Horizons and Beyond

Epilogue

2005-06-16T07:09:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who have been kind enough to tell me that this has been worth their time.

But that brings me to the blog and I could give a multitude of reasons and explanations as to why its time to stop, but the most compelling one is that I do not want to write it.:) The blog has been good while it lasted and to quote myself "it has always had a therapeutic effect... " When the blog drives you and not the other way around its time to look long and hard and make the changes that are required. Its symptomatic of some of the other changes that have creeped in. Its been hard to make this decision as well and that in itself is an indication as to how attached I have become. Well sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and make the correct decision.

Going about closing a blog, as it turns out, is proving to be much more difficult than I thought :) I'm sorry, but for various reasons I am going to be deleting the posts the coming week onwards. I'm not going to be deleting the url as such but I dont really see foresee getting back to writing a blog. Its been a great journey and thanks to all the readers for visiting it ever so often and choosing to read what must doubtless have been very sleep inducing posts at times. :D

The End :)

2005-06-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

There comes a time when all things, good or bad, must come to an end. Well it would seem that the time for this blog is right now. Almost an year and 192 posts later it is time to call it quits. A few posts never made it to completion and a few others never made it to being posted. I first took to blogging because I've always loved writing and had been curious to know if there was anything different about writing a blog. Over time the motivations for the blog have changed and finally its time to bid it goodbye. The audioblog concept was one which caught my fancy. Its been a good trip in some ways and a different one in others and sometimes both of those things dont go together.

I would think that the blog has mirrored some of the changes in the writer. It is perhaps time to review those changes now. To all the people who have kept reading the blog and the others who have kept commenting at times, thanks for spending time doing that. For sometime now I have found writing about myself a tad bit tedious although time has never been an issue for any form of writing.

As for the quality of the writing, it would suffice to say that I have been increasingly disappointed with it and that is always a cue. Sometime next week I intend to delete the account or delete the posts, whichever is easier :)

Its time to end here..... over and out.. :)

A Talk in Time

2005-06-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

This is it. I had finally got what I was looking for. I had the information that I came searching for. I hoped my other friends have done as well in their endeavours. I move towards the exit and then I hear the call. I havent heard it since ... I dont even remember how long back that was. I turn in the direction of the voice and I see him. Its hard not to. In a sea of well dressed people there he sat on a small table in his faded blue jeans and a equally fading tee-shirt. You could sense the intrigue hanging around him. A package lay by his side. He looked as if he was waiting for someone. And now he was looking straight at me. Something about him looked very familiar.

I walked up to him and sat on the opposite side. Minutes passed by without a sound from him. The people milled around. Conversation seemed to be at a premium today which was surprising because he didnt seem the kind of guy to be at a loss for words.

"Hii there .. I'm ... ", was all I could get in before he cut me off, "I know who you are, I know why you are here and I know where you are going." Something about the way he said it and the serene calm smile told me to be on guard. That could not be too good I told myself. It was one of those few times I could feel the fear wash over me. I assumed the worst. Soon years of experience took over as the body by reflex replaced the sensation of fear with that of confidence and aggression. All this while I could see him observe me with the same knowing smile.

"Relax. I dont really care why you are here and what you are doing. The question old friend is do you know who you are and where you are headed."

"Who the hell are you?", I asked him a little put off by the implication that I knew not where I was going. Part of the me knew he wasnt too off the mark. All the while I try to jog my memory into remembering who he was.

"Do you know what you really want? What is it that really drives you? Have you told the people you love dearly that you do?" He gestured to the tools of the trade that I had placed by the side, "Is this what you want to do?". He indicated to where she was standing, glowing in the settling darkness with a look that seemed to question my sanity.

I was beyond indignant posturing and was now considering the questions that he was throwing at me. The answers were unsurprisingly enough a tad bit unsettling. By the time I turn back to look at him, he was gone. The package was still there. I open it and find that they contain sheets of paper with writings written in a handwriting that looks familiar too... well it had to be familiar.. it was mine.. written a long time ago.. writing that was so different that its hard to tell. .. everything seemed to fall into place now. I know now where I had seen that face ....

Friday !!

2005-06-03T08:32:00.000-04:00

Finally the most anticipated of all the days of the week is here. Yesterday went to the first Thursday at the Square event at downtown Buffalo where you have fledgling bands and a few big ones play every thursday at the square in downtown Buffalo for free. Went with soray, sank and surabhi. People of all ages flock there. When I say all ages that is exactly what I mean. You had babies still in their prams and a few really aged people in their wheelchair. The majority of the crowd as you would expect at a rock concert were a wild assortment of young people in various states of dress or undress. I cannot still make up my mind if they dress up for an event or the other way around. Not that I am complaining. ;)

Well the music that played is more the new age rock with its emphasis on angst. The second band that played did well with their instrumental performances while their lead vocalist would do well to go back to the drawing board, weed or whatever it is that rock musicians go to for some inspiration. The music was pretty decent overall and considering its a free concert you cannot really complain. You also have to account for the fact that i like select few songs from the new age rock genre and prefer classical rock. Well there were a few people sporting Led Zep tees and looking suitably confused at the place.

Headed home after the concert, met a couple of friends on the way and all in all it made for a relaxing wind down after what was a little stressful day at work. Have been trying to get a schedule going which is proving to be a bit more challenging than I had thought. As I was talking to sank, working 40 hours a week can be every bit draining and leaves precious little time for other work. Am still managing to work on some of the things I had planned to do and need to put in that little bit extra to accomplish the rest.

Got up in the morning in the best possible way today and after getting a headstart on some stuff that I needed to do its back to work. You really cant complain when your day starts off well and bright. Lets hope it stays that way. ;)

Responsibility

2005-06-01T09:05:00.000-04:00

HIGHLY ABSTRACT LONG POST WARNING... all sleepyheads go directly to the end ;)

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The most underrated word in the current age is this. In an era that prides in "individualistic freedom" we forget the age old adage that I first learnt in civics class in school and considered rubbish and realised the importance of much later. With certain rights comes responsibilities. Some of us choose to take up responsibilities while others have it thrust upon them. What we choose to do with it is our choice.

Something the dean said during the graduation ceremony struck as poignant. He talked about how America had a lot to learn about moving a little away from individual freedom and realise that there is something known as a collective responsibility. The effects of one without the other is evident in American society and slowly in the American economy as it struggles to compete with growing global competition. And sadly today India moves in the opposite direction. We today in our quest for personal freedom move towards a dysfunctional society and a lost generation.

Let me quote an IIT alumni, Gururaj Deshpande from his keynote speech a long time back where he talks of what allowed him to achieve the things he did.

The first generation of Indians to enjoy freedom could do little but focus on trying to survive. From that era, we learned discipline, frugality, and the amazing potential that comes from hard work.

Only with the second generation are we beginning to test our capacity to create, improve, and contribute to society. It is the self-expression that comes with freedom and something that has brought our culture farther, faster than we might ever have dared imagine just 50 years ago.

We are the fruit of two generations of hard work, discipline, commitment and creativity.

Today the alumni talk of what needs to be done to manufacture similar success stories from the new generation. That in itself tells us a story, doesnt it .. that we are attempting to manufacture because none exists :) Are we still pushing the boundaries, are we still challenging the limits of the possible in terms of serious concrete content and not some of the frivolous activities that masquerades as creativity under the cloak of something different . Is this generation reaping the fruits of the previous generations and frittering away the advantage like the new generation of japanese kids did. The condition of japanese society should have been a case in point for us. An unstable dysfunctional society, no new innovation, a generation that puts a premium on individuality more than responsibility makes for a perfect recipe for chaos. As Nats put it and its a theory i believe in to some extent considering I did a whole undergrad thesis trying to prove it, is that chaos leads to something new and better. Well that could indeed happen but chaos is an extremely dangerous space. It can lead to beautiful structures or can collapse into nothingness. Eitherways its not without misery and its a scary thought.

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Work has been good and have been pushing forward in the areas that need attention, albeit a little slowly. Considerable thought, effort and attention will have to go into areas that hopefully will come to fruition some months down the line.

I should be looking forward to a few more "discussions" in the days to come. Thats always a pleasant thought considering that its something I do look forward to a lot, nonsense or otherwiset :D I should really stop here ... over and out folks.

Back to Work !!

2005-05-31T08:34:00.000-04:00

Well the weekend is over and its back to work. It was a good weekend though. Came about at the right time when I was beginning to feel the need for a break. And it had all the ingredients of a good break. Lots and lots of sleep, lazing arnd on the couch watching movies and cartoons that soray had downloaded, apart from spending time doing the things that I like after a long time.

Friday at work was relatively quiet for sometime as the place wore a deserted look as most people had gotten a headstart on the Memorial Day weekend. I however, had to be at work for any unexpected issues that might pop up and true to form a few did pop up. Spent a major portion of the weekend sleeping. Also managed to catch up on one of my favourite activities after a long time. ;)

Sank and Nats landed up early on Monday morning and we decided to visit the "Eternal Flame Falls". Its perhaps the only instance in the world where you have a natural flame, fed by natural gas coming out of the rocks, burning behind a waterfall. It was pretty good and had a lot of fun. As I keep mentioning, having lived a major part of my life in mumbai which is a concrete jungle I always love to go hiking near any kind of greenery. This time of the year there wasnt too much water, but the small creeks running through the foliage made for a good hike nevertheless. Got a second lesson in never neglecting the signs your body gives you during the hike.

The hike did well to whet our appetite and we headed towards "Kabab and Curry", one of the better Indian restaurants in the area. There are many attractions to this restaurant and food is just one of them. ;) By the time we had wolfed down our food, the ability of which was being questioned by the waitress, who incidentally adds to the charm of the restaurant, we were too full to make the night time Niagara Falls trip that we had planned. We finally headed home and crashed soon after.

A pretty good break in an overall sense. Having said that its time to get back to finishing off the pending work that I have. Over and out..

Memorial Day!!

2005-05-28T09:06:00.000-04:00

Its the long memorial day weekend. That means i get to spend some time away from work and concentrate on some pending stuff. As i said before you tend to look forward to the weekend once you start working.

Summers here are weird. At 9 oclock in the night there is still more light than at 5 in the evening in India. What that has meant is that we have more time to go around doing the things we like. After the extended winter I am not complaining. :) Where else would you get to play cricket at 8 in the night in natural light.

Watched the new offering from Cartoon Network called "Adult Swim". Have heard about "Adult Swim" before but never got around to watching it. Its cartoons with more adult themes which might not suitable to children. With the kind of TV programming and movies doing the rounds I have my doubts about what is not suitable for children anymore. I liked the ones I watched and all of them had underlying themes interwoven into the cartoons.

Well its time to end here ... or else might end up putting sleepyheads to sleep and that is never a good occurence ;) ..over and out folks ..

What is progress anyway?

2005-05-25T21:17:00.000-04:00

The last week has been satisfying for many reasons. Have been working full time and the work is something that I like as well. It pays that the people I work under are absolutely great. The people I end up helping out are also great which makes it all the more worthwhile ;)

The only downside to it all is that the schedule right now is more packed than it was during the semester. It also robs me of time for my most favoured activities. ;) Atleast I get to still catch up during the weekends which isnt too bad when that is all you have to make do with. ;) I am more convinced than ever that it does brighten up my day more than anything and this time its not without conviction and not without proof.

I spend about 8 hours of the day at work and then a few more hours at a very messy lab trying to get moving on my thesis. One good thing I have noticed is that Im beginning to approach a certain degree of comfort in engineering which is always good. There are other things that need to be learned as well in the meantime on a different note over the course of "discussions". Who said learning couldnt be fun and enjoyable? I wouldnt mind a lifetime of learning if this is how it would be:)

As I realised while speaking with sandy the number of activities that we seem to be trying to handle right now sometimes can be overwhelming. It all seems worthwhile though and more importantly there seems to be a drive that was missing the last semester. It is always rewarding to observe oneself and to be aware of the changes that keep occuring. There have been paradigm shifts and it is even more evident with every passing day. If you reading this bro, you know what I am talking about. As Socrates very succintly puts it "Know thyself". Its a different matter that sometimes some other people are able to know you better than you thought was possible. :)

Its been fascinating to watch the Indian team the last few years. Its not long ago that the Business Standard ran an article on how CEO's would do well to look at the Ganguly style of leadership. Its been an amazing turnaround to look at how two of the Big Three, Ganguly and Sachin are today struggling to reinvent themselves. I think more than anything else this team suffers from not knowing their roles which was not the case a few years ago. When the Ganguly-Sachin opening partnership was broken to make way for Sehwag and to make sure that a senior batsman came down the order other than Dravid it might have paid short term dividends but in the long run it sort of has disturbed the rhythm of both players. Ganguly today needs a stint at his favourite position, that of opening the innings to get back to the swashbuckling ways of old, complete with the shots that clear the straight boundaries and the fierce cuts over point and cover. Sachin on the other hand cant seem to make up his mind over going back to the free flowing ways of old, which was seen as recent as the last World Cup.

The Big Three dont have many years left to go and when this generation of cricketers retire cricket will be quite poorer. Its not just the Indian trio but other names such as Lara, Warne and Muralitharan who will be missing some years down the line.

CT and CS ;)

2005-05-21T17:58:00.000-04:00

There is a cricket tournament going on right now and we were taking part in it. I have been nursing a sore right shoulder for some time now that comes from playing a lot of American Football. Throwing that ball can be painful for the shoulders. As Matt, one of my friends from the lab says, its bound to happen when u start off the first time. He finds it difficult to play cricket though :p.

I was relegated to wicketkeeping duties as I could not field anywhere in the deep with such an arm. Played the first match on Friday evening after a particularly tiring day at work. Wicketkeeping can be painful on the knees and the back. To cut a long story short we lost in the last over despite picking up some two quick wickets both of which were nicked behind. That was the brightest point in the whole tournament. Adi nicked one low down to my right and I had to sort of dive for it. By the time I picked myself off the ground and proceeded to appeal I see the bowler walking back to his mark, the other players looking around and the umpire signalling a wide. Before I could protest I see Adi walking off without looking back. It was such a faint nick which only I and the batsman heard. And it sort of captured everything that I like cricket and all games for. You play as hard as you can, you play to win but not at the cost of game spirit. A couple of incidents later left a lot to be desired in terms of game spirit but then that is the way the game is played in recent times at the highest levels and its only natural that kids who learn a lot of their cricket watching the game at the highest level emulate the same.

Look forward to the weekends after a long week and it sort gave me a glimpse of what working life would be like. Kudos to all the people who work all day and then still find time to do some of the things they like. ;) Working full time has its upshots too which I cant deny and that also has a lot to do with the place I work at ;)

Well the break after the end of the semester has been good and its time to get back to more serious activities. One thing I am very sure of is that there is no place for me in academics. I simply cannot stand either the jokers who run the academic system or their pompous rules. It was all the more evident during the commencement ceremony where people line up in gowns waiting for their degrees and being led by a professor from the department. I know for sure I would almost never ever go for a convocation. If you reading this nag u know what I mean. This is exactly what we used to talk about all those days and it hasnt changed one bit. One doesnt need to be branded by some third person to tell one what you know about engineering and what you dont. It brought back everything I always knew about science and engineering. Its institutionalised now. Its gone the way religion went. The education systems are the temples and the professors and the various committees that we have are the high priests.

Let me leave you with something that a young scientist said a long time ago,

In the temple of science are many mansions -- and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them there.

Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, it would be noticeably emptier but there would still be some men of both present and past times left inside -- . If the types we have just expelled were the only types there were, the temple would never have existed any more than one can have a wood consisting of nothing but creepers -- those who have found favor with the angel -- are somewhat odd, uncommunicative, solitary fellows, really less like each other than the hosts of the rejected.

What has brought them to the temple -- no single answer will cover -- escape from everyday life, with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from his noisy cramped surroundings into the silence of the high mountains where the eye ranges freely through the still pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.

The passage is from a 1918 speech by a young German scientist named Albert Einstein.

Time to end here on this note.. :) over and out folks...

Work

2005-05-20T09:39:00.000-04:00

Its been ages since I wrote anything. The past week has been going in a tizz. Start work at around 8 in the morning and finish up by around 5 in the evening and some days the work can be particularly tiring . but well im not complaining. I'm enjoying it every bit. I have to start work on the thesis sometime next week and that always means a lot of work. Have been spending the whole week playing cricket either at North Campus or in our backyard.

Bunty just landed yesterday nite. Got a first look at America's Army, the game he has been raving about for sometime now and must admit was impressed with what I saw. Reminds one of counterstrike to a certain extent. Its been so long since I've played CS and seeing America's Army makes you want to play. Had to crash at 2 in the nite finally if i had to have any chance of making it to work on time :D

Well summer has turned out to be more hectic than the normal semester since I am working full time. It also leaves me little time to do some of the activities that I look forward to so much ;)

Greg Chappell has been appointed the Indian coach and I am impressed with the BCCI for a change. They have I believe got the best man for the job. First heard him during the Indian tour to Australia and came across as a very intelligent cricketer. And the fact that he gets along so well with the captain should help him no end.

Well got to go back to work .. over and out folks.

Summer

2005-05-13T18:38:00.000-04:00

The semester is over. And that is a relief. I ended up missing yesterdays' wild party during the day and the wilder one at nite. As I made that decision, I could hear myself remind myself of what has been on my mind for sometime. All this better be worth it. :)

Well the summer is here and that can mean only one thing. Its time to get cracking on some stuff that has been on the backburner for sometime now. Thats a cue for you Sandy.:)

Ahhh .. the joys of idle time.. but who am i kidding, as the wise soul says I aint the kind to be idle for too long. Well Im going to end here.. not just because I want to keep it short and simple and keep the sleepyheads interested but also for once I'm way sleepy too and need to catch up on some shut eye.. c'est tout messieurs et mesdemoiselles... au revoir ;)

The End

2005-05-12T21:12:00.000-04:00

The end is in sight.. the end of the semester.. although at this stage .. any end looks welcome enough ;). This has been one long and big operation. Kept BD awake through the night on Monday working on the project. Actually reminded me of those days in kgp when alongwith sandy we would work through the night at times trying to solve some problem with robotix, be it managerial or technical. Its a different matter that BD is now all the way in arizona. :) Praise be to free night-time minutes. The fact that we kept talking till my phone ran out of charge and then on another phone gives you some idea. Well the output looks promising and that is incentive enough. Thats one thing I will always cherish my time in kgp for, for having giving me such friendships that I know will last as long as each one of us lives.

With this, the semester comes to a close and have to say Im decently happy with having achieved quite a few of the goals I set out to achieve, especially considering that I've been down with health issues for a large percentage of the semester. But then thats thanks to another of kgp's lessons in life and having some amazing friends. But then some of the best times I've had are not related directly to acads and that is what is primarily satisfying. I talked of a paradigm shift that had come over and I needed to know that it was not a one off and that it would last the distance. Well to cut a long story short it has lasted the whole distance. Its good to know that some of the strategic planning has begun to show results now. I can only hope that some of the initiatives I am taking up right now will show similar results six months from now.

What has been even more pleasant has been the times spent away from work and yes I do look forward to the breaks, nonsensical though some might be inclined to term it and i doubt if that looking forward will ever change. I think that is one of the biggest pluses in the last four months. I've got back to some of the things that I had always loved but lost touch with. Writing, in the form of this blog and otherwise, speaking in public, getting back to juggling multiple things.. (as sukha pointed out recently it wouldnt just be me if I wasnt pursuing multiple things at once;)). More importantly I have gotten around to enjoying these things again. Inspirations for writing now abounds in plenty. ;) Its like some wise and lovely soul calls it .. returning toys to a kid ;).

The next few weeks promise to be fun. Most of my roomies are graduating this weekend, and bunty and pinkster should be arriving the coming week as well. Its the best we can do with shiv and abi not able to make it. Well they should be able to make it towards the end of the break. Well have to get back to work one last time.. :) If you are reading this sandy, its time to get back to getting some of the stuff that we put on the backburner to the fore again.

Over and out folks...

Leadership

2005-05-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

Its strange that I came across this piece on the net that somehow struck a chord within me. Its something that has always fascinated me if not inspired me. It deals with stories and heroes in a modern era. In the corporate jungle out there these are the guys who are analogous to the mythical heroes of old. The risks might be different but the magnitude is the same. Its a long article so read it when you have time. Its called Why every company needs a story?. Here is an excerpt from that article "The classic business story is much like the classic human story," says Mark Helprin. "There is rise and fall; the overcoming of great odds; the upholding of principles despite the cost; questions of rivalry and succession; and even the possibility of descent into madness."

The story talks of great leaders who, as that great Apple advertisement claims "The people crazy enough to believe they can change the world are the ones who do." You dont have to look far for examples. Be it the visionary who launched Air-India and ran it in a manner that made it the best airline in the world for a while or be it the captain who would throw tradition to the wind and go in with three seamers for the first time ever, open a Test innings with a man who was widely known as one with a suspect technique and use a cricketer thrown out of the National Cricket Academy as his frontline spinner.

Well its time to get back to work as the hours count down to that deadline and unlike Douglas Adams, who suddenly seems to be the flavour of the month after the release of the movie "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", I cannot say "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.". Over and out folks... :)

Memories Revisited

2005-05-07T00:51:00.000-04:00

Its been a mixed day today. Finished with all my projects but one and this one project looks to be more work than everything else put together. But thats how things turn out sometimes. Whether we manage to salvage something out of this is going to be critical in more ways than one.

Did not have a particularly pleasant time in the afternoon and then decided I needed a break before diving back into work. What better way to work off some frustration than go out and play cricket. This was the full fledged version. Adi and the boys were playing in the campus and I needed no second invitation. I was out there in a flash. Took some time getting my bearing right. After all it was a concrete pitch, the ball does not come on that easily. It took a while to get into the whole scheme of things as you work out the angles but once there it was fun again. :) The best part was when I finally got to bowl. For some strange reason, the rhythm was there as you ran in and bowled with the same enthusiasm of old. It brought back memories of bowling in tandem with sukha ;). And then memories of chasing down many a total with sukha both of us coming in as the last two batsmen.

I was just wondering, as is my wont, and it struck me that again I have changed. I had written in a previous post of mine that kgp had changed me and rite had asked me to write about how it had changed me. I guess its inevitable despite your desperately wanting not to change and wanting others u hold dear to not change too. I think this is why this line I read a long time ago hit me again " The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."

While writing this I realise that whenever I quote something it is invariably something I have read a "long time ago" ;) But then I believe in Einstein's statement "Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who read too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking." I have come to appreciate the simple pleasures of writing and the even more pleasurable activity of writing at "targetted" audiences. And creativity is something I enjoy a lot be it names or nething else. I just hope that my targetted audiences enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it ;)

Well on that happy note I think its time to end .. over and out people... ;)

Friday!!

2005-04-29T08:42:00.000-04:00

Dilemmas ... How I wish this semester would end and at the same time how i wish there was more time for the semester to end. Talk about not making up your mind. :)

Went around to see Nats' setup for her presentation and ran into her friend Anton there. This guy is building a computer game from scratch. Its a first person shooter. The upshot of this is that he is building it in a CAVE environment meaning that you get to wear sensors on your body that pick up movement. And the best part of it is that all the sounds come from Counter-strike. I knew the sounds were familiar from somewhere. :) There is a shotgun and a pistol built right now and its absolutely amazing. It gives crouch and panning a new meaning. ;) I should be able to post a small video of the whole thing a bit later.

Rushdie came and went yesterday and I gave it a skip. I am not exactly too fond of his writing. :) What struck me though was the couple of kids I see on the way back home yesterday protesting his presence. I wonder why they are wasting their time ;)

Time to end here. :) Over and out people...

The Search

2005-04-26T20:51:00.000-04:00

We walk through the wilderness that is strangely enchanting and foreboding at the same time. Its time to say our goodbyes and go our separate ways and hope to meet again, vain that hope may be. Weary travellers who fate chose to bring together and fate now chose to separate in one strange search.

Moving through the thickets I let them know that I am there. I make no attempt to mask my presence knowing fully well that stealth isnt what you need here. This is their territory, used to be mine too in another day. I follow the trail that I know has long gone cold. I no longer frequent these places like I used to. I make the odd foray from time to time when required. I wonder how my friends are doing in the other realms and not for the first time wish I would make that first trip to those places. I reach what is presumably the end. A clearing is all that exists where the dwelling once did.

I light a fire and settle down near it and wait for them. The years might have passed but the code seldom changes. After a while I see them emerge into the light from the fire, the guardians of this kingdom. The faces behind the mask and the people behind the clothing might change with unnerving regularity but the values remain the same. You can make out the newbies in their zealous pursuit to assert themselves while the old ones communicate in the confident assured manner that only they can. Their leader asks me who I am and what I am doing here. A few minutes later, convinced, he directs me to the place I need to go. As I leave to continue the search I can picture her, shaking her head disapprovingly at this and sporting that piercing look which could stop anyone in their tracks.

At the best of times there is an uneasy relationship that exists between this world and the other. There is knowledge and skill here that is unmatched and for the most part unheard of. Embedded deep in these woods is information that is potentially explosive. This is the breeding ground of the new and the novel. Strangely it mirrors the other world while being totally different. A completely different set of rules run this place. But rules nevertheless and that doesnt sit well with me. It might be a parallel administration, might even be a better administration but an administration invariably.

A thousand thoughts run through my mind, each with its own separate thread of consciousness and associated images. A walk through these places has a way of doing this to you. I remember a line that once went something like this, "Once infected by our alien thought virus, you will never be quite 'normal' again... You will begin to mutate, morphing up to a higher level, our level, beings whose abilities cross universes, transcend cultures, break free. Finally understanding the true beauty of sharing. Or you may sink down into insanity... Dare YOU take that risk ?" I took exception to the concept of a higher level but liked the rest. I tell myself this isnt the time to be thinking of thought-viruses(memes).

Soon I reach the place I was told of. As I enter the swanky building I realise that the leader was not off the mark. I had been sceptical when I had first seen the place. Gone were the days of ramshackle makeshift encampments that dotted the landscape, it would seem. Entering it I hear familiar voices and languages. This is indeed where I needed to be.

Snowing !!!!

2005-04-24T06:06:00.000-04:00

The weather gods have decided to oblige all forecasts. Got up in the morning feeling a distinct chill. Given that I do not really get chills down my spine from the many nightmares of some people who keep haunting me I was a bit perplexed. It took me a while to remember that there was a possibility of snow in the forecasts. Went out to have a looksie and voilaa.. it had snowed and had now switched to sleety rain. And I thought we had seen the last of the snow atleast till the next december. :( Ohh welll.. What it did make for was a picteresque environment. I decided to battle the cold and click a few pics. Putting up the one I like best.

Rain and snow (Click on the image to see a higher resolution)

Started yesterday morning beautifully. Got up late, got some work done before engaging in my favourite activity in noon. Its always good when ur day starts well. Managed to drag myself through the rain to south campus to get some work done on a project. One good thing about studying here is that you get to meet so many people from around the globe. I met this guy from Peru who had a lot of anecdotes from back home. He talked of everything from the beautiful beaches and the even more beautiful people on the beaches in Lima to the drug trafficking which for a long while comprised a large chunk of the economy. He was talking of how different the beaches there are in the sense that the water is really cold that comes from the southern Pacific. Its cold to the extent that you cant stay in the water for more than half an hour while the temperature outside is nice and warm. He had a very interesting take on the feuds that have plagued Southern America and the reasons behind it. I am inclined to agree with it and it sort of applies to what happens around South Asia nowadays.

Went back to north campus after finishing up with the work on the project to have a look at Nats' thesis presentation. She's done a great job of creating a physical representation of an abstract concept. As a proof of concept it does a beautiful job of it. I have to say that the "Matrix" projections towards the end that we were fiddling with could have made a little biased. :)

Got talking to sandy again and we should be able to get back to work after a couple of weeks after the semester has more or less wound down.

Time to end here.. over and out..

The Final Push

2005-04-23T09:59:00.002-04:00

Well there is 20 days or so to go before this sem ends. Its been hectic for some time now and there doesnt seem to be a let up ahead. :) And like in most cases its just a matter of one final push. Now why does that sound familiar. ;)

Had a presentation which went beautifully and got a great reception. This is one thing I always have liked, speaking in public. There is something about standing in front of an audience and speaking that gives me a kick. Strange, considering I hate being the focus of any attention off the stage. Weird, some would call it ;) But it felt satisfying to have set the record straight after the fiasco that was the last presentation.:)

Came back absolutely exhausted after meeting my advisor and was itching to play some cricket. There is nothing like a session of cricket to revitalise the soul and mind. Unfortunately, the weather gods weren't too obliging and it was raining all day yesterday and the prediction is for more rain over the weekend and the early part of next week. Given the soaking the pitch is going to get I can only hope we get to play sometime next week. We decided to use the opportunity to get some more work done on the backyard on the playing area. The thing about the rain here is that it cant seem to make up its mind whether it wants to come down in one hell of a downpour or stop. The result is this painful persistent drizzle. How I miss the rain of Mumbai. There is an upshot to the whole rain situation though and that is the effect it has on the many PYT's around. They tend to stand out like a beacon of joy on a gloomy rainy day if you know what I mean ;)

Well its time to end here... over and out people..

What do you do when courage dies?

2005-04-21T07:53:00.000-04:00

"What do you do when courage dies?" ... someone asked me that a long time ago and looked at me confident that he would find the answer with me. After all hadnt I answered so many others. It was a classic case of blind leading the blind. I stopped to think if this is what parents go through when children ask them questions expecting them to know all the answers.

Well to cut a long story short, I failed, failed as a friend, failed as a colleague and above all failed as a leader for I failed to answer that day and eventually when the answer did come it wasnt with the conviction you expect. I could see it in his eyes that he knew that this was not "THE" answer but the best I could do at the moment and sometimes even your best is not good enough.

As Churchill, perhaps the greatest of them leaders said, “Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.”

And to think I do not have the answer to this after all these years and the question still stands. Let me end with another of Churchill's sayings, “Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.”. He said some rather good things, ehh :)

Update

2005-04-18T11:39:00.000-04:00

Its been a while since I posted anything on the blog. To be frank I havent felt like writing and the last thing I want to do is to try and force myself to write. :) I guess attempting to force anyone to do anything would be a mistake. ;) I think this is also the main reason why I would not want to take up writing as a career choice. A lot of people at various times have asked me what I was doing in engineering when I like writing so much. The simple answer is im afraid. That in short would be the honest truth. ;) The fear is that if I take up writing as a career and consequently am forced to write to earn my living I might lose that love for writing. The other fear is that the standard of writing expected out of a professional writer is much higher than that expected from an amateur writer who primarily writes for the joy of it, and I might not live up to that standard.

