Baretto Villa

Winter Break

2010-12-29T21:25:00.002-05:00

Traveling has been my favorite way to spend the holidays - be it the long weekends or the quarter breaks. From Vegas to DC and Michigan to Texas, I have traveled the length and breadth of this beautiful country. But still there remains infinite places that I still dream to visit.

This winter break we had almost a full month time which I could have traveled, may be a trip to Alaska or even Hawaii. Instead I chose to stay back in Columbus, working. I worked in my lab while everyone else was out holidaying. The whole campus was looked deserted. At the same time it gave me enough opportunities to meet new people, strengthen old friendships and enough time for reminiscence of this past year - how I decided to live a life that made more sense to me than this stressful, monotonous life of studies and taking exams! I was fairly successful, to an extent where I just managed to survive the cut-off gpa :)

Like I said, this winter break I was able to strengthen some old friendships, was able to go out for coffee and visit bookstores with them. Spent more time on extra-curricular activities. I bought a National Geographic Road Atlas copy from a half-prices bookstore near the campus. I got it for $5.99 which I believe is a steal. I was flipping through its pages and quickly read snippets from few chapters within the book and it gave me this blissful feeling that it was one of the best buy in recent times. It covers all the national parks in the country with a detailed account of camp and RV sites. Also the state park which is more useful especially when you have a shorter time to spare. Also I go these old NG magazines for $0.25!! Can you believe it? Mere 25 cents. I quickly picked two copies, though my heart kept saying I need to pick all of them, but my pocket said, two is enough for now, come back later :)

I went to couple of nice coffee shops, Cup -o- Joe and Caribou Coffee with Laura. Both places had nice ambience to offer along with great coffee (as told me by Laura as I don't drink Coffee). Deserve more visits in the future.

Looking forward for a fun bash new years eve with Maria and other friends at this Mexican place in Downtown. And in the meantime, I wish all of you a fun filled new year and hope that each one of us become more responsible and kind towards nature!

Black Belt

2010-12-09T19:30:00.002-05:00

It was my last week of classes for the quarter. Most of the students in class exchanged email addresses or facebook links. This being a photography class, most of the students came from different schools - some from Engineering, some art, some from Architecture and some from social sciences. Some were as old as 60 (a retired school teacher) while there were quite a few freshmen students. I took it for fun of course.

The instructor was a really interesting guy. He believed in showing videos in class than teaching any technical stuff about photography. He says, what ever we shoot, we need to imagine ourselves in that picture and then shoot. Technical details are secondary. This was his answer to one of the question where a student asked - What makes a picture a great picture? Is it the name? or is the great technique?

As the quarter went on, I could make some interesting friends. There is this Chinese American girl, Tiffany (yeah this is her English name), who had an old-school SLR (the film one). We were the back benchers and amongst the ones who come late always. I was talking to her recently and I was sermonizing to her what all things she can do over the break. Right then I came to know that she dances (which is normal!) but then, she is also a Taekwondo black-belt! ( makes me think why do all pretty girls have these hidden talents? :P)

Anyways its always fun taking such classes.

Frame

2010-09-14T00:03:00.002-04:00

There are so many things one dreams about but seldom they are realized. When I was young I yearned to buy a camera and that I what I bought out of my first pay check. I traveled to many interesting places, took many pictures with that. I was happy. Fast forward - studies in US. As a student, you have relatively less responsibilities and that is when one can explore and let the flower of dreams unfurl. I bought a DSLR. I traveled to many many places - more than any other grad student in the campus could do within a year. I took tons of pictures. I was happy again.

Last week I visited the most beautiful park ever - the Yellowstone National Park. It is in Wyoming - for those who didn't know. It is full package of wildlife, breathtaking landscape, grand waterfalls, hot geysers and pretty hotsprings. What more can we expect to see in one place? It was complete 'paisa wasool' (value for money!)

Just before leaving for Yellowstone, I attended one of the movie screenings at the Ohio Union and it was of the movie 'Up'. Needless to say, it was a cute movie. For some reason I tried to correlate my life with that old man's life. I want to visit that lost land - that virgin land where you have the 'paradise falls'. That is when I thought I should start collecting pictures and document my trips. May be a collage or a photo-frame.

Today I got four pictures framed! They are 8"X10" each. I have another one printed out - 11"X14"! I am super excited for that. I hope to print at least 10 different pics from each of my trip from now onwards and document them. Like someone said - pictures speak a thousand words. Indeed true.

Updates

2010-07-05T15:54:00.003-04:00

My blogger account says : Last published - Dec 2009!

I meant to write it regularly, just that I was lazy. Every other day I read all my friends' blog on my reader and tell myself, one day I'll restart writing. So finally I made up my mind to write.

It has been an eventful 7 months since I stopped blogging. I don't think I can jot down everything. Traveling 7 different states in the US, learning how to skate on ice, able to play some music on the guitar, white water rafting - these are few things among innumerable activities. During these activities I could make many new friends, went out on dates, hiked, biked and yeah camped! I can say I was "busy" all weekends :-) People who know me closely know what I am talking about.

I have changed apartments and roommates. Well got rid of roommate I should say :) Now living in a studio. Survived my coldest winter ever, the beautiful spring and now it is summer(which is way cooler than what I have experienced in Orissa and Gujarat!) After the car, came the bike, which I use everyday - thankfully my apt is just 5 blocks away from my workspace.

And yeah, most importantly I survived the coursework!!! Yay, all the compulsory courses are over and I managed to stay above the cut off :-) Just that I need to clear qualifiers and I am set. Learning a lot about my research everyday, especially after those series of presentations that I gave during that research communications class.

Have been using my camera more often now and able to capture some good shots. Next thing on the list is the tripod, which I was missing all these while. And did I tell, my credit card application was approved? Oh yeah, this lady in my bank finally agreed to issue one.

In office today in spite of it being a holiday (actually didn't know that it was until I came to the campus). Let me sign off now.

Ubuntu Installation and Netbook hickup

2009-12-27T17:37:00.007-05:00

I recently was installing the latest Ubuntu version for my Acer Aspire One netbook. It really is a cool OS. But at one point of time I tried to work around with various features - one of them being the Suspend option. When I tried that, my network wasn't working. Slowing things started going wrong. Nothing seemed to work and I tried restarting hoping to start it afresh. And guess what.. my bios was not booting!! The fan seems to be running but nothing on the screen. Usually when this happens on a Desktop computer, you just remove the CMOS battery and put it back. But I have never heard of a laptop losing its bios.

After juggling with various options/solutions that I found online, finally came to truce. My computer started working!! It was such a relief. It not only saved lot of bucks for me but also the pain of not having anything to sit in front of :-)

Oh by the way here is the link where I found the solution. I must really thank that guy/girl who came up with that solution. You made my day!

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html

Also here is the OS new look.

I Love You Dad

2009-11-22T06:49:00.003-05:00

Of many things that amazes me about India is the bonding within the family. Unlike most of the western countries where children leave their parents on their own and head out to face the world, in India, in most cases, children prefer to stay with their parents for a long time. Meanwhile it happens that when you lose somebody in the family, it leaves an indelible mark and mostly you find difficult to come through.

When I was a kid growing up in the city of Bangalore, Dad was there to guide me at every step that I took. He tried his best to provide all the things that I would need. He trained me to become an independent man. He believed in educating which he was very good at. Be it plumbing, electrical wiring, masonry, climbing trees, carpentry, cooking, electronic repairing etc. - he was there to train me. We have a house in Bantwal and incredibly enough he has built it in his own hands, quite literally. He used to take me and my sister every summer vacation and made us work. I still remember the days when we made those bricks and arranged the tiles on the roof. Though he was from the Arts background he had managed to learn all these skills out of his own interest. He was a great learner and never hesitated in experimenting new things. He was very well known for his intelligence and passion for work among the family and friends which he tried his best to pass on to his children. He was an early riser and strongly believed in the practice if one had to taste success.

Of many things - he took me to number of places in India everytime he had a conference to attend. He believed that one has to travel to different places, meet more people, see how people lived and learn the lessons of life. I now know that I was among the luckiest to have been brought up in such a wonderful family and environment. With it I developed a passion for travel. I managed to travel on my own to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Orissa.

He sent me to the best school in Bangalore and he was extremely happy I did well. He was on top of the world when I landed up in US sometime back for my PhD - for I am the first one in our family to go for doctoral studies. It seems he even treated his friends on the occasion and was really proud of that. He went to his relatives' place and showed all the pics that I had sent from here.

On 30th October, 2009, I lost him. It was a heart-attack. Death is so hard to grasp especially when it is so unexpected, when we feel nothing to hold on to and feels like nothing worse could have happened. I miss you Dad!!!

