2006 - Year end summary

The year started off with the dull winter of 2006. PN leaving Columbus in January leaving me feeling lonely and friendless for a few months (we were such close buddies). Then came the awesome gang of RR, MS, RUS, CN, GAR and SSKN. We had some great times together.

Then the amazing 2006 Cricket season. It all started with us trying to form COSARC again but finally deciding to merge with / join UCC. It worked out well.

Then planning my return to India to co-incide with the end of the Cricket season in Columbus. Well just about missed a couple of weeks of Cricket. So not so bad. The amazing trip to NY just before returning to India. Adi and RUS must have loved my drunk Punjabi ghaalis to the Taxi Driver who looted us off a whopping 180 bucks. Made me realize that I actually might have had some Punjabi roots (maybe in my previous birth). I keep getting asked my people (on hearing my name) if I'm Punjabi. Well ...

The wonderful Dubai - Trip. It's an experience being around kids. Just loved talking to and being with Rhea and Rohan. It turns out she loved me too and is looking forward to meeting me again the next time she comes to India. Me too!!!

The next two months on bench in Infy - well not actually on bench since the client was paying me to sit on my a## doing nothing. My Billable utilization was still in the late ninties. :-) This period made me realize that Bench was surely not what I wanted. Finally started getting some work but not really the kind of work I want to be doing. Anyway, this wonderful period gave me some time to take up my GMAT and apply to ISB. The year ended with some good news of an ISB interview call in the first week of Jan. Hopefully the new year will bring further cheer with an ISB admit.

The year ended with me becoming a Landlord (bought some land in Manipal since Bangalore and outskirts was way out of reach for me). If it doesn't appreciate, the site is in a nice location that can serve as my retirement home. :-) A nice weeklong vacation in Udupi after attending Ravish's marriage to round off this wonderful year with a lot of wonderful memories, gave me so many wonderful friends for life, taught me so many things and some amazing experiences.

ISB - One step closer!!!

As a response to one of my earlier questions, it turns out 730 was good enough for an Interview call. Got an e-mail and an SMS from ISB asking me to appear for an interview on the sixth of Jan, 2007. Hope the new year brings me some good news!!! Wish me luck!!!

Pawared away

How do Indians take such insults and not react or do so with reactions like "I don't think it was intended"? My blood boils when I hear such reactions.

If Team India needed some reason to rise above themselves and beat the so-called world champions the next time they face them (hopefully in a WC Knockout Game), here IT is.

De-Haired

Finally some good news from the Cricket world. After the disappointing performances from the Indian Cricket team, there was some solace for the Indian team. The only teams they've lost to in the last 4-6 months (Aus and WI) turn out to be the two best teams in the world at the moment which is what I've maintained all along. Now its upto Rahul and the boys to prove my theory right by beating SA in SA.

The other news that thrilled me to the core was Darrell Hair being removed from the elite panel. I know what you are thinking; why should his being removed from the umpiring panel thrill me?

Well, its just that things at the ICC level were almost like what Lalit Modi said. The East India Company at it again. So Hair getting removed from the elite panel is like a mini battle won against the East India company.

Is it any surprise that Ponting backs Hair? He's a member of the East India company who's been favored time and again by ICC Match-Referees. He verbally abuses umpires and gets away with warnings. On the other hand, Indians just have to increase the decibel level in their appeals to over 45dB and they are banned for 2 Tests. This can't go on forever. Especially when you guys are making a truckload of money from our stupid fascination with the sport. :)

Solar Water Heater - Where and How?

This was the topic of heated discussion at home over the last month or so. Several Vastu experts (virtually people who'd read one book on Vastu - by which definition I'm almost half a Vastu expert) had given several varied opinions on where to install it.

The two critical questions were:

Which corner of the roof to put the heater tank and heater panel?

According to Vastu experts, any overhead tank should be in the South west corner of the house. Unfortunately, the current overhead tank is in the center (almost North East Corner) of our house. To make up for it, the decision was to put another new tank in the south west corner of the house. But then, the biggest faux pas was that the plan for our house had the North-East line itself wrong because of which we almost ended up screwing up the Vastu of our house even more. That's where I come in. I had a compass in one of the key-chains I'd picked up as a memento of my Chicago Trip. When I took it to the roof of the house and placed it at the center of the building, the truth dawned upon us. :-)

Which direction should the solar heater plates face?

This didn't involve Vastu. It was just a question of getting the most of the sunlight. The sun doesn't rise in the pure east direction. Neither does it go right above you at Noon except at the equator. Nor does it set in the pure west. Because of which the heater plates need to face the south direction. Finally the decision was made and since this morning, haven't been able to enjoy my morning siesta and my afternoon siesta with all the plumbing work going on.

But since the Solar Heater is supposed to save about five to ten grand a year, I don't feel so bad losing a day's sleep over it. Atleast the right decision (on location and direction) was made. After all, this has some contribution from me too. If it wasn't for the trip to the terrace with my compass, we very well might have installed the Solar in the wrong location. It feels good to contribute to the team at home despite being a junior member of the TEAM. :-)

PS: An FAQ from the Government of India's Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy sources for those planning to get one installed.

Are you insured ... enough?

Miss SB: Hello

R: Hello, This is R

Miss SB: Hello R, This is S - Do you remember me? I was your class teacher.

R: Errr. Hmmm. (Thinking to himself - even if she was my class teacher, how in hell did she get my cell phone no. and what is this about) Not really ma'm

Miss SB: In 1989, when you were in the 5th standard, I was your class teacher. I moved out one year later. So its not a surprise that you don't remember me. Recently I've joined MNYLC as a Life Insurance Advisor (Read Agent/Broker/etc). I am running for broker of the year and am among the top Advisors in the country for MNYLC.

R: (Thinking to himself - impressive ... then maybe MNYLC has only 10-15 advisors and she may be the best among the worst.)

Miss SB: I would like to talk to you about your life insurance needs. Can I come and see you today?

R: That might not be easy. I work at XYZ. (Thinking to himself - Hope the distance factor saves me)

Miss SB: Oh, that's ok. If its ok with you, we can meet up around 3pm.

R: Let me see ma'm. I think I'm busy this afternoon with a few important meetings (that's the only thing R does these days)

Miss SB: Oh R. I would have loved to see you today. (:-) and your money) I told you that I am running for advisor of the year and when I mentioned it to V, he gave me A's number and A gave me your number.

R: (Damn you both V and A - How dare you give my number without my permission?)

Miss SB: I am running a little short of my targets for becoming MNYLC Insurance Advisor of the year. I was so hoping that I'd be able to tell you about these amazing policies and sign you up.

R: (Thinking to himself - Not so fast lady) Oh, I would have loved to meet you this afternoon. I've got your cellphone number. I'll call you over the weekend and we can meet up some place and go over these attractive policies that you are talking about.