Engineering is something that comes pretty naturally as well and if you look at it carefully engineering isnt too different from writing. One of my advisors in engineering who was a whiz in systems and an equal whiz in poetry once told me that and Im inclined to agree. How and why is for another day :) There is pleasure to be derived from interacting with complex systems and complex people.;) Its as much fun as enjoying the simple things in life. :)

Well its the fag end of the semester and it brings with it all the normal project submissions and other miscellaneous issues. This time around I hope to be well on top of all of them.

Going to end with something that struck me as quite poignant.

Camouflaged as virtue in all its splendour,
vanity lurks,
ready to strike and devour
innocence.
The ambitious are its staple diet,
for they are attracted to its glitter.
The religious fall prey to vanity,
for they become obsessed with salvation.
The wise become victims of vanity,
for they fall in love with the concepts of virtue.

Reality Check !!

2005-04-13T18:19:00.000-04:00

Indian cricket has been mired in turmoil for sometime now not least the form of their captain. There are armchair critics who are calling for his head. As an article on cricinfo mentioned "it was Ganguly who walked in next, accompanied by plentiful boos from those geniuses in the stands who chose to ignore his near-10,000 runs for the national team."

But then if there was anything certain about the average Indian cricket fan, making all the right jingoistic noises its that their knowledge of the game and its nuances are fairly limited. How else would you term the racist barbs thrown at the West Indians in Mumbai or some of the abuse heaped at the other teams. Especially when you consider that the large number of these fans are enchanted by the "hit and giggle" cricket that is the one day international and would not appreciate the beauty of an absorbing hour of test cricket where although only twenty runs may be scored, you might get to see a more even contest between the bat and the ball and not the slug-fest that cricket has degenerated into.

It is time therefore for a reality check of sorts.

Ganguly has an ODI average of 41 overall and an average of 39 as captain. Compare this to Tendulkar's 44 overall and 37 as captain and Dravid's 40 overall and 30 as captain. For all clamouring for Dravid as captain this should serve as a wake up call. Ganguly alongwith Sachin has been India's best one day batsmen recent form notwithstanding.

Now on to the Tests where I was actually expecting a reversal of this. Ganguly with an average of 41 overall and 37 as captain doesnt fare too badly compared to Tendulkar's 57 overall and 51 as captain. Dravid on the other hand has 57 overall and 17 as captain. To be fair Dravid has only captained India in 5 tests. So you really cant go by those stats.

It is obvious that the toll of captaincy shows on any individual. What these stats tell you is that Ganguly has coped with it better than some other players. I am not even considering Ganguly's record as captain which regardless of what happens from this point onwards makes him India's best captain of all time. All players, great or otherwise go through a slump. It remains to be seen whether the team will stand behind its captain as he has done with them. It would be sad to see the legacy left behind by the Ganguly-Wright era tainted.

Fear

2005-04-12T16:08:00.000-04:00

What do you do when fear grips your heart, makes it go heavy and paralyses you. It would cripple you if you let it. As Bacon once said "To suffering there is a limit, to fearing none". There are days when you question yourself and there are no answers or answers you dont want to hear. What is it that you do next? Do you sit and let fear take over. We are afraid as long as we cant define something. The moment we put it down into words the fear disappears as if you've just taken its fangs away.

As someone called it correctly, Fear- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

It can hit at the most inopportune and unexpected of times. Its upto us to look it in the face and most times that is all it takes to realize that its hollow :)

Weekend

2005-04-10T13:37:00.000-04:00

Its been a good weekend so far. Got up really early on Saturday and after working a bit at home headed to school to tackle some of the work that seemed to have piled up. Nats and Sank had some work too, so we all landed up at a very deserted North Campus.

We finished up work by the evening and headed back home to go do some groceries shopping. It turned out to be one hilarious "Aldies" trip. Soray was "high", literally and figuratively ;). Nats seemed to suddenly take a liking for my jacket, which wasnt good news for either my jacket or me. ;) Sank worked his immitations to good effect and me, well I was just being myself, which is bad enough, when I wasnt keeping nats at bay ;). Ashish was the one who had to endure all of us. So did the other shoppers who were sending enough glares and stares in our direction to tell us in unequivocal terms what they thought of us and our antics.

Came back home and after a quick trip to 122 we settled down to cook food. Nats was the head chef today and she and soray have an unparalleled passion for cooking that fascinates me. Watching the enthusiasm with which they cook is a pleasure surpassed by only one other pleasure, eating the food they whip up.;) To quote Bertie Wooster, "I regret having only one stomach to put at their disposal." Helped Nats and then sat around to watch the movie on "Metallica". A few minutes into the movie after finishing dinner I got the distinct feeling that my eyelids seemed to have rebelled against the brain and acquired a mind of their own. Here I was enjoying a Metallica movie and they were shutting despite the many messages to the contrary being sent by the brain. Ohhhh welll... I decided to call up manish who is in jersey to try and sort out a small problem he's been facing. I dont even know if I slept off before or after calling him. ;)

Talking of which congratulations are in order to Dhimonda for getting into IIM-A. The only problem is now that you are going to end up as a junior to Sukha who has expressed his desire in no uncertain terms to extract retribution for all the days we spent throwing stones at his window in the dead of the night from across his wing calling him various names. ;)

Got up in the morning and sank and nats decided that they wanted to have dosas in the morning. For a person who has spent the better part of his life so far eating dosas as and when he can this was music to the ears. So we pulled out all the dosa mixes we had around the house and started making it. Its not exactly the same authentic one I make at home given that its a mix, I aint one to complain when it comes to food. One thing it did tell me is that I now know one thing that is making the trip back from India this time around and that is the wet grinder or the mixer. I dont think I would want to live one more year without hot dosas around to tide me over. :)

Felt good to talk to sandy and get things moving along. It just struck me buddy that more than anything we did for robotix its the club that did so much for us. It taught us a lot and being put in charge sort of gave us an objective to drive relentlessly towards ;) Without it we might have been like the rebels without a cause, if you know what I mean :)

Finally one stubborn person to another, Im trying, seriously I am ;) You see I keep most of my promises.:) The only difficult ones are when its too tempting, as you very well know or if circumstances contrive against.. as nats will attest to ;)

So far so good !!

2005-04-07T14:30:00.000-04:00

It is the beginning of the end, the end of the semester that is :) The first week so far hasnt been too bad. Havent had to pull those all nighters yet and am hoping it stays that way.

Things have been progressing well and more importantly am feeling for want of a better word, I shall call "at peace". Went with Nats yesterday evening to attend a seminar on "game theory". Dont let the name fool u.. Its not "game theory".. nooooo.. what we saw was different and revolutionary... It entertained and made u want to tear your hair out at the same time. I got to see the "emotional" side of computer games and if it was to be believed that is the future of computer games. :p And that essentially was the theory. If the audience was anything to go by I have a sinking feeling that this might be true.

I havent written regularly in a while and that is something I hope to rectify. Writing essentially is a very therapeutic and entertaining exercise. It has always been inherently therapeutic, but what makes it fun is the ability to write at "targetted" audiences ;) And yes this too does brighten up the day considerably. :)

The latest issue of Wisden is out. For the uninitiated Wisden is considered by many as the most comprehensive magazine on cricket. Earlier restricted to English cricket it has grown to cover the game globally, with full records and the like. That reminded me of something that I had come across quite a long time ago and captures the spirit of the game beautifully.

The Truth of Cricket
Often in my hearing, it's been said by seers and mystics,
Lies are only lies but statistics are damn statistics.

I once heard a great man say to a man, "You want to know about cricket?
Keep out of Wisden, avoid Wisden , I tell you, man, that's the ticket!"
Other chap he pulled at his imaginary box and replied,
"Wisdom, did you say? Wisdom? For that I've searched far and wide."

"Not wisdom, you ninny!" said first. " Listen afore you talk!"
Wisdom and Wisden, different as cheese and chalk!"

Oh, I've known men, grown men, had to be taught by fistics,
That lies are only lies but statistics are damn statistics.

Said he, "I've seen centuries, double tons, as dry as an old maids' nighty!
And I've seen ducks, sublime ducks, memorable and mighty!

That Bradman they quote ad nauseum with his ninety nine point whatever.
It means nought, me old sport, it's not necessarily clever.

Think Courtney Walsh from his aggregate be best bowler, damn his hide?
I've seen better, much better, who could only bowl a wide!"

Ah, cricket is an art form, stuff your silly logistics.
Lies are only lies but statistics are damn statistics.

-- Unknown

Cricket literature is actually a genre by itself and is worth reading. There are quite a few pieces which are a pleasure to read. Time to end .. over and out. :)

Weekend

2005-04-03T04:51:00.000-04:00

The week has been pretty good in terms of moving ahead with work. Have begun going back to the gym and that is good as well. The latter half of the week suddenly seems empty after the hectic first half but a break was in order.

Spent some time with soray digging up our backyard to do some work on the playing area where we play our cricket, but two days of snow might mean that all that good work might be undone. Well Im sure of all the crazy things we've done to play cricket this must rank right up there. Pounding the area with a concrete block and a bloody heavy log, watering the area, digging and relaying it.... wish the rest of the gang was here right now.

The end of the semester is near and it remains to be seen whether I've learnt anything from last semester. Will the planning reduce the late nights and make it the smooth ride I hope it will be? Considering that the workload has actually increased its going to be an interesting challenge. :) Time will tell though if Ive actually managed to shrug off this overly ENTP trait of waiting till the last minute and relying on the ability to improvise to tide over things.

Dusty Roads

2005-03-31T07:28:00.000-05:00

ABSTRACT POST WARNING :: might put sleepyheads to sleep ;)

Walking down these dusty roads is an experience by itself. The billowing wind, the parched land, the hardened weathered faces looking curiously at a stranger walking down that road. The road that starts from nowhere and leads nowhere. The road that epitomises the joy of journey without beginning and without destination. Why am I on it? There just by the side I see this snazzy road with neon lights, glowing bulbs, the party district whose intensity is only overshadowed by the even more glowing party people with their shimmering dresses, electronic billboards, the blaring sounds and the hustle and bustle of the new generation as nattily dressed people flit about. And yet there is a darkness that sort of envelops this road, the night fog descends and visibility is reduced. A brooding silence hangs around the road. Not for this road, the bright lights and the loud sounds. A few minutes on that road and I start getting comfortable again. I havent been here in a while. I see a few familiar faces and many new ones. The regulars sort of recognize and communicate their greetings with a small sign of the hand that speaks volumes. Words are not needed between kindred.

You see little pockets of people huddled around a small fire, wearing capes and hoods to keep out the cold. Most of them are meeting each other for the first time and will probably never meet again and yet they connect like old friends. They are exchanging stories and experiences with each other. Each story means different things to different people and yet it all sort of falls into place.

I keep walking and soon I see her. It doesnt come as a surprise. I have seen her quite a few times and know her from outside the road. We speak in the way only we can. This however isnt the time to stop. Again no words are needed. Communication pathways are established, messages transferred and acknowledged with minimal movement.

Moving on I reach the final outpost and find them waiting for me. I expected more to come but the toil and labour of daily life has taken its toll. Quite a few have fallen by the wayside no longer frequenting these dilapilated haunts. I take off my pack, settle onto the floor, and we all pore over maps ancient. We chalk out plans, check our provisions and its time to move. From this point onwards there is no road, the only road is the one you make and carve out of the wilderness. I have made this journey a few times, sometimes alone, sometimes with close friends, sometimes with complete strangers and each time the sorroundings change. That perhaps is the beauty of it all. I soak it in knowing fully well that it will soon be time to return to the world as it were with all its hues and joys and sorrows. In another time and place I might have let that dilute this experience. However that time is not now.

Breather !!

2005-03-29T05:55:00.000-05:00

Its time to take a breather. It came to a head yesterday when I was practically running fom morning 7 to night 11. After taking care of a few admin issues at work and introducing a new method that should hopefully cut time required to get systems up and running by half leaving me with more time to look at the PYTs in nursing, it was time to go straight to the conference to present a poster. Afterwards pottered around to the lab after a panel session and provided the finishing touches on an analysis due yesterday.

The conference guys had hosted a banquet of sorts and you learn very quickly that good food is always a welcome commodity in grad life :) So we go to this place called "kabab and curry" with mohit. This restaurant is definitely getting visited again, if not for the great food, but for the stunning waitress who delivered the food ;) All in all a perfect day. Only one thing was missing and that is my normal routine during the afternoons that considerably brightens up the day, much more than most other things can, addiction or not ;)

Had a chat with Sandy after coming back home and chalked out some further plans. Bunty if you are reading this, I did get your message and Ill give your call tonite.
Time to end here ... its always good to keep the posts short, sort of keeps the sleepyheads interested ;)

And So It Begins !!

2005-03-21T17:44:00.000-05:00

HIGHLY ABSTRACT POST WARNING -- All sleepyheads go directly to second half !!!!

And So it begins.. :) The next two months are going to determine a lot of things. The sheer volume of work that lies ahead of me and the varied nature of it, in normal circumstances would have sent me scurrying for cover. But for once it feels good. :) It feels as if a corner has been turned, a phase left behind that has been dogging me for more than a couple of years now. Some people will know what I mean here. :)

A lot of it has to do with paradigm shifts in thinking, evaluating and moving forward. It has to do with being at peace and finding the right balance. I wouldnt say that the number of problems that have been cropping up are any less than they used to. Its got to do with something that is hard to describe. If you are reading this bro, it reminded me of something that you said to me just mins before leaving quite a few months back .. remember a lock ..and a forgotten combination.. and how perspectives change. I know what you mean now :) If I dont catch u before your trip have a great time. :)

A couple of people (which is actually a minority) have told me in the past that multitasking is something tat I excel in. Something a few others I know will actually be surprised at. ;) But thats been the case with a lot of things in life. You change as you constantly strive to push yourself. I know its something that I havent enjoyed in the recent past as I mentioned in my last post but its also something that I used to handle with ease some years back. I used to handle it with ease in a totally different manner to which I am doing right now. People say the early 20s is the age when you start understanding your body and mind well, knowing its limitations, learning not to abuse it and work within it and still achieve similar if not better results. These last couple of years have been a bit painful in terms of health issues.. but they have been revealing nevertheless.

Its been great talking to BD and sandy again. Its time to rev up the old engine again ehh ?? :) Got to talk to nag after ages, but didnt feel like any time had actually passed.. yet again :)

I have always believed that other people can tell you more about yourself than you yourself can at times. A lovely soul, wise or not ;), kept pointing out to me that perhaps I enjoyed pushing myself beyond existing boundaries and right now I am inclined to agree. My greatest kick used to come out of pushing the limits. It used to be my biggest cause of problems as well. Its only now that I have learnt to reign that in enough to achieve that balance I was talking of.

Thats why it feels like its the last lap of a race. Is this just a one-off or actually the change of a phase the next two months will tell.. but for now.. its time to brace yourself for the ride. And so it begins......... :)

Spring !!