Weekend Trips

2009-10-26T21:46:00.015-04:00

Last few weekends have been veryr eventful. From football game to apple orchard to hiking. It was an opportunity to meet new people, visit new places and become a part of a new tradition. I am grateful to all my friends who took me to these places. It has started getting cold and with it the tree leaves are changing colors. Starting from yellow to orange and then to red. It is a sight worth seeing.

Anyways.. It was my first football (read American Football) game at the horse-shoe stadium. I volunteered at a stall which aimed at helping in the development of India, through an organization called AID. It was exhilarating experience especially when you know - that at the end of day's work all your earnings are going to be utilized in many developmental projects across India. You may want to visit the website to learn more about it.

The next weekend was the Apple plucking session. Randy and Christine were kind enough to take us to the Apple Orchard for the annual Apple plucking session. It was my second experience at the Apple orchards. But on my first visit, at Shimla in India, it wasn't the harvest season yet and the trees had just started flowering. This time it was the prime season of harvesting where we could find the apple trees pregnant with loads of apples waiting to be plucked. It was an enriching experience to taste the fresh apples - specially hand-plucked.

Lastly, it was the Hocking Hills hiking experience. It is a state park located in the south-east of Columbus OH. It is at about 65 miles from the OSU campus. We were picked up by the IFI volunteers who were really friendly and so kind that they dropped us at the park, took us around and actually dropped back to our place. Hocking hills is a beautiful place especially if you are visiting in the Fall season. You can see the beautiful landscape reaching the mountains on the border of West Virginia. We can also visit the natural caves and water falls around the place. It can be a beautiful camping place if you wish to stay overnight. Make sure you carry your food with you as it can get really expensive to buy it there. You have a horse riding facility too.

My exams are round the corner. Since I am taking up exams after a gap of 3 years, it is going to be a nice challenge. It will take time to get into the groove but eventually it should be all set. Wish me luck friends!

The football game pics

The Apple orchard pics

Hocking Hill pics

Cold

2009-10-19T09:28:00.002-04:00

Of many things that I have observed in the US during my two month stay is that - you cannot survive without a car. Unlike other countries, say England - where you pay heavily for public transport they still take you places. You do not have to depend on anybody. Today I went to drop my car at a service station and it was big deal to get back to college using a public transport. On top of that, it was freezing cold!

I started early morning (read as 7 30 am) when it was still dark. I tried cleaning my rear window but of no help. Ice frost. I turned on the heater and some relief. Using my GPS managed to reach the right place on time. I dropped the car off for the service and walked to the nearest bus stop. I asked somebody and he told me that the next bus is in 30 mins. It was like 1 deg C and I had only my sweat shirt on with a hoody. I could see cars all around and not a single person in the bus stand. Finally after the looong wait I got into the COTA bus and reached the school.

Welcome to the US!

Some More Cribs

2009-10-07T08:29:00.002-04:00

Often it happens that before you meet the actual person you tend to get the feedback from others. Sometimes it can be very helpful - you know what are the expectations beforehand. But sometimes, it can be disastrous. Especially if it about your teacher.

While I was school, my teacher once told that - 'You need to love your teacher if you want to really learn the subject'. It didn't make any sense then, but over the course of time the seeds that were sowed went on to become a big tree. I firmly believed since then that you need to like the teacher if you want to get something useful out of the class. When you say you love your teacher - it also implies that you work hard to earn his love too, eventually mastering the subject.

Recently there was a Potluck organized at my friend's place. Amongst other things that were discussed, topic of teachers was one of them. Most of them gave bad opinion about the teachers. It might be true in their case but for someone who has just arrived with a fresh mindset to learn new things, this piece of 'advice' can prove fatal. He/She would not pay any attention in class, would not trust his teacher and eventually end up not learning anything.

Harvest Party

2009-10-01T08:54:00.010-04:00

I met this friend the other day at the Swing Dance Class, whom I invited to my home for an Indian Dinner. At the end of it he invited me to his place for an annual harvest party. It was at Michigan and more importantly in the countryside. I was quick to say yes.

We started early in the morning and a 5 hour drive from my place. It was my first trip outside my base. I was hoping to see the farms and meet people from the village - yeah the American village. We reached around 12 or so. The weather was cool and nice. Already many relatives of his had starting coming in. The house was really pretty, like the ones we see in movies. It seems the family has stayed in the same house for six generations. That was something now. I introduced myself to all the family members and almost immediately I was the center of attention. I was answering their questions that I was from India - we have farms and trees too and it does 'rain' there. This reminded me of my grandmother when I had called her up sometime ago telling that it was raining here. She said 'Does it rain there too?'

We had the typical American lunch whose menu included - Bread with beef 'curry' and salads. I happily ate only the salads. After lunch I helped others in setting up the stage for the evening party and several other things. Of many things, there was this huge Swing where kids used to jump off to an airbag. That was so much fun.

In the afternoon people started pouring in large numbers. There was this hayride where the head of the family took us around the farms in his old tractor narrating stories from his childhood days. It was an experience of sorts even for the Americans who had grown up in cities.

It had already started getting chillier and I totally forgot to get some warm clothes. Luckily there was this guy who offered me his jacket and I survived. In the evening there was this singing thing on stage and then the typical country dance. Four girls and four boys pair up and we dance to the music. Remember the movie - Titanic, where Kate and Leonardo dance on the ship? Similar one. Though it was freezing cold outside, the dance steps had made us sweat.

After the dance was the bonfire. We sat around it, while guys and girls playing musing on guitar, I enjoyed cooking and eating marshmallows. This was my first such experience! We sat till late in the night we hitting the sack.

Next morning was the typical American breakfast - Bagels and cheese with curd. Had fun while eating. I was trying to explain how my name is pronounced. I made up this easy thing where Jeevan is pronounced as G1, then one guy was quick to reply - Hope you don't have brothers by name H1 and N1!!

With my friend

The soyabean farms

Marshmallows and bonfire

Horseshoe game

The music

The crowd

The hayride

Bonfire

"When I was a boy growing up in the farm..."

Football??

The Barn - est. 1938!

During the hayride

The swing

The lawn

The dream house :-)

Getting Acquainted To The New Place

2009-09-11T16:16:00.003-04:00

It will be two weeks today since I landed in this country. So far the experience has been good and people have been really nice. I could visit several places around the city and did most of the shopping one can do for his/her first month. Now even the shopkeepers know me by face :)

The football season has started and tomorrow will be the OSU vs USC match. I could see many students sweating who were part of the marching band. I could learn from my senior friends that the OSU team is indeed a strong one and is a clear favorite for the tomorrow's match. The band and the marching rehearsal was impressive - tears rolled out of my moist eyes. I am really happy that I am here: where the whole city is cheering for their team, be the public transport or the local restaurant, everywhere you see the message GO BUCKEYES! The allegiance to the home team by the people here is commendable. I doubt if a similar kind of reception can be expected back home when RCB or DC is playing in their IPL match.

Current Read: Imprisoned Apart - The world war 2 correspondence of a Issei couple by Louis Fiset

Munnar Experience

2009-09-04T07:39:00.002-04:00

Finally found time to post the pics that I took during my visit to Munnar. It is no doubt a beautiful place. I used the Lonely Planet travel guide and trust me they have some really useful information.

We started from Ernakulam, which is a fairly big town. It is about 4 hours drive by road if you take a bus and about 3 hours if you take a car. En route to this place you have several locations where you can stop by to see the water falls and enjoy the scenic beauty. The major attraction is the tea gardens, of the British time and still continuing.

The weather was very pleasant when I went - that is sometime in mid-August. Here are some of the pictures that I could take.

The Mattupetti Lake where people go for a boat ride.

On our way to the Top Station

Tea Gardens up close

The Nilgiri Mountains

Weekend Experience

2009-08-30T08:14:00.001-04:00

Today was the first weekend for me here. We, I mean me and my roomie, decided to visit more places inside the campus and to the downtown area. We took the help of campus map and the GPS to drive around the campus. The traffic rules here are totally different from what we have in India. People are very courteous and friendly – they stop to let you go first and wait till the pedestrian crosses over. Also the names of the streets/roads coming up will be displayed well ahead of the signal so that you can select the lane accordingly – which makes life so simple.

The campus is really huge and I had not seen such a beautiful place before. The building, the lawn, the lake - everything was well maintained. The Recreation and Physical Activity Center was something I wanted to visit. The main library looked like a palace with superb ambience and space.