Miss SB: I'm sure you'll love these. I've already sold over 70 policies this year and most of my clients are ex-students (:o) who are really glad to meet me and are really happy with the policy that I've offered them.

R: (Thinking to himself - :-( Whatever - How sad can you get? Misusing the sacred student-teacher relationship for your benefit)

After 3 weekends of avoiding SB and unable to avoid her any longer, R finally meets SB - sits through a painful 2 hour session of pushing of 3 favorite policies of SB (My guess is these were the highest commission paying policies in the MNYLC family)

Miss SB: ULIPs of MNYLC return atleast 25% a year.

R: What? Are you sure? Even investments in equity don't return that much. How can a Insurance policy return so much.

Miss SB: Errr. Hummmmm. followed by some crap

R: Can you show me some figures of the actual returns?

After a lot of fumbling, it turns out the returns were 19% for one quarter when probably the market rose dramatically and meagre returns of 10-15% during most of the other quarters.

So question to you is - Are you insured ... enough? If you aren't, give me a buzz and I'll make SB's day and hopefully R's day too (he might be able to get away without going in for a policy). :-)

PS: Incidentally, I read recently in a Mag that MNYLC is among the highest commission paying Insurance Co.s in India right now and the 3 policies mentioned to R are among the highest commission yielding policies in MNYLC. After knowing that, what should R's response be the next time SB calls him?


Update: I found out later that the best policy to go in for - the policy hated by most Insurance Agents is the Term Policy. Minimum Investment, Maximum Coverage. Only -ve is no returns if you live to 60. So if you have about 50K to invest every year, invest 5K in a Term Policy and the remaining in some good Equity Diversified Mutual Funds. You'll not only save on the commission going out to your broker. You get value for money.

BB Rocked

The Blog that brought down the BB

What do you say to such people? I know the contents of the great IFY BB is an easy source of content for your blog. But posting entire conversations containing not only company specific details, but also contact information of $@#$'scions on the www was just too much for most $@#$'scions to digest. There was an all out attack of the author of this blog. Don't be surprised if its taken offline by the time you see this post.

There was some smart CID work done to find out who the culprit was and planning was on to catch the culprit and kick-a$$. By then, someone said that he had spoken to the culprit and that the blog was going down pretty soon. This somehow calmed the folks down and on came Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell.

The only question that now remains is if the management will take a harsh stand or just choose to ignore it in case they come to hear of it. For this guy's sake, I hope the latter.

730 - Good Enough?

A GMAT score of 730 with an honest one week effort. Not bad. Only regret (there always is one when it comes to me) is that with a decent preparation, I could probably have really aced it. Got a 51 in Quants which I think is the highest gettable. But a disappointing 38 in Verbal landed me with a 730.

Anyway, the general story I've heard is that GMAT scores are not the only factors and one can clinch an admission with a good essay or a good reco. So now time to move onto these other factors, I guess.

Jennifer Aniston - Break Away!!!

Jennifer Aniston - Break Away!!!

Here's a video of Jennifer Aniston's pics with Kelly Clarkson's "Break Away" playing in the background.

Brought back fond memories of hearing this song over a million times on radio on my way to and from work in Columbus on the Radio. And never missed an episode of "Friends" after reaching home. No wonder, they're my favorites.

Orkut scrapper

You'll thank your lucky stars that you decided to visit my blog today if you are an orkut junkie.

Just one request, don't spam me using the features of this tool. It makes replying to scraps much simpler, helps clear up your scrap book (see my scrap book for proof) and helps reject all unwanted friend requests / testimonials with one button click. Think it works only with Mozilla Firefox.

Watch your pockets!!!

Some thoughts after the event - The event in question is my getting pick-pocketed in the Dasara Procession on Monday. It's really funny when I think of it. There I was right next to the Dasara Elephants trying to follow the procession when all of a sudden I get pushed in the direction of the procession and the whole line of people start pushing me in that direction. This goes on for about 5 minutes. When finally this human train stops, I realize that my wallet is missing. So was the entire human train part of the gang? Was this all a conspiracy to get to my wallet. :-) If it was, it was really innovative and so much of effort to get to one wallet or was there multi-tasking going on.

Some other things that come to mind are:

They can't be doing it alone. Maybe if not the entire human train, atleast 5-6 of them involved in pushing the train along and in and around the bakra are part of the gang. And maybe there is inter-gang co-operation and give and take. You help me with this bakra and I'll help you with the next.

They can't be small in number. Like I mentioned in my previous posting, seeing the number of cases reported in that one station on that one single day, my guess is that all pick-pockets from all over India descend on the target destination - whether it is a Kumbh Mela, Dasara Procession, Ganapathi Immersion on the Mumbai Beaches in droves. Maybe they have a Calendar where they work two or three times a month and enjoy for the rest of the month with the loot.

How do they target the bakras? Obviously people who flaunt their expensive belongings are inviting trouble. People who act like they are scared of getting robbed actually end up getting robbed. You keep feeling your back pocket and pretty soon, you won't find anything there one of those times. Some one else has decided to help you out of your pain. :-) One guy who lost 70K on Monday in Mysore was supposed to be carrying it in his Bermuda Shorts and is supposed to have been feeling it constantly (according to the COP at Lashkar Police Station in Mysore).

How do they decide their next destination? During normal times, although pick-pocketing has picked up in and around Bangalore - it is much more risky for them. They need to find secluded spots like dark lanes without streetlights and people walking alone late at night. After all that has been reported in the newspaper every day, people have just become more careful. So the safer bet is to make the month's loot in a day during Melas and Processions.

Here's a list of Do's and Don'ts:

* Do not carry more than is necessary on you. If you are not driving, leave your DL behind. This is not like in the US, where you are supposed to have an ID on you at all times.

* Do not put all your valuables in one pocket if you are going to go into the procession or any sort of crowd.

* Do not move valuables from one pocket to another in public. All this should be done in your room before you head out. I made the mistake of moving my purse from my back pocket to my front pocket because I'd felt someone feel my back pocket earlier in the day.
* Don't flaunt your valuables - Gold, Fat Wallet, Cameras, Cellphone, etc thus inviting trouble.
* Try as far as possible not to walk out alone whether it is late at night on dark alleys or in crowds / processions / melas. You better suspect trouble if people start pushing you around.
* Do not carry wallets in Back Pockets in a crowd. I know in my case, the guys were too skilled and I had way too many things in my front pocket, the top most thing being my wallet. :(

Enough of my sob story, eh? Come to think of it, I don't feel so bad after having come out with my learnings from the loss. Now, let's spread this message across to all friends and family so that they are more careful the next time they go into a procession or a Mela. Here ends my good deed for the day. :)

Dasara loot!!!

Lost my wallet this weekend. Got pick-pocketed in the Dasara procession melee!!! :( People literally pushing each other to get a glimpse of the Elephants carrying the Goddess. Or were they really? As an afterthought, I have a feeling if this whole mad rush was simulated by some tricksters to get their hands on some fatwallets.

