Fluorescence

Chicago

2011-08-21T13:02:00.005-04:00

Chicago, a photo by Nikhil K on Flickr.

HDR version from the waterfront in downtown Chicago.

Oregon

2011-08-21T13:02:00.004-04:00

Oregon, a photo by Nikhil K on Flickr.

HDR version of Multnomah falls near Portland, Oregon.

Fort Klamath

2011-08-14T15:15:00.001-04:00

Fort Klamath, a photo by Nikhil K on Flickr.

Amazing view from B&B in Fort Klamath near Crater lake national park in Oregon

Na Pali

2011-06-01T20:41:00.001-04:00

Hawaii
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

Na Pali coastline in Kauai, Hawaii. Sheer cliffs with an amazing play of rain, clouds and sun give it a mesmerizing look

Indian Media

2011-02-21T21:25:00.003-05:00

Looking at the recent news flashes in the Indian TV media, I am saddened to see the lack of investigative coverage of any news item which grabs headlines. The recent fiasco involving the Karmapa Lama highlights the case in point. The media frenzy which accused the Karmapa of being a Chinese spy ... corroborated from statements from any available source which were treated as credible and published without ascertaining any facts. The sense and sensibilities of the Tibetan people were also not taken into account. Headlines were flashed with the sole purpose of gaining viewership and to be one up over the competitors. Thats probably the disadvantage of having a 24 hours news channel .. where news have to be "generated" and "over analyzed" to keep up with the amount of time that these channels have.

In contrast, I think the print media is comparatively doing a better job on investigative reporting. They have more in-depth coverage about the pros and cons of the matter. Unfortunately, propaganda .. whether its right or wrong tends to spread more rapidly through the television rather than print medium. Somewhere down the line .. whether these channels will ever have a sense of responsibility for their actions .. is a question that keeps on popping up every now and then ..

Movie time

2011-02-06T00:50:00.003-05:00

I have watched four radically different Indian movies in a span of few days .. and I am impressed with the style of film making of these directors. Dhobi Ghat, Band Baaja Baraat, The Japanese wife, Phas Gaya Re Obama !!

Dhobi Ghat - Overall a unique way of storytelling and is probably made for a niche audience. I don't think it will achieve any commercial success. It has a fluid flow with good characterizations. I would have preferred to see someone else in Aamir's role though. The director probably tried to make it the arty type .. but was nowhere close .. its probably something in between. I thought Prateik Babbar was impressive.

Band Baaja Baraat - A cool, easy going storyline. There isn't much melodrama (comparatively .. considering its a Yashraj film). The film has its moments .. classy visuals, peppy music, different choreography, simple story .. generous use of cinematic liberty.

The Japanese wife - I was not expecting this to be a Bangla film .. it has some dialogues in english but majority of them are in Bengali. This cannot be classified as a commercial film .. but it also has its moments. A bit slow at times .. but there is sufficient curiosity build up which sustains till the end. The performances from Rahul Bose, Raima Sen, Moushumi are excellent.

Phas Gaya Re Obama !! - The title itself should draw you to watch the film. It also has a unique story .. and at the same time quite entertaining.

Austin

2011-01-30T12:07:00.001-05:00

Austin
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

While coming back from the McKinney Falls State Park in Austin .. saw this beautiful sunset

SMS lng

2010-12-18T19:50:00.000-05:00

People have been using cryptanalysis for centuries trying to find hidden meanings or trying to decipher codes. Looking at today's SMS lingo .. has anyone ever thought .. how would it look to someone who is a SMS illiterate. Some simple words like u (you) or l8r (later) seem to be easy because of their phonetic equivalents. But omitting vowels altogether leaves a bit of a mess while reconstructing words

v vil mt sn
r u gna cm

wt r u dng tdy ?

Nowadays, I must admit everyone is pretty good at it .. I am trying to catch up but give me a paragraph full of these and feels like I am giving an aptitude test trying to figure out the meaning.

God of small things

2010-01-31T18:10:00.002-05:00

If anyone has seen a recent social profile update (read facebook, orkut ...) of a person who is staying in the US of A for a few years and now made a short trip back home (India), there is a strong possibility of a bunch load of photos in the update. I am not a critic .. even I, myself have done that. The question to ponder is that why would anyone take more photographs of small things which are just part of everyday life back home and highlight them ?

Examples -
Colourful signs on the backside of trucks.
The colours of rural India.
Simple things like a painted red post office box on the road
Autorickshaws.
Street side food
Bullock carts
Architecture
... and many more.

I think we realize the uniqueness and the diversity that India has to offer only when we observe it from a distance. The "small things" which were considered to be a sign of a "developing" country are now the "flavours" of an Incredible India !!!

What's in a name ?

2008-08-30T00:28:00.002-04:00

I have always wondered if we associate names with some characteristics of a person. You haven't met a person and you are just aware of the person's name. Does it lead to a fleeting glimpse about the characteristic(s) of him/her ? These are the actual names of people whom myself or some of my friends have come across ...

Art Rose -
Imagination - The name of a girl with a pleasing personality ..
Reality - The name of a healthy middle aged man

Bajirao -
Imagination - A well built aristocratic person with an orthodox family background
Reality - Software engineer working along the west coast and residing in the US for a few years

Subconsciously .. maybe we tend to associate names with characteristics, occupation,location etc of the person. Meeting them or interacting with them is in a stark contrast of the fantasy world that we associate them with.

V day ?

2008-08-06T00:05:00.001-04:00

V day ?
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

Innocence

2008-05-31T01:03:00.005-04:00

I was travelling by train today and the compartment that I was in, was full of children. There were 8-10 years old school children going on a trip to the museum. As the train proceeded ahead towards its destination, more and more people started pouring into the compartment. There was a college going student trying to finish his assignment on time ... a MBA lapping up the news in New York Times ... a young lady with a pleasing personality keeping her abreast of what is happening in Jeniffer Aniston's life .. a group of women sporting huge diamond rings in their fingers and going over the catalogues of fifth ave shops .. people glued to the blackberry .. some people lost in thought (maybe missing someone in their lives) ...

There was a striking contrast between all of them ... the children were all smiles and talking about in a carefree manner and then there were adults .. where worry was the only thing visible on their faces. I just remembered the childhood days ..

when we didn't have to plan for the weekend to have fun ..
when we didn't have to think twice before visiting someone ..
when we didn't have to be judgemental
when a smile was a genuine feeling felt from within ..
when small things made us happy

Have we lost all our childlike qualities in the process of growing up and trying to be more mature (or at least acting to be mature) in our life ? Have we become too engrossed in calculations (if we do/say this .. we will get that) .. so that happiness seems to be on a distant horizon.

lonely islands maldives

2008-05-31T01:02:00.001-04:00

lonely islands maldives
Originally uploaded by Ibrahim Firaq.

Lovely colours captured in this photo. The serenity and the glow of the rising sun is spectacular ....

Knock Knock .. I'm looking to marry !!

2007-12-04T12:16:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: Comments below should be taken with a pinch of humour and are purely fictitious in nature. Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental

Its a funny thing .. but I find that there is always some thing to write on arranged marriages. There was a previous post on similar lines out here. The whole thing starts when you attain the marriageable age which is often read as ... being on the wrong side of 25. Here are a few facts ...

For Him

You are outside India
You are in a software field (duh? .. isn't it obvious?)
The fact that you need to write a blog on the arranged marriage scenarios means that you have a looong way to go .. when it comes to girls
You know you are a gem of a person (unfortunately .. other people need to be convinced about this fact)
Girls love talking to you (as a friend. <--- there is a full stop here)
People around you are getting "committed" all of a sudden ... and these gushes of good news are being delivered to your parents .. leading to a lot of anxiety in your family circle
You get questions from people like ... why can't you find someone when XXXX (most unlikely to talk to any girl) did a love marriage ?
You don't have too many expectations (unfortunately .. girls do)
You have to visit online matrimonial sites (the great Indian IT industry .. please help .. these sites seriously need good web programmers)
People who go to India for 2 weeks .. get married and come back ... start giving you relationship advice
You remember the golden dialogues that you hear in Hindi films "Beta .. humne tumhari shaadi bachpan mein hi tey kar di thi .. simran ke saath".. it happens only in films .. or maybe only in punjabi families.