2005-03-19T16:07:00.000-05:00

Well spring is finally here. Winter is on its way out. The accumulated snow is beginning to melt in what is a welcome change. Have been happy with the way work has been coming along. The break does seem to have done some good in the sense that its allowed me to take some time off during the Columbus trip and forget about everything. That has actually helped in getting back to work afresh. :)

Spring break ends in a couple of days and am trying to enjoy the last few days of the break. Once school starts it will be back to the multitasking life that I dont particularly enjoy ;) Well I guess you cant have everything and there's a price to be paid for never being satisfied, as some wise soul keeps saying ;)

I hadnt realised that I had passed a 100 posts quite sometime back. Well blogging is a different form of writing and any form of writing is good. :)

I had promised smaller, non-sleep inducing posts .. .. so I'm going to stop here... over and out..

ps: actually was writing this post while waiting for my printouts at the library.. and they are now done.. so time to end

First Day !!

2005-03-18T00:05:00.000-05:00

Its the first day at work and it promises to be more interesting than the previous one. The fact that it pays more helps as well ;) It allows me to work on something I like while still allowing me the opportunity to interact and meet with the many PYTs, which I believe is the right term ;).

All is not well in the robotix arena. :( Things have been simmering for sometime now and it has just boiled over now. In a way part of the blame lies with us and its only fair that we own up to it. In our quest for technical excellence we didnt pursue the goal of economic independence for the organisation with the same zeal and its come back to bite us in the back. It was obvious that while the organisation was small it wouldnt attract anyone's attention but the moment it started getting succesful the vultures would close in .. and close in they have. But this is just the beginning and is certainly not over yet.. not if we can help it.As they say its time to man the battlestations and get ready for the long haul :)

Went to watch the basketball game and the team rallied around after an indifferent start to post a win in overtime. Thats the first sign of a good team, their ability to fight on one of their off days.

Loads of work has piled up over the week and have been busy trying to get some of it off my back before the break is over. For a change am looking forward to the work. A message to the one who cannot be named -- this is the time to channelise some of that stubbornness ;) Time to end this one here .. over and out :)

Back to Buffalo !!

2005-03-15T08:13:00.000-05:00

Made the trip back home to Buffalo from Columbus by bus at around 5 am. As expected the typical Buffalo cold was at hand to welcome us. The first train out of downtown was half an hour later, so we roamed around the downtown area till the first train back :) Feels good to be back home after what has been essentially an amazing break. Its been a rejuvenating experience and has been some time since I have done the things we did ;)

Met up with pinku after quite a while. Well well pinku if it wasnt for the last two hours I was beginning to believe that you had lost a little of your edge ;) We met up with lopa as well. While the first day was almost insane considering the number of things we managed to do we more or less spent the last day relaxing.

Ahhh well.. its back to buffalo and back to work as well. ;) Have the break till next monday and am looking to get a few things off the ground. Expect shorter posts as a result of this.. no more sleep inducing posts for the sleepyheads, especially the stubborn kind. ;)

Over and out for now.. :)

2005-03-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Concert Final -- Leaving home

2005-03-12T23:25:00.000-05:00

Concet Post 3 --- Floyd 1

2005-03-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

Concert Post 2 -- After the opening band

2005-03-12T21:24:00.000-05:00

Concert 1st Post -- Led Zeppelin Kashmir

2005-03-12T20:45:00.000-05:00

This was the song "Kashmir" by led zep that these guys played really well, the chick on the vocals was amazing.. vocals and otherwise.. :) The quality of the recording isnt tat good considering that this was done on a mobile. :)

Have had to pull down the kashmir mp3 as the recording was terrible.. just leaving the deep purple one... "perfect strangers"

Lyrics

Can you remember remember my name
As I flow through your life
A thousand oceans I have flown
And cold spirits of ice
All my life
I am the echo of your past

I am returning the echo of a point in time
Distant faces shine
A thousand warriors I have known
And laughing as the spirits appear
All your life
Shadows of another day

And if you hear me talking on the wind
You’ve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

I know I must remain inside this silent well of sorrow

A strand of silver hanging through the sky
Touching more than you see
The voice of ages in your mind
Is aching with the dead of the night
Precious life (your tears are lost in
Falling rain)

And if you hear me talking on the wind
You’ve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

Reached Columbus

2005-03-12T18:39:00.000-05:00

Finally made it to Columbus on Saturday morning after a six hour journey made lively by the presence of an eccentric driver who entertained us with his wit. ;) We finally reached Columbus at around 8:00 in the morning and pinku as usual was sleeping totally unaware of our visit. All our attempts to wake him up prove futile and there we are standing outside his house hoping someone hears our knocks. And then to compound matters further the snow gods decide that since we are from Buffalo a proper welcome to Columbus would be incomplete without a dash of snow. :) Thankfully Ankan, a fellow mechie from kgp and now pinku's roommate responded to our calls and finally let us in. Needless to say pinku was pretty surprised ;)

The rest of the morning was spent in catching up with pinku's stories and trust me there are lots .. :p If u reading this koshy we shall talk soon :) We went around Ohio State University campus taking in the sights and sounds, the sights in particular which are definitely worth seeing. :p We decided to relive those moments of undergrad days when we decided to convert a racquet court in the local gym into a makeshift cricket pitch. Two and half hours of intense cricket, characterised by the typical diving, bruising and friendly banter, later we went back to the lake to grab a bit of breath and watch the pretty birds in and around the lake ;)

Came back to pinku's place for a breather before leaving for the Pink Floyd concert which is a story in itself. The music was great with the opening band playing Deep Purple, Kashmir by Led Zeppelin (which was stunning) before the main band came on stage to play Floyd. This wasnt a big theater, more like a small place where 250 odd people came to enjoy the music and more. ;) The band played Floyd really well and the scene progressively got wilder as time progressed. Left at around midnite back home. Pinku made some amazing food.. and crashed at around 5 in the morning only to get up again at 7. Its been an amazing time so far.. It should be another great two days.. Ill put the audio posts later.. :) Over and out

Other Images !!

2005-03-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

The other images are up as promised. :)

And my favourite .. Inevitability

@Credits -- Nag

Human Condition !!

2005-03-05T17:21:00.000-05:00

Well I met up with Nag online after a long long time and we were as usual discussing ideas and stuff and somehow the topic veered to photography and he was showing me some of his work. Im going to post some of the photographs up here

@Credits -- Nag

Click on the image to open it in full size in a separate window. Other images will be posted later. :)

Human Nature

2005-03-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

LONG POST WARNING !!!! --- All sleepyheads go directly to the second half :p

I have been taking the last two days off and lying at home trying to recuperate and coaxing my body to recover from the abuse I have unwittingly heaped on it in the last few months. Trying to read Carl Jung and its leading me into the dark sinister alley that is human nature.

Sometimes I do wonder at what duality is. It intrigues me. I wonder how dark, mysterious uncharted warters fires my imagination while it is the rock solid reliable people that get my respect. Why is it that I hate drinking, smoking and all other such activities while loving the thrill of breaking protections, and traversing the underbelly of the net which comprises of parallel sites that google never reaches, the ones you hear of through word of mouth and stumbling upon them. Why is it that while I dislike establishments and institutions I dislike cults, and communities with equal intensity. They are in essence parallel institutions with different set of rules, but institutions nevertheless and with rules all the same. Why is it that I refuse to belong to either institutions or cults. I just am me. :)

I am reminded of a converstion a long long time ago..

Person A : What do you think is wrong with people? How can they accept this life and go on?
Person B : Just make your peace with the world my friend.
Person A : Yea.. perhaps I do need to. After all it does take all kinds to make up the world.

Reading Jung has been an experience in itself. :)

Today got a message from one of my juniors who is a part of robotix who went on to inform me that there was a kid back in iit in first year who looked like me and according to her who talked just like me too :p and this reminded them of their first year treat when we were the ones treating them. This group of juniors have taken the competition to a different level altogether. You guys have made us proud. I sometimes wish I had been more involved after I left IIT but I believed and continue to believe that we did what we had to do. Now its ur baby.:) You have to learn from our mistakes, make your own, learn from it and that is how the organisation could improve. Well Lath a treat is certainly in the offing. Thanx sofia for reminding me of the treat. Work has been a bit hectic.. but I promise to get things moving this weekend. :) The best wishes to all the final years in charge of robotix. I am sure it must be as emotional a moment for you guys to have been involved with the last robotix. But its time to move on. New hands will take over and with it will come fresh ideas that will take this to the next level.

Well a special message to a very stubborn person. Hope everythings fine. :)

On a different note .. where the hell are you rite.. If you reading this give a call sometime. :) And munds I got ur comment on the blog.. but cannot find which post you had left it on. I just received your message on my email. Ill try calling either you or nevaj or tk over the weeknd. And dhimonda .. there has to be a landline I can catch you on. I simply for some reason cannot seem to get your mobile. I have to hear your travails with the kgp interviewer. :)

Time to end here ..

EDIT: Apocalyptica songs are up. Check the files section for the link. The extensions of all the files are in .pdf format. Just rename the files to have a ".mp3" extension and listen to them. :)

Back !!

2005-03-04T08:26:00.000-05:00

Havent posted in quite a long time. A combination of an insane amount of work and health not being at its very best has been responsible. Finally got free yesterday and the first thing I did is to sleep almost the whole day. Not even the new force feedback gamepads could distract me from the sleep.

Abi finally resurfaced on earth and we got to talk to him. Btw, Shiv i got the movie and have downloaded it completely. You can delete it from the server. Thanks :)

Got around to listening to this band called "Apocalyptica" playing cover versions of Metallica. Its classic instrumental and its good. Its got me hooked these past few days. Its got soul, rhythm and depth in the music. If you guys liked the background music in the Lord of the Rings music you will love this as well. Mind blowing stuff. Not since the day I discovered Led Zep have I been this excited about some new music. Am looking forward to their other songs.

Time to end this one here. Over and out. :)

Update !!

2005-02-25T09:50:00.000-05:00

Made some changes to the structure of the blog in terms of the columns on the right. There should be a video section, a links section and links to all the audio blogs that I have posted.

The video section as of now has the highlights of the last day of the final test between India and Australia at Mumbai. Pinku, u shud like this one. Basically i am using this video to test if the system is going to work or not. If everything goes well I shud be able to put up other stuff in the forthcoming week. Any suggestions will be more than welcome. ;)

Over and out for now.. Well this was a small post compared to the last one ... and hopefully wont put some people to sleep :p

Life is as complex as you want it to be

2005-02-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well this has been a long time coming now. We have been involved in a few conversations in the last few days that have concerned this and this post has been lying in the draft stage for a weeks now with a few of the other posts wondering when it would see the light of day. I just feel that the time has come to publish this one.

What are emotions and how does it affect us? How many of us let emotions run a big part of our lives? Does the concept of emotion need to be given the kind of importance they seem to get? I would say emotions are important in the sense that you need to be able to understand them, both in yourselves as well as in others. After all man is a creature of emotion. I think the key is to be aware of our own emotions at all times. How many of us are able to identify anger, revenge, jealousy , happiness and other things at the very moment they threaten to take over. How many of us can step back at the very moment of anger and look at the whole process and be aware of the emotion. You will be surprised to find out that the process of stepping back and being aware of it diffuses the anger before it can begin to get a hold on you. The whole process of being aware of what makes you happy in life can be one of the most enriching experiences by itself.

I think most of us would agree that emotions can be great reservoirs of energy and happiness at best and absolutely destructive at worst. I think control over your own emotions can be the highest level of self awareness that one can achieve. The other key would be to not confuse control with obliterating because they are definitely not the same thing. I think it was Nietzsche who said " One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too." And before u believe I am condemning sentiment, passion and love, read the previous statement again and the significance might strike you. I believe in all these emotions as much as the next person. What I believe is that too much of the head over heart and heart over head can be damaging. There are safety checks that need to be in place. Its important to enjoy sentiment but realise at the same time that it might not be the best guiding factor in any decision making process.

Isnt life one big exercise in being better at what you do and what you are? Emotions tend to be the weakest links in every person. They can at the same instance be our greatest allies if only we are aware of it. That is why I cant seem to come to terms with the fact that many would just seem to be aware that it might be something that can cause havoc but are happy to reconcile with it. I find it hard to believe that people would not want to not even attempt to come to terms with their emotions and reign it in. Its akin to saying that I know the problem but u know what .. its inevitable coz its just who I am so ill just let it be. I simply cannot reconcile to that. If I am aware of a potential problem, I have to atleast attempt to understand it and then attempt to solve it. And yes I believe each one of us has it in us to be able to solve anything and everything that is thrown at us.

When you let your decision making process ruled to a great extent by emotions we run the risk of manipulation. Its amazing how a single moment of emotion can destroy hours/days/years of painstaking work. Its not to suggest that we need to get rid of emotions. Its just that we need to realize that emotions do exist and more importantly we need to be aware of them and recognise them for the double edged sword that they are.

So what does the title of this post have to do with the content. Its because I believe that life is a prism that we hold in the light. Look at it from different angles and we see different colours that it emits. At the end of the day the colours dont change the fact that its a prism. Life can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. Its each individual's choice.

I think this is the last time I am going to visit this topic on this blog for a myriad of reasons. Time to end this one here. Over and out.

Julia Dream

2005-02-23T09:42:00.000-05:00

"Julia Dream"
-- Floyd

Sunlight bright upon my pillow
Lighter than an eiderdown
Will she let the weeping willow
Wind his branches round
Julia dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams
Every night I turn the light out

Waiting for the velvet bride
Will the scaly armadillo
Find me where I'm hiding
Julia dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams
Will the misty master break me
Will the key unlock my mind
Will the following footsteps catch me
Am I really dying
Julia dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams

This has been my favourite song of floyd for sometime now. The journey with floyd that began way back in the ninth std when i got hooked onto "The Wall", moving on to their other albums and then finally deciding too much of floyd aint good for the health ;)

Have to go to the shift at the worst possible time .. bang in the middle of the afternoon, which is wat should be siesta and relaxation time. I dont like the afternoon shifts for another reason too .. :D I am a believer in taking a break in between a day. Actually helps productivity.

Rite, i promised to send you the mp3 of the previous song.. check your gmail accnt.. you should have got it.. If there's a prob temme and ill put it up online somewhere as its not too big either. Lemme know if u like it. :)

Time to leave for work.. catch u all later.. over and out. :D

Curiousity :)

2005-02-21T09:08:00.000-05:00

Well is this a good or a bad thing. The following should be of some assistance ;) Hope this helps :)

"Curiosity ... endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will. " -- Alistair Cooke

Finally talked to sandy and BD after a long time. :) Was talking to a couple of other friends too and we got talking on life and its vicissitudes. One of them quoted Bach on this "It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost ... " Kind of made sense in certain ways and also tied in with a couple of other conversations I have had of late.. ;)

Time to end this one here ...

Freezing Cold !!

2005-02-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

Its been this insane day today. Got caught in the freezing snow waiting for the damned bus to arrive for nearly two hours. And I chose this day to not wear my snow boots. One hour into the wait I had lost all feeling of my feet. After nearly two hours and being almost half an hour late for my shift I called up Ash and he dropped me off at north. I find out after I reach north that the bus service has been absolutely terrible today with delays that will make you cringe. Talk about bad days. Its been a terrible day right from the morning and I cannot wait for this day to get over without any further mishap. As Vip later pointed out that such days happen every so often in Buffalo and when if you survive this you can pretty much survive anything that the Buffalo winter can throw at you. Ahhh welll.. small consolations. Talked to sandy after a long time. Nice to hear your voice buddy. Well it does seem things are going on track for the conclusion we had planned for. Heres hoping to that. :)

Watched two movies in the last two days. Watched Constantine on Thursday one day before it was released as they had a special screening for students here. Liked the movie and Keanu Reeves does well again in these kind of roles. Some of the scenes remind you of the Matrix, but then such is the cult status of the Matrix that comparisons to it are inevitable. We watched "Hide and Seek" on Friday evening as we got together with Mohit and it passes muster for a scary movie. However, the theme has been overdone in recent years and that is the reason for some of the predictability of the movie.