Unfortunately for them, my wallet was not that fat (atleast relative to some others). Unfortunately for me, lost my Driving License, 2-3 Credit/Debit Cards and god knows what else. Fortunately for me, I am not in the habit of carrying too much cash and before more damage could be done, got my cards cancelled after making a couple of local/international calls.

Later on, at the Police Station when I went to give a complaint, I found out that there were about 50-60 cases in that station itself for that day. Some of the cases included people who'd lost upto 70K INR.

The silver lining in the cloud is that, this happened towards the fag end of a good trip to Coorg (Abbe Falls, Raja Seat), Bandipur and Gopalaswamy Betta, and Mysore. If this had happened earlier, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the trip as much as I did.

Will update the blog soon with photos once I'm done uploading it.

My Best Cricket Seasons!!!

Now that I'm back in India and my US season has come to an end, I thought of putting together my stats. This was more my way of re-visiting the best cricketing moments of the last two years.

2005 season:

My first match: A decent start but unfortunately run out. Bright spot was that we managed to win our first game. This team FoursNSixes was what became my 2006 Team (UCC). A merger of sorts of COSARC and FoursNSixes.

My first Fifty: COBCA was one of the top teams in the league and the eventual 2006 Champions. So to score a fifty against them and especially when the team was down and out at 30/6 odd was a real nice feeling. Even though we fell short that day, at one point when we were looking at about 60 in six overs, we actually went all out for a victory and we could see that the opposition was panicking.

Other 2005 games: Although every game was memorable, the other unforgettable game is the game against Akron in the 20/20 Tournament where I had the ankle injury that rendered me hors'de'kombat for a good two months. Chasing a score of 190 odd, powered by a Quick Fire knock by our captain Vishal and a good 40 odd by yours truly, we were well on our way to victory when a mini collapse left us in a situation where with five overs to go, we had about 30 runs to get but we'd lost all our wickets. This was on one of the hottest days of the season and end of the game, virtually every person in our team was injured in some way or the other. Unfortunately, scores of these mini-tournaments are not on the www.

2006 Season:

Game against KCC: This was my first big innings of the tournament when people in my new team first recognized my talent. Before that I'd done pretty ok in practice but in practice pretty much everyone is a big hitter in our team. So that doesn't count for much. The sad part is that we couldn't convert this into a victory due to several dropped catches and missed run outs.

Game against UC: This was a do or die match for us. A loss here would have meant that we were out of the tournament. It was the same for our opponents too. And this being an away game made it tougher for us. Getting up at 7 in the morning, driving two hours to Cincinnati, playing in a new ground - the odds were against us. A superb batting performance despite a slow start took us to 231, our highest score for the season. The last 16 overs after I went into bat, we made 160 runs - some amazing hitting. We almost squandered the advantage by our poor bowling and fielding - but a last over run out got us the game by 7 runs and we were into the next round.

Game of the Season This was the game against last year's losing finalists. We were very much the underdogs. We did well to restrict them to 180 although we could have kept them down to lower. When I went into bat, we still needed about 80 odd runs at run a ball. We did well to keep the score board ticking and kept us in the game. A rush of blood and I was out with about 15 to win of 21 balls and 4-5 wickets in hand. My wickets was followed by two quick wickets and everyone started panicking. Were we going to lose this one after doing so well? Eight to win off the last over and a first ball six by Subodh sealed the match!!! Wild celebrations followed. We partied hard long into the night celebrating this wonderful victory.

Last game of season Another do or die battle but this time we fell short. An away game where we went in two bowlers short and paid dearly for it. 258 runs in 35 overs is virtually unachievable. At one point with me and Chandru (Prasad) going great guns we were very much in the game. But with him going out to a loose shot and the next 2-3 overs going for next to nothing, the asking rate went upto about 12 and became virtually impossible. I played with a runner after my second Ankle injury (Both seasons, injured myself in the last game of the season ... luckily) and did pretty ok. I fell to one tired awful slog and with that went the game and our chances of making it to the semis.

All in all, had an amazing time playing cricket. Thank you Midwest Cricket League for giving me this opportunity. Will try and come back some point in the future. :-)

To do or not to do!!!

The question here is about doing an MBA. After ditching IIM BCLIK interviews 2 years back for an onsite assignment and an IIMB PGSEM seat because I wanted to play some Cricket and didn't want to stay away from Bangalore, am I really serious about doing it?

I know there is a lot of peer pressure because friends have done it or are doing it. Then there is the obvious where is my career going feeling of desperation. The question of "Do I want to end up like my boss" cursed by one and all a burden on earth :-)?

Noooooooo.

The only way out seems to be doing an MBA and hope that the path forward becomes clear during or once I'm done with the course. So went head first by signing up for GMAT on Oct 22nd since the general consensus seemed to be about 40 days of prep of 2 hours a day should be enough. What next? I've no idea. Ideally should start preparing ... but knowing me will probably not start till a week before D-Day.

Columbus to New York, Dubai and Bangalore

Here are some photos of my last two trips!!!

The New York trip was in the weekend of the 18th, 19th of August with Ravi alias R@W vI and Adi who lives in NJ. We visited some of the places I'd missed out on my previous NY trips like Madame Tussaud's and the Statue of Liberty and also re-visited other places like WTC, Empire State Building, Wall Street and the BULL!!!

The Dubai trip was on my return journey to India. Other than some shopping and sightseeing, met my cousin (Ravianna), his wife (Radhathige) two kids (Rohan and Rhea) and my friend (Satish a.k.a. Thatha). The highlight of the trip was the amazing bonding with the kids and the moment I first set my eyes on Burj 7 ******* hotel - supposed to be the only seven star hotel in the world.

Back in BLR - Awesome feeling!!!

What a feeling to be back in India!!! Being with family, the loving hug from Appa and Amma, the the familiar roads, the amazing weaving through the traffic with all the honking (after seeing the patient drivers of America), just lazing away in my lawn chatting with parents, fighting over the remote with my Bro (we are planning to buy a third TV at home to avoid these eternal fights), my messy room which I intend to clean up over the next couple of days. The list of things which put me into this blissful state is endless.

The negative side is that I am feeling bad about not having contacted any of my friends so far. The reason is simple. I don't know have their contact numbers and I hate to send out a mail saying - well here I am guys!!! Sounds too arrogant for me. And am scared to hell about taking my bike out - I know I'll get over it soon though. Anyway since I am going to work on Wednesday, will hopefully start building my network again and for my old friends I've left behind in Columbus - I'll miss you guys!!! And sure you are missing me too!!!