For Her

You can be anywhere in the world
You are well qualified
You have an attractive personality
Guys love talking to you ( <--- there is no full stop here )
People around you are getting "committed" all of a sudden ... and these gushes of good news are being delivered to your parents .. and your parents say .. "I hope she chooses the right person"
You get questions from people like .. So who is he ? Oh .. I thought he was the other one you mentioned last time
You will always find people meeting your expectations
You never need to visit online matrimonial sites (by the time you decide to do that .. you may have XX number of proposals in your bag)
relationship advice ? (duh? what is that?)
You remember (nah .. you actually hear them) the golden dialogues from Hindi films "mein tumse pyaar karta hun ... aur tumse shaadi karna chahata hun".. (oh no .. not again)

The perspective differences between him and her may/may not be apparent .. but the end result is always good .. or at least we hope that it is good.

P.S - The title of the post comes from a very interesting Indian film in 2003 .. you can find some more info here

Gmail .. running out of space

2007-08-24T00:04:00.001-04:00

Gmail .. running out of space
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

Over the years, I did not anticipate that something like this would happen ... but today I saw these warnings on opening my mails ..

Birthday wishes !!

2007-08-06T22:35:00.000-04:00

On the eve of my birthday, I decided to shut off all the birthday reminders on orkut to see how many so called "friends" go out of their way to wish me on that special day. I, myself was surprised by the number of people who actually called or sent a message to me.

There were only two people who called me on that day (from a list of 180) ... Well, I do not hold any grudges against them ... people are busy in their lives and have their own problems to deal with ...

It was just an interesting observation .. and people can draw their own conclusions from it.

Being an Indian .. on 15th August !!

2007-08-05T19:49:00.000-04:00

I remember the days .. getting up early, going to school on the independence day, standing in line and singing the national anthem as the tricolor was hoisted .. with a sense of pride in being an Indian.

In New York City, there is an independence day parade with celebrities galore ... but its not the same. It's more commercialized .. that does not mean that it takes away the pride of being an Indian. But being an Indian is reduced down to .. the majority of the people dancing on floats (with punjabi remix music blaring down), south indians with their distinctive classical dances, fellow Maharashtrians shouting slogans, Gujjus with their on stage performances where the participants can be listed as *.Shah or *.Patel ... and so on.

The question to be asked is ... somewhere down the line ... is the true sentiment behind the national anthem preserved ?

Glenn Cove

2007-07-23T19:45:00.001-04:00

Glenn Cove
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

Sunsets are always amazing .. and watching the sun go down with cool calm waters in the foreground is something that I will always look forward to ...

Glenn Cove in Long Island, New York.

4 July 2007

2007-07-05T23:10:00.001-04:00

July 4 2007
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

Standing in the rain .. colourful umbrellas covering the sky .. a shutter bug trying to capture a glimpse of the fireworks

Words left unsaid ...

2007-07-01T20:18:00.000-04:00

Everyone interprets spoken words ... but have you ever interpreted something that is unspoken ? At some point in your life, you experience situations where there is no need to explicitly say something ... it can range from a simple "Thank you" to a more elaborate expression of love.

A person may feel that there are lots of things that need expression .. but there can be factors which hamper these expressions .. sometimes the timing is not right, sometimes its too late to say anything, sometimes there is misinterpretation of the other person's feelings ...

Words left unsaid are lost in the passage of time ... maybe because it was destined to happen that way and they just tend to drift across the mind as memories/dreams ..

Bol na halke halke

2007-06-05T00:05:00.000-04:00

Currently listening to "Bol na halke halke" from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Its in a loop and I have been listening to it for hours. There is something about this song .. I don't know what it is .. but I want to hear it again and again ... maybe its the lyrics .. in my opinion they are rendered very nicely ..

Dhaage tod laao chandani se noor ke
Ghoonghat hi banalo roshini se noor ke
Sharma gai to aagosh mein lo
ho Saaaso se uljhi rahi meri saasein
[Bol Na Halke Halke 2
hooth se halke halke
bol na halke ]2

Aa neend ka sauda karein
Ek khwaab de ek khwaab le
Ek khwaab to aankhon mein hai
Ek chand ke takiye tale
Kitne dino se yeh asmaan bhi
soya nahi hai
Isko sula de...
[Bol Na Halke Halke 2
hooth se halke halke
bol na halke ]2

Umrein lagi kehte hue
do lafaj the ek baat thi
Woh ek din sau saal ka
Sau saal ki woh raat thi
Kaise lage jo chupchap dono
Palpal mein puri sadiyan beetadein
[Bol Na Halke Halke 2
hooth se halke halke
bol na halke ]2

Dhaage tod laao chandani se noor ke
Ghoonghat hi banalo roshini se noor ke
Sharma gai to aagosh mein lo
ho Saaaso se uljhi rahi meri saasein
[Bol Na Halke Halke 2
hooth se halke halke
bol na halke ]2

Courtesy

2007-06-02T22:46:00.000-04:00

The first time when you land in the US .. things around you seem to be perfect .. people are courteous, follow traffic rules/discipline, smile at each other and show that they respect you as a person. People who are not accustomed to these social skills (or etiquette) find themselves in a tight spot when you don't know what is supposed to be the right reaction to such a response. Eventually over a period of time .. you tend to absorb things from your surroundings and are not caught off guard to handle these situations.

This picture perfect world seems to work when everything goes your way and there are hardly any hurdles in your way. A freeway (smooth flowing traffic) will ensure that everyone follows lane discipline .. cut to a freeway ... where there is looooong traffic jam which spans miles and you will see people doing all sorts of crazy things just to get ahead in line (there is yelling .. honking .. some are even worse than we see in Pune). The subway strike in New York last year was one such example .. you found people having their rudest behaviour on display .. and it was hard to believe that these were the same people who said "sorry, excuse me" for the slightest things going wrong.

Imagine a busy traffic intersection in Pune (where there are 100 different types of vehicles) .. and imagine the traffic chaos in New York because of a public transportation strike. Even though the situations are similar ... you will find people reacting differently in different countries. I am not advocating the traffic situation in Pune (it is horrible !!) . But for some, it has become a part of their life ... for others it just happens to be a situation which exposes the true colours in an individual.

My first SLR photo

2007-05-20T16:28:00.001-04:00

Cube
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

Initially .. I always felt that the camera does not matter .. its the composition of the photographs that matter. Well .. now that I own my first digital SLR .. the above is true .. but I would also add that a good camera would always enhance your compositions.

I told my parents back home that I bought a new camera and here is a sample conversation that we had ...
Me: मी नविन डिजिटल SLR कैमेरा घेतला
आई: काय हे .. पुन्हा ? तुझ्या कड़े होता ना कैमेरा ?

Me: हो पन तो डिजिटल कैमेरा होता .. हा डिजिटल SLR आहे
आई: ( शांत्ता .. silence at the other end)

Me: It cost me XXXX $
आई: आरे काय .. इतका महाग का घेतला .. तुझयाकडे असताना ??

Me: there is a difference, आई .. हा SLR आहे
आई: कोणाचे फोटो काढणार आहेस इतके ??

Me: (silence .. I had no ans to that ques)

This is my first digital SLR shot. The pros may not like it ... but for me this is the reason to buy a SLR and a good lens (even though it left a huge hole in my pocket)

Tech Talk

2007-04-23T21:45:00.000-04:00

Over the past few days, I am running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 and recently, I came across the Beryl project. It is an amazing OpenGL accelerated desktop with really cool features. I am currently hooked on to it .. (I spent most of the time on Ubuntu-firefox-gaim combination) , wireless on linux, transparent windows, 3D navigations ... the list goes on.

If anyone is interested in configuring Beryl on Ubuntu .. you can find a pretty good tutorial here. you need an accelerated graphics card on your lappie or desktop (ATI or nVidia ) I was an advocate of enlightenment , but looking at all the installation nightmares of enlightenment .. I will go with Beryl anytime.

Things to look forward to ... Beryl feature list

Express yourself !!

2007-04-06T00:33:00.000-04:00

Great composition from A.R.Rehman .. complemented by a good theme for the advertisement.

Masterpiece

2007-03-27T22:40:00.001-04:00

Old and new.
Originally uploaded by dreamtroll1.

I think this photo would be open to interpretation, but it reminds me of a story that I came across on a series of short stories on Doordarshan years ago.

The story was about an artist who makes a masterpiece ( a painting of a leaf/flower and puts it outside his neighbour's window ) The painting is so realistic that it revives the hope of a terminally sick girl living next door. The artist dies .. but his masterpiece helps the girl to live her dreams.