I and mittra ended up staying up late on friday. Went around to 87 Merrimac and got around to talking sports, cricket in particular. Ended up talking of matches gone by, which is natural when you have three people with photographic memories who can recount the exact shot, the exact situation of the match and the works. Went retro to the times of really old, the ones we had only heard of, the era of Joel Garner, Charles Griffith, Wes Hall, Roberts, Thomson. Well you get the drift. Walked back, made some food and we ended up talking till about 4 in the morning when we finally decided to get some sleep.

Time to end this one here. Over and out folks.. :)

All Systems Are Down :)

2005-02-17T06:59:00.000-05:00

Its not often when you come across a day where u just wish that it gets over. Yesterday was just such a day. Came down with a bad case of cold and fever on monday that the whole school seems to have contracted. This case of getting the cold is something tat seems to happen every semester and might as well get it done with at the beginning. Couldnt take yesterday or the day before off because had a few meetings and some assignments that had to be turned in. Had a shift I had to take care as well yesterday. Had a couple of people tell me tat I looked like a zombie at the shift :p .. a helpful zombie though ;)

The prof seemed to find the fact tat I landed up at the meeting and managed to get something done worthwhile.:) Finally crashed back home. Just got up sometime in between to make dinner.. eat it .. and crash again. Feeling much better now but am not going to push my luck by going to skool again today :)

Attitudes

2005-02-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

This thought has been buzzing around in my head for some time now. It struck me while reading one of my earlier writings again. This has mainly got to do with the new order that we have in society and the kind of attitudes that are prevalent in the world. We live in an age where we pretty much do the things we want to, when we want to and how we want to. It goes under the name of personal liberty and independence amongst other things. The generation next men and women of the world believe in having a cool happening killer attitude.

The newer generation to which we belong to believes that we deserve to have the kind of luxuries we now possess. It might just be because I am right now in a place where people seem to be swayed by appearances more than content. This phenomenon is not just restricted to products. However, I have a feeling that the place I came from is not too far away from mirroring conditions here.

What really got me thinking was whether the output we produce, the products of our work and the quality of that product is really commensurate to the resources we are consuming right now. This isnt really about just a few individuals. Its about society as a whole. We of all the people should be aware that resources arent infinite. Does the advancements in science and technology really compensate for the resources we are eating up as a society. Some might ask as to why I am singling out science and technology. I asked myself the same question. After all is it to say that science and technology is the only thing that is important. Do I mean to say that advancements in health, commerce and arts arent as important. Well, they are as important if not more. However, it is the progress in science that will eventually determine whether we are able to renew our resources at a faster rate than that occurs by natural means. Is the commitment to pure sciences research indicative of this importance or is it meagre to say the least.

Well perhaps its not my station to comment on this and then perhaps it is. Is it just me who believes that we should for once perhaps look beyond ourselves and have a frank appraisal of whether our contribution to the world justifies the resources we consume. We have been given a world which is full of conveniences unparalleled. The fact that a good percentage of the human population is never able to avail of the basic amenities let alone conveniences is a another matter altogether. Will we leave behind a world that will be cummulatively richer or will it be poorer for our presence. This is not even considering the social mess that is around us. That for me is a scary thought.

Its time to end this one here folks.. over and out.

Customer Service !!

2005-02-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

I had a taste of what customer service is really all about today. We had managed to render our cable modem that is primarily responsible for the internet useless. We managed to do this while trying to fix one of the fuses that had blown yesterday nite. Talk about cascading problems. After we fix the fuse we find out that the net is down and we are having to live off, for want of a better word, "borrowed" bandwidth.

So we decide to call the cable company to see if we could get a replacement. A phone call later we make the trip downtown to their local office to see if we could swap the equipment. It was hard to believe tat all it took was for us to handover the faulty equipment and we were handed a new one .. no questions asked. I find it hard to imagine a similar scenario back home. Now this is what you call customer service and in a way you got to admire the company.

Am at work and there isnt much to do as usual. ;) Have had to do some routine maintenance before retiring to my desk .. looking around .. and having another go at stickcricket. ;)

Google !!

2005-02-10T11:48:00.000-05:00

So it seeme that if you type in "vroomfondle" the character from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" my blog comes up as the first result on google. I just found out while checking the hits to my site and was surprised to see this. :p Well wat the heck :p

I was just thinking abt emotions the other day and it got me going. I have never been a great believer in the open display of emotions. Emotions to me are good as long as u are aware of them and can channelise them. Its fascinating to observe how emotions like anger, revenge, happiness and sheer joy affect the way we think. There are times when u need to give emotions a full reign.Some wise soul once said "We must become acquainted with our emotional household; we must see our feelings as they actually are, not as we assume they are. This breaks their hypnotic and damaging hold on us." Emotions are just another tool in your interactions with your environment as such. You will see countless examples of where proper channeling of emotions actually helps and other examples of emotions running wild can be destructive. It is a fine line that one has to tread. Hmm .. right now I need to go and work off some steam :p If there is one thing I cannot stand its people being pushy and presumptious.

Winter is back with a vengeance and the snow is falling as if it needs to make up for the few days of good weather we had. What that means is no cricket for some time now. There is something cathartic about playing games that is good for the soul. :) The next best thing to playing games is to watch them. ;)

Time to end this one here.. over and out..

Back to the grind !!

2005-02-09T01:11:00.000-05:00

Hmm.. this work is turning out to be a pretty long one indeed. There is a deluge of work that needs to be done right now.

Whats worse is the fact that I have been assigned a shift on Wednesdays that I normally wouldnt have. It just happens to be the worst possible time to have a shift. Bang in the middle of the afternoon when the workload is around its peak. :( Time to catch up on some sleep now .... :p Over and out ..

Cricket !!!

2005-02-08T13:11:00.000-05:00

YESSSS !!!! Finally after wat seems to be ages I played cricket again. The gods were indeed kind and in the middle of the winter we had a day that saw temperatures of 10 degrees centigrade. Wats more it was a Sunday. We didnt need any more encouragement. I am alone at home and all the usual suspects with whom I played cricket during fall are miles away. However, when such a day comes u dont complain, you catch hold of anyone u can and then run as fast as u can to the playing field.. in this instance the parking lot.

It felt good to just hold the bat, the feel of ball hitting the bat at just the right spot, running in to the makeshift crease with ball in hand and letting go with gusto. :) The thrill could not be dampened by the fact tat lack of practice meant that the feet were moving nowhere on most occasions. There is something very special about this game which you need to play to understand. Its another matter that Im now in bed trying to rejuvenate what is a very sore back. It was well worth every single ache and pain i feel right now. Hemanth and Raghav turned up while the others ditched.. :p Their loss. ;) We played with great gusto with Raghav managing to work up a good pace. The sight of three guys playing a game with that kind of enthusiasm managed to elicit a smile from every passerby and car drivers.

On the way back the sight of the cricket bat managed to stop traffic on the main road with people wanting to know if its "initiation time". Well initiation is wat they call ragging here and the cricket bat has a more than passing resemblance to the bat used during ragging, although the cricket bat is indeed much bigger. And I thought our ragging was bad :p ... well it was ;)

This has to be one of the best days, let alone a Sunday in a long time. Got up, got some work done. Had a great time in the morning which sort of set the tone for the remainder of the day;). Went off to play cricket in the afternoon. The sore back prevented me from going over to Mohit's place to watch the superbowl which would have been great fun as well. Got into the bus only to get off it much to the amusement of the driver. Watched the superbowl lying down at home. Was a great game but you always knew the Patriots were going to win. They simply are a better unit and u got to give it to them. They played stunning football. They showed nerves upfront which put the Eagles in the lead. But u always knew it was a matter of time before they got the rhythm going and came storming back. It was a professional display all along.

Slept off after the superbowl anticipating a long week ahead now. :) Well the week is on right now and its not been so bad so far. Over and out for now folks.. :p

Saturday...

2005-02-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

Have been at work for some time now and its been pretty quiet here. Havent updated my blog for quite some time and decided to pay this a visit today. :)

The weather gods have been kind to us today and hopefully they will be kinder tomorrow. If the weather holds good tomorrow we plan to play some cricket. ;) Lets see how that goes. I just realised that I have a ton of work that needs to get completed before the next week is out and I need to get cracking on it. ;) The indications of a pile of work this early in the semester is very scary. I need to get most of the work done by this weekend to try and have a peaceful week ahead. :)

Sank left for India yesterday and Im alone at home now for a week till the time soray gets back on the 10th. :) The house is devoid of all the normal hustle and bustle. :) Well I should be back to regular blogging after I get some of the pending work done....
over and out for now ..

Change

2005-02-02T07:15:00.000-05:00

I was just reading some of my old writings on a variety of topics and was wondering whatever happened to that kid who wrote that. Somehow those writings seemed that much more genuine and devoid of pretense. The operative word in that sentence is "seemed". There was more passion, more force and more conviction in those writings. That got me thinking as to whether the motivations, the desires, the drive are more or less the same or have they changed. Its then that it struck me. It HAS changed. It perhaps had to like everything else. Infact I have a different spin to the whole situation.

When I was young you have a single primary outlook at life. As you grow, visit different places, meet different people you tend to take away something from each of that experience. It adds to your personality, rather than take away from it. Whether it enriches you or not is a different question altogether. What results is that you end up with an outlook that is as varied as it is different from how it used to be.

However, I still firmly believe that its all for the good. Change is inevitable. The key is to embrace it and well there are still times when glimpses of that kid still resurface. Its all good. Reminded me of some of Richard Bachs writings.

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change. You don't want a million answers as much as you want a few forever questions. The questions are diamonds you hold in the light. Study a lifetime and you see different colors from the same jewel.

Your current safe boundries were once unknown frontiers -- Unknown

2005-02-01T11:40:00.000-05:00

Midnight! the outpost of advancing day!
The frontier town and citadel of night!

2005-02-01T11:36:00.000-05:00

Nightfall

Stray Thoughts !!

2005-01-29T19:47:00.000-05:00

Have been feeling out of sorts these last few days. Have been trying desperately to get a grip on things. :) I guess sometimes life is like this ;) There are some days when things just dont feel right, but you will be hard pressed to come up with a reason. Perhaps on days like these you just need to let go. Slept off on the bus on my way to the shift and had one of the most blissful sleep in recent times :) You might be surprised to know wat a 20 min nap can do for your day.

A couple of conversations struck me over the last few days. :) Have been reminded of tat brilliant piece of work from Douglas Adams, "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy". To quote a certain phrase that is just as thought provoking as it is hilarious. After being shown a very simple solution by a machine the following conversation takes place between Vroomfondle and Magikthise. :)

"Now thats what I call thinking. Here Vroomfondle why do we never think of things like that?"
"I dunno, think our minds must be too highly trained Magikthise."

Is it just me or the more you learn and the more time you spend with books the more rigid your outlook becomes, you look for what someone succintly termed as "complex solutions" to what are essentially "simple problems". Sometimes you just have to step back from the problem, view it with a very simple outlook and you might find an equally simple answer staring back at you all the while. :)

While I was searching for this particular quotes, came across a few others from the same book. A few nice ones ..

"Life was held in contempt of court for being neither beautiful nor true, and was promptly confiscated from everyone present."

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

"Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."

AudioBlogging Primer

2005-01-29T19:36:00.000-05:00

It was shiv who told me that since I had termed this concept audioblogging, most people were under the impression that these are being recorded on the pc and then posted. :) A couple of others had dropped by wanting to know how its done. Just wanted to clear the air, so to speak, and so here it is, the audioblogging primer. :)

First you have to set up an account at www.audioblogger.com, with your existing blogger id and password. You have to select the phone number from which you shall be posting the audio blogs and you also have to select a PIN consisting of numbers. Once all this is set up you are all set to go. You also have to select the blog onto which you want the audio blogs posted. This applies if you have more than one blog. :)

The concept is pretty simple. To post an audio blog you now have to call the number listed at audioblogger from the phone that you selected while creating the account and then once you input the pin you can go ahead and speak into your phone as you normally would. The audioblogger server at the other end of the line will record your conversation as an mp3 and automatically post it onto your blog. Remember no title or other data gets posted. Only the link to the mp3 gets posted. You can always edit the post at some later time. :)

That is it. Finalement, a mini mini howto on my blog. I never thought the day wud come when I would write a technical how to on this blog. WE all learn with time i guess. :)

Bowling !!

2005-01-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Went bowling with Ash and Mal. Had a great time .. mal's right when she calls it an addictive game. :) This is my first time at bowling and the first game showed. Mal whipped us both. Came back strongly in the second one only for both of us to lose by a point. :)

Well I promised to look into a couple of additions to the blog and have been tinkering with the additions. Hopefully should be able to get them up this weekend. :)

Time to end here.. over and out.. :)

Poetry!!

2005-01-27T14:07:00.000-05:00

Its been an enlightening last two days for various reasons. :) Have been learning something new almost every day and its been all good. Got through some stuff yesterday and that means the next deadline is now off till next friday which gives me some time to regroup. :) Planning to go to a basketball game today evening with sank and that should be fun.

Caught up with nag after a while and got to sample his poetry again :) Here is a nice one reprinted with permission ;)

Monday Morning Monkey

There, and Back Again.
I wake to the dolorous drone. of my alarm clock.
Sleepy eyed and clumsy gait
Lead me to Myself in the bathroom mirror.

There i stand, towel in hand.
Im a toothbrush warrior
Foaming at the mouth
Brandishing my toothbrush sword.

But there's nothing and no one to fight.
Except the monday morning monkey.
Who stands before me
Brandishing a toothbrush ...
--- Nag

Thanx for copyright permissions buddy ;) Okie its time to end this one here.... over and out..

Update !!

2005-01-26T14:46:00.000-05:00

Well nats is back from India yesterday nite. Caught up with her and sank finally at school today and decided to get her to record something for the audio blog ;) She didnt know at the beginning though. ;)

Things have been a bit hectic the last few days. Should be back to blogging in a few days :) Time to end this one here.. over and out ..

Monday !!

2005-01-24T13:49:00.000-05:00

Got up to find the snow coming down in droves :( Its been snowing now pretty badly and looks like I might as well get used to it. Had the opening shift today, the only difference this time being that I dont open the site as the overnight crew stays there to make sure the site remains open through the night.

Wasnt a particularly good day in terms of work getting done. Went to the temple in Buffalo yesterday. One of the attractions apart from praying at the temple is the good food that is served at the temple. One of the few places where u get to eat home cooked food. This trip has been a long time coming as I couldnt go to the temple through the last semester due to some or the other work popping up. The whole Indian community sort of congregates there every weekend and you invariably run into people you know and people you will know after a few visits ;)

Came back to see a couple of the playoffs. Was impressed by the professionalism of the defending champions who played some stunning football away from home against one of the better teams of the league.

The audioblog and photoblog concept went pretty well and am now tinkering with a couple of other ideas. Am looking at implementing them as and when time permits, maybe next weekend. :) Its time to end this one here. Over and out folks...

2005-01-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

Let It Snow !!