Things to do in Dubai

Here is the the list of things I plan to do in Dubai
* Shop till I drop - even if it's window shopping (keeping in mind how much luggage space I have)
* Visit a Cousin who I haven't seen in person my whole life; why am I that keen to meet him now god only knows?
* Visit Satish (Thatha) who's moved there a few years back. He did come back to Bangalore last year but then I was in US at the time. So seeing him after a good couple of years.
* Visit the Sharjah Cricket stadium
* Go on a Desert Safari
* Revel in the Arabic Music and Belly Dancing (Had been treated to one such performance on my Atlanta Visit)
* See some Camels and maybe a Camel Race (a traditional sport of the UAE)

And of course, finish the planned business with Mr. D :-)

I am obviously open to any other suggestions by people who've visited Dubai / Sharjah before too!!!

Getting back to Reading!!!

This is another of my short term visions for myself. Want to get back to my reading best - what better timing than my long flight back to India.

Once upon a time not too long ago - I used to do 2-3 big fat ones o'er a weekend!!! Before you get any ideas - still on the topic of books and reading!!!

Me waiting for your suggestions!!!

Badminton Days

Tue/Wed/Thur are good sporting days. 2 hours almost of wholesome Badminton. Really - nothing like it. Especially if I'm lucky enough to play singles. Otherwise more often than not end up playing doubles with one or two weak links in the game and rallies getting over in no time.

And nothing beats a cold beer relaxing in front of the Pond infront of our balcony after coming back from Baddie!!! One more of life's simple pleasures!!!

Since the next couple of weeks the rec center is supposed to be closed, last week was my last day of Badminton in US. Will I get to play in India? Will I have enough time between all the Traffic Jams and stuff to step out and play?

One of my end of year targets is to find work at some place within 20 mins from home so that I can continue to enjoy these simple pleasures of life!!!

Chanderpaul in town

Just learnt that Shivnaraine Chanderpaul will be in town on the 13th weekend playing a couple of friendly games with us - hope to get a few photo-opportunities. :)

What this also means is that our tournament semi-finals will get postponed by a couple of weeks and I wont be able to make it. :(

Annual mid season appraisal

Last year's complete cricket season and this year's performance so far with about 3-5 matches to go.

Not so bad, eh?

Company Training in Chicago (Lisle office)

My co.s started this thing about conducting Tech training for onsite folks and get them certified. Only problem is certifying ppl seems like the only thing the trainer was interested in. This is "out of syllabus" almost made me ROFL. Here's the bunch of people I met during this July 4th trip to Chicago and around.


L-R (Sasank, Mathew, Bharat, Senthil, Randhir, Ajmel, Mohan, Aatish, Sumit, Arun - as far as I can remember :-)

PS: No offence to anyone. But felt it was a total waste of time - the only useful thing that came out of it was my meeting a friend in Chicago, eating some good food and playing a lot of pool during the breaks. :)

SOLD!!!

Put an ad in Craigslist and got like a gazillion responses in no time. The first guy who had a look at my baby ... decided to take her. But had some crazy moments ... before I finally sealed the deal today.

I'd put an ad asking for 5.9K. Of all the people who responded, there was one guy who despite my laziness to call back respondents kept calling me and leaving me his number. So finally decided to call him (let's call him Mr. V). He said he didn't have a car and he wanted me to come to his house and show it to him. There were two other people living close to each other with similar requests. So finally decided to spend one weekend day showing my baby off to potential buyers.

Mr. V wanted the vehicle checked @Firestone. Although I'd heard a lot about Firestone screw ups, decided to go for it. One big blunder. After a lot of checks and balances ... dude came out with a report saying about 800$ worth of repairs most of it was general maintenance I'd just done a week back. I showed Mr. V the receipt. There was still a couple of minor things to be done. So he wanted me to reduce the price. After a lot of bargaining we finalized the deal @ 5500/-. Maybe I could have gone for more ... but didn't have the patience to go around showing it to more people. I'd almost spent 2 hours there by then and traveled 35 miles to show this guy my car.

I said I'd confirm the deal in a couple of days and as we were driving out ... my car started making a rattling noise. My worst fears about Firestone had come true. As I braked the front tyre rim fell off. :o

Slowly drove it back to Firestone and after an hour or so ... they finally fixed their screw-up. They hadn't put the tyre back on properly. Thought my problems were over??? Nope, by the time I reached home - Right rear tyre rim had fallen off. :(

I was worried dude might say he doesn't want the car now or he wants me to pay for the Rim. He luckily didn't. Over the next couple of days he kept calling me asking me to reduce it by a 50 to 100 dollars for one reason after the other.

First it was I have so many expenses - Insurance, Taxes, Family, and lots of other bullshit. I told him, dude - let's not discuss our finances. Deal has been finalized. I had lots of other ppl that wanted to buy my car. That silenced him.

Next day, he called and said - I thot we'd agreed for 5.4. Since he'd given me a token amount of just 100 bucks, I really at one point thought he might have found another car and was talking himself out of this deal.

Then it was - I need to replace the Wipers. In another 10K miles (atleast a year away), I'll need to replace the Timing belt. :) The clincher was - You will get it water serviced and give it to me right.

I said "What is water service dude?". That thing they do in gas station and all right. "Oh, Car Wash!!!". I thought there was a new form of alternative medicine for cars similar to Water Therapy for Humans. I said "Dude, I got it done last week. If I have the time, I'll get it done. Otherwise whatever amount you are supposed to pay, reduce it by 5 bucks and give me the cheque." :) That silenced him.

And just after my last long drive - almost went around Columbus picking him up, getting him the title, then his license plates - had to give him a 1/2 hr crash course in my car controls. Man - the way I got so many responses to my ad, I thought selling a car was easy. Phew!!! Am I relieved now or what? First thing I did after getting rid of him was going and dropping his cheque.

Coming up - The close shaves I had while driving the car after the deal had been finalized over the weekend. I was convinced - my tryst with DEF-2606 was done!!!

Selling my baby!!!

Funny lines in Orkut scraps

I love the word scrap (with reference to orkut) when used as a verb. Scrap me!!! :)

Here's the dictionary meaning of scrap as a verb:
tr.v. scrapped, scrap·ping, scraps
1. To break down into parts for disposal or salvage.
2. To discard as worthless or sell to be reused as parts; junk

Anyway, here are some interesting scraps:

* Hey, tum phone kyon nahin uta rahi ho.

This one I've seen so often in one guy's scraps and one particular girl's scrap book that I really thought of scrapping him - Dude, don't you get the message???

* Dude, come home or do this or do that or whatever.

We use this mode of communication often these days because some people (esp. one particular person I know) respond to this better than any other mode of communication including going to his house and banging on the door.

* Scrap # 278
* Scrap # 279
* Congrats on 280 scraps
What is this? Some sort of competition eh? :) Maybe I'll write a program that given an id, generates intelligent scraps and sell it. I'll probably make a fortune. :)

Another business idea I have is writing a book called "101 Ways to a 1001 scraps" - if nothing it will be a great gift to all the Orkut junkies.