Tax-ing time

2007-03-24T20:34:00.000-04:00

Universal question: Why does everyone hate the months of March, April (US calendar) ?
Answer: There are no public holidays in these months ( .. even this is a valid reason) .. but the fact is that these are the tax months.

Yours truly decides to embark on the mission to complete his tax forms.
Points to remember:
1. Get all the instruction documents of all federal, state forms.
2. Get all your earnings statements (thats the easy part .. there aren't too many of them)
3. Recollect your score in the analytical section of GRE/CAT/GMAT exam.

Filling up state tax forms is like solving an analytical problem. I was not good in Anat .. so the chances are that I won't be good at this either. I admit that the Federal forms are a bit easier but the individual states ensure that they compensate for the leeway. Lets talk about New York & New Jersey ...

Gyaan: If you reside in the 5 Burroughs of New York .. you have to pay city tax + state tax + federal tax ( this is usually the time you start hearing your inner voices .. e.g why are you living in new york etc. etc.)

Gyaan: If you reside in New Jersey and work in New York .... hmm .... revise point number 3 .. only people having scores of around 790-800/800 may be able to comprehend what needs to be done.

So here I am .. with an instruction booklet (100 pages) for each state on my lap, a bunch of W2s on the desk, "google" handy to lookup the unexpected, some tax software which is completely useless because it told me it doesn't know what to do if you live in NJ and work in NY .. ( damn these software professionals .. I wonder what are they paid for )

Eligibilty ..
First things first .. you need to determine if you are an "Alien" ( no no .. not from outer space or anything like that .. hmm .. I know .. lame joke ) .. once you know what you are .. you need to know if you are a resident alien or a nonresident alien and which is followed by .. are you a resident/nonresident alien for "tax purposes" (thats supposedly a different thing).

Then you need to figure out the number of days you lived in each state. Let me think now .. for 2 months I was in NY .. I went to India on vacation .. moved to NJ .. then went to california .. went to India .. was in NY for a week .. then I moved to NJ ... was this a leap year ? .. hmm .. and so the number of days are ?? .. revise point number 3. After all these heroics, we can determine the forms that you need to fill.

The Forms ...
Start with the wages in box 2 of your W2. Add any interest you earned from your savings account ( are you kidding .. do banks give interest ? ) .. hmm .. let me guess .. 10 cents added to the wages earned. Apply some standard deductions to get your taxable income and goto page 75. I am flipping pages .. 75,76,77 .. nothing happens .. and on page 78 there is a note at the bottom which says "if your taxable amount is greater than XX,XXX goto page 89". So I hopped on to page 89 .. which mentioned something like this

"calculate your tax using this formula .. if amount greater than XX,XXX .. apply 20% upto XY,XXX followed by 7.34% in YYYY increments. "

After managing to figure out the amount, the next section asked me "Were you resident of another state ?" ( actually .. it should have been read as .. how did you even reach at this point ? ) It also asked me if I was a part year resident of NY ... which meant something horrible was going to follow. I knew it .. there it was .. I had to fill up 2 additional forms for city taxes which were deducted incorrectly .. because the "busy" HR dept of my company changed the address one month later than the expected date.

If IRS were some sort of a person it would say something along the lines of .. "we need to give you some credit for being bold enough to be a part of two states ... and thats what you are going to do .. calculate the credit ... hehehe (hiding an almost sinister laugh)".

If you are in NJ and you are a tenant you need to complete Schedule A,B,C of NJ forms. If you satisfy the criterion on Schedule A, you need to fill out Worksheet 4. Then take the amount from Worksheet 4 and apply 11.45% in XX,XXX increments and copy it on line 23 of Form 2. Divide the amount you earned in the "other" state by this amount from the Worksheet 4. Take this ratio and multiply it by the total wages earned in NJ .. and this just gives you your taxable amount in NJ.. aaaarghhhh .. (revise point number 3) ..

After all these excruciating steps, I am at the last step where I am supposed to calculate the amount that would be refunded to me ... and there it is ... it goes in negative .. @#$%%%@#$. How can I owe money to IRS if they have already deducted a 5 figure tax from me ???

Oh my god .. I may have missed something .. aaarghhhhhhh .. ( CENSOR: expletives uttered here ... which may increase the length of the blog )

Oh man .. I have to do all these things all over again ... anybody volunteering ??

Reflection after dusk

2007-03-22T12:08:00.001-04:00

Reflection after dusk
Originally uploaded by Ibrahim Firaq.

Amazing colours in this photo ..

I have to visit Maldives .. Ibrahim captures the nature's beauty at its best .. I admire his photography .. I have been to a similar place called Minicoy .. its part of Lakshwadweep islands and is the last frontier on the western side of India .. beyond Minicoy .. there is Maldives.

Computer recognition

2007-03-16T10:50:00.000-04:00

Everyone would have been experienced some form of online recognition tests .. like when you want to enter some information on a web based form .. they show you some squiggly wiggly text/numbers and you have to enter them as they are ? The purpose .. they are supposed to distinguish computers from humans.

Just came across the actual word used to describe these things and it's called .. CAPTCHA .. its an acronym for .. ok .. hold your breath .. here it comes ..." Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart ". Now I know why we studied Turing machines in "Theory of Computer Science". For more info you can go here

2nd Anniversary

2007-02-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

Today is a special day .. it's our second anniversary together. Two years down the memory lane, I still remember the anticipation/excitement of seeing her for the first time. The endless waiting .. the correspondence .. the talks over the telephone .. had finally culminated into the day I was waiting for.

I could see that she was elegantly dressed .. all wrapped up as if to counter the cold breeze on a misty Friday evening. We "clicked" instantly .. she was very responsive .. which made our interaction even more interesting. I started seeing her everyday .. she had a great sense of humour and made me laugh .. a necessity when you are carrying the burden of the academic world (read MS in CS) on your shoulders. Her soft delicate touch on my hands .. gave me a reassuring feeling that there was someone on whom I could rely upon. We had our share of fights and differences of opinions .. but there was a different charm in resolving them playfully and without any hard feelings. She exuded warmth and gave me company when everyone was busy in their own world. Over the years, we have had sweet memories to cherish and my life would not have been the same without her.

For the uninitiated, I am talking about my laptop ... what were you thinking ?

Dil ko jab khushi choo jaaye

2007-02-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

I believe in .... small things in life make you happy .... and all good things come in small packages.

Great Expectations !!

2007-02-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

People in India and people back in the US were expecting so many things out of my India trip .. that now, I am a bit disappointed that I did not live up to their expectations.

There are a number of speculations floating around if you have nothing to share with the people around you. People can have wild imaginations (let me add here that .. there can be hidden truth in them) .. and they can be a source of entertainment in some cases, inspiration in others or a hot topic of discussion in a social gathering.

Imagine a scene ...

The next day after I come from India ... I reach office at 7:30 am (I am not making this up .. its a fact) .. a chinese dude walks upto me and asks .. "Did you get married ?". One by one people start pouring in and I am bombarded by the same question in different tones, languages, expressions. The marathi people around me go like this .. "Kai mug .. kiti muli baghitlya ? " .. and I am like .. arrrrrgh .. I should have prepared myself for an answer. People whom I had met just once or twice and were more like a casual acquaintance .. walk upto me and give me the same look .. the situation was so bad that I could even imagine the doorman asking me the same question. My sweet dreams have turned into nightmares with all sorts of inanimate things asking me the same question. People on instant messengers also have the same thing on their minds ... there is nowhere to hide and nowhere to run ..

When it comes to writing .. I may be slightly better .. but expressive power in front of other people is something that needs improvement. As a result, I just gave them a blank stare or just mumbled something that made no sense .. which unfortunately, resulted in their curiosity rising to an even higher level.

I am at a loss of words here ..I don't know what to say .. There is nothing to say except for the fact that "The Truth Is Out There".

Flashback

2006-12-16T10:47:00.000-05:00

Its the end of the year .. and maybe this would be my last post in this calendar year. It was a wonderful journey .. time just flew by .. and I would say I'm a more active blogger now than I was in the previous years.

Looking back ...