Downtown area is something where people go to hangout. It is similar to the Brigade road, MG road of Bangalore. You can find all well lit buildings, bars and crazy people around. At least I find them crazy. Today I saw this group of girls having fun. They had taken this Limousine service and one the girls was wearing the “Bachelor” strip over her clothes. Just like these Miss World participants when they wear those Miss India, Miss Mexico kind of thing. While the to-be married girl was getting herself photographed at weirdest of places in weirdest of poses, the other girls were asking guys around if they had condoms with them. I guess they were trying to make fun of that bachelor girl. When they asked me I didn’t know what to answer!! Though I come from a city – this kind of a thing was totally new for me.

Earlier in the day I read somewhere in online forums that they got some furniture, TV from dumpsters. I thought they are some stores where they sell used stuff. Only later I came to know that they are actually dust-bins. I couldn’t imagine myself looking around the dust-bins to see if I can carry home any stuff which others have thrown/left.

Some of the things that I observed over this weekend are:

* People like to chew gum a lot. Just like the cows and buffalos in India.

* Almost all of them smile and talk to you nicely, at least pretends that.

* You have to fill the gas yourself in gas stations, unlike India where pretty girls help you fill one.

* Bank ATM can be anywhere - even right in the middle of the lawn.

* Squirrels are not scared of people and are big in size. In fact there are many of them right next to our apartment.

More later.

Reporting from Columbus

2009-08-28T11:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I landed up in the US and till now it has been a great experience. Everything here is BIG - people, their pets, cars, buildings. Guess what Mahesh had told me about this before I left Mumbai, and he was right. Have found the apartment and pretty much settled.

Since I was traveling alone and it was a direct flight it was very boring. To add to that, the flight attendants seldom understood what I spoke. Once I asked for a tissue paper, and she gave me the sugar. I asked again and she yells back 'I can't give what ever you ask!!' I had to actually point it and use sign language to make her understand. huh?

You can easily get lost in the campus and being the largest university in US, it is no surprise. I took help from a Chinese student to locate my department. I soon found a map and currently I am walking around holding one.

Now coming to cooking: I am lucky till now as the guy who is moving out of the apt. is doing the job for me and I need to slowly take over from him. I still have doubts about my culinary skills and have to wait till another week or so to implement.

Running thing - oh yeah people here are pretty much fond of work outs and I should have some good company soon.

Alright, let me move off this computer and explore things. Signing off :)

Trust Our Postal Service

2009-08-04T23:49:00.003-04:00

Recently I used the Registered Post from our Indian Posts dept. to send all my university applications which is way cheaper than the courier. It costs Rs. 40/- as against to Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 otherwise by courier. And still majority (99%) of my friends went for the courier option. People deem Regd. post as unreliable and inefficient. In my case all the applications reached on time and I could save thousands of rupees.

Another instance - when my sister wanted to file her annual IT returns. She was late as usual and on the last day of filing she was looking for the address where you can file it. In spite of constant advertisement by the IT dept. on various TV channels, that one can file it online as well - it seems less than 10% people actually did it online. Reason - the papers need to be sent later by Ordinary post only. She did it online finally.. :)

Why don't we trust our Indian Posts dept.?

Photo: IITB campus

Weekend and Waterfalls

2009-07-28T02:47:00.012-04:00

There is this famous Kannada Film song where Dr. Rajkumar sings,

"Manav Naagi huttid mele en en kandi
Saayo thanka samsar dolge ganda gundi
Heri kondu hogo dilla sathaag bandi
Irodrolage Omme nodu Jogad Gundi!"

Which essential means - You have umpteen problems in life and are not going to carry your money/car with you when you die. Only the memories remain and hence he says one has to visit Jog Falls at least once in your life time.

I totally agree with those words now. I visited Jog Falls. I am short of words explaining the beauty and grandeur with which river Sharavati, which is overflowing, falls from a distant height. It splits it self into different regimes which has been aptly named Raja, Roarer, Rocket and Lady. The water which appears like a white blanket covering the hill is simply brilliant. Though the entire area is often covered with the clouds making the visibility at times poor. You need to wait, sometimes for hours, before you can get a good view of the water falls. But it has its own glamour - for you see the real beauty only when you reveal it for a short period of time.

It is a favorite location for the school kids for their annual picnic. Unfortunately I had missed out on mine. So this sunday early morning, when I was at Jog, the weather was romantic with slight drizzle on and off - with the whole surrounding covered with the clouds and in the background you have this splendid waterfalls. Taking photos was the last thing that was on my mind for I could not get my eyes out of that beautiful setting.

Clouds covering the view which is the usual sight

When the cloud clears up

Now we decided to go closer to the falls - the place where the actual show starts. In quest of this place, we set out on road trekking our way through green plantations, meeting locals and such - the whole scene which looked very much familiar to my native place Mangalore. Tiny rivulets combined to form a tank kind of thing which you cannot imagine that it would ultimately fall to give that spectacular view - of so much power and energy.

Road towards the other end

Local villager covering himself with the rag

One of the close-up view of Raja

Rocket and Lady!

It was being a weekend, the whole place was crowded with people from different places and background - Children, Parents, Adults, Newly-wed couples, Oldies, School teachers, IT professionals etc. :) It was a sight to see.

Visitors throng the place

For all those interested:
You can take the bus (KSRTC or KSTDC) from Bangalore, which is around 8 hours from Jog Falls. You need to book your rooms in advance as the amenities near the waterfalls is very minimal. You have two PWD guest houses and several other govt. run guest houses. It can be a good one day trip with the nearest town being Sagar which is around 30 kms far.

Of Drilling Machines, Crowbars, Probes and Pain!

2009-07-24T02:56:00.001-04:00

I had an appointment with the dentist yesterday. It was in the major and minor surgery dept.
I didn't have any problems to report, for I went there for a routine medical check-up. The doctor on-duty suggested that the last tooth (the wisdom tooth) had protruded itself in an awkward position. Its axis was horizontal and can create problems in the future. Agreed, I decided to go ahead with the extraction process.

The appointment was at 9 in the morning, the time when I usually have my breakfast with the radio on. I reached the hospital on time and yet was made to wait. It is 9 45 and the guy in white coat and spectacles calls out my name. While inside the operation theatre (so called), he briefs me about the process - that he would cut the tooth into half and then pluck the other half.

The main doctor, say Mr. A, asks his friends/colleages who were also present in the room to get ready with the tools. The best part of Mr. A was that he used to think aloud. Starting from injecting the anasthesia to starting of the drilling machine - he was talking continuously. May be he was communicating with the other guys who were mopping the bled area. At one point he started using the hammer along with the crow bar and probes. While others were holding my cheek to keep my mouth open. By now some 20 students were around me peeping to have the tiniest glance of my tooth. It went on for say 30 minutes or so. Mr. A declares that he is done with the extraction. Now the sutures time. The other guy comes up with the sutures and the needle. He starts stitching and immediately Mr. A suggests that it was a wrong method.. so this guy says 'Okay, I 'll remove them and do it all over again!!'. By this time the anasthesia effect had subsided and the sensation started coming back.

While entering the room I had my chest out open with pride. Now while coming out - I was like a rabbit with its tail hiding between its legs. My cheeks had already started swelling. Couldn't speak a word, forget eating anything.

Day two - my face is distorted. Left cheek is completely swollen. Period.

Couple

2009-07-20T12:54:00.003-04:00

One fine morning in Powai Lake!

Coffee or Tea? You must be joking!

2009-07-18T03:13:00.003-04:00

Okay. Let me accept that I take neither Tea or Coffee and prefer to drink only Milk. I visit my friend's place, relatives' place and the first thing they ask - "Coffee or Tea?". I reply, "Sorry just Milk!".

After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. For most of them, whom I know, it is the first thing that they need to drink every morning. Not just that - many more sips during the day.

Some interesting statistics that I got from WolframAlpha about Tea:

Typical word frequency

written | 1/13000 (rank: 1362nd)
100% noun
spoken | 1/5800 (rank: 438th)
100% noun
(based on the 100-million-word British National Corpus)

Narrower terms

black tea  |  cambric tea  |  cuppa  |  cupper  |  green tea  |  herbal  | 
herbal tea  |  herb tea  |  iced tea  |  ice tea  |  oolong  |  sun tea  |  tea bag

Broader terms

beverage  |  bush  |  drink  |  drinkable  |  herb  |  meal  |  potable  |
reception  |  repast  |  shrub

Similarly you can find for good amount of statistical figures for Coffee also.

Lady's Finger Curry

2009-07-17T01:25:00.003-04:00

So I learnt this cooking recipe yesterday from my granny. It is to make 'lady's finger' curry. I thought I'd better post it here so that I can refer to it later if I forget something. So here it goes.

First cut the vegetable, chillies and onions. Also keep good amount of grated/shredded coconut, and some tamarind soaked in water ready.