To go or not to go

Finally did it. Told the boys (United Cricket Club team mates) about my leaving for India next month. They were shocked and tried to convince me into changing my plans. Sadly I too want to stay for the entire season and I thought I was going to stay for the entire season. But then I assumed the season would be over for us by mid-August.

But now that we've started doing well and are into the next round ... they obviously want me to continue so that we can do well as a team this season and end up among the top teams in the league. Anyway let me try to do my bit before I leave!!!

Cricket was always a passion ... but now I know that playing Leather ball cricket gives the word passion a whole new meaning!!! If I ever come back to the US, this would be reason number one. Coming into the Midwest region would be my preference for this one reason too since this is turning out to be a FUN team to play with.

Tips to losing weight

Am I the right person to provide tips on losing weight? You bet. I can lose weight as easily as I can gain it. This time decided to lose some flab before heading homewards. Joined Lifetime Fitness by paying a whopping 150 bucks since my current gym was relatively further away from home than LFF.

Started controlling my diet - went off burgers and Pizza for a few days. There was obviously the occassional day at lunch when I got tired of eating a Veggie Sub everyday and had to go for variety. But mostly went off Pizza n Burgers n MacD's. Totally off Soda - I hate it anyway - so this one wasn't tough.

Coming to the main topic - had a few sessions with a personal trainer - a 50$ value ;) according to the Sales Guy @ LFF. Since I had 3 sessions that I could take, I was supposed to get my money's worth in those 3 sessions anyway. :)

Here are a few tips that he gave - most of these I'd read online just the day before I went there. So it was a kind of deja'vu feeling I felt when he said what he said.

*** Don't lose weight too fast. You gain it back sooner than you lost it ... :o
*** Approx weight loss should be around 1-2 lbs per week
*** To lose 1lb, you need to burn 3500 more calories than you consume.
*** To do this, reduce daily intake by 500 cals and burn 500cals more.
*** How to reduce 500 cals? In US, this is easy. Almost every canned item - be it milk/cereal/canned soup/etc has calorific value mentioned on it. So just have to jot down how much you consume in a normal day and reduce it by making small sacrifices like 1 less cookie and smaller portions of dinner.
*** How to burn more cals? Just put on your running shoes and RUN like HELL!!! Nothing like running on the road. This really made him sound like an ANTI-GYM person. Why would he say that?
*** Do weight training before CARDIO to get the full benefit of the cardio. Doing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach helps burn fat. Evening work outs take energy out of food in body.
*** Free weights > Machines

... and many more to come!!!

Coming up ... Tips to gain weight!!! which I'm surely going to once this cycle of weight loss is over. :)

Losing friends!!!

Another one bites the dust. Another friend finds his soulmate. Is that a bad thing? Why am I sad? Shouldn't I be happy for my friends? Of course we are still going to be friends and hopefully nothing much will change. But when I suddenly out of the blue need someone to call and talk to, can I be sure I can call my friend without worrying if I'm being a "Pain in the b%##". Maybe that's why we all need a soul mate.

Just like on leaving school, we used to think "Why do we have to grow up? Why do we have to leave school?". Now I feel, why should people get engaged / married? Why can't we all stay single, hang out together have fun like we always used to.

But just like I grew out of or reasoned with the previous question, I know I will grow out or answer this question on my own soon. Or maybe just maybe, I'll find my soulmate soon too!!! and then there will be some other single friend of mine who'll get these stupid thoughts.

India's (dis)appearance at the world cup

India did make it to the world cup, once. Kind of. Well, not really:

No, don’t rub your eyes in disbelief. India did make it to the 1950 World Cup finals. Well sort of. Four countries from Asia were invited to participate in the qualifiers. Burma, Philippines and Indonesia all withdrew, so India qualified automatically.

India was placed in Group 3 with Sweden, Italy, and Paraguay. But their request to play barefoot was turned down by FIFA and they withdrew!

Sadly, this was back in the hey days of Indian Soccer. Until India makes it to the world cup again, we’ve always got Vikas Dhorasoo and his action figures.

The Zahir - A novel of Obsession

This is a book by Paulo Coelho about love, marriage, life, sex; how the protagonist's (supposedly Paulo Coelho himself) love was possessive and obsessive; how he was able to learn from his wife's lover to change his love to be self-less. And his journey of re-discovering true love and re-uniting with his true love.

I recommend this book, to people who would like to know how the journey of love should be - to re-discover your love. Too much of love, a?

I know in the real world, I'm not the person to be lecturing about love. But in my world, I am. And this is my world. :p

------------------------------------- **** ---------------------------------------

Here's a short discussion of the protagonist with Marie (his new companion after his true love deserts him):

P: Marie, Let's suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterward, they go over to a small stream. The face of one is smeared with black, while the other man's face is clean. Who do you think will wash his face?

M: The one with the dirty face of course.

P: No, since the man with the clean face sees a reflection of himself in his partner, he washes his face. While the man with the dirty face (mind ???) sees his partner and thinks everything is fine.

This made me think, if I'm feeling low today - it probably is because of my surroundings and the people around me. So what's the solution, go hang out with a different set of ppl. That's the cowardly soln. ain't it?

One should look at the effect we have on others to see our true selves. Make your partner/friend feel better than he/she was before they come in contact with you. That shows the true person that you are. What you feel about yourself or how others feel about you is not as defining as how others feel about themselves after they come in contact with you.

Reservation trouble

Here's a recent interview of Arjun Singh done by Karan Thapar. I've always admired Karan Thapar's guts in asking questions bluntly and exposing politicians to what they are - dumb-witted hypocrites.

Karan aur Arjun

Here he exposes Arjun Singh and makes a mockery of the minister. But then who has the last laugh. Arjun Singh and the congress will now go back to the OBCs and claim that they have now resolved all their problems - what if the people who might need some support are not even in a position to get primary education; what if the only people who are going to benefit from this are going to be the creamy layer of the OBCs who don't really deserve these reservations.

At one point, he says this is the first time that the entire parliament has unanimously passed an amendment. That was a nice joke dude. Which political party would want to be known as Anti-OBC? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is going to vote in favor of the amendment. Even if you had said 100% reservations for OBCs and SC/STs, the amendment would probably have gone through.

It pains me to see the state of affairs in my country. All this makes me think for a moment of running away from it all. But then that's surely not the way to go. We need to do something about this. But then what? What options do we have of combatting this?

For once there are people fighting the wrong. It's time we support them in their battle, spread the word about the wrong being done and if possible join them in their fight against the amendment. If we don't join them in their battle, there will be no one joining you when you are wronged. If you feel, a wrong has been done, it's time to join the fight.

My Dear Brother

I am walking to school with my brother on a shady and deserted road to my primary school. As we near the turning to the 100ft road that leads to our school, we notice a group of drunks sitting on a stone and drinking and laughing away to glory. I notice one of them has a sickle and am a little hesitant to go closer. I ask my brother if we shouldn't pick another route. He being the idealist says "C'mon, we should be brave. We haven't done anything wrong. And we are already late to school. Am sure they won't even notice us". I thought ok - let's move on.