There was supposed to be a transition from a student's life to a more professional life. But I don't think that ever happened. My sleep routine still follows a different timezone altogether and this is what I do for a living : "I type and stare at the monitor for prolonged periods of time"

Some of the things that I would never have done .. a few years back .. like making friendship with totally unknown people .. getting to know them (and in turn trying to find some things by introspection) and then meeting them in person. I met some very interesting and genuine people. It's a different issue that after the meeting, the frequency of communication decreased and nowadays there is more silence at the other end than there was ever before. I don't blame them .. "I seem to have these affects on the peoples" .. and hmm .. it may be the case that I am reading too much into these things

I saw many horrible, hopeless, pathetic movies ... learnt to enjoy them with absolute insanity and I saw some good ones where I could appreciate all the aspects of film making.

I am on the wrong side of 25

I travelled to some beautiful places and tried to capture their splendour in my camera.

I resolved to start drawing/painting again .. but everyone knows resolutions are meant to be broken .. so this is my next year's resolution.

Looking into the future ..

At the end of the year, I have more questions than answers ... and hopefully it will change in the years to come.

California

2006-12-14T23:09:00.001-05:00

San Francisco - Golden Gate
Originally uploaded by Nikhil K.

This would be my first photo blog ... and what a better way to start it than by showing off one of the best engineered bridges .. "The Golden Gate bridge"

It was raining heavily .. and I was lucky to get just one shot of the bridge. I chose to shoot it in blue filters to avoid the dull cloudy look on a typical rainy day.

Torture Session

2006-12-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

You are sitting in a dark enclosure with your eyes wide open .. in an cramped seat .. with images flashing in front of your eyes in random succession which make no sense at all. The harsh sounds .. blaring in your ears .. meant to erase any sanity that may prevail in the enclosure. You have a hardened criminal/murderer giving you philosophical doses .. making an attempt of an emotional blackmail (your head is already bursting at this point) and you beg,plead to stop this torture. But no one is listening .. the same sequence is repeated .. so that you are on the verge of committing suicide.

Sounds scary ? Well ... you can experience it yourself .. just watch Dhoom 2 with Salaam-E-Ishq teasers in between (I don't know why .. but they show the same teaser twice). I need to selectively erase some parts of my memory to nullify the after effects of three hours of emotional mayhem. At the end the only words that make sense are "Crazy Kiya Re .."

Indian Ads

2006-12-07T23:58:00.000-05:00

First it was Fevicol ... and now Camlin .. creativity at its best. People are getting bored of my writing .. so thought about showing something ...

How to catch a lion

2006-12-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

By now .. everyone would have received an email forward "How to catch a lion" (if not you can request me and I'll send you a copy). This is a case of a simple email forward turning into an absolutely hilarious article with some or should I say all ... creative and humorous inputs from my friends

Maybe all of you may not be able to appreciate it but you can guess at least one characteristic of the person from the way he/she catches or kills the lion ..

Creative contributors: Sourabh, Pradnya, Mayur, Sameer T
Note: Some names have been commented out to avoid any embarrassment and negative publicity. All the comments are posted by friends to each other and no one has written it for their own self.

There was an original email forward and then there was .....

Chou method :

Ask the lion its salary and ask if it can afford an apt in Manhattan .... lion is embarrassed ... commits suicide

Keskar method :

Keskar sits beside the lion ... it dies of cold
(I mean its pretty obvious but if you still don't get it .. you an ask "yours truly" for an explanation)

Tilak method :

Tilak writes paper on 1 trillion different ways to kill a lion .... its published everywhere .... lion gets a copy, reads it and runs away to the jungle in sheer terror

Vinya method 1 :

Vinya boldy takes off his shirt in front of lion ... lion sees his shoulders and forearms .... n decides to migrate to south africa in fear

Vinya method 2 :

Vinya dates the lion's sisters, female cousins and all the other lionesses thats the lion has ever been acquainted with .... lion turns gay ....

Vinya method 3 :
Takes lion to rats (pub), n then makes an announcement about the great time he had with the lion .... n then to top it all makes the lion jog home ..... lion decides to give up alcohol ....

Vinya method 4:
Vinya cuts off lion's tail .... lion spends the rest of his life in hiding ....
(Mr. Vinya is always asking us to cut of the tails of emails from email forwards .. so the reference)

K.joshi (Kobra) method :

K.joshi whispers (dasofies) a sentence into the lion's ear ...... it jumps in front of an 18 wheeler .....

Shetye method:

Shetye tells the lion the importance of MBA in its life .... the lion realizes the folly of its ways and starts preparing for GMAT ....

Smart boy method:

Takes the lion to the mall .... by the time smart boy is done with his shopping ... the lion is absolutely exhausted ....

PPII method: (I always forget PPII ... but it is something to do with partners in innocence)

Be nice to the lion with their usual innocent behavior ... lion decides to spare em .... n go search for other victims ...

Sou method 1:
Send one lioness to forest. She starts sensing Sou's scrapbook. Lion
wants to read them. Reading Sou's scrapbook takes 100 years, Lion
dies due to old age -- natural death....

Sou method 2:
Convince the lion the importance of vonage phone and talk with him till the lion dies of vonage fever ..... !!!

Sou method 3:
Post pics of the lion on orkut in the wanted list... everyone goes and catches the lion !!

Sou method 4:
Sou adds lion on orkut. Sou adds all lions female friends and female friends of those female friends. Lion gives up coming on orkut and runs to corbett national park.

A.Joshi method:
A.Joshi goes to the forest and sleeps during the night. He snores sooooo
loudly that lion dies due to high frequency sound waves....

Shirodkar method :

lion walks upto shirodkar .... shirodkar is busy sittin on the sofa and lookin at the ceiling ... lion roars .... dances .... growls .... but shirodkar pays no attention ..... lion gives up ... goes back to the forest and bangs his head on the first tree he sees ...

A.Kulkarni method:

Lion spends half a day with A.Kulkarni .... lion dies laughing ....

Sahana method :
Acts like an innocent 4 yr old and speaks like minnie mouse .... lion has pity and decides to adopt her

XXXXX method :
Talk so much so loudly that the lion becomes deaf voluntarily .....

XXXX method :
Ask 1 lion how he would do a program ... then goes to lion 2 tells him lion 1s idea as his own and asks lion 2 how he would go about the same program ... then go back to lion 1 and tell him he is wrong and ask him for his counter arguments to lion 2s idea ... then go to professor lion and tell him the best idea of the lot .... lions drop the course and join liberal arts

A.Pawar (aka. Bond) method :
Tells lion that he owns the jungle and that he is the real king of the jungle .... lion runs away to Antarctica ....

XXXX method :
Sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet talk to the lion .... lion dies of choking on artificial sweetening ....

Bidwe method :
The lion tries to copy bidwe's neck movement and fractures his neck

Dor

2006-11-05T01:06:00.000-05:00

I attended a film screening of Nagesh Kukunoor's "Dor" in New York and I should say I was totally impressed by the film. It is surprisingly different from Kukunoor's other films. The cinematography is visually rich and vivid, the characters portray simple personalities with a great depth of emotions and at the same time the film is not melodramatic. I felt as if all the things in the film including the music blended with the film to give it an appealing look. The contrasting personalities in the characters are complemented by superb performances from Ayesha Takia/Gul Panang/Shreyas Talpade. Usually, I do not write film reviews in my blog but I have come across some really amazing films with good content and entertainment value till date and I would say "Iqbal" and "Dor" fall in this category.

Distraction -
Two people sitting next to me were blissfully unaware of who Mr. Kukunoor was and when he came up on the stage after the screening to have a chit-chat .. I got a series of who-is-the-man-on-the-stage queries. Remember the person in the ad on Doodarshan (abe.. yeh PSPO nahin jaanta) .. I had similar feelings at that point. I can accept that one may not know Mr. Kukunoor .. but someone asking me who Ayesha Takia/Gul Panang is .. is totally unacceptable. They either need to take a crash course in hindi movies .. or the time has come for me to make some new friends.

Shaadi dot com

2006-10-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

**Disclaimer -
Incidents depicted here are figments of imagination of an individual and should not be a source of inspiration for eligible bachelors worldwide.

When you are in the so-called marriageable age, the words that you dread to hear from your parents "We need to talk ... ". Any sane person who still hasn't found a gf (thats because you are a *GB or just plain unlucky) knows what to expect when he hears those words. Typically, everyone forms an image of the "one" (I wouldn't be surprised if this image has a close resemblance to Priyanka Chopra, Keira Knightly etc. ) but whether they meet them or find them or express themselves is a different issue altogether.

