slept all along, the others were just staring at me! I thought I am in some ladies compartment or something,but there were other guys also in there. Then I thought something's wrong with my face, nothing was wrong, I found out later. Something wrong with the ladies, I guess their adrenaline started flowing ;-). Another great day came to an end.

I didn't have much to see other than these two places except on Friday nights when I went to the movies with my colleagues. Guess what the names of the theaters are…Rex, Plaza, Kino, Symphony!! There is another theater, Capitol whose balcony is underground!
Gyan: Kino means theater in German.

In Switzerland, the shopkeepers also behave like Office goers and close shops at 5 PM everyday, except on Thursdays (closes at 8 PM),which is shopping day for us. They don't open on Sundays. So, went shopping on Thursday along with friends. There was also a carnival opposite to our office that was quite good. Bought so much chocolates that my bag tore in Mumbai and it had nothing but chocolates! Friday night, we saw the movie 'The Terminal' and we were generally teasing our friend about him getting stuck in Terminal A-67 like Tom Hanks in the movie. Well, the next day, when I was flying back, at the check-in, I found out my terminal to be A-67!! And at the terminal,they had given seat nos. to all except me!! Fortunately, one more Indian came along who gave me company there, as in even he did not have a seat no. still. Finally got in the end, it was a window seat and u can get one of the best views of the Alps from the plane amidst the clouds! I'd pay to see that again.

There are some "interesting" places also in Switzerland. One was opposite to our office, one near my apartment (This I completely missed out, all along till I final day, I was thinking it was a nice little home, saw the signboard on the last day. Damn!). Anyways, TV is boring there with mostly German channels except for CNN and BBC. After 12, it is verygood. ;-). If u have nothing to do, go to the heart of town to a place called Barfüserplatz and enjoy the crowd there with a hot cup of coffee or a cold beer.

Well, by and large, I have explained almost everything I did there.I'd love to go there again, but on a holiday and not from work. Lets hope. Anyways, wake up guys, story over! Get back to work!! but before that, Comments appreciated, either good or bad. Have spent 3 hrs writing this, atleast for the sake of it.

Essential additions for the workplace vocabulary

2004-10-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline wasmissed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success andadvancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstreamonly to get screwed and die in the end

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cubefarm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppiesturn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out andwhiney.

SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one'sworkplace.

IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of anelectronic device to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are oftenprofoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

(AMEN)404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located.

GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls,subdivisions...

OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize thatyou've just made a BIG mistake.

WOOFYS: Well Off Older Folks.

Delegates amble to laziness conference!

2004-10-04T00:09:00.000-04:00

Laziness - an elixir of long life in a world of deadlines?

The pressures and rhythms of modern life often prompt people to seek new ways of unwinding - a course of yoga, a massage or a long stroll.

In Italy, though, a group of people are this weekend proposing a different approach to the problem. Their answer - simply do nothing.

The first National Convention of the Idle is taking place in a village near the Swiss border.

Organisers say they hope the whole concept of idleness can be re-evaluated.

According to one of the organisers, comic actor and writer Gianni Fantoni, idleness is not a vice but a sign of intelligence, as idle people find smart ways of getting the same results with less effort. He says it is also an elixir of long life in a world of deadlines.

Compulsory siesta

Italy's lazybones will gather, if they can be bothered, in the mountain village of Champoluc, where they can comfortably arrive by cable car.

The event will include an exhibition of idleness through the ages, and a display of objects that reduce effort to a minimum - a dinner suit with shoes and socks incorporated, a rubbish bin with a chute attached, a mould to make snowballs without freezing your fingers and, almost a symbol of the movement, a hammock.

Participants have been promised that the seminar on idleness will last less than half an hour, a long siesta is obligatory and they will receive tips on perfecting laziness.
The organisers will also present a series of 10 commandments on how to avoid effort. These include letting others always make the first move, remembering that exercise is for other people, and never, ever volunteering for anything.

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it!

2004-10-01T12:09:00.000-04:00

Hi,

Dedicated to all of u when u work on the computer.

There are two ways to write error-free programs. Only the third one works." -Anon.

"Real programmers don't work from 9 to 5. If any real programmers are around at 9am it's because they were up all night." -Anon.

"Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand." -Anon

"A program is a spell cast over a computer, turning input into error messages." -Anon.

"Why doesn't DOS ever say 'EXCELLENT command or filename!'" -Anon.

"WARNING: Keyboard Not Attached. Press F10 to Continue." -Anon.

"Smash forehead on keyboard to continue." -Anon.

"Scandisk is now checking your hard disk. You can start praying."
-Anon.

"Hit any user to continue." -Anon.

"Error reading FAT record. Try the SKINNY one? (Y/N)" -Anon.

"Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue..." -Anon.

"Bad Command or File Name. Good try, though." -Anon.

"Want to make your computer go really fast? Throw it out a window."
-Anon.

"If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing." -Anon.

"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research." -Anon.

Unix is a simple Operating System.It needs a genius to understand the simplicity. --Brian W.Kernighan

well, i am a firm believer in the first 4 points!!!