Making the masala:

Put the grated coconut, small amount of jeera, chillies, tamarind, mustard, coriander seeds onto the mixer. Allow it to make a fine paste kind of a thing. Keep this aside for now.

Making the main curry:

Take some oil in a medium sized copper bottomed vessel. Start the flame. Put some mustard. Wait till it makes all that sound (pat pat pat). Add small quantities of chana dal, adad dal, curry leaves, red chilli and garlic. Wait till it turns golden brown. After that add the vegetable. Add the tamarind water and salt. Keep mixing it for a while. Now add the masala which you had prepared earlier and add water. Allow the whole mixture to boil and taste if the salt is ok.

So this is it. I got my first cooking lesson. More to come.

PS: This is a typical Mangalorean style of cooking. And we use lots of coconut. Sometimes I wonder, is it practical to follow this recipe everywhere - 'cos availability of coconuts is an issue.

Chopper Ride

2009-07-10T01:29:00.003-04:00

They say that all good things come to an end, and so did my stay at IIT. It was a friday afternoon when even the clouds starting crying while I was busy packing my stuff.

Anyways I have left Mumbai and have reached home, via Vaishno Devi shrine. It was my second visit to the holy shrine. Last time I went - we walked all the way up, waited for 2 hours in the queue before we could have the darshan. This time it was quite simple. I hopped on to a helicopter which took me to the top in just 4 mins. With the special priority entry scheme, managed to have darshan in flat 10 mins :)

While boarding the chopper, I was asked if I wanted to sit on the co-pilot's seat. Who would refuse that offer. Now you can imagine the view that I got from that seat. No words to describe it. It was a once in a life-time experience and of course complete paisa wasool. Unfortunately couldn't take any photos. It seems no camera or leather goods are allowed inside the shrine and that is why I thought of not taking thing. I regret that decision now!

At home now and having loads of free time. More than what I did at IIT :D Will write more often now. (sounds cliched.. err)

June Showers

2009-06-26T08:53:00.003-04:00

June has been another eventful month for me. The weather has been very disappointing for it was quite hot until today when it rained cats and dogs. It is also the month where most of the students leave for home, either on vacation or after finishing their course. I am leaving for home too. Next week. Will be seeing most of them for the last time here. Also got my US visa issued :)

Kenny who has shifted to Chennai for an year had come today for some work. We could meet up, went around the campus discussing various things - from rains to schools to her child to her husband to work and finally she took me out for a coffee. She gave me some good tips about life at grad school. I miss all those days when we used to work together, run early in the morning, preparing for mumbai marathon, researching and of course chatting and messaging :)

M took me out for lunch yesterday. He is another guy in our running group apart from Kenny and KVV. This guy is one man who means what ever he says. He is very much dedicated into his work. Had a long chat with him the other day discussing about my prospective advisor at grad schools. Though these guys (M, Kenny, KVV) are 10+ years older than me and are faculties, I have always treated them as friends. We crack jokes, discuss serious academic matters, play games (badminton and basketball) and run. We were a bunch of crazy guys who wake up really early, that is at 5:15 or so, meet up at Ananta and go out for running. And all the while chatting about issues under the sun. It was great being in the group.

Seven more days remaining in the campus. Got some vaccinations (MMR, Hepatitis) done today. Have to run around for the no-dues certificate in the coming days.

Music

2009-06-18T12:45:00.002-04:00

I was listening to this song 'Teri Or' from the movie Singh is King. I couldn't resist but to hear it on the loop. The video was also impressive. Shreya Ghoshal has a sweet voice and of course Katrina has done her job well.

Recently I was reading the biography of singer Lata Mangeshkar and it seems during her time, the Mangeshkar sisters (Lata and Usha) had maintained a monopoly in the playback singing arena for the film industry. Even singers like Kavita Krishnamurthy were given the chance of singing only the retake songs and not the final ones. Such was the demand for great voice - not that Kavita was bad, she is still one of my favorite. Remember Mr. India?

I strongly believe it is the voice which takes the song to a different world altogether.

Swarna - Design Show

2009-06-14T00:21:00.003-04:00

It was an eventful saturday afternoon. Took the train to Mahalakshmi station and then to Nehru center, Worli. It was the annual exhibition time from the passing out students of IDC, IIT Bombay. It showcased a wonderful display of their creative design as a part of their projects taken up during their course of MDes. As told by a design professional, it was the right blend of interaction between the 'form' and the 'function'.

The event was called Swarna:: Design Degree Show. The exhibits are differentiated into four different categories - Industrial Design, Visual Communication, Animation and Interaction Design. The exhibits were from a wide range of themes starting from Energy conservation to Design of Display font to Bikes for Youth to Indian Toys for International Market.

The event also served as their annual placement session, where the prospective recruiters visit the show and have a direct interaction with the students.

The exhibition is open from 11 am to 7 pm on 13th and 14th June.

Orange Chairs

2009-06-08T06:38:00.002-04:00

Orange chairs on the Mall road - Shimla

Lessons of Defeat

2009-06-04T13:40:00.003-04:00

"... You cannot collapse, either because you've won a match or because you've lost it. This is sport, you have victories or defeats. No one remembers defeats in the long run. People remember victories. Defeats never make you grow, but you also realize how difficult what I achieved up until today was, and this is something you need sometimes. You need a defeat to give a value to your victories...."

This is what Rafael Nadal had to say after he lost to Soderling in his fourth round match at the Roland Garros.

The young spaniard seems to have learnt a lot from his sport. In times where the losing team's player 'slaps' the other team player, Rafael has shown what it is to accept the defeat. What is that you learn from every defeat.

He's 23 and already achieved so many things. I am sure by the time he is finishing his career he'd have managed to leave an indelible mark in the books of tennis history.

Mehendi

2009-06-03T22:26:00.002-04:00

This one was captured while in Shimla. Some tourist was getting her hand colored. I was reluctant to ask her for a photo so asked my female friend to do the needful and she gracefully obliged :)

PS: They say a picture can speak thousand words. So this will compensate for me not writing more.

Man vs Nature

2009-05-26T08:55:00.003-04:00

It is ironical to see that lakhs of people from one part of the country are struggling to get back to normal life after the devastation caused by the storm while the others are busy destroying the public property creating inconvenience to thousands of travelers across Punjab and other northern states.

Shimla - II

2009-05-25T09:17:00.002-04:00

Tatta Pani and Chhaba: Here you can go rafting on the waters of river Sutlej. It is around 70 kms from Shimla. Obviously when you climb down the hill it starts getting hot there. We could book the raft for ourselves some two hours before we reached the place. It takes some time for them to prepare the raft. Once the raft was ready we were given the safety jackets and helmets to wear and some instructions as what to do when a particular command is given.

The water wasn’t as rough as expected. I had an experience of rafting earlier in Pahalgam during my Kashmir trip where the cold and rough waters had got my heart in hand. So this time also I was expecting the water to be rough. They said it was a 12 km stretch along which we were to go rafting. We were all excited.

The ride was super fun and somewhere mid way we all jumped into the water. Since we had the jackets on, we were floating and there was no need to swim. This was an amazing experience. Never in my life had I imagined that I would jump into deep water flowing with so much energy. S, who didn’t know to swim couldn’t control herself and leaped only to hold the raft from outside all the while. All of us enjoyed it.

It was around 1 hour ride before we all got down. That place is called as Tatta Pani as you have this Sulfur springs near the place. The water is boiling hot and it seems all the pilgrims throng the place during some festival.

The whole rafting thing cost us Rs. 850/- per head.

Shimla - I

2009-05-07T12:08:00.002-04:00

Happened to visit Shimla last week. It was a much awaited break from the sweltering and sweaty mumbai. Spent 7 complete days there.

So let me put down in points, the places where we went. Some on cab and many on foot. It is great to trek through the lush green pine and deodhar forests. No wonder they say that these trees never go dry - considering the maximum temperature of the year reaching only 25 deg C or so.

1. The Mall Road - There is no 'Mall' in that mall road. The urban junta usually associate the mall with a multi-storied, well-lit, glass structure. But here you have this road where the tourists from all over the place along with the local crowd love to stroll in the evenings. You have shops on either side of the road displaying items of interest, be it food or handicrafts or items of daily need.

We went to several eateries, had pastries and momos. Went to some book shops and had strange experiences. One of the bookshops housing old books caught my interest and I decided to have a look. I picked up one and asked for the price. It was titled 'Italian History' or so. Guess what the price was - only Rs. 19,000/- yeah I got the zeros right.