The need of the hour .. you need to get some people of opposite sex interested in you and hope that you can carry forward from there. I know a few people who have a natural flair/flamboyance/personality and then there are others (like me) .. the less said the better.

Situations ...

A train station ..
I am half drowsy (its 8:30 am in the morning .. I know .. I broke my previous record of 9:00 am). A lovely lady .. deep dark brown eyes, smart, suave, light makeup, wind caressing her face , hair flowing freely .. wearing a white top and black trousers is walking towards me. She looks at me and is about to walk past me when I hear those words "Hello ..". I have already imagined a lot of things at this point (we don't need to go into the details) .. and hearing these words brings me back to reality. I turn in her direction and am about to respond with a "Hi" .. when I realize that something is amiss. The lady has walked past me .. huh ?? .. and then it dawns upon me ... damn those ##&@%## hands free things.

Cinema halls ..
A couple sitting in front of me cuddling ... ahem ahem .. couple sitting behind me ( I can't see them but I can hear them ) ahem ahem ... me .. seat reserved for disabled on one side and 50 yr old man on the other side .. and all of us are watching "40 yr old virgin" .. *sigh*

Restaurants ...
A smiling, gorgeous attractive female sitting across the table (nine times out of ten we can assume that she is accompanied by a total lunatic) .. and you are sitting with your back towards her .. and to top it ... there is dearth of mirrors in the restaurant and the friend sitting next to you is gleaming with pleasure.

Unless timely action is taken, the saga will continue .... fast forward in the future .. and it will look something like this ..

Discussions/phone calls back home are centered around this theme.
All the future trips back home aren't going to be same untill you tie the knot.
Social programs will be reminiscent of a "Hyderabad Blues" scene ( remember .. prospective bride and groom sitting in a room .. with no conversation )
Default home page in your favorite browser is a matrimonial site instead of Google.
You wonder why anyone has not thought of RSS feeds for a matrimonial site ?
You plan on using Gtalk more often
Lot of time spent pondering on the question "How well do you know yourself to make an informed decision on what you want ?" Don't worry .. if you did not get what it means, then you already have a gf OR if you got that, then you are blessed with a breakup OR if you are pondering on it .. you are nothing but a *GB having an occasional **BMW.

Glossary:
*GB - (guni baal) - only marathi speaking (Puneri) people would appreciate it
**BMW - (basics madhe waanda) - only marathi speaking (Puneri) people would appreciate it

Trring Trring !!

2006-10-13T21:32:00.000-04:00

Nowadays .. cell phone has earned the distinction of being the most ubiquitous thing. Teens/adolescent, people in their early stages of career, students who are about to graduate, people who have a girlfriend(s)/boyfriend(s), people who are engaged and about to be married in a few months, married people living in geographically different locations, MBAs (used as a means for social networking) etc. would definitely be able to convince me that life would not be the same if it weren't for the cell phone.

Here I am .. a proud owner of a new cellular phone with features that look excellent on paper but which I hardly ever make use of. The predicament that I face (I know very few people would face this) .. the eternal question for me

"how should I use up my daytime minutes ?"

Ok .. before you get that ridiculous expression on your face OR you are about to hit the "X" on the top right corner of this window .. let me explain ..

People don't want to use their daytime minutes to talk to me .. so if I call them up during daytime the response is .. hmm .. well .. usually made up of four words .. "I'll" "call" "you" "back" or none at all.
All my friends have the same service as mine .. so usage is effectively nil.
If people call me up, they have an eternal question on their mind "What should I talk about ?".. so the conversation is usually terse and to the point.
And to top it .. my unused minutes get rolled over to the next month

So yesterday .. at around 1:30 pm when I got an incoming call .. my happiness knew no bounds .. and I had prepared myself for a long conversation before even picking up the phone.

Me: "Hello [pause] .."
Other end: tick tock tick tick

Me: "Hellllooooo ..."
Other end: "This is an automated message from XXXX bank regarding your new atm card .. blah blah blah"

Me: [Still listening]
Other end: blah blah blah blah

Me:[Still listening] .. [eyes .. on the number of minutes used]
Other end: blah blah blah blah

Me:[Still listening] [Thinking .. will I exceed my last month's record of mins used ?]
Other end: [The automated voice .. got bored and hung up]

You can imagine how I feel when I see one of those ads where people compare why one service has so many minutes .. and so its better. Well .. they obviously don't know me.The situation is not getting any better .. so either I need to elevate/recede myself to the categories of people listed above or simply expect some creative inputs from people who read this article .. maybe you can help me come out of this predicament ?

A tribute to my friends !!

2006-08-06T19:14:00.000-04:00

On the eve of friendship day ... a few thoughts drifting across the mind (maybe because I have nothing else to do)

My friend circle around one and half years back was limited .. in the sense most of my friends were those, with whom I had been in personal contact. I knew them, as some of them were my classmates, some who had been with me through my school days, college days, some from my previous company and so on. The point is that I had actual face-to-face interactions with them.

With the advent of online communities like orkut and the opening up communication channels it was very easy to befriend someone .. a person whom you had not met before and had no idea how he/she would be. A person's profile would reflect his personality (in some cases the truth, in some cases pretense). Judging genuine people seemed to be left to intution in most of the cases and I'm glad that the intution turned out to be true in almost all the cases for me.

I came in touch with some really nice people with different facets of personality from whom I learnt a lot of things. I even started a community ( some of my old friends who think they know me .. would stare in utter disbelief if they came to know about it ). Interactions with some of them allowed me to introspect myself to some extent. Some of them managed to bring out a different aspect of my personality which was hidden from others. I think the feelings were mutual and I shared the most amazing online conversations that I have ever had, with people in online communities like orkut. I managed to meet some of my online friends and it will definitely be one of the most cherished moments in my life.

On this note .. I also have a regular group of friends with each one having his/her own special characteristics which bring a unique flavour to the otherwise mundane routine that we are used to. I may not be very expressive with them but then there are some things which are best left unsaid.

I haven't mentioned any names .. I don't want to .. because I don't want to miss out on anyone. But people who are reading this article will know it implicitly that they have been mentioned. If not, you are free to put a harsh comment on this article :-)

Mr. Chameleon

2006-08-01T22:32:00.000-04:00

I usually do not bad-mouth anybody .. but when an individual crosses his/her limits .. they get mentioned anonymously out here. I hate hypocrites and people who practise double standards .. and unfortunately these are just the ones who are in close proximity to me ...
They should be called "chameleons" because of their ability to change their behaviour radically to suit different contexts. Some characteristics of this individual in close proximity to me ..

Ideally his name should have been "Kachra Seth" .. but people named him otherwise. He spreads junk whereever he goes. Leaving things "half empty" or "half full" (if you are an optimist) .. can be considered his speciality. He leaves behind traces .. or trademarks to be precise. He manages to inflict the maximum damage on any unsuspecting individual. But when he has to present himself to the outside world .. he is a well dressed, "fluent" (speaks in an accent) speaking skills , obedient person who appreciates cleanliness and "proposes" measures which will ensure your environment is spick and span. Note the word "proposes" .. which reads as .. there has to be someone else who will do all the work.

Being considerate/courteous to others is something of a novelty to him. He acts dumb .. so that you are coerced into doing stuff that ideally should be done by him. Common sense would suggest that a normal person would respect other person's privacy .. but "common sense" is uncommon for our Mr. Chameleon. Even if someone tells him the right approach ... it is guaranteed that the approach is never followed the next time around.

The weirdest thing is that these people do not face any obstacles. They are always surrounded by people who will definitely be better than them in some sense or the other. Their job is to cash on other peoples' good points and accomplish their tasks. What happens after they clear all their exams with good grades using measures like copying other people's assignments, getting an intelligent project partner who will do all the work etc.. , they start giving advice to freshers about how they succeeded while doing their Masters (of course they are very intelligent .. at least that is the impression that is created) with people looking at them in awe ... and to top it .. they have a good job with competitive earnings.

Personal experience tells me that there is nothing that you can do to avoid them ... they are very "chiktu" .. you have to learn to deal your way around them and wait till they find someone else who will satisfy their "needs" so that they no longer need you. You cannot stoop to their level .. since your upbrining forbids you from attempting anything remotely close to their behaviour.

Four desi guys and an elevator !!