2005-01-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

Snow Covering Bench !!

2005-01-23T20:13:00.000-05:00

WhiteOut!!!

2005-01-23T20:11:00.000-05:00

Picture taken from Car after audio blog :)

Snow

2005-01-22T23:50:00.000-05:00

Its been snowing continuously from morning and I got caught up as I had a shift. Went to JJ's for breakfast and then decided to go to school pretty early to try and get there before the snowstorm took full effect. Posted the second audioblog from the car while we got stuck up in the blizzard. Thats when it struck me that the audio blogging concept is an amazing one. All you have to do is call up a number ..type in all the account details and then you are ready to record your message. The really good thing would be the ability to post while on the road or stuck somewhere where you dont have access to a computer or the net. :) As I said, a typical example of simple, elegant, small and pretty useful.

The shift as such was pretty boring. I've got some pretty boring shifts this time around. The upshot of this is tat work is less and I get to sit around surfing the web. :) The ride back from work was one experience that I wont forget in a hurry. Wading through knee height snow isnt exactly a fun experience especially if the snow gets inside your boots.

Well the audioblogging thing worked pretty well. I've been trying to get the photo section up somehow... and tie it without breaking the existing structure. Its taking a bit of time but its something I have been wanting to do in a while. Time to end here... over and out :p

Driving through a blizzard

2005-01-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

Driving from south to north campus through a snow blizzard is a pain. Mohit sitting next to me was doing a good job of it though and we reached there safely enough. :) I just decided to use this audio blogging feature more regularly if the feedback from the people who read this is encouraging. :) So wat do u think of this ...

My First Audio Blog --- It Works !!!!!

2005-01-22T08:22:00.000-05:00

Decided to stick to my promise to give audioblogs and photoblogs a test run over the weekend when I do have a bit of time and see how it turns out. The whole idea of the audio blog is the ability to post from anywhere as long as you have access to a phone. Its an amazing concept.. bunty, rite, soray and others who do blog regularly should give it a spin. Over and out for now... :) Its time to have a look at incorporating a photo blog which should be a bit more time consuming than picking up the phone and speaking out inane messages. ;)

Updates !!

2005-01-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

Its been a long time since I posted anything on the blog. Its been hectic these last two weeks and yesterday finally got free for a while. Should be back to regular blogging now and whats more should be able to post pictures on the blog now.. although I am still debating on whether to do this.

Its good to get back to a schedule now that school has begun again. I and sank have been going to the gym regularly again now after a brief hiatus. It feels good to go regularly again. The winter's got a grip of this place as it touches -28 celsius rite now. Walking long distances in this cold isnt a very desirable thought and for once I am pleased that my house is not too far from the bus stop. :) Its just about the distance when u start loosing sensation in your legs.

Made some new friends thanks to sanks volunteer work at the international students orientation. Have been tinkering with the idea of creating a photo blog but every option that I knew of seemed to involve too much time and that is one thing in short supply rite now. My bro then informed me of another of google's creations picasa and hello. The verdict is that both products rock. These guys never cease to amaze me.. the underlying principle behind all of google's products is there. Simple, fast, efficient and elegant. Ill give it a try this weekend and see how it goes.. if all goes well u shud see a photo blog up soon.. and who knows .. an audio blog too .. :)

Over and out for now..

Orientation !!

2005-01-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

This word has many meanings for different people. Travelling to work early in the morning with Sank, who is volunteering at the International Students Orientation at the univ it struck me that it was not too long ago that I was travelling to attend the orientation. :) Its been six months now in this place and its not been too bad. We met a couple yesterday from Mumbai who were talking of how bad it is to get to the cold rightaway from Mumbai where its nigh impossible to see the mercury dip below 20 centigrade.

I was lucky in the sense that I did go to kgp where the mercury at times dips to 6 or 7 and I remember missing quite a few of the morning lectures during the first winter of kgp. :) Talking of kgp and orientation brings back some very interesting memories. Orientation Period or OP for short is one of those things that used to exist once upon a time in kgp. As with a lot of other traditions like student elections this one too ceased to exist sometime during our stay there. We were the last few ones to see what OP looked like. Its a paradox of sorts as OP lead to a bit of disorientation more often than not ;).

Well I had talked of the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance book in my last post and found a link to an electronic version Zen and the Art. I still havent found an electronic copy of the front cover showing this beautiful image of a wrench meshed in with a plant, signifying the mix of science and art.

Am at my morning shift and its all very quiet in here today. I love the morning shifts for this very reason. Most people dont start coming in till about 11am and before you know it the shift is done with. :)

Back to Work !!

2005-01-10T01:15:00.000-05:00

The honeymoon had to end sometime or the other :p. After idling away the first half of the vacation its work with a vengeance and when its time to work I find myself rusty. Even basic programming precepts seemed difficult let alone the maze that is windows programming. Its beginning to get back to tat stage where u reach the comfort zone. :)

Thats when it struck me that this is something that is representative of life in general. Everytime you try something new or get back to something after a while the beginning is always painful, mental or physical. You start to realise that with everything, be it acads, physical activity, playing a sport or anything else its always the start that is difficult and the key is to stay in there till that threshold to the comfort zone is crossed. :) Haa.... this is beginning to sound like the concept of stuckness that Robert M.Pirsig talks about in his book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". This is one book that I will never ever forget and those words on the first page originally by Plato ...

And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

As my bro keeps saying the thing with good books are that you remember exactly what you were doing and how u felt when you first read the book and so it is with this one.

Power Nap !!!

2005-01-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

Work has been surprisingly good today. Not too heavy and not too little. Of course the pretty girls were out in force today and that certainly helped matters in no small measure. ;)

I for one have always believed in the power of sleep ;) Anywhere and anytime. :) Some people who know me would perhaps say that I perhaps believe a little too much on it. I have always felt that a 20 min nap always rejuvenates you more than anything else. The best naps are always the ones that I have on the bus either to or from campus. It is even better when there arent many people in the bus leaving you to wander off into your own world. The presence of the discman has further helped in this regard in shutting off the entire world for those precious 20 mins. Have tried sticking to the policy of sleeping early as much as possible. It doesnt mean that I have lost the ability to stay awake all night working if the situation so desires it. Its just that the undergrad days of staying awake all night for the sake of it are behind me. :)

As sank was mentioning earlier the time of R&R (Rest & Relaxation) are over and its time to again gear up for the coming storm ;). Ill leave you with a lil something.....

"In each age men of genius undertake the ascent. From below, the world follows them with their eyes. These men go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear, People watch them, mark them. They walk by the side of precipices. They daringly pursue their road. See them aloft, see them in the distance; they are but black specks. On they go. The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. At each step a wall, at each step a trap. As they rise the cold increases. They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it., hewing the steps in haste. A storm is raging. Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. The air becomes difficult to breath. The abyss yawns below them. Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; there is a sad weariness. The bold ones continue. They are eyed by the eagles; the lightning plays about them: the hurricane is furious. No matter, they persevere." --- Victor Hugo

and one final one ...

"If I could be anything in the world I would want to be a teardrop because I would be born in your eyes, live on your cheeks, and die on your lips."
---Unknown

Reboot ...!!

2005-01-05T15:11:00.000-05:00

What goes around comes around !! Some day or the other. ;) Reached work to find that half the cybrary was down for maintenance. The initial euphoria was soon replaced with dismay as I realised that this maintenance included the consultants pc as well.

I grappled with the computer for the next one hour as the pc was being upgraded remotely and being shutdown every five minutes or so. Writing this small piece also turned out to be an extremely tricky affair.

Well was reminded of those undergrad days with munds.. booting entire wings off the net ;) *evil laugh*. Ahhh those were the days when kgp was still open to such tinkerings and it allowed us to learn a lot about such systems and no one was vindictive. Now after the mms clip incident and some other smaller incidents kgp is now a paranoid little place with countless rules and regulations. All I have to say is to quote Leonard Cohen

"There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in."

I am pretty sure the kids will always find a way through. :p Perhaps the higher level of security will mean that they will have to understand the system better instead of using predefined scripts which seems to be the norm ever since windoze systems became easily available on the campus.

I still remember booting some of our friends so many times that they believed it was the power surge responsible. Gary was also at the receiving end I believe at times when movies were going on mainly due to Dhimonda. I think rite was the one who caught on first, having been party to such pranks right from the dumb terminal and grex days of first year. ;) The aggrieved party did get back at us.. but thats a different story altogether. :)

Ahhhh... as it turns out.. its not very funny at all seeing the comp go for a reboot right before your eyes. :p I guess time teaches all of us. ;) Phew.. i finally managed to finish this post which isnt too bad considering the number of reboots in between... au revoir.

Ennui !!

2005-01-04T15:24:00.000-05:00

Well sometimes you come across work that is mind numbing. :) Its a dozen times better than yesterday though as I am back at my normal post and there is atleast sizeable activity going on. ;)

Stuck to soup for dinner to try and give the stomach a bit of a rest in light of the problems its been giving me of late. Should be frequenting the gym again sometime this week. Walking all the way to Kenilworth library and back today morning has been the only exercise I have got in the last couple of days. That reminds me someone needs to start exercising as well in light of upcoming events. ;)

Let me leave you with a little poem in French I came across somewhere.. :)

Le Choix
Pendant ton long voyage de la vie
tôt ou tard tu rencontras une route divisée
n’importe quelle direction tu choisiras
il y en aura toujours une autre opposée
tu aurais des regrets au fond de toi
la route que tu n’as pas prise serait toujours là montrer une vague tristesse dans la vague pénombre

An english translation goes like this

During your long journey of life
sooner or later you will meet a road that diverges
whatever direction you choose
there is always another opposite one that makes you regret in your heart
The road not taken is always there exposing a vague sadness, a dim sort of dusk

Back to Work

2005-01-03T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well its back to work albeit in a new setting. This time I am at the medical campus and its all quiet here as well. I shud be back at the north campus tomm :).

After watching the Bills crash out of the playoffs we had pretty much nothing to do. Sank, soray and I got around talking about the past and had one of those typical "bhaat" sessions as we used to call it in undergrad. ;) Soray made some great samosas and we made the trek to 122 where Azmi had cooked again. We had some delicious food and then sat down to watch "King Arthur". Sank had crashed early as he too had not been feeling well and wanted to get a good night's rest. The cinematography again was good but the film as such left a lot to be desired in the acting department and the narrative. The story failed to grab your imagination and involve you. Keira Knightley looks good but fails to do justice to the role.

Me and soray went for a lil walk and came back home to find that the history channel was coincidentally showing a documentary on the start of the roman empire and the early battles with Hannibal.

The number of hits on the blog have kept increasing as I now receive a steady stream of people from the altavista, yahoo and a couple of other search engines as well all looking for the laser scene song from Ocean's Twelve. :)

The joy of sport

2005-01-02T20:06:00.000-05:00

What is it about sports that thrills us and captures our imagination. Just watched the Bills lose their make or break game and it got me thinking about what sports, especially team sports has come to mean to us. And it struck me that beyond a certain point results have little meaning. Its the manner in which the game is played, the response of each player, the character displayed that holds more fascination. Sports is so much more than just a game. You have more display of emotion than on a emotion packed movie. And yes its real and not some character playing out a scriptwriter's imagination.

I think the most telling comment was made by someone who said that sports doesnt build character, it reveals it. Something that will strike anyone following a sport is what I shall call for want of a better word "philosophy". The underlying philosophy is perhaps the same across many sports. Its fascinating to watch so many teams battle the demons in their minds more than their opponents. Its perhaps what happened to the Bills today as well. They should have been playing with the belief that losing was not an option. They shouldnt have been looking to compete but dominate. They needed to let the opponents know that the price of victory was high. Instead they came out with more emphasis on strategies and technical details than on volition. Sometimes you have to go out there, free the mind from any self imposed shackles and play with aggression. There should have been no holding back, no conservation of energy but the desire to give it all from the very outset. Sometimes you have to go for broke. Momentum and the ability to sustain it is everything in such games.

The best example of this is in cricket where there is always a passage of play in every game that changes the momentum of a game and is decisive in determining the outcome, be it an inspired spell of bowling, an exceptional catch or a particularly impressive batting display. Cut back to Trent Bridge in 1998 for the fourth test between South Africa and England for half an hour of the most intense and raw cricket that you could imagine between Atherton and Donald. Cut back to Headingley in 2002 when India were touring England and when Ganguly and Tendulkar after declining the offer of light clobbered 90 odd runs including 5 sixes and 9 boundaries in 9 overs in fading light and on a greenish pitch. There are other images that come to mind, a young Steve Waugh stand up to Walsh and Ambrose on a minefield of a pitch preferring to take blows on his body than give his wicket up. Its events like these and many more that make sports worth the time that we give it.

Happy Bday !!

2005-01-02T13:45:00.000-05:00

Birthday wishes go out to soray :) Happy Bday buddy .. here's to a great year ahead. Its been quite a long and good time together from kgp to buffalo and here's to some more of these good times. :)

Well sank and me decided tat there is nothing like a home baked cake :) So we got around to baking it on Saturday and Jason got the dressing on top made of peanut butter . All in all it turned out pretty well. ;)

Its been a great last three days. New years eve was fun as well. Happy new year to everyone. :) We got around to 122 Heath where it was basically just me, soray, sank, jason and azmi. Nats, ash and mal are away on vacation. It was all good .. a bit of dance .. a bit of food ... the works. Caught up with friends who are now in different places. Had some interesting meetings with some interesting people walking on the sidewalks late in the night while standing alone on the front porch talking to rite :p Thats a different story altogether now ;) Good to hear from you again rite. Talked to BD as well.:) Keep the fight going buddy :)

Spent the whole of yesterday on a movie marathon while baking the cake. Slept through the first movie "LadyKillers" and woke up refreshed in time to watch "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" which was good. A note of warning to people. While the second "Resident Evil" movie is not as grisly as the first one was its still got some scenes which can make the stomach churn ;) Well Milla Jovovich still looks as good as she did in the first one and that makes it worth the watch although as with most movies based on computer games the storyline isnt its strongest point.

Watching the make or break game of the Buffalo Bills right now and its one of those games where you have to fight every single inch of the way. This is what sports is all about. :)

Time to end this one here.. Over and out for now folks :)

Natural Disasters !!!

2004-12-29T18:30:00.000-05:00

Every now and then a natural disaster comes along and causes destruction that puts life in perspective. It causes you to ask yourself as to how nature can be beautiful and then cruel at other times. The quake that hit Sumatra and the ensuing tsunamis that hit coastal Asia like no other disaster in recent times has left behind a trail of destruction, misery and extensive loss of human life. The destruction has been extensive in SriLanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries in South East Asia. There can be no words to describe the human misery that a natural disaster of this scale leaves behind. The coming days will have to see people coming together to help each other out in these days of need. This is the time when leaders and governments have to put their hands up and work towards reconstruction and rehabitation.

Its been a welcome relief from the winter in the last two days and has been pretty warm . It promises to be warm for the next couple of days. One downshot of this is that all the snow and ice has started melting into a consistent slush. Reminds you of the slush on the mumbai roads after a spell of torrential rain.

This past week has been more or less a case of recuperation and setting a few pending things in order. Dont have work till the 3rd and that has meant lots of sleep which is always welcome. Have been frequenting the gym pretty regularly these last few days which is something satisfying. Played squash for the first time and was hopelessly out of place. The concept of locking the wrists and hitting the ball into the air is totally alien to cricket where you are always looking to use your wrists to hit the ball down. Ahhhhh... im sure some practice will help with that.