2. The Indian Institute of Advanced Studies - This monument houses the famous table on which the initial draft about dividing India into two different states was exchanged between the then Viceroy of India - Lord Mountbatten and Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. A beautiful structure, now converted into an institute of excellence and research. Formerly it was the Viceregal lodge during the British times.

3. Hotel PeterHoff - It is a grand hotel converted from a Viceroy lodge. It has a large banquet and still houses grand weddings and other important functions.

4. Narkhanda and the Haatu hill - You should not miss place if you happen to visit Shimla. It is around two and half hour drive from main Shimla. First we reach Narkhanda which is the base for the hill top. From there you have a single drive road towards the top which is around 7 kms long. We got down from the cab after 4 kms and then went trekking to the top. Believe it is worth everything that you see once you reach the top.

to be continued......

Desktop wants Internet else no no to work

2009-04-24T22:30:00.006-04:00

I have this odd problem in my computer. It refuses to work offline. It gets really slow and sort of crawls. I tried my best to fix it by tweaking some settings but of no help. This happens only with the linux OS which I prefer.

I am usually pretty comfortable with my computer and able to find solutions to the problems some way or the other. But this one has been bothering me for a long time now. I am not a geek, neither I am into CS. I tried using google with the keywords - ubuntu, offline, slow, system. And I get results which are totally unrelated to my problem. I do not blame the search engine though. May be I am not able to convey my problem correctly.

Two weeks ago I decided to sell my desktop which has only linux OS. FC6. Yeah it is pretty old but very stable and was running smoothly on my 256 mb RAM machine. I put an advertisement on the mailing list and this guy turned up and says he's interested. But the catch is - he wants windows to be installed. To make him happy I got a 'working' CD ROM to do the needful. The system doesn't like it. It simply says no. Damn. I decided to go with my good-old-happily-running FC6 only. Let someone else come who can buy the comp as-is-where-is.

For now, if there is anyone who knows the solution to this offline-system-slow problem, please leave a message in the comments section. Will get in touch with you soon.

**Update**
Found this crack. At the start up, login with a super user id or root and type this command

/etc/init.d/network stop

It works well.. and when you have internet connection then you can start your network back by this command

/etc/init.d/network restart

Death

2009-04-23T12:38:00.003-04:00

At times I am worried about Death. I haven't seen a dead body of someone closely related to me. Neither have I visited any of my grandparent's funeral. But still it scares me. I can't imagine our body getting numb and cold. Today I got the news that one of my batchmate has expired! I still can't digest this news. He was physically very fit. And the reason for death: the doctors say it was a multi-organ failure. How can someone this young have such failures? I don't get it.

Lending a camera

2009-04-20T22:14:00.002-04:00

I am tired of lending my camera. Last time I lent it and that guy comes back and says that he lost the batteries and the charger mysteriously. The other time someone else took it and spoilt the lens. Today this mess uncle says his daughter's engagement tomorrow and he needs MY camera. Didn't feel like cooking up some story and refusing. Lets see what is in store this time.

The campus - I

2009-04-16T13:49:00.017-04:00

The IIT campus is very beautiful. We generally tend to ignore this beauty amidst our busy work schedule. We have a lake, a hill and the campus is totally covered by trees. I doubt if you can find any other place so green as this in mumbai. Today morning I woke up early and decided to take some pictures. I started with the hill - we call it the Sameer hill. And then to the medicinal plantations garden. The place is extremely beautiful all colorful flowers all over. Here are some of the pics that I could take.

On our way to the hill top

Sunrise

Cage for the leopards

View of the campus from the hill top

On our way to the medicinal plants garden

Butterfly feeding over the flower

My attempt at macro photography :)

Some medicinal plant

These were just one part of the campus. I'll cover the other parts very soon. Especially the lake side which has the largest variety of fauna inside the campus.

Back to the place where I was born

2009-04-15T12:01:00.004-04:00

Another hiatus from the blogworld. This time it was due to short trips to home. We are moving from Bangalore finally. Dad is retiring and have to vacate the quarters. He decided that we would be moving to Bantwal, which is some 24 kms from Mangalore. That is the place I was born.

So this time when I went home, I had to do some major packing work. Layers of dust had got collected over things and it was painful cleaning it. We didn't go for any packers or movers type and did all the work by ourselves. I was dead tired by the time I had completed. Separate bags for tools, clothes, glass wares etc. Sorting things was a daunting task. At times I was feeling, if the work would ever get over. I mean, over the past several years we had collected so much of junk that we never used them even once. I didn't know if I had to pack them again - only to be kept on a side for another few years.

In the process, I found many once-thought-of-as-lost things. For example, I was looking for this scientific calculator which went missing two years ago and simply couldn't locate it.

I had to sell off many good old books of mine, especially the ones I used for preparing for JEE and other competitive exams, the 12th standard books and many good notes. I didn't know anyone whom I could pass it on to. Guess what, I got full Rs. 88/- for that over 20 kgs of paper!

Now after packing, loading on to the truck and reaching Bantwal, the real work started. I just helped moving the stuff inside the house. Rest all mummy would take care. I know it would take at least two more weeks for the home to be set up. I feel bad that I couldn't help much and had to leave for Mumbai the next day. At least I am content now that I could help them in shifting before I would move to US for higher studies.

A Talk by Dr. J. Francis

2009-03-24T02:37:00.003-04:00

Can only walking and not talking for years together make you famous? You must be thinking already that I am be crazy. Remember the movie Forrest Gump? He didn't walk though. But he ran. Ran for a cause. People followed him and joined him for the run. Now this was a movie!

I was privileged to attend a lecture last evening at the IDC audi. It was by a man who has walked all over the US, from the west coast to the east coast, from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast. Not just that, he refused to drive his car nor did he oblige to any offers of lift, holding a backpack over his shoulder and playing the Banjo. He didn't talk. He used his mime skills to convey people what he wanted. He did this for 17 long years. And what could be the reason you must be thinking. He wanted to convey the message of ill effects of oil spill, cutting of trees and message of love. During these 17 years, he managed to complete his Masters in Environmental science and get a PhD in Land Management with emphasis on Oil Spillage, from Univ of Wisconsin at Madison!

He is currently employed by US Coast Guards to work on legislation related to Oil spills and also named the UN Environmental Program Goodwill ambassador.

random post

2009-03-19T07:44:00.003-04:00

I have been pretty lazy these past 4-5 days. I have just put up some random youtube videos in my previous two posts. I have been half busy. Half because - I am not actually busy but still have work in hand. Now that is confusing. Most of my time is going on browsing the webpages of universities, the place, the visa procedures and pre-departure checklists!

I am enjoying spending more time in library these days. Mainly because the place is quite, neat and of course super fast wifi connection [I have a 'borrowed' laptop now :) ]. Sometime last year - I guess it was the spring semester when I and kunal used to spend almost 4-5 hours a day in the library. And then something happened and I totally stopped.

Yet another univ sends an offer today. Kenny says "When it rains, it pours" :)

Chaap Suey

2009-03-16T00:01:00.002-04:00

Have fun!

Updates from the last week

2009-03-11T01:07:00.003-04:00

Let me list all the things that happened in the last week here.

1. My hostel lost in the inter hostel badminton GC (though I won all my singles matches, our team lost :( ). I played one of the better games till date. My opponent was at 20 and I was at 16. Still managed to pull the winner. Thanks to the crowd support.

2. Was in Surat on an official trip from our lab. To collect some sample. It was an experience which I can never forget. Negotiating with the commercial tax officers and convincing that the goods that we are taking are purely for research and ofcourse waiting in the long queue of trucks at the toll gate :(

3. My sister gave birth to a baby boy :-) So I am officially a mama now! It'll be only in april that I can see the baby in person.

4. It is holi today and our mess is closed :( :( Had to rush to H12/13 mess for the breakfast before the guys go on rampage.

Okay now I need some colors and I am going out. They have a swimming pool sort of thing made and dragging each one of the hostel guys to that.

Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya

2009-03-07T11:51:00.001-05:00

Another nostalgic video ;)

Delhi Visit

2009-03-02T09:15:00.006-05:00

So in my previous post I had written that I would be in Delhi. I am back to Mumbai now, the place that I like the most, not for it being all that cosmopolitan, but for its climate. Delhi was COLD. Before I could get down from the train (yeah I traveled by the Indian railways!) I caught cold. Later in the evening I had an ice cream which furthered the running nose problem. Didn't carry any moisturizer or vaseline which has left my skin particularly lips in a bad shape. Not that I am too concerned about it - but the lips really hurt and I am not able to stretch it much while eating or talking. :(

While my first north-Indian shaadi was a blunder - at least I felt it was too chaotic, with baraat arriving late in the night (as late as 12 !) and people got drunk and were dancing like crazy amidst loud music. Rest all was fun.