2006-04-24T23:03:00.000-04:00

The time is 9:24 am .. and I am in a hurry to catch the elevator. I have to reach office at least before 10:00 am (35 mins of journey .. so that I manage to reach at 9:59 am).. its not that anyone would mind .. but just doesn't feel right when everyone else is in at 8:00 am. I am standing in the hallway waiting for the elevator door to open. The door opens .. and I am expecting some gorgeous lady to smile at me .. so that I can return the favour, but instead I find three desi guys staring at me.

One of them has a laptop bag around his neck and a sack on his shoulders .. desi software programmer working on site .. with a company owned laptop ?? Lets call him Mr. A

The second one .. dressed in black .. leather shoes ..suit .. maybe a MBA graduate .. with "fluent" english speaking skills playing with his cell phone. Lets call him Mr. B

The third one .. in his own world .. carrying a lunch box .. hmm .. maybe just married ?? Lets call him Mr. C

The fourth one .. white sneakers .. crumpled jeans .. T shirt .. sweat shirt to cover himself ( and the crumpled T shirt ).. that would be .. yours truly.

For a fact, if all desi men are together in an elevator .. what do they do .. Lets lay down some of the basic rules that need to be followed ...

First rule - No one talks. It is against our culture to say good morning or smile to another desi .. but if the other person is an american then it is a social etiquette and only in that case .. this rule would be broken.

Second rule - No eye contact. Look at all the possible things in the elevator. Every nook and corner is scanned by four pairs of eyes (act as if the other three people are invisible) . Right from the manufacturer's name to the instructions which describe the events in case of fire ... we know it all. If someone was hiding a bomb inside the elevator .. someone from amongst us would have found that out too .. such is the power of scanning.

Third Rule - You need a gadget to play with. Cell phone .. it does not matter even if there is no signal inside the elevator (not even verizon .. zero signal guaranteed inside our elevator) .. You need to show you are busy .. even if you are not ( learnt this management funda from Mr. B )

Fourth Rule - Prayer. Hope that no more desis pop in along the way to the lobby .. to avoid any more awkward situations. ( after all you have already scanned the elevator once )

The thought process .... what each of them think when I enter the elevator

Mr. A - Oh my god !! Another desi !! Which company is he working for .. he doesn't have a sack .. look at the crumpled jeans and sneakers (yuck .. who wears sneakers to the office) .. maybe he is working for a consultant .. maybe he is on the bench .. look at me I have a laptop .. I am better off than him (one side of the elevator scanned during this time duration)

Mr. B - Oh my god !! Another desi !! Another one of those programmers .. all they do is code and drink coffee. Look at his dressing sense ... they don't have a sense of style. No wonder we are always higher than these people and get paid more too .. I am better off than him. tick tak tick tick tak (typing a message .. maybe ) ... cell phone to the rescue.

Mr. C - Where should I take her this weekend ? How about a romantic candlelight dinner ? Ahem .. Ahem .. I am staring at his lunch box ... awww .. man ... just realized that it is my turn to cook today evening ...

Yours truly - Oh my god !! Three desis !! Where is the gorgeous woman I met yesterday .. usually I am in the elevator at 9:40 am ... took so much effort to get to the elevator at 9:24 am .. and now .. I'm stuck with these three idiots ..

Books and Blogs

2006-03-28T20:09:00.000-05:00

Recently I was trying to read a book .. thats an achievement ...since I hardly read any books. I wanted to read something different from the usual novels. I came across this book called "The monk who sold his ferrari". I haven't finished this book completely .. but somehow I don't feel like reading it anymore .. its more like one of those "inspirational" books that people talk about.

It talks about a lot of things .. about how to make your life better and all other things that go along with this theme. Every time I read a passage from the book I feel like .. it is written for the sole purpose of selling a million copies of the book and so it turns out to be a total irony in itself.

I would prefer reading blogs rather than reading these so called "motivational" books. Blogs are heartfelt renditions of the thoughts of a person. Most of the times blogs are not intended to be a best seller. You can sense if the writings are genuine or not. I read an absolutely enjoyable "About me" that a person had written on her profile. It captured all the small things in life that bring a smile on her face. These small things are the ones which give us the maximum joy .. usually they go unnoticed and happen unknowingly without us realizing the importance of these things.

I would prefer reading blogs which have these special moments ... rather than going for a philosophical lecture about how to succeed in life.

The art of getting hot water !!

2006-02-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

Maybe my resume would have looked something like .. as shown below .. if I had not shifted my apartment to a new place.
---------
Resume
---------
Objective: To try and get hot water for sufficient duration so that having a bath is a blissful experience.

Personal Info: A guy .. 26 years old

Address: Any location in "The Empire State" in the US of A.

Skills: Creative use of existing resources to the maximum possible extent to achieve the desired objective.

Work and Living Experience:

Location:Woodside ( June 05 - Dec 31 ) -

The problem: Managed to get warm (on the colder side) water so that I could stand under the shower for 40 sec and come out of the shower feeling as if I am living on antartica. When I used to start the shower it was intelligent enough to give me water for 40 sec which led me to believe that I was going to have a blissful experience ... and the moment I was in the close proximity of this dreadful thing .. it started spewing cold water .. talking about A.I. .. here was a prime example for it.
The solution - 40 sec burst of warm water and then shutting it off for 5 mins .. standing out there freezing .. and then releasing one more 40 sec burst of warm water .. then you are done with your bath.

Location: Binghamton (Aug 03 - June 05) -

The problem: Hot water was available ... the only problem .. I never used to get it .. but my roommates did not have any problems. Something used to go wrong .. either my timing was not good .. someone on the top floor was already using the shower ... or even if I managed to get up at 0500 am in the morning and use it ... it used to take its own time ( read - the time I spent in the bath ) to heat itself up so that the next person will get hot water.
The solution: No feasible solution found.

I don't know what to say !!

2005-11-18T01:49:00.000-05:00

Online communities are fun. They enable you to have a certain "constrained" independence .. and bring out a completely different good/bad aspect of an individual. How do boys try to approach girls .. in such an environment ? The lines of introduction are amusing .. the intention is noble.. but the execution is tacky. These are the actual true excerpts from a conversation ....

how r u?
hope u read it furthur
though u dont know me and i dont know u but then also i am writing to u, just because i like to write to peoples and know them have friendship with them just because life too short and so live with to its max.
i am ---, studying in ---, doing --- , basically from ---
can i know something about u???

------------

i justb viewed ur profile.one of ur friends has writen about u as a straight person & that she feels proud to at ur friendlist.i got impressed mam.wil u give me d same privilage to say that i m ---'s cyber friend.mam in straight words,plz allow me to enter ur scrapbook wen i want.matlab add me as a friend.

------------

i am doing --- in ----
you are looking beautiful.
can we becomes good friend?
i will be waiting for ur reply.

------------

Nice to have you as a friend.Plese keep in touch with me.
Hope to have a good relation with you.

awaiting 1 from yourside.

--------------
This one is different .. I have no idea what this person is trying to say ..

Its always good to look into other peoples minds and c how it works. And after a certain time, this habbit becomes addictive. And in a new city, it really gets on your nerves.
Not the best way to begin a message, But sometimes you cant just help being yourself. Share the same thoughts? Then I guess its good to explore!!

--------------

I do not mean to ridicule anyone .. but do people actually crosscheck what they write .. or they are in such a hurry "to do friendship" .. that it tends to get overlooked. I would really like to capture a girl's expressions when she comes across these introductory lines from strangers ..

Talking about expressiveness .. I'm not good at it either .. ( ask some of my friends and they will tell you the truth ) .. but the point is ... looking at the above excerpts makes me feel better .. at least I'm not as bad as they are.

Things I miss ... in diwali !!

2005-10-30T01:53:00.000-04:00

Image Credit : Mangesh Bhayde

People who dont understand marathi .. sorry .. but I have to express this in marathi

Diwali chya kahi awismaarniya aathvani ...

Ghara samor aakashkandil laavne ...
Saglyanchya gharat asankhya diwali chya pantya baghne ...
Mitran barobar fatake udavne ...
Pahate uthun .. aandhkaarat akashkandilacha prakaash baghne ..
Pahate uthun .. utne laun .. sugandi saabnane aanghol karne ....
Bhaubhije la bahinche hatun ovaalne ...
Navin kapde ghalun sakali lavkar devlat jaane ...
Matti cha killa .. shivaji ani mavlyan barobar banavne ...
Matti chya killya war .. mohri takun .. hirval ugavne ..
Phulbajyani .. aandhakkar duur karne ...
Pahate .. fatakyancha aawaj eikne ...
Ghara samor ... rangoli baghne ..
Ek mekanchya ghari zaun .. diwali chya shubhechya dene ..
Faraal .. mhanje besanacha ladoo, chiwda, shankarpalya saglya naatevayikan baraboar khane ..
Diwali chya masikkan madhe .. chan diwali chi chitra baghne ..
Gharachya gacchi war jaun akashat duur war udnare phatake baghne ..
Lokanchya cheryawar .. anandache kshan baghne ..