As we head closer, one of the drunks notices how scared I am and says something to his friends. When we are about 10 ft away from them, he picks up his weapon of choice - the sickle and brandishes it and says "chindi chindi madi hakthini" (I'll cut you into pieces). I take two steps back. They all have a good laugh over it. My brother steps in between (I hide behind him rather), holds my hand and says "Nanna thammanige enu madbedi. Do anything you want to me." ("Don't do anything to my kid brother. "). Seeing this, the guy backs out "Aithu paapa antha bidthiddini - hogi schoolge" and goes back to his drinking.

When I think about the incident, it brings a smile to my face. My brother is one person who's always been there for me. Just to think that he was in his 2nd grade when this incident happened. There may not have been many instances when I've gone to him for help. But he's been there whether I'm in distress, i'm in doubt or if I'm in conflict over a decision trying to help me out. I don't remember once asking him for help. But he's always been there at the right place and the right time. Whether we were both in Bangalore, he was in Hyderabad and I was in Bangalore, whether I was in the US and he was in India, it did not matter. He knows I'm in trouble, he'll call me and spend hours on the phone trying to solve my problems with his advice or just patiently listening to me.

Off late I've started trying to do my part too calling him and talking to him whenever I find out that he needs someone to talk to irresp. There are obviously some things which can only be told to a brother. Hope I've done half as well as he has done for me. I just wanted to say "Thanks a lot Sudhir for being there for me all my life. Love you." and here's wishing you a very very Happy Birthday - May you have a great year and an even greater life ahead.

PS: I don't think my bro is a visitor of my blog. But then who cares. One day when he comes across it - it'll make his day. :-)

Coupon cutting

I've heard a lot of talk about how desis are the coupon cutters and the the cheapos and what not. The other day in Kroger, I saw an Amru couple who stunned me with the number of coupons they'd brought for one shopping session. The other lines at the cash counter had 4-5 people waiting. So I decided to go for this line with just one couple with a cart full of stuff.

Only later did I realize why people were not going into this line. I expected something like a 5 min wait at worst. By the time the cashier went through the box of coupons, the grocery total had come down from 145 to 32$, I had to wait for almost 20 mins. I had almost decided to move to another line which had 2 people in line. They really must have put in a few hours of effort into getting them all together and planning what to buy and what not to buy. Considering what the avg american makes per hour, was it really worth the time and effort? Or maybe we haven't seen the other side of the effluent USA.

Most amazing weekend

Had a cricket filled weekend.

Saturday morning - 9am - 5pm -> Cricket match with Covansys. We scored 147 in 30 overs and lost in the last over of the match.

Saturday 9pm - 10pm -> Interesting game of Pool

Saturday 11pm - 2pm -> Watched MI-3. Had read good reviews and as far as I'm concerned it lived up to the hype. Some of my friends weren't that pleased. Some nice scenes that I really loved. Some laughable scenes like the one where he jumps of the building and then swings onto another like Spiderman and the way they try to defend it by giving some scientific fundas - fulcrum or lever or something like that. Overall liked the movie - it's always tough for the sequels to live upto the prequels and add something. But MI-III did a pretty good job at it I thought.

Sunday 8am - Leave for the ground since the match was supposed to start at 9am. I was playing for a new team in which some of my friends play for - this was a really strong team with some of the players playing in the league for the last 15 years. So I was very much like a fill in player expected to do nothing but field in a position where there are least number of balls expected to go for. The first match turned out very much that way - we fielded first (I fielded about 10 balls max). We bowled out the opponents for 92 and chased them in 15 overs (20 over a side game).

Sunday 1pm - Go to a Dosa place and have a hearty meal - A Dosa Thali (Idly, 2 Vadas, Onion and Hot Chilly Masala Dosa, Gulab Jamun) and come back to the ground to watch a run feast in another game going on in the tournament. By the way the matches played on Sunday was part of a Invitation Only tournament played between some of the top teams in Ohio. Laze around on the grass watching the game and try and catch a few winks in between all the noise around. Team batting first (Cleveland) ends up scoring 198 runs in 20 overs with mabe a zillion sixes in them and a 20-30 dropped catches. Team batting second obviously doesn't measure up to the task and gets bowled out for under a 100.

Sunday 4:30pm - Finally our second match gets under way. We were hoping to bat first to give ourselves some rest - we were still tired from the previous game. We lost the toss and we put into field. Cleveland get off to an amazing start - 45/2 in 6. Batsman then makes the mistake Aamir Sohail made against Venky Prasad. Tries to instigate the bowler. War of words ensues. Every Tom Dick n Harry gets involved and the next few deliveries were amazing. Fun to watch from such close quarters. Every ball that the batsman missed or defended was met with more and more words from the fielding side. It finally got to the Batsman and he tried to hit his way out and gets caught at Mid-wicket. This triggers off an amazing collapse - 74/8. Somehow with a few missed run outs and some great running, Cleveland manage to reach 97.

Our batting starts and as expected - I don't expect to bat atleast not close to the end. Team gets off to a slow but steady start. 30/0 in about 8 overs. As the runs begin to dry out, our team starts panicking and we loose wickets in a hurry. I was just lazing around on the grass when I suddenly am told am the next to go. We've suddenly lost 3 wickets in a hurry and we have no one else padded up. My god, my gloves and abdomen guard are in the car. I run to the car and somehow manage to get the stuff in and I realize the batsman who just went in is also out. I've just about got my Pads on. I ask Kirti if there's a good team bat I can use since I haven't played in this team before and didn't want to take someone's personal bat and go out to play. He asks if a heavy bat is fine. Do I have a choice? I say yeah that's fine just because I wanted to go with some bat and not have to bat without a bat. I get the gloves on but as I'm trying to get my sweat shirt off, the gloves get stuck. I am making a big fool of myself and in all this people from the ground are shouting for me and probably laughing their asses off at the mess that I'm in.

Bad start to the Innings a? You bet. Get off to a nervous start with a LBW appeal and a dropped catch. Before I know it, my partner's tried to hit his way out and got out. Now we are in a precarious situation. 2 wickets left. 40 to 30 balls. My new partner has a tough time with the short pitch bowling that is dished out. We get only 2 runs in the over. 38 in 4. The new bowler tries the same short pitch stuff against me with no cover at deep square leg - result 4. More short deliveries and now b'cos there is cover there - a few 1s and 2s. 27 in 3. Doesn't sound so bad. But with just 2 wickets in hand - pretty dangerous situation.