I could meet some of my seniors and batchmates. All well settled and busy with their lives. Went out for coffee and had long discussions on all the topics under the sun. Also I could visit the Bahai temple, also called the Lotus temple. It was a nice experience.

I carried the Peter Medawar's 'Memoir of a thinking radish' along - which was really a good read. Couldn't find the baraf pakora anywhere which was a disappointment.
So that is it.

2009-02-25T03:21:00.002-05:00

I am going to Delhi today. Hope to visit Karim's and other good restaurants, eat Ice cream Pakoras and more! Actually going to attend a wedding ceremony - also have to find time to meet other friends.

Three-day Weekend

2009-02-23T23:07:00.003-05:00

Movies that I watched during the weekend :

Delhi 6
The Reader
Billu ...
Milk
Definitely, may be

A long weekend and that is why the long list :-)

Innovations in Media, Learning and Personal Expression

2009-02-21T23:34:00.005-05:00

I could attend yet another talk on friday. This time it was by Prof. Barry Vercoe, a professor at Media Arts and Sciences, MIT. It was on "Innovations in Media, Learning, and Personal Expression"

As the website says,

"BARRY VERCOE is Professor of Music and Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT , and Assoc Academic Head of the Program in Media Arts & Sciences . He was born and educated in New Zealand in music and in mathematics, then completed a doctorate in Music Composition at the University of Michigan. In 1968 at Princeton University he did pioneering work in the field of Digital Audio Processing, then taught briefly at Yale before joining the MIT faculty in 1971. In 1973 he established the MIT computer facility for Experimental Music -- an event now commemorated on a plaque in the Kendall Square subway station. ....."

He was talking about the kind of work that they do at the Media lab and demonstrated some of the innovative works which started at the Media lab.

Of the many statements he made - I like this particular one. "When you make something Good, try and give it out to people as fast as you could". Open source scientific community on the longer run can do wonders.

He was talking about the accomplishments of Media lab in terms of the products that they bring out to the market. It seems they have designed a scooter which can be folded, carried inside a train - just like any other luggage, work and then unfold your scooter to ride back home!

Another interesting thing which he told was about the greeting cards. We have already seen the cards which can play music but how about this idea - you have sent out invitations to all your friends and they come up with a card which can play the birthday/occasion song ONLY when ALL the invitees turn up to the party. This way you can convince everyone that you ought to attend the party else you'll be the spoilsport. Fundoo isn't it?

The main attractive feature of the talk was about the Directed/Projected audio technology. Whenever we have a loudspeaker, it is intended to serve the entire public inside the hall. What if one person wants to hear something different from what the other person wants to hear, without using any special external aid like the headphones etc. With this directed/projected audio we can make things possible. What actually happens is this - You generate a sound exceeding the frequency of 60 kHz (which the cats, cows and even humans can't listen to). The molecules in the medium, which is air in our case, breaks up to produce another sound, of lower audible frequency, as a byproduct. The advantage of this kind of system is that, the beam of sound - on the lines of say lazer, which is really narrow and can be directed to limited number of audience. For example, say you are in a dance floor and only you can hear the music while someone watching you from far off can only see you dance without any music.

The commercial application for this technology can be in Automotive Interiors, say in a car. Where each person sitting on different position/seats want to hear different music, on full volume. They can have this directed/projected audio system and enjoy the music without disturbing the person beside you.

Besides he is also part of the One Laptop Per Child project. He displayed the laptop which is low cost, rugged, smart, having a display screen which can work even in sunlight. He says - this project will give every child a sense of ownership and a platform to explore new ideas.

Interesting isn't it?

Cultural Evenings Plus Interesting Talks

2009-02-19T05:31:00.005-05:00

Last 10 days or so were eventful ones for me. Attended weddings, top quality cultural events, distinguished lecture series and talk by highly renowned people.

1. Sapari's wedding in Pune. I could meet most of my old friends and made some new friends.

2. As a part of the ongoing International Seminar on Language, Mind and Social Construction, the HSS dept. had organized cultural programs in the evenings on all the days of the seminar.

There was a Kathak recital by Ms. Jonaki Raghavan and her disciples. It was simply an extraordinary performance. Jonaki was very good with her expressions and abhinaya. Extremely pretty looking Jonaki, danced gracefully to the sounds of sitar, tabla and mridangam - enthralling the audience all the way. Her students also did a great job by supporting her during the performance.

Next, we had a lecture by a versatile person, Shri Sriram Parasuram. He spoke about the melodic structures in the Hindustani and Carnatic music forms - 'Ragas at Play'. He is supposedly the only person in the country to have mastered both the Hindustani and Carnatic music and has earned a doctoral degree in music plus an engineering degree from VJTI Mumbai plus a management degree from IIMC! Isn't is something now? He spoke about how we can visualize the seven notes in music to be represented by a circle divided into seven equal parts and young girls playing the hop and step game on it. Similarly, we can compare the singing of ragas, the ascent and the descent, to a flight of stairs. While climbing up, we usually miss some steps - while climbing down we generally land on each step. This is exactly how the ragas work - he says. He kept us entertained for three hours with his practical examples and correlations. A sweet voice he has and an amazing command over the field.

3. Another cultural program was organized as a part of the ongoing lectures at the SRC school of Experimental High Energy Physics. This time it was an Odissi dance recital by Ms. Dipali Tikam. Dipali has had 14 years of formal training in Odissi dance and started learning at the age of 8. It was treat to our eyes to watch her perform, especially the intricate and acrobatic movements that requires high level of concentration and training. The expressions and abhinay was worth watching.

4. A lecture by Mr. Owen Berkeley-Hill on Lean Management. Though I am not a management guy, I thought of attending it. It was part of the School of Management's lecture series. The speaker has 40 years experience of working in the manufacturing sector. For 35 years he worked for the Ford Motor Company in a wide variety of roles - customer service, process reengineering, strategic planning and IT management. The profile definitely impressed me. He was a great speaker - with good humor and lot of technical knowledge. He was talking about the ways of reducing the 'waste' part and increasing the 'value' part, how the five S funda worked, on various brand names which had their names big but eventually failed, the causes and consequences. In all, it was an informative lecture for me.

I am glad I have the opportunity to attend all these high quality events/lectures while in the campus. Will update more soon.

Blur

2009-02-17T11:27:00.004-05:00

My entry for the photo of the month competition at Cuckoo's page. The theme for the month is Blur. This one was taken during the inter-hostel table tennis competition at IITB. It was the finals, Tansa playing against H4.

Dost Ki shaadi

2009-02-16T23:54:00.004-05:00

I attended a wedding last weekend. It was of my friend from college. The ceremonies were held in the Maharashtrian style. It was something new for a south Indian. The first thing that striked me was the use of mic for introducing the family. There was actually a compere who was reading out names out of a list. It was more of an entertaining wedding for all of us (south Indians).

Unlike South Indian weddings, here the groom and the bride exchange their mala (or garland whatever) first and all the guests are asked to go and have the lunch. Once they are all gone, they take the saat-phere. Also the wedding ceremonies generally last for more than one day. That is not the case in south Indian weddings.

I have another wedding to attend next week. It'll be in Delhi. This time it is a north Indian wedding. Lets see what is in store for us.

Ticketing Blues

2009-02-13T01:04:00.004-05:00

Booking a railway ticket in India can be a nightmare sometimes. Especially if you are planning to travel during the summer (the vacation time for kids). Earlier, and we still do, standing in the long queues at the railway stations for tickets . Online bookings came as a blessing.

Today morning I woke up with an alarm kept at 7 am just to book one ticket, 90 days in advance. I had the details of the passengers pasted in a notepad along with the credit card info so that I can save time by just copy pasting the info whenever required. It seems the IRCTC website, is operational for booking only after 8 am.

I could fill in all the info required by the website and then comes the message 'Unable to retrieve information or communication failure'. This happened not once but again and again until I gave up.

Last week when I tried to book one, similar thing happened and by the time I tried again, all the seats were booked and I got a waitlisted ticket numbered 296!! This was just 10 mins past 8 am then.

I had read it somewhere that when IRCTC first started their service, they seriously under estimated the traffic. It immediately became a hit and people gladly started using the online facility. More recently, they even removed that option where we had to enter our photo id information - giving more flexibility. But somewhere something is wrong in the system. They need to upgrade their servers bigtime to handle the traffic.

Cellphones Now and Cellphones Then

2009-02-12T04:25:00.003-05:00

One of my friend got a new cell phone connection recently. That is when we had a small debate on uses of cellphones. I had read somewhere that the cellphone was voted as the best invention of the 20th century. Most of you would agree with this.