Operation Roach Storm !!

2005-10-06T00:20:00.000-04:00

Statutory warning: All the cockroaches in this incident are purely fictitious and any resemblence to living or dead cockroaches is unintentional and purely coincidental.

Year 2005: All the cockroaches have united under a single banner and decided to attack our home in NY. Terror alert has been issued in our house and the threat level has been increased to "orange". We have to equip ourselves with weapons of roach destruction and follow guerilla tactics in order to crush this insurgency.

The roaches are very shrewd and have an excellent intelligence network which enables them to find the safest of places to proliferate and breed in large numbers. They are tapping at a radioactive source (a.k.a microwave) and in turn are becoming immune to radiation. Our intelligence sources say that they posses weapons of food destruction with them .. and so we have passed a unanimous resolution .. that we have to go to war against them. So what are the options/tactics we posses to irradicate this sudden spurt in roach activities. ..

Plan 1:
Switch off the lights. Keep a small piece of biscuit .. in an open area and lie in wait with a AK-Roach7 .. Ensure that your roommate does not accidently eat the biscuit .. ( since he prefers that over your cooking ) .. this actually happened with me .. so beware. Switch on the lights and attack with full speed blasting your way with AK-Roach7.

Plan 2:
Switch off the lights. Keep a bait in the center of the cooking stove. Stand motionless with one hand on the ignition switch. When sufficient roaches gather around the bait .... bzzzzzzzzzzzz .. last rites have been performed.

Plan 3:
Switch off the lights. Take a vessel full of water and put some crumbs of food in it .. lace this vessel with some biological weapons. Keep it in the middle of the kitchen sink .. and check your results the next morning.

The roaches have been trying to cut off our food supply by attacking our granaries .. but we are somehow trying to hold our own against them. We are thinking of spending some time in external training camps .. especially in disputed areas with foreign merceneries .. in order to effectively combat this threat.

This is fluorescence .. reporting LIVE from the battle ridden home in NY.

Too many fundas !!

2005-09-19T00:26:00.000-04:00

Looking at my previous entries in the blog ... just made me wonder .. there are just too many fundas out here .. everyone has his own problems in life .. so if anyone were to visit this page by mistake.. then why should he/she want to go through all this stuff .. which make not make sense to most of the people out there. Instead of making a pretty boring blog .. lets make it interesting ... It's time to get nostalgic and I'll start by narrating a small trip to Cornell, Ithaca .. my first journey here in US which happened sometime in spring of 2004.

We had an easter break in Binghamton with a holiday of one week. We decided to go to Ithaca on Saturday. One of my roomies rented a car and the three of us took off to Ithaca. Ithaca was around 50 miles from Binghamton. The journey was amazing. The road passed through small villages on either side with picturesque surroundings. You had a winding road cutting through a forest of pine trees with ponds and lakes in between. All of three of us didn't have a camera and so we decided to borrow it from a friend. On the way .. we were busy watching the scenery and just forgot to take photographs. You have no idea how good it feels to get rid of all the snow and go out in bright sunshine.

Ithaca is like a small hillstation. We were not expecting it to be that way. If anyone of you has been to kodaikanal/munnar .. it is similar to that. One of the reasons to visit Ithaca was to visit Cornell university. There are only 3 letters to describe it "WOW" !! The other reason to visit Ithaca was it has lot's of waterfalls and most important .. it has 2 very good indian restaurents. Ithaca is not like a typical american city. It's different .. and I mean it when it's different. Normally, anywhere in the US .. everything is standard. Right from the elevators to the shopping malls. Every city will have the same thing .. it's boring .. there is hardly any diversity. So I think that was one of the reasons we appreciated it even more.

Cornell university has very old buildings .. I mean literally they are castles .. like we see in UK. These are all stone buildings with some old fashioned lamps, carvings and chandeliers inside.Right through the university campus, there is big gorge .. and you have water flowing in between which creates numerous waterfalls. There is also a hydro electric project in the campus. So you can imagine the kind of waterfalls that we can see.

Well, it was time to test my luck again .. and you very well know how my luck deserts me everytime I need it. We were at the foothills of a beautiful waterfall, all ready to pose for photographs ( I was trying out some of my ASC film making experience here ) and then ... the dreadful thing happened. I had the camera in my hand and pressed the click button and .. there it was .. the camera wouldn't click. Something had happened .. and it just refused to take photographs.

We were right in the heart of a magnificient university, with glorious nature surrounding us ( "nature" includes all the beautiful ladies around you.. when you are in the US .. never forget that) and the #@$%!@# camera wouldn't click. I have changed my house,country,college and still the same thing happens to me :)

Anyways, after roaming around the campus, it was time to eat .. and we went to a indian restaurent outside the university campus. It was called "Sangam"and for the first time I was pleased .. since the staff was japanese, the management was Indian (sardars) and the cutomers were all people except indian. It was good to see someone working under Indians, normally it is the other way round and good to see other people enjoying Indian food. We were pleasantly surprised that the Japanese waitress knew about Pune and she spelled it as Pune ( normally people call it Poona) She said she was in Pune some 10-15 years back and we had a nice conversation with her. Anyways, the food was nice .. we enjoyed it and left back to Binghamton, to continue our daily routine.. which would end in around one month when the second semester came to an end. We would definitely make a trip to Cornell, once again .. but this time with a digital camera which I hoped to purchase till then.

Gratitude

2005-08-28T22:36:00.000-04:00

We always crib for the things that we don't have. Last week I did not have internet connection for a whole week .. and I felt so gloomy and I was so disappointed. We always want something more .. "Dil maange more .. " kind of attitude and always aspire for things that we don't have. There is nothing wrong in it .. and a person should have aspirations. But there should also be a sense of gratitude for the things that we have.

There is blind couple that stays in front of my house. I see them .. most of the times because they take the same train to the city. I was full of admiration (NOT sympathy) for them .. and I just realized .. what would be our world through their eyes. It's just darkness all around for them .. it's so scary to even imagine something like that. Me cribbing about not having an internet connection .. just seemed so insignificant at that point.

It just made me value the importance of the things that we have. In the rat race called life, we always aspire for more .. taking a lot of things for granted and just fail to realize that we should be grateful for the things that we have.

Sound of music

2005-08-02T02:04:00.000-04:00

Music .. lets you drift into the realm of the unknown .. powers your imagination .. makes you feel good. I would consider myself to be a dreamatic person ... who visualizes different things according to the patterns in music. I was impressed by the music of A.R. Rehman's new album "Between heaven and earth" and especially the instrumentals "Golden Era" and the vocals in Hindi and English.

For me one of the instrumentals epitomizes romance in every sense. It's not just about roses and candlelight dinner ... but getting lost in a world of your own where music is the expression between the two of you .. is romance for me. Simple things can be romantic ... walking hand in hand on a moonlit beach with the lighthouse beam scanning the horizon in the distance .... going on a long drive with soft music in the background .. just looking into the other person's eyes without saying anything ..

Well .. life seems beautiful .. without the daily chores coming in your way .. when you get lost in the world of music.

Influence of the media on the people

2005-07-19T22:17:00.000-04:00

Currently, the Indian Prime Minister is visiting USA and today he addressed a joint session of the US Congress. Surprisingly, one of the major news broadcasters did not even mention a single line on the front page of their website. The news corporations are obsessed with Iraq, middle east and only domestic news which are projected in detail.

International exposure to the american people is very limited. Some of the people that I came across did not even know where Pakistan was on the world map. They just know it's next to India somewhere on the world map .. and what about India ? .. they only know that some type of jobs are getting outsourced to this country .. it is land of elephants, tigers, snake charmers, Taj mahal, yoga, kama sutra and all the people are prince/princess of some province .. and the country is full of beggers. Just an observation .. just search for India on www.webshots.com and ... you will only see the photos of the things that I mentioned previously. So are the people to be blamed for this ignorance ? I would say more than the people .. it is the media whose lack of projection of a progressive image of any country other than USA .. that leads to this impression.