Rocket Science Vs Software Development

2004-09-28T23:53:00.000-04:00

A post after a long break!! sad responses to my earlier quizzes. so changing lanes!! so here's today's topic:

Rocket Science Vs Software Development

You might have come across someone who uses the following phrases regularly.."What's the big deal.. it ain't no rocket science"and most of the times this guy will be our boss or customer or a guy from the top Management.Well, I'll tell you my idea of rocket science.....I think rocket science is easy when compared to the software development activity.Most of the time the parameters required to build a rocket remain constant...I don't know many things about the rocket science (but still feel that i should write an article about this subject)

So I'll give you an example in the following way....Assume what would happen if the Rockets are developed the way we develop software...These are the following scenarios i could come up with.

Scenario 1.

Boss: Where are we right now in that Mission to Moon Project?
Engineer: About 50% done boss..
Boss: Did we already started building the rocket?
Engineer: Yes boss, we got the shell, the propulsion engine and a few electronic gadgets to monitor the critical parts of the rocket. The electronics are the most expensive parts of the rocket.
Boss : Really? why did we buy them then? can't we make them ourselves?
Engineer: Most of our scientists are into "Rocket Science" boss, and we don't have competency in electronic gadgets. And anyway, why do we need them when already someone else is capable of delivering the electronic gadgets.
Boss: Don't talk crap Edward. Why did we take these scientists from MIT ? we expect them to know everything. Rocket Science is a science... Electronics is a science. Can't you see the simple truth?
Engineer: Er...
Boss: With sincere efforts a man can achieve anything. Tell me how difficult is it to build a neuclear reactor in your house? All one has to do is get a few grams of uranium 232 refine it.. bombard the nucleus of a few atoms with a few neutrons... ..... connect this setup to an electricity generator...thats all.... ,imagine how beautiful it would be to say "One neuclear reactor in every home"
Engineer: Err... I think it is possible .. but...
Boss: You have a negative attitude Edward, you are a pessimist. You should always believe in yourselves.
Engineer: Yes boss.
Boss: Leave that to me Edward, I'll suggest a group motivation program to our top management. From our next project onwards, we'll build our own electronic components. Please suggest a few good books on Electronics.
Engineer: Yes boss.

Scenario 2

Boss: Edward, we have a situation here, the Management has decided to change the "Mission to moon" project to "Mission to Mars" project.
Engineer: oh... so what happens to the efforts which we already put for "Mission to moon" project?.
Boss: Yup, I had that in my mind while discussing the issue with the Management. We'll use the same hardware.. Reusability is one of the key factors of successful Rockets development.
Engineer: but boss getting to Mars is a altoghether..completely different game .
Boss: Why Mars is a Planet and Moon is a Planet, I don't see a difference here.. am I missing something?
Engineer: boss Moon is a satellite...and mars is a planet...
Boss: Don't teach me astronomy edward.. what is moon? a celetial body.. what is mars it is also a celestial body so we can safely say that moon and mars implement ICelestialBody Interface. right? You should always consider the abstract side of your job edward.
Engineer: But boss, how is this related to .......
Boss: Don't give me that ifs and buts crap edward... I've been noticing your attitude from day 1, you are always a nonstarter. When will you realize that we can do anything if we sincerely believe in what we are doing.

Scenario 3

Boss: Edward You have to make a small change.
Engineer: what is it boss?
Boss: Today our VP has seen our rocket , he didn't like the shape of it, he says, it reminds him.......er... something naughty and he says our prestegious "Rocket company" should not do anything "undignified". You have to change the shape of the rocket .

Scenario 4

Boss: Edward!! Why didn't the rocket take off?
Engineer: We developed the rocket with the idea that the gravity is 9.8 m/sec2 but today the gravity is 14.2 m/sec2

Quiz 4

2004-08-15T13:58:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Back after some time. here is a new quiz. A quiz on sports.

1) Japan hosted the first Olympic Games in Asia on Oct 1, 1964. What did they introduce to commemorate the event?

2) What 'first' did New Zealand achieve when they played and won against the West Indies in the Natwest final recently?

3) Whom did Saurav Ganguly replace in the Bengal Ranji team, when he made his debut in the Ranji trophy final match in 1989?

4) Rule 42 , part C of an sport has garnered prominence throughout world recently . Which sport and what rule ?

5) Who apart from Sergi Bubka has cleared the 6.0 meters barrier in Pole Vault. He hates Sergi Bubka so much that he has named his dog as Bubka?

Answers as soon as possible. Plz mail ur answers to vikasyv_2000@yahoo.com

Today's Quiz Q!

2004-07-26T11:17:00.000-04:00

1. What is NDTV chief Prannoy Roy’s nick-name? (Hint: His father’s nick-name was Hurricane)

2. With which leading Indian brand is the name of the entrepreneur Karsanbhai Patel associated?

3. By what name is the building 'Phiroze Jeejebhoy Towers' better known as?

Answers tomorrow. All the best!!

Answers to yesterday's Quiz

2004-07-24T14:39:00.000-04:00

1) Amelia Earhart's first trans-atlantic flight along with Wilmer Shultz and Louis Gordon in 1928.

2) Indian National Flag.

3) Laxxotica

More to come soon!!!