Way back in 2002, this very same instrument was considered a luxury item. Middle - class families couldn't afford to own one. That was when PCOs were in huge demand. I still remember my hostel days when just one person in the entire hostel owned a cell phone. Being in first year, we were taken in queues till the hostel office PCO by our hostel supervisor and then walked back to the hostel just to avoid any ragging related incident. Better, when we were called using the public address system (PA) - DS 2 Hitesh, Phooooone or CG 2 Ankush, Phooooooooooooooooooooone. Sometimes you have the confusion with the similar sounding names. Like this DS2 and BS2; Hitesh and Jitesh. Both of them running down to the phone and fighting out that it is his call.

Over the next one year, not only did each of them had their own cell phone but some also had multiple phone numbers. One dedicated to the girlfriend (which had a free sms facility) and one for family (which has a cheaper STD call rate).

Of course, later with internet in hostels - the craze for cell phones has faded but still remains as the non-detachable body part :)

going to the graduate school.. :-)

2009-02-10T00:17:00.003-05:00

I will be finally going for my graduate studies. Got the email on friday that I have been accepted for the PhD program at **** university. Really excited about the offer. Though there was a bit of confusion regarding the funding, it is clear now that I will be fully funded thoughout my study.

Will write more about this later. Have some deadline for today evening.

Nostalgic TV ads

2009-02-06T05:36:00.003-05:00

I was watching these old television ads some days back. The 1989's bajaj scooter ad, Cadbury's milk chocolate - that lady dancing on the cricket field, Doodh doodh doodh dooodh !, Schoool chale hum... The Nescafe ad, the Goldspot ad, the Fevicol ad, Nirma ad, Ujaala.. and many more.

In those days, we as children eagerly waited for our favorite ads to be shown on TV. At least I did. It was a nostalgic feeling to see them again, this time on a computer screen with much lower resolution. Who cares!

After MNS in Mumbai it is Ravan Sena in Mangalore!

2009-01-26T12:24:00.006-05:00

I just read about the attack on a pub in Mangalore. As I see the video of the incident this evening, where the goons are attacking the girls at the pub and literally bashing them up, I can't stop myself from saying 'F*** you Ravan Sena!!'

We go around boasting that we live in a country where there is lot of respect for women. I doubt that is history now. We are slowly inching towards the Islamist culture where they treat women like trash. God save this country!!

First the Drama and then the Real One

2009-01-18T23:24:00.007-05:00

I had some rice and dal for the dinner. Before going to bed I decided to call up friends who were to run with me the next day. It was my first time in Mumbai marathon. I set the alarm for 4 am and hit the sack.

I open my eyes to see it is already 8 am. Oh my gosh! I missed the run. I trained all year just for this event and I let it go away. I was angry. Wondered how could I miss the alarm, both on the table clock and the cellphone. Was it that I ate too much last night? or because I slept very little the other day?

I wake up all of a sudden to see it is only 3 am. 'Thank god!'. I didn't take much time to realize that it was a dream. Unusual enough, I woke up one hour before time. Got all my things ready and headed towards KVV's place. Kenny was to join us from the main gate.

Reached Azad maidan. I kept my bag at the baggage counter. Stuck my bib number to the jersey and tied the chip timer onto my shoes. It was crowded. By the time we reached the start point, the race had started already. 15 mins late. Kenny went ahead with her friend. I was with KVV and his brother. We started slow and ran a constant pace. It was my first time, so I thought it's wise to stay with these guys who have run here before.

First few kilometers was fun. Loud music was being played. Radio channels had their speakers on. There was a band named Khiladi playing their soft number for us. There were others who were playing dhols, drums and we tried running to their rhythm.

As we went past chowpaty, our body had warmed up. My body had become an automatic 'machine' by then. I had set the pace and it'd go on. I was happy that my body was responding to my call. Soon we crossed the peddar road - the descent. I knew when we come back after the 10 km U turn, it's going be a daunting task to climb that thing again. It was almost 1 km climb. Luckily we had worked out well for that part. Our regular hill climb in the campus helped a lot. At the 16 km mark I decided to take a sip of water. Just to water my throat which had gone dry by then. The body sweat had dried up and you could see a layer of salt on my skin. I felt as if I had just returned from a sea bath.

At the 17 km mark, we could meet Kenny who was all the time ahead of us. At the 18 km mark, we could overtake Mr. Anil Ambani. He was swamped with photographers and journalists blocking our way. You can see that photo here. I am in that red shorts right behind him. On to my right is KVV.

Past 20 kms, I had a feeling of sprinting. I immediately felt a sense of cramp on my right thigh muscle. I decided against sprinting. It is better to finish the race at a slower pace than stopping 10 meters before the finish line sitting injured. It was a great feeling to reach that finish line. Even greater feeling that I didn't walk. I crossed the finish line and clocked somewhere near 1 hr 50 mins.

Someone had said - You have conquered the unsurmountable.

Goodie bag!!

2009-01-14T23:25:00.005-05:00

The contents of the Goodie bag that I got for registering for the Mumbai marathon. Most of them are crazy stuff. There is one 'Skin Whitener for men', a 'Tomato soup pack', a 'Sugar-free pack' and many more things. I wonder if can use all these during the run.

Or may be that whitener is for those who have their skin tanned after running in the hot sun. Now I get the logic! :D .

After all they 'care' for us..!!

Marathon preparation

2008-12-31T04:07:00.001-05:00

Running has become a daily routine for me this semester. I wake up at 5 dot irrespective of what time I went to bed, what temperature it is outside or what food I take for the dinner. I feel proud when I finish my daily chores after my running even before my other neighbours wake up. You suddenly get this feeling that you have all the time in the world. I can clean my room, read the newspaper, browse the internet and do some academic related stuff. My dad used to tell me always that someone who wants be successful in life has to wake up early first.!!

I am currently reading this book by Haruki Murakami, a novelist, 'What I talk about when I talk about running'. Kenny lent me that book. The author starts off with his personal life experiences - how he opened a bar and then one fine day decides to start writing a novel, how his sedentary lifestyle forced him to take up running and so on. Interesting read.

He goes on to say - what are the things that keep your mind busy while you run. For a moment even I was wondering what is that I think while running. Is it related to my work or friends or family? Well, I don't remember it. Haven't given much of a thought on it. It is just like how I don't remember my dreams. He also mentions that running is not for everyone. If you like running, you'll continue doing it no matter what. If not, you know the answer.

Running 10 kms a day, five days a week would keep you ultra fit. Provided your food habits go hand in hand. I am preparing for the marathon and hence follow a particular schedule. Each day involves a different set of training. One day in the week would include the hill climb which is roughly about 1.5 kms long but the climb is fairly steep. We are lucky to have that hill within the campus. Doing four of such climbs would suffice to keep your muscles toned for the rest of the week. You also need to do weights along with the run for the power.

17 more days for the D-day, the mumbai marathon. It has been only 5 or less times that we have actually completed more than 18 kms at a stretch. The full 22 kms will be run on the race day only I guess.

Pink City - 2

2008-12-27T01:00:00.000-05:00

City Palace

Guards guarding one of the gates

I liked this one.

Chokhi Dani - 1

Chokhi Dani - 2

Chokhi Dani - 3

Cold And The Pink City - 1

2008-12-19T03:17:00.000-05:00

It seems the winter has arrived. But not in Mumbai though, where the daily average temperature is still around 30 deg C. I expected the mercury to dip in the early hours of the day (that is when I go for the run), nothing of that sort has happened yet.

North India is reeling in cold weather these days. For a much-awaited-break I went to Jaipur last weekend. Traveled in Garib Rath, which has relatively cleaner and well maintained A/C coaches. For my last minute plan, I managed to get a Tatkal ticket for one side while a normal waitlisted ticket for the return.

I had googled beforehand to learn about the temperature of the place and was well prepared with few warm clothes. Jaipur is a relatively clean city. Wide roads and believe me - No traffic jams. Anybody posted to Jaipur, please be happy that you don't have to wait for hours to travel a distance of 10.256 kms.

The city is indeed painted pink and aptly named the pink city. I heard from the locals that the government sponsors the pink paint for all the buildings within the city. No wonder it is still a pink city. I was trying out different settings and tips on my 12X camera from my photographic lessons that I took the night before leaving mumbai. The importance of shutter speed, aperture, ISO settings, image depth and so on. And it did work quite well for me.

I was staying with my friend somewhere near Durgapura. It seems it is very close to a railway station. We started little late after our 'brunch' that day. Some Rajasthanis and also gujaratis have their lunch very early, or rather their breakfast, very late. Either of them missing. You'll have only two meals a day.