I was really amazed at the lack of importance attached to the Indian PM's visit to USA. A democratically elected leader of the world's largest democracy addresses the US Congress .. and no one in the media cares about it. The contents of the speech are remarkable and tell a lot of things about India .. an average american would know more about India if he is given a gist of the speech.

Media is such a powerful medium .. that it manages to hide the reality from the masses ... ironically .. it is supposed to do just the opposite.

Projecting your personality

2005-07-11T02:15:00.000-04:00

I have been interacting with people online especially through online communities ... some of whom are complete strangers to me. There were some qualities in these people that made me want to talk to them. Intially it was just intution .. I felt that I would be comfortable talking to them. I am glad that most of the time my intutions were correct. There is an implicit level of trust between stangers .. which is something that I have never experienced before. There are so many things that you learn from each other .. something which I could not even do from my friends who were with me for four years of my undergraduate studies.

Some of them had good things to say about me in the form of testimonials ... I am really thankful for that ... which made me ponder on a few things. I haven't met these people .. still they seem to figure out pretty well how I am as a person. What qualities do I have ? Do I know myself completely ... in order to justify or prove them wrong that this is not who I am ? Maybe I don't have all the answers with me. But the testimonials give you a confirmatory test .. which can help you know yourself better.

I think I know myself pretty well ... say almost 90% ( I do manage to surprise myself at times .. that would be the remaining 10%) ... but I think the right projection of your personality is equally important. I don't project myself intentionally in a certain way .. but your attitude, nature as a person reflects in the way you interact. It is important to know .. how people perceive you .. because your perception by others ... leads to your individuality in the society.

Cashing on "hope" !!

2005-06-02T04:15:00.000-04:00

I had been to some casinos in Atlantic city .. and there were a few observations which kinda shook me from within. I wanted to experience the thrill of gambling ... the bright extravagant atmosphere .. the glittering lights ... all tempting me to throw my money ... in the hope of gaining more than I had anticipated. But it was not to be ...

The moment I entered the casino .. among all the glitz and the glamour, all I could see was hopeful faces staring at the casino machines expecting something in return. The only thing that I could see was "Hope" ... and it just seemed a distant reality for a few people. I went to more than three casinos .. in the "hope" that I would see something different .. but again I met disappointment.

I saw old people .. spinning the wheels of fortune .. with so many dreams and expectations in their eyes ... and the disappointment when things did not go their way. But inspite of failure ( or should I say "bad luck" ) they continued .. in the "hope" that their aspirations would be fulfilled by a lousy mechanical machine in front of them. For the first time, I could see machines overpowering people inspite of having no intelligence in them.

So what did I do ? I did gamble ... for a mere 25 cents ... just to get an experience of gambling. People will say I'm stingy ... but no .. I thought that my "hope" and "greed" would overpower me and force me to continue gambling with a larger sum of money. But the moment I started playing ... the images of the people flashed in front of my eyes ... and just made me realize the whole thing was so superficial. I just thought ... it's business and businessmen were cashing on the "hope" and the "greed" of people.

I will not go into the moral issues of gambling .. whether it is right or not. But I will never be associated with any situation in which a person "may be" deprived of his aspirations/dreams/expectations.

Change of perspectives

2005-04-20T04:36:00.000-04:00

I had the privilege of being on the other side of the interview for a change. I had to interview a few students for some opportunities in the department. But all I got in return was .. disappointment. Impressive resumes .. but when it came to the interviews ... all of them were really hollow inside.

I just could not fathom that someone who is doing his/her postgraduation can be so ... I think "empty" is the right word here. People expect to get funding .. but they fail to realize that they need to show at least some competency in the work that they are supposed to do. Just made me realize the quality of education that I received during my undergraduation .. and I am really thankful for that.

We tend to blame the education system in our country .. but I think what really matters is the efforts/initiative taken by an individual. That is the only thing that is important .. all these rankings .. do not carry any weight if you do not have it in you.

Is there anything called "destiny" ?

2005-04-18T03:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday me and some of my friends had a discussion about our future .. giving rise to a plethora of questions .. whether we should know our furture in advance ? ..what is astrology ?... do people believe in predictions of his/her future ?
I think at any point in your life you have different choices ... and which choice you take depends on your nature as an individual. How you think .. what you feel .. makes you narrow down to a choice you make ... and that decides your future. For me, astrology is an intelligent guesswork about the choices that an individual makes, taking into consideration his nature. Astrology is science + intution. Some people have better intuition .. resulting in their predictions coming true.

So what should you do ? One of my friends believes that everything is predecided .. all the events, actions, your choices are all decided by some supernatural power. Astrologers may not be able to predict 100% correctly .. but that does not mean that it is not decided in advance. This is also an interesting viewpoint. It makes you feel better if you are not doing well ... psychologically ... which is good in some sense.

I think knowing your future is not good. You will always have it at the back of your mind ... and this will lead to less efforts from your side. Let's say someone says that you will definitely get a job after 2 months. You were trying very hard before someone told you this .. and now after knowing what is in store for you .. you may unintentionally take less efforts. It's all in the mind. Knowing your future will tend to make you more susceptible to certain things which may not have been possible previously.

So do I believe in destiny ? I have a slightly different approach to these things .. I don't worry about my future ... but make it a point to take all possible efforts in the present ... and then if something does not go my way ... I blame it on destiny .. again it's all in the mind .. it makes you feel better .. motivates you to pursue your goals further. There are some unexplained things .. sometimes favourable/unfavourable .. which I think should be kept as they are - "unexplained", instead of brushing them aside as mere coincidences.

People around you

2005-04-03T05:11:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I face this question ... do you as an individual change over time ? Does time and the environment around you make changes (positive/negative) in your behaviour ? I have thought over it and most of the times I have come to the conclusion that it is the people around you that change and not you as a person.

There are people whose attitude has changed towards me just because I'm in a more favourable position in career/education. It is very interesting to note the changes in human behaviour. Everyone just becomes so nice to you just because you are successfull. You can "see through" these type of people. And they think that just by changing the way they interact with you they can get things done from you. I'm sick of these poeple .. sick of hypocrites .. blowing their own trumpet ... and expecting others to help them. There is one particular guy .. every time he talks to me . ..he wants some favour from me. Initially I helped him .. but then realized that he is an ungrateful wretch. There is no casual conversation between the two of us.

That brings the question of why do people do that ? It can be that they are plain selfish. But I think your upbringing as an individual has a very strong influence on your behaviour. We tend to absorb a lot of things from our surroundings and to decide which factors should influence you depends on your principles and values that you believe in.

Nothing to do

2005-02-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

I will be writing again after more than one year ... seems so odd. Initially, I just wanted to express myself freely. But now .. I wonder, why should anyone else know about my feelings. I sometimes feel that some things are best kept to oneself. One must maintain his/her individuality amongst the people he/she interacts with. You will feel left out with this kind of attiude .. but I don't really mind.

Chilly Day

2003-10-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

Welcome .. this would be my starting point of blogging ...

Well ..things have started settling down here .. by that I mean most of the time is spent in the labs working on assignments ( 12:00 midnight is pretty early by the standards here ) Today the day started off ..very cold in the morning ( temp was around 7-8 C). It made me realize the importance of heater in the room :-) The weather here is pretty bad .. it's constantly changing .. it rains,sun shines and chilly wind blows in a matter of few minutes. You have a sunny morning and by evening emergency is declared in the state because the thunderstorm has arrived in the neighbouring state :-)
In winters there is one more reason for staying up late in college, the heater will be switched off in the apartment ( since I am paying for my heat ... I'll save lot of money on that ). Weeks after weeks seem to pass by .. technically only 4 days ( mon - thurs) and the remaining time in studies. I have been here for almost 2 months now .. ... time really flies by. Weekends are interesting ..lot's of things to do in the college .. entertainment etc .. but only thing right now on my mind is STUDIES !! STUDIES !! STUDIES !! ( we r having an OS test on Tues ) Good grades are important. You should be in a good position to demand funding. You just can't go and say that I want funding ... there are people who do that and create a bad impression for our community here. Prof feel that we just are here to lick èm for funding and just not interested in their research ... the attitude should change. But I don't think it will .. ..everyone is out here for money ..yes, it is important ..but that should not be the only thing , it should be coupled with self development. I don't think anyone thinks on those lines ......