Isko short mat daalna. Sirf usko short daalo. Next ball - Dance down the wicket take the ball on the full and the sweetest four. And did I forget to tell you. The bat was really heavy. I was in fact upto that point thinking of asking for a bat change. But after that shot - no way. A few more 2s trying to retain strike - some crazy run thanks to my partner who was willing to sacrifice his wicket to keep me on strike and we end up with 18 in 2. Some misfields on the line and some more quick runs later - we are at 10 of 1. Comes down to 6 of 4, 4 of 3, 2 off 2. Get hit on the pads - ball is close to the keeper and my partner wants a single. Decide not to take a chance since I still had another ball to get the 2 runs in. Last ball - hit to long on. In trying for the second run - partner gets run out. Match is a tie. Since we were already into the semis and my team wanted to be in the second in the group due to their wanting to play a particular team in the Semis, it worked out well. We came second in the group due to a lower run rate but also avoided losing the match. :-)

Match finally got over at like 7:30pm - Still a lot of light around. The atmosphere when we went from the brink of loosing to almost winning the match was amazing - really charged up because of the incident that happened while we were fielding. After the match, sat around chatting about nothing in particular for an hour or so after the game over a couple of beers and overall had fun. Looking forward to more such fun-filled games where I fill in and have fun. :-)

OSU is a real good team to play in. Play real hard Cricket on the field. They are really competitive. Every game is either a match to be won and also a match with an eye towards practice for key players in coming matches/tournaments. Fun to be with off the field too. That's probably part of the problem in my not being able to commit to playing with them. It surely is going to be fun. But since they have a well established side, I'd be affecting the balance if I get to play and / or I might not get to play enough. So will probably stick with UCC.

Would you like a cup of coffee?

Just read about some research that drinking coffee puts you in a much better mood and activates the central nervous system to be more receptive to arguments. Maybe the Indian youth have caught on to this. That must be why Coffee Day and other coffee shops in Bangalore are having a field day. So want to pop the question - do it in Coffee Day after 2-3 rounds of Coffee.

On my trip to India in November, had a tough time finding a seat in a Coffee shop on a week day afternoon. I was wondering at the time, what's gotten to these kids in Bangalore. Now it all makes sense.

I never was a big coffee drinker. Maybe it's time to make a change.

Go'sipping

What is Go'sipping?

It is a game very much prevalent across the Central Ohio region esp among Desis. Person A starts of with an empty glass and pours drink a into it and passes it onto B. B takes a sip of it, adds drink b to it and and passes it on. By the time, it reaches person Z, it's a brand new Cocktail. The drinks added alternate b/n an alcoholic drink and a non-alcoholic drink. Person Z has to gulp the entire drink down in one go.

The transformation that takes place from Drink A to the ultimate cocktail is really amazing with each person in between adding his own twists of punch into it. Since there is only one guy (the last guy) who has to gulp the drink down, people do their level best to make it as hard on him as possible. The sadists that most bl#@$y De$i$ are, who cares how difficult it is for that guy to gulp it down or even if the guy is a drinker or not? It's fun to see a fellow de$i suffer rite.

Any similarity of the above game (noun) to a similar sounding verb (esp from a Mallu) is purely co-incidental and un-intentional. The author bears no ill-feelings towards people A-Y during the last instance of this game since he sympathises with them and understands their frustrations in life. And anyway the author loved the drink. Thank you!!!

Coming up!!! Description of Bulls' hitting - a game similar to the famed Bull fighting.

Moving up in life!!!

After 2+ years in Win Cove Condos, last weekend moved to another Apt. It wasn't like I liked it that much in Winchester Cove. It was my laziness to move all the furniture and clean up the place that kept me there for this long. And when it finally did happen, I was forced into it by the bloody ol' b#$$@ refusing to extend the lease.

Anyway despite the humungous effort in moving all the furniture and cleaning up the mess of 2 years, looks like it worked out well. Although the new apartment is not as New as the Older one :-), it has an amazing pond-side balcony view where ducks flock to our side of the apartment and are a treat to watch. Here are some photos of that view.

As I keep saying these days, balcony, balcony ke aage garden, garden ke aage pond, pond mein bahut sare machli. Maybe I'll do some fishing one of these days.

And why is it moving up in life. Well, first floor to second floor is moving up rite.

Cricket and other updates!!!

In a previous post, I'd mentioned my dilemna in choosing between COSARC and the other team. COSARC is no more. Based on a lack of a good response from the team (ppl looking for a free lunch), we decided not to go ahead with it this time. So it was now, each to his own. Each member was now a free agent.

I still had the offer from XYZ club - the champions of our league. Just to have the best of both worlds, me and a few others from COSARC decided to join a new club that was getting formed with a lot of members from different clubs. The number of people here is scarily huge - the yahoo group already has 30 members. But have had a couple of interactions with the team and it looks good.

I had a pretty bad first game - scored just 2 runs in a match that we lost. But the practice session that followed was much better. In my defense, my best games last season were the last three games where I top scored for the team in each of the games. Considering that and the fact that this team will have much more regular practice sessions and games before the midwest starts, there is only one way to go for my cricket this season and that is up (assuming I'm here for the entire season).

That brings me to the other update on a previous blog. The suspense over whether I will play most of this season or not continues. I got waitlisted in the PGSEM course and I haven't got anything like a waitlisting number from IIMB. So it's waiting till the 20th of May for now. That's f@#@$n three weeks away!!! Boooooooooh!!!

Well considering that this was my worst CAT performance in 3 attempts with almost zero prep, the fact that I got a call and got waitlisted is a surprise. Hopefully it will turn out to be an even better surprise by the 20th of May.

Target PGSEM

This is about my plans to go in for the PGSEM course in IIMB, Bangalore. Why PGSEM? I'd prepared for this question in the interview by putting a lot of thought into it and coming up with all the usual cliches. The truth as with most other aspects of my career, I don't have a solid reason for doing it.

Why did I leave an opportunity to do a full time MBA in IIMC/L/I/K two years back and two years later look to do a part time course in IIMB? One obvious reason is B comes before CLIK. :-)

I mean B is Bangalore - Namma Bengalooru so any course (even maybe a Karate course) beats IIM - CLIK PGP anyday. That's one thing I always regret not doing. Learning Karate. Come to think of it - there are so many other things I regret. I wanted to learn to play the Guitar, learn to swim, be brave enough to Bungee jump or sky dive when I had the opportunity, the list is end less. Anyway I am going way off track with this. Let me get back on course.

Looks like the results are supposed to be out any day now. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed.

I was supposed to submit a few documents after the interview like the approval letter from my Employer. Since my managers went on vacation and then immediately into training, this got delayed by two weeks. Now that I finally got a hold of him and submitted it, just hope it's not too late.

Who cares where the hell I end up? Hit it!!!

What's in a name?

A Rose by any other name is just as fragrant. But some names are really worth hearing over and over again for all the wrong reasons.

What do you think of these?