I have just found out that this blog has been getting a good number of hits thanks to the mp3 link to the laser scene song from Ocean's twelve "A la menthe" below in one of the posts. The blog comes up on the front page of google's search for the song which has resulted in a big number of hits. The interesting aspect of this is that it now allows me to check out how the browsers fare in a more general user base. The results are not bad as Mozilla with 51% still beats IE at 42%. This seems more representative of how the browser wars are shaping up and its still advantage mozilla.

Time to end this one here .. over and out folks.. :)

Walks

2004-12-24T18:31:00.000-05:00

There is something about walking that proceeds to help clear the cobwebs in the mind. I and sank got up early to try and get a session in the gym if possible. The gym being closed we decided to try and get a long walk instead. We decided that a bit of grocery shopping would add the functional element as well. On the way sank comes up with the idea of walking it all the way to the mall and back which is some way off. So we took a detour and headed off for the mall with the wind behind us and a "hard" icy road in front of us. ;) Had my first "official" fall of the winter. Came down on a especially treacherous section of iced sidewalks that even my trustworthy CAT could not tackle. It was -15 degrees when we left. One thing I have noticed with the weather is that after that particularly freezing day when it hit -28, everything else looks that much easier to handle. Got some winter clothes which I have been intending to buy. The walk back was that much harder as the wind had picked up. :)

Things have been lately very laidback in the sense that I havent got cracking on the work lying in front of me. Had a movie marathon session yesterday where I ran through 5 english and one french title in a long stint. ;)

Hmm... well its christmas eve today and we did our bit for spreading the cheer around. ;) After two days of the biological clock being totally out of whack its showing signs of returning to normal now. This post has been a bit like how its been the last few days.. totally random and sometimes it feels good to just let go every now and then ;)

Well let me leave you with a poignant poem and an even more poignant statement ...

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are. --Ancient Zen statement

Loss and Gain

When I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with what attained,
Little room do I find for pride.

I am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good intent
Has fallen short or been turned aside.

But who shall dare
To measure loss and gain in this wise?
Defeat may be victory in disguise;
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Winter !!!

2004-12-22T09:19:00.000-05:00

The winter has finally set in and it touched -28 degrees Celsius a couple of days back. Its been biting cold and it promises to be an altogether different experience. Took my mind off academics yesterday and got back to certain things that have been neglected for a couple of months now. It started off in the morning with spending time looking up something known as knowledge fractals which makes for pretty interesting reading.. :) Check out the link .

Also came across the gender genie which determines if the author of an article is male or female based on the kind of words used frequently. Try it out at here It works pretty well too.. I put in a couple of my blog posts there and the results were

Words: 657

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 735
Male Score: 1528
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

Words: 604

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 600
Male Score: 1140
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

So it works for me ;) Give it a shot. Its been accurate almost 61% of the time and Im guessing if every entry were more than 500 words long its accuracy might actually be what its predicted touching a pretty good 80%.

There was a mexican food fiesta for the library staff yesterday and although technically im not a library staff and actually work for the comp guys.. im sure ways can be found where good food is concerned. :) Ate tons of food and then almost got myself into a situation where I had to dance. :p Thankfully sank was nearby and I let him handle the dancing scene. ;) That reminds me to take it up again. :)

Came back home and left for the gym straight after. Not having been to the gym for almost a couple of months showed. Jogging for a mile or so wore me out and I could feel the hamstring and the back get stiff and sore. It seems there is a buffalo cricket club who have got hold of a matting surface for indoor play during the winter. One of my friends had mentioned that the matting is really soft which allows you to bowl at full tilt without having to worry about damaging your knees. Tried it out on the matting outside and true to form you could really let rip without having to worry about unevenness amongst other things. Its a different matter that the ankle is just a little bit sore today.

I, sank and nats decided to catch a movie afterwards. We met up with one of sanks school friends. Also met up with a senior from kgp from quite a few years back and was catching up with him on how it was during his time. We went out to watch "Oceans Twelve" and was a pretty good movie. You do have to keep focused though to keep track of what's happenig. I kind of liked the first one better. A couple of things deserve a mention though. The first thing is the addition of Catherine-Zeta Jones and it obviously makes for a great addition to the movie. She looks good in the movie... The storyline disappointed me though. There was another aspect of the movie that most people loved, including me. There was this one song in the laser scene everyones raving about. As it turns out its not in the OST but actually is a song called the "Thé à la Menthe" by "Nikkfurie" a French artist of the band "La Caution". I promised nats I would get the music clip somehow. Here it is A la Menthe from Oceans Twelve. Its instrumental with no lyrics so ppl who like instrumental should like it too ;) Had some great dinner and then crashed early as I had the first morning shift today.

Am at work and its absolutely dead here. :) Well it allows me to make use of this time to catch up on other stuff. This has been another long post.. over and out folks. ....

50 Posts and One Semester Later ........

2004-12-20T23:19:00.000-05:00

Its been a different journey this, blogging I mean. Its not exactly the kind of writing I ever envisaged I would be doing. Sure, I used to write a lot. Serious articles, the contemplative ones and the few philosophical ones. I havent had a preference for any one style though being just content to write. If I had to trace the roots of this love for writing it has to go back to the days of school when I and my bro would wolf down novels and books by the dozen. Lunch and dinner lost meaning as the only thing that held our attention were those novels :p I can still vividly remember my mom literally shouting at us for not eating food and spending all night reading books. Right now I hate myself for not having eaten all the home food I ever could, but thats a different story altogether.

This fascination for novels and books further manifested itself when I started writing down lines from books in a little green book dad got me. I still have that book to this day and every now and then it provides the same joy when I pick it up and read those fading lines. More often that not I find that despite some of it fading I still remember if off the top of my head. There are lines that Ill never ever forget, some from PG Wodehouse, that master of humour, others from varied sources like Alistair McLean and others. As Jeeves would say, shall I mix you another of these lines? It seems to have given uniform satisfaction.

The final move to writing on my own was only natural. I had the luck of having dad around who himself used to love languages and english in particular. Listening and laughing while he regaled us with stories from old and the play with words are one of my earliest memories.

Another of those memories is spending time with nag talking about the different wonderful writings from books, humour and philosophy alike. Nag once said that I should write humour during our innumerable discussions and to be frank I have never tried it. It scares me because its perhaps the most difficult form of writing. The day is not far off though when I'll finally take that plunge. One of these days Im going to get him to agree to post one of his poems or writings on the blog.

When I first took up blogging it seemed rather different from what I have ever done before and this difference is what got me going in the first place. Slowly but surely, it became what every other form of writing was for me, therapeutic. Writing has always been a therapeutic exercise, more so in these times of a packed life when I cant even remember which and when was the last book I read. Blogging in many ways has been easier than conventional writing because of many reasons. The informality of it all allows you to switch between languages and most importantly the usage of emoticons means that you dont rely only on the language to convey the emotion and tone of the written piece.

Its now been fifty posts in 120 days. Will this blog live to see another post some months down the line celebrating a century? I for one certainly hope so. Thanks to everyone who read this and take the time to comment below. Its one of the things that keeps me going.

I am done with my semester just sending in my last project. Today is the last day of school and as usual mechies have it last. The same empty feeling that hits you after exams has hit once again. Well Im going to sign off here. It feels good to know that I can still write without having to resort to emoticons. :p Till the next post over and out folks.....

Inevitability

2004-12-18T07:08:00.000-05:00

It was inevitable. Had a crazy day yesterday and something had to give at some stage. Had two submissions both within the same hour and was also supposed to be working at my shift during the same time. The first presentation went really well and the shift sorted out as well. However, was too exhausted, after not having a wink of sleep for more than 24 hrs, by the final presentation of the day and it showed. The "good lady" (the prof) would almost have had us for lunch if it wasnt for some very quick thinking on the spot :p Inevitability !!! I was just reminded of that line in the Matrix. "Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.". Lack of foresight or perhaps a combination of both. Neways as some would say its done and done with.:p One more project and that will be that. :) Ahh the matrix had some cool dialogues. I love this kind of writing .. call it play of words if you will .. Just came across this piece "If I'm not here where am I? But if I'm not there and not here how can I be where I am?". !!!

AR Rehman's new music offering is out. Its a movie called "Kisna". I dont have any details on the movie as such, not being a big movie buff. However, have to say that the score is pretty good. Listen to it if you get the chance. Click this to listen to it at raaga.com.

Its time to end this one here... I should be blogging more often now.. Over and out folks for the present.... !!

The Browser Wars !!!

2004-12-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

I think it was rite who got me thinking on how the browser wars have been shaping up and Im happy to say in terms of people visiting my site Mozilla ranks way ahead at a whopping 70% while IE comes a distinct second at about 27% or so.

Sadly though while this might be true for people who visit my blog it would be unfair to call it a good representation for users overall. Well its a new war, and while M$ won the browser wars last time around with Netscape this time it might prove that much more difficult. All eyes are on Mozilla as it improves with every build. Cooler interfaces, superb control of pop-ups, extensions and the very nature of open source keeps it ahead in terms of technology. Remember Linux !!! :).

This is what I was able to dig up

The Mozilla browser is technically better than IE. That is plain fact.

Mozilla has innovative and polished user-centric features—that IE doesn't have—such as tab-based browsing. Microsoft has roused from its browser slumber long enough to suggest that the same polished features are coming to IE sometime soon. That alone has raised a few eyebrows.

The recent announcement by AOL Time Warner that they will update their own browsers with the latest Mozilla technology also gives Mozilla technology a tick.

Mozilla technology just won't go away: Its popularity grows slowly but surely, like tree roots crumbling a rock. As of April 2004, independent statistics show Mozilla to be 4% or more of the global market, but for web developers, use may be as high as 10%. In some markets, such as Germany, use may now be as high as 19%. On some platforms, such as Linux, Mozilla is now the dominant player, and probably well over 50%.

Over and out :p

2004-12-14T21:25:00.000-05:00

Work... Stop.... Lack of time.. Stop.. Will be back.. Stop.. hopefully.. Stop..

Well as u can see.. its been hectic.. Should be back to regular blogging in a weeks' time.. Till then .. over and out folks.. :)

Freaky Weekend

2004-12-05T18:39:00.000-05:00

This has been one freaky weekend. Wasnt feeling too well as I went down with stomach cramps or something like that. Crashed really early on Saturday evening and slept through what must have been one wild party (this is what it seems based on the descriptions I got in the morning). It must have been one deep and dark sleep to have slept through nats' banging on the door with a utensil ;). Had a few hallucinations and for some reason kgp seems to top the list when it comes to nightmares. ;) It seems strange because I have normally been a light sleeper. Got some work done early in the morning which was good. Am at work right now still feeling dazed. :p Thankfully its been pretty quiet again today and thats been a relief.

In keeping with the freaky theme Australia got beaten by New Zealand in the opening match of the ODI series in the new closed stadium at Melbourne. There are catches which are good and then there are catches which are "GOOD". :)

Diving one handed efforts within the thirty yard circle are tough enough but diving one handed efforts on the boundary ropes is special.

Personality Types !!

2004-12-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of something today which I havent gone back to in a long time now. Its this concept of Personality types. Its a pretty interesting concept and I thought I'll just put it all together for all you people out there.

The two best online tests that you can use are the HumanMetrics Test and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Once you have the temperament sorted out you can look up your results and what each type means at Personality Portraits. As for me I have always ended up as an ENTP for what its worth.

Crawling Thin Ice !!

2004-12-04T02:51:00.000-05:00

Walking (or was it slipping) today on the ice that had formed on the roads after the snowfall was metaphorically similar to the state life is in right now. The amount of work that needs to be completed before the next two weeks are out is mind boggling. :) It does feel like walking on thin ice. ;) As Floyd would say

If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear stained eyes
Don't be surprised, when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind
With your fear flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice

Birthday wishes go out to Abi !!! Happy Bday buddy ... hope u havin a blast. Pity we aint there to give GPLs :)

Watching India win at Eden Gardens was one of the only highlights of the week. One shot from Sachin made the watch worthwhile. A lofted six executed with the utmost ease was a throwback to the days of old when the lofted shot would cause palpitations among opposition bowlers.

Well its time to get back to the work now. Hmmm.. as abi put it so succintly.. working throughout.. watching the odd cricket clip .. metallica driving the adrenalin and keeping the sleep away ... ur there buddy .. ;)

Relief !!

2004-12-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

Well its been a good day so far. Got to sleep blissfully after some time. Came back from work, made some lunch, watched some highlights of the cricket test and then crashed at noon. :) Got up some six hours later, feeling satisfied :) Its the kind of sleep that is so deep, when you get up .. you dont what time of the day it is, what day it is and where you are. ;) Ahhhh.... the feeling of bliss :)

Well am back at work while I type this and its not been too bad till now. :) Its gonna be another long night today what with a couple of assignments due tomorrow and the final day of the cricket test coming up.

Thanx dhiman for the compliments :) Its good to know that I have some more readers :p Now that sukha and rite aint here... I felt the need for a space to spew out my incoherent ramblings :p As you can see exams time are close at hand. :p

Time to end this one here. :p Over and out. :)

Manic Monday

2004-11-30T20:28:00.000-05:00

It was a hard return to reality as the thanksgiving break came to a close and school is back for a couple of weeks. Well it might only be a couple of weeks but it promises to be one of those times when day and night lose meaning to be replaced by one continuum of grey twilight where the only thing around you is engineering and more engineering.

Monday night saw the beginning of my longest stint at any kind of academic assignment. Started at 8:00 in the evening and ended at 1:00pm the next day without a break. Can now safely say that its surpassed anything in the past. Its been one crazy day. Thankfully my work shift has been relatively peaceful. :) Am penning this one rite now and even the chick counter shooting through the roof is not enough encouragement to keep sleep, that beckons, away:). Its only some 45 mins more before I sign off :p

Now that I think of it this blog is the only thing thats keeping me from going off to sleep. .. well okie the blog and the few PYTs around ;)

Let me leave with another little something ... this time its from Rabindranath Tagore..

Hard Times
Music is silenced, the dark descending slowly
Has stripped unending skies of all companions.
Weariness grips your limbs and within the locked horizons
Dumbly ring the bells of hugely gathering fears.
Still, O bird, O sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings.

It's not melodious woodlands but the leaps and falls
Of an ocean's drowsy booming,
Not a grove bedecked with flowers but a tumult flecked with foam.
Where is the shore that stored your buds and leaves?
Where the nest and the branch's hold?
Still, O bird, my sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings.

Stretching in front of you the night's immensity
Hides the western hill where sleeps the distant sun;
Still with bated breath the world is counting time and swimming
Across the shoreless dark a crescent moon
Has thinly just appeared upon the dim horizon.
--But O my bird, O sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings.

From upper skies the stars with pointing fingers
Intently watch your course and death's impatience
Lashes at you from the deeps in swirling waves ;
And sad entreaties line the farthest shore
With hands outstretched and crooning ' Come, O come ! '
Still, O bird, O sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings.

All that is past: your fears and loves and hopes ;
All that is lost: your words and lamentation ;
No longer yours a home nor a bed composed of flowers.
For wings are all you have, and the sky's broadening courtyard,
And the dawn steeped in darkness, lacking all direction.
Dear bird, my sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings!