DIRTY MIND!!!
**************
A'chut
Avan'tika
Deep'shika
Dik'shit
Vik'as
Go'pee'nath

QUESTIONS???
***************

Poor'na
Rich'a
Bindi'ya
Swet'a

MORE!!!
*********
Sharm'illa
Sri'natha
Neerajja
Devi'ka
Push'kar

But to come to the defence of people with these names. It wasn't their fault that their parents or grandparents couldn't think that there would be jobless people like us who'd dissect the names that they came up with like this. :)

Actually some of these names and their pronounciations / name-splits came to mind after I heard the way some Amru's say these names. They call me Ran'Deeer

Disclaimer: This post is inspired from another post I saw recently. Unfortunately I've no re-collection of whose blog it was. So I'll take the (dis)credit for now.

Smokies Road trip

Went on a road trip down south to the Smokies. Rented a Cabin, played pool all day (the cabin had a pool table), relaxed in a Hot Tub, did a couple of moderate difficulty treks, did some horseback riding, went on some long drives admiring nature's beauty and some wild-life (read deer).

I rode a Hummer. No, not drive a Hummer. The name of the horse I rode was Hummer. He really was huge. I think if I'd fallen off and if he'd put his one foot on me, I would have been a goner. But luckily for me, nothing like that happened. He did give me a few scary moments going to the edge of the cliff a few times and acting as if he was going to lose his balance. But on the whole, a nice experience. This was a lot slower than the last time I rode a horse * in Ooty * since unlike in Ooty where it was through a forest, here it was up and down a steep cliff.

We visited "Aquarium of the Smokies" too. As expected, saw lots of fishes. Some of them were really worth going all the way to see. Took snaps like crazy. Or atleast my friend did.

Cricket season

The cricket season - 2006 has well and truly started. No - we haven't played a game or anything. We haven't even had a practice session. In fact we are far from it. I say the season has begun because a lot of political manuevering has begun. Players moving from one team to another. Players being lured to other teams with tempting offers or plain old queries - Would you like to join our team? We have this facility and this great team and stuff.

I got one such offer from last year's champions. It seems they lost a couple of players and they are trying to fill it with players from other teams. I am giving the offer a lot of thought because I am not sure my team will be able to field a 11. We had great difficulty fielding a 11 for some matches last year and we've lost a few players already (2 of them moving to another club due to differences / monetary considerations and another person moving out on a new assignment). Let's see how it goes. Looks like we'll be a much weaker team than last year. The choice is between being a good player in a bad side or a bad player in a good side.

Thoughts?

Nee Amruthadhare!!!

Saw a Kannada movie in the US after a long long time. In fact my first Kannada movie in the theater. All those DVDs at home don't count, do they?

Pretty nice time pass movie called "Amruthadhare" which had no story, lots of similar songs or rather one song played over and over again that went like this "Nee Amrutha Dhare ... Nee Preeti Huduga ....". Even though there was nothing amazing about it, it had the most important thing, the feel good factor. The song is still playing in my mind - three hours after the movie. It will probably play for a couple of days at least.

Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar has done a pretty good job once again after America America, Nanna Preethiya Hudugi (or something like that) and a host of other "good" movies. Obviously there were parts of the movie when we had our share of fun (side comments) at the expense of the family crowd gathered in the theater.

How dare you?

I have always been proud of my typing skills. Today I got mocked at for typing slow by a FTP client. :) Well in reality, it was just that I was done with the FTP and had switched windows and totally forgotten about it.

Try typing a little faster next time. Hmm how dare you offend me? I'm not going to use you ever again!!!

The lost world!!!

These days have noticed something about myself. This has happened so often these past few weeks that I'm noticing a pattern here.

A friend of mine walks into my room on a sunday afternoon and finds me engrossed in a book. Since he hadn't made a very grand entry, I don't notice him coming in to the room. He sees that I'm smiling at something. Maybe it's the book that I'm reading. He decides to wait and watch. He sees that the smile gets wider by the minute. But I don't seem to have turned the page in the last few minutes. He definitely knows that I'm not such a slow reader. He decides that he's had enough and wakes me out of my thoughts and asks me what I've been dreaming and smiling about. Is it a girl- the obvious question?

I said, no it's nothing. Just something in the book which took me on some chain of thoughts which he broke. And despite my best efforts, I could neither convince my friend that I was not bluffing him nor could I trace back my chain of thoughts to find out what I was really smiling about.

These last few days, I haven't had many moments to smile about. I really am glad that atleast I can do so without my conscious mind coming in the way. That must be the reason why I'm so keen to spend more time lazing in bed forever and ever. I am having a lot of fun in the other world - the lost world that I'm seeking desperately to know more about.

Honda Defects

The paint of the top of my car has started peeling off. It's peeled off to such an extent that I really hate to drive because I hate to see my baldie getting balder by the day. I got an estimate for the repair work, (essentially repainting the whole car) and it came out to be a grand 3K.

It turns out that with some government agencies putting pressure on the auto manufacturers to reduce the usage of certain compounds in the paint, around the time my car was manufactured, Honda gave in to the pressure and the result is here for all to see (at least for me to see). Will update the post with a pic of my baldie. :(

Politics at work!!!

The last time my DM came over to Columbus, I had an hour long discussion about all the politics and manipulation going around in our project. He sounded surprised and genuinely concerned. Don't get me wrong. I am not in anyway doubting his sincerity. It's just that there is only so much he can do. I'm sure he's done that.

But three months down the line, haven't noticed a single change. The people in power are still enjoying it to the core. Some others who got manipulated ( after trying to manipulate ) quit the company and moved on. Quitting the company has become a big trend here at the Gap. In the last two years that I've been here, I've already seen 5-6 employees of my co. quit, which is pretty huge for a 15-20 member team. The rest who are still continuing are among the contented lot (people in power) or the scared lot (oppressed junta) or the who cares a damn lot (of whom I'm one).


PS: I hope these asses I'm talking about above see this post b'cos I want them to know what I think of them if they don't already know. Maybe one of these days when I'm jobless I'll create an anonymous mail id and fwd the URL of the blog to them. :-)

Watching cricket

Over the last couple of months, have probably watched more cricket (sometimes staying up all night and being all dreamy eyed at work all day) than I ever could if I were in India. I get to watch a whole One dayer when its a day game on a week day. Could I watch it if I were back home? Not a chance.

Going by the rate at which willow tv is hiking the prices, it looks like this fever is catching on. After selling the india pak series at 90 bucks for the one day series, they have the audacity to sell ind eng series at 170.

Maybe they'll next sell a SL-BAN series for 200 bucks.

Long time no blog

My blogging is in bursts. If I blog today, I very well might blog tomorrow too. But don't try to apply some theorem and say that because you blogged yesterday and you blogged today and since you generally blog tomorrow if you blog today, you blog every day. (Phew that was a long sentence)

That just doesn't work. Something or the other comes up and I forget completely about my duty towards my blog.