Well this is a translation from Bengali and its turned out pretty good. :) For some reason when I read this poem I kinda get reminded of that book by Richard Bach "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". Evocative .. .. as one of my friends is so fond of saying ... c'est tout ;)

Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-11-27T08:07:00.000-05:00

The only two words that keep coming to my mind right now are "Thank you". Thank you to all and everyone. As I sit here the morning of the birthday and type I think back to what has been and have to say have been lucky to have such friends all around. Each birthday is special by nature, but some birthdays are that much more special due to the people around you. This is going to be one long post :) So brace urself. ;)

Its been a bit sad to be away from the people you love most, parents and my bro. However, it was atleast good to talk to them all. :) I honestly dont know where I wud be without you and for once I fall short of words. :) Miss them the most. :(

Further on, what do you say about the birthdays during those four years of our life where fortunately or unfortunately, my birthday would fall on an exam day and i guess the high point was that one particular time when we had two exams on that day. ;) I can still remember being carefully lifted off my bed coz we didnt want me straining something on the day of two exams did we ;), where i had fallen asleep with a book and then given bums .. all with lot of care and precautions and under expert supervision.. ;) Miss those days and all of you guys :) Dhimonda, Sukha, Rite, Munds, Gary, TK, SS, Prem, Ashish, Maks.. hope u all having a great time. :) Lath called up from KGP and a big thank you is due. Good to hear robotix is in good hands :)

But this one is special for the effort taken by so many different people. First and foremost, thanks go out to soray, sank, vips, nats, ash, mal and jason for a absolutely stunning party. :) Everything from the cake, to the presents (yes the first one too ;)) and the soundtrack was perfect. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. :) These are the people who have made my stay in buffalo something to always cherish and whose warmth sort of drives away the famed buffalo cold. I guess I better stop here before poetry decides to totally overwhelm me.

A big big thank you to phal and deeps. You made sure that I didnt forget my own bday by getting me one day in advance ;) Thanx a million phal for the innovation that day and the surprise. Hope u had a great time during the Chembur darshan ;) (the questions dont ever stop do they) And despite all I might have said, the line and the operator were amazing ;) Thank you deeps for everything. Hope you still have ur voice intact after yday. ;) And yes I do have come to expect the unexpected.. and still that caught me off guard. Ill catch u all later :)

Thanks go out to kosh (soray made sure the kgp tradition lived on with respect to the GPLs :)), abi (amazing song dude), shiv (got ur card), ranj(got ur offliner and the message). Thanks to the rest of the rsf gang for all the times we have had.

Thanks pauli for the message. How u doing in Belgium buddy? Miss those days of CS :) Talking of CS a special message to hunt? Are you still in the hunt my friend :)

Finalement thanx to all the rest of my friends for all their best wishes all throughout.

Thats been a lot of "thank you"s in one post. :) Well what can I say. Im pretty lucky to have so many people to say thank you to. Its time to end this one here. Signing off...........

Quality

2004-11-25T16:54:00.000-05:00

The thanksgiving break is here and its been a welcome relief. After the frenetic activity of two days slept blissfully for the last two days after having decided to completely turn off the academic worries. Its now time to get back to a bit of work. One of my professors ran into me and seeing my haggardly state asked me with a wry grin as to how grad life was treating me. All I could think of telling him at that point was that its been fine so far. Honestly, I would tend to believe that while its been a great experience in more ways than one, academically I think we tend to hit a ceiling sooner or later.

In many ways it brought me to a discussion I had with nag where we were trying to analyze the most important ingredient to success. Does it boil down to the number of degrees we possess or the amount of money we make or other such quantifiable things. It was then that we realised that answers are always difficult if the question isnt clear enough. I think the most important thing is the definition of success and it brought me to a keynote speech by one of our alumni which was as stirring as thought provoking. Most of it was exhorting compelling rhetoric, but one line caught my eye while going through it

It is not our success that defines us, but how
we define success.

At age 4, success is not peeing in your pants.

At age 16, success is having a driver's licence.

At age 20, success is having sex.

At age 35, success is having a good job.

At age 55, success is having money.

At age 70, success is having sex.

At age 80, success is having a driver's licence.

At age 90, success is not peeing in your pants.

In our lives, both our professional and personal lives, success is a far more pliant concept. Success is not determined by the traditional measures of recognition and reward, but in the lessons we learn, even in failure, and the lives we touch along the way.

Good health, of course, is a blessing, but one that is aided by disciplined living and a healthy respect for the amount of abuse our bodies can take before they rebel. If you are not healthy, there is not
much you can do for others.

I guess that the one conclusion I can come to is that the thing that drives quality is a constant striving for excellence in the aspects of life that we hold dear. I guess the other important thing is to know what you really want in life and in which order of priority. One of my friends once commented on how sometimes people are so blind to success. Thinking back of it have to agree that in many way its very true.:)

Well I guess its time to end this one here. Over and out folks.....

Night-outs and all tat :)

2004-11-23T13:58:00.000-05:00

Well this had to happen.. didnt it. After the rise comes the fall. As it turns out the project ran into trouble on submission day as interpretations of the problem statement of us and the prof seemed to be at loggerheads. Two sleepless nights and bloodshot eyes later I still am not fully convinced about the difference in interpretation. A hundred code changes later we still are not sure. A pretty sad state of affairs to be precise. Hoping things resolve pretty soon.

One upshot of all this is the comfort from knowing that some three years later I still can pull off a couple of nights on the trot. ;) Some consolation this, but in these times of constant work every little source of inspiration helps drive the academic machine forward. :p

Well I'll leave you with a little something from Metallica. :) In times like these there is absolutely no substitute for Metallica..

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Make his fight on the hill in the early day
Constant chill deep inside
Shouting gun, on they run through the endless gray
On they fight, for they are right, yes, but who's to say?
For a hill, men would kill. Why? They do not know
Suffered wounds test their pride
Men of five, still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

Take a look to the sky just before you die
It's the last time he will
Blackened roar, massive roar, fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Stranger now are his eyes to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
Now they see what will be, blinded eyes to see

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

Weekend Post :)

2004-11-21T18:42:00.000-05:00

Its been a fun weekend so far. It started out on friday evening when soray made some great food. Got up on Saturday caught up with friends and decided to start work on the assignment due on Monday. Worked for ten straight hours and finished it off and came back home at around midnight to find vips and soray already in the mood for some monopoly. Played Monopoly for till abt 3ish and for the first time played without any troubles. Surprisingly, there wasnt any fun in playing where everything runs smoothly. We then headed out to 87M as vips and soray needed to replenish supplies. Spent some time watching Tom and Jerry before heading back home and must have fell asleep almost as soon as I felt the bed. ;)

Despite sleeping so late in the night got up at around 9.30. Chatted some more with friends and got around to making some lunch and then got around to watching the Bills game on TV. This game is really getting to be addictive and agree with Pinku when he says that the its one good sport.

After watching the Bills win a game at home with some lovely play by the special teams and some solid work by the defence, we went around to play the game that essentially will remain my first love in the sporting arena. Played some cricket in the backyard which was soggy from all the rain over the saturday. We had to retire one ball after it had got soaking wet and was hard to pick up in the already fading light. The sawdust had to be used again and we had a quick round of absorbing cricket.

Had my work shift at about 6 and had to make a dash to make it on time. Got in just in time on the dot and its been all quiet so far one hour into the shift. Hopefully it will stay that way for the rest of the duration. ;) All in all a top weekend. Got some work done but wasnt stressed out.... here's to more of the same in the times to come..

Time to end here... over and out...

Consultancy ... ;)

2004-11-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

When I first dreamt of being a consultant some day I wasnt thinking of being an IT Consultant ;) But then its a step in the right direction and no one is complaining. Had my first day at work yesterday and in some ways was a baptism by fire if you could call it that. :p Printer Jams, PCs going down, the works.. You get the drift. I know there would be many out there who believe that this was inevitable especially with me around. ;) Well it all resolved itself out pretty well and things are looking good. Today is the second day and while the afternoon shift turned out pretty hectic the night shift is pretty peaceful ;). And there is always the added advantage of getting to speak to pretty girls :p.

A couple of transmissions to Kommander K and Shiv. Where art thou? Drop a line sometime. :)

Thanksgiving break is next week and that should be a bit of a breather. :) Got to end this one right now.....

Work Unlimited....

2004-11-15T08:51:00.000-05:00

Things have been really hectic of late as most would have been able to make out. Attended the first two days of training for the on campus job. The first day of training started out with me reaching an hour late. Thankfully it wasnt too much of a problem and things went smoothly from that point onwards. The training sessions over the weekend have meant that little work has been done in this time period.

Felt the need for a break after what had essentialy been a pretty busy week. As if on cue Sunday got off to the perfect start as I got up early. Met up with friends and that is always good. Talk about being hit with a breath of fresh air ;).

Finally managed to fix nats' comp on sunday night and crashed soon after. Got up and saw BD's message regarding his post about the good old days of Robotix and IIT, those long nights at Chedies, BD or Sandy's room setting up something or the other. :) Well it seems the picture of us in India Today got scanned and is on the web ;) Well go here BD's post to see the picture. Well as BD will be quick to point out the story behind my covered face is a long one and will have to wait for another time to be told ;).

Time to end this one here..... I'll leave with a few somethings which happened to be so relevant..

"Many times I've lied, many times I've listened. Many times I've wondered how much there is to know. Many dreams come true, and some have silver linings. I live for my dreams and a pocket full of gold. Many is a word that only leaves you guessing, guessing 'bout a thing you really ought to know."
---- Led Zeppelin ... "Over the Hills and Far Away"

Edge of Chaos..

2004-11-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

Well it had to happen. Those days spent grappling with concepts of chaos and complexity studies remind me of the one concept that used to seize my imagination the most. The concept of efficiency and optimal points always residing in the region to many as the edge of chaos. Well life has been on the edge of chaos for sometime now as i mentioned in my last post. Well it turns out that I finally ended up gettin an on campus job amidst all this which is definitely good news. Well its time to tackle the next goal now. Talk abt analogies. To be fair I hadnt thought about chaos in this fashion for a long time now and it was the comments in the last post that got me thinking. Anyway here's hoping that this concept keeps holding true. :)

Over and out folks for now... Hoping for a longer post next time around.. :) till then...

Chaos...

2004-11-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

"Chaos" Thats the word that sums up the state of affairs right now. The volume of work pending has reached such gigantic proportions where you are dealing with things on a day to day basis and that can never be good as any slight problem results in work getting thrown completely off. I guess the time to take stock and take on the work head on.

Its been a manic rush since tuesday and havent had a breather in between till today. The recurrence of the lower back problem didnt help matters either. Its been just one of those week that gets over before you even know it. And this is the kind of post thats over before it even starts.. over and out folks.. should be in with a longer update soon.

Weekend Part 2 :)

2004-11-09T18:59:00.000-05:00

Its time to write about the second leg of the weekend trips we made. After the journey to Pittsburgh we were to go to Letchworth State Park the next day and the whole idea was to go hiking a bit along the trails there. This time we did get an early start and left at around 8.30 and reached the park at around 9.30 or so. The journey to the park was simply awesome as we went by local smaller roads instead of the normal freeways, cutting across villages and the scenery was breathtaking. It was well worth it to be driving at a slower pace given the lower speed limits to be able to take in the early morning scenery.

Once we reached the Park we found out that the waterfalls that we had wanted to go to was way across the other end. Drove all the way to the other end of the park and parked the car and then set out on the hike. Again it was just Soray, Sank, Nats and me as Vipul dropped out on account of some work. Soray and me found sticks for ourselves from the woods and set out. Saw some deers as we cut across the park woods instead of the road. As we went further along the trail we came across these two small stream waterfalls that cut across the trail. It brought back memories of a certain other place all across the world just outside the bustling city of Mumbai. Malshej Ghat.... Nag, Deeps, Phal and others should remember that little trip. The waterfalls here were smaller in intensity compared to those but the fun was still the same and it was great fun climbing across the sides holding on to the vines for support to reach the mouth of the waterfall, wet as it was. ;)

We couldnt take the much anticipated trip across the railroad which is pretty high as it was offlimits for some work that is going on right now. Turned back at that point and we returned in time to listen to the Bills game on the radio and they were doing pretty well for a change. Beginning to pick up the game a bit now. ;) We reached home and watched them complete a pretty satisfactory win. Sank and Vips crashed soon after leaving me and Soray to catch up on other games. The highlight was this little trick field goal/ touchdown pass that the Patriots, or thats what I think is the name of the team is, did. Me and Soray went to the APL to get some work done and played a bit of football on the way to the library. Finally understood that the fundamentals of all ball games are the same. Never fear the ball, always keep your eyes on the ball and get your body behind the line of the ball. Sounds familiar guys... cricket .. hockey.. yup.. the rules for all ball games are the same. That brought an end to what must certainly have been the best ever weekend we have had this fall. Here is to more such weekends... That is all for now folks.. Work has hit back with a vengeance and I have to get back to lock horns with it again. ;) Over and out ........

Whacky Weekend :)

2004-11-07T20:35:00.000-05:00

Its time for an update and a long one at that. ;) We had decided to go on a road trip this weekend and as the weekend winds down can say that I had one of the best times in this country ever. Finally it turned out that Soray, Sank, Nats and me left on the trip as Vips dropped out as he had a meeting with his guide. First stop was to be Pittsburg where there is a Venkateswara temple which is supposed to be pretty famous around these parts. Another attraction was the udipi restaurant situated near the temple.

A late night on Friday meant that we got up late on Saturday morning and consequently left Buffalo at around 9.30. It was my first time I had gone outside Buffalo and couldnt have picked a better place. Its one of the most beautiful cities I have been to... atleast till now ;) The hope is to see even better places in the times to come. Anyway back to the trip and it was a pretty eventful one. Soon after we left Buffalo, or so it seemed as I was back to doing what I do best... sleep, we got pulled over by a cop for speeding. Thankfully he didnt give us a ticket and let us off with a warning. We continued on our way and finally reached Pittsburg a few breaks later. We bypassed the city and reached the temple. Its a pretty nice temple though it took some time to get used to a temple with sliding doors and priests talking in english. As soon as such little differences were forgotten, it felt like a normal temple again and it was a good feeling. All the ingredients of a normal south indian temple were present and all those who have ever been to a south indian temple will know what I mean. ;) I am pretty much used to it, but this time around I had something I have never had before.. Soray's comments... and that made it an altogether different experience :)

We left soon after for the udipi restaurant and pretty much ate much as we could. Some dosas, uttapams and thalis later all of us couldnt pretty much move for a while and as Sank pointed out that is the feeling of being full and not the dead weight feeling you get from eating American fast foods. Somehow managed to get back to the car and decided to head back into the city of Ptitsburg. It must be the most picteresque and beautiful cities I have ever seen as I mentioned before. However, it isnt a city where you could walk from one place to another. The place being situated on a hilly terrain tends to go up and down. Took a ride on the train car from the top of the hill overlooking the main city and that was one view that will be remembered for a long long time. Finally we decided to head back to Buffalo at around 6.00 all contented. The ride back was uneventful.. thankfully no cops this time around and we reached Buffalo finally at around 11. Finally got to see the perimeter of downtown Buffalo on the way back and have to say that its a pretty spooky scary place after dark.

It was one great experience... but the best was yet to come.. the next day's trip to the state park beat everything .. but that description will have to wait.. as all good things must ;) Time to end this one here.. over and out ...