On the right it is the tonk road. This is sometime around 11 in the morning and you can see the kind of traffic.

On our way to Amber fort, we passed through the old city. The shops were not only colored in pink but also name plates were written with the same font, color and size.

Just as we were heading towards the fort, I saw the Hawa Mahal. It is located in a place that you tend to ignore it easily. I almost missed it. I was also expecting to see many camels on the streets but I could spot just a couple of them :-(

Hawa Mahal

Jal Mahal

Jal Mahal was another beautiful 18th century monument. It seems it is a five storey building whose four storeys are submerged in water. It is on the lake Mansarovar.

Amar Jawan place

I don't remember the exact name of this Amar Jawan place but it was another beautiful monument right in front of the Sawai Madhav Singh stadium.

I expected Amber fort to be painted in pink. It wasn't. It seems it was totally surrounded by water earlier and now much of it has dried up. There are three different routes for the climb. One by foot, the other two are for the elephants and vehicles respectively. It looks spectacular with the blue sky in the background. The entry ticket is Rs. 30/- while you need to pay an extra Rs. 50/- if you want to carry a camera along. There is also a concession for the students - Rs. 10/- provided you have a valid students I-card.

While climbing I met this guy who was selling these dolls.

A monument near the Amber fort

Amber fort as seen from the Jaigarh fort

From Jaigarh fort you can have a clear view of the entire city. Not only does it have this huge Canon - Jaivan stationed, which is the world's largest canon on wheels, it has several small museums hosting artefacts from the times of Sawai Madhav Singh and his family.

The puppet show at the Jaigarh Fort

The puppet show was another popular attraction at the fort. As we can see there 'll be two people behind the screen who manage the strings and make the puppets dance. At the same time you'll have another person playing an instrument.

Jaigarh fort

Jaivan - World's largest Canon on Wheels

City Palace, trip to Choki Daani, Technology park and many more in the next post..!!

Acquaintance with Mumbai

2008-12-03T02:41:00.001-05:00

My association with Mumbai started sometime in december 1996 when daddy decided to take us (me, sister and mother) along with him for a conference here. It was then I was awestruck looking at those brilliant architecture around the CST area. I had read in my textbooks that India was ruled by the British and Bombay was their important part of their province. I could see every bit of it in those buildings. The fast moving local trains, the double-decker bus, the vada-pav, the gateway of India, Chowpatty beach, Essel world and then the flock of pigeons as shown in the movie 'Bombay'. It was these that I wanted to see first.

Over the days' time, we did see all of these. We declared that it was indeed a fast moving city. Everything moved so fast - trains, vehicles and people. At least for someone who is from a calm and green city like Bangalore, this city was a shocker.

Later when I went to college in Surat, I had to pass through Bombay everytime I came from home. Sometimes we changed trains there. Some other times we simply glued our face to the window in our compartment to admire people in large numbers on the railway platform waiting for the next local train.

After many years I am back in Mumbai. All happy. Trying to match the frequency and be one amongst them. Traveled in local trains and the BEST buses. I loved going outdoors to meet N number of my batchmates/seniors in the city.

Come november and all these stopped. The plans of visiting the CST area just to have a bite at the Baghdadis restaurant, going to the sports shop near the metro theatre, buy some books at the flora fountain have all become a distant dream now. The recent attacks on the CST, the Taj, Oberoi have put a full stop to my thought process of thinking of going out of the campus gates.

Hope the equations change and I can relive my dreams...

Made for each other

2008-11-24T22:56:00.000-05:00

Conversation between a Sadist and a Masochist:

Sadist: I am gonna hit you. NOW!!
Masochist: Please do it..

Made for each other.. What say?

About visiting my college and reliving those good old days

2008-11-19T22:56:00.000-05:00

I had been to Surat couple of days back. It has been ages since I wanted to visit my old hostel rooms, sit on that pmc, have a sip of coffee at the galla and then chat at the senti-pulya.

Left mumbai by Ranakpur express. This train takes almost four hours to reach surat which is decent. There was this Tamil family in the same coupe with two kids who were jumping all over the place like monkeys and a good four hours of entertainment. It turned out that the other passengers nearby also spoke tamil. Each one giving a smile when the kid passes some wierd comment. Like when our train passed through Vapi, an industrial town, this kid yells at her mom - "Why do they produce such noisome odor. Are the people inside dead already?", much to our amusement.

Reached my destination on time. I was fascinated to see that Surat has actually changed a lot. Posh looking public transport buses have started plying. In fact you have this full fledged bus stand with a person constantly speaking on the mic giving valuable information regarding the bus timings. I got into one of them after asking for Ichchanath stop. It went through the bhagal market, chowk, Athwa gate and then apna SVR. All through the journey I could associate every stop with some old incident. Like the bhagal market for petty purchases, my first cycle repair, getting the gas cylinder filled etc. Chowk bazaar for the jhapa chicken restaurants, Chappan-bhog sweetmeat stall and tibetian momos. Athwa gate for the Dhiraj Sons shop, mysore cafe and of course SCET gals. And then finally our Eiffel tower at parle point, roots, Sugar 'N Spice and then the Sargam shopping complex where we bought number of technical IDs to please our seniors, bucket and what not.

I was jittery before entering the main gate for I knew only one batch of the current students there. The ones who were in their first year when we were in the final year. I was also apprehensive if the security guard would stop me. Nothing of that happened. I walked past the gate like any first year guy would. I had contacted one of my junior beforehand and had everything arranged. So didn't have much of a problem. The campus looked cleaner and greener. I had heard from others that there were more things that is in store for me.

On my way to the hostel I met Shekar, the canteen guy. He was still the same lean fellow and cribbing to marry sometime soon. He offered to give a lift in his splendor bike from the canteen to H6 which was little more than 100 mtrs but I gently refused his offer. Now I walked into the hostel trying to look for every small place which I can associate with my stay there. Indeed a lot had come up. Renovations galore. Thanks for the recent multi crore funds that the institute had received. Internet connection to every room, hot water bath facility (at least now guys find a reason to bath), new furnitures and scribbling boards in each and every room. For a moment I felt I wasn't in the same hostel.

Next morning I decided I 'll go and play a game of badminton with Datta sir at the SAC. Guess what, you have a international standard synthetic court which has replaced the wooden badminton court. Besides, a new air-conditioned gym has come up with state of the art equipments. I could just awe at these facilities.

Later during the day I finished all my work with the academic section and decided to visit my old rooms in all my previous hostels. I asked one of my junior to accompany. There was a glib denial expecting expulsion for the offense of visiting a freshie. I didn't have to worry about all that and simply walked inside my rooms. It was nice meeting all the kids who were now staying in those once-dilapidated rooms. All with bright shining eyes and our future engineers. I am glad I visited them.

It was dusk already and also the time for me to leave. I am not sure if I can visit the place again but the juniors rock. They were there besides me all the time while I was there. Thank you guys :)

It was a nostalgic feeling like and my eyes were moist for a moment then. I am glad I could relive my old college days at least for a day.

Lakh-Pati For A Week

2008-11-12T01:50:00.000-05:00

We went to the market. Asked for some stationery items. Paper reams, pens, pencils, ruler, markers, glue, folders, calculators, scissors etc.. The list got over. I am worried. I wanted to buy more for I had more money than was actually needed. Yes I had to spend 4 k on stationery and that too in a single day. It happens sometimes that we have funding and it goes back to the funding agency unutilized.

Next monday happens to be the last day for using up all the money. Guess what, there were guys discussing whole day as to how to spend Rs. 1.5 lakhs in a week. Taking notes on which one would come under which head and so on. Consumables, equipments, TA - DA, running cost.

I have the responsibility of buying a weigh balance within this week. I need to work hard to get the quotations, run around to get the right person and the right thing. Finally get all the bills submitted on time. It is a mountain of a task especially when you have a time bound.

2008-10-13T15:34:00.000-04:00

Attended a talk today. During the question answer session, this bloke asks how does one chill out after a hectic session. The speaker replied, let your mind to simmer for a while, let it ferment and get adjusted/ get readied for the next task.

The speaker was an entrepreneur and was talking about his journey from a IIT grad to a design professional to an entrepreneur. He mentioned only about the positive side of the story hiding out the struggle he must have gone through during the initial phase. Keep yourself occupied and don't worry about the immediate future. Keep yourself focussed on what you always wanted to do and your mind will gather all the energy required to move in that direction. Quite true.

Weekday and a holiday

2008-10-09T03:09:00.000-04:00

October has arrived and let me continue the tradition of posting at least one post per month. Lots of things happening. I have so many things to write but no inspiration. :-(

Five reasons why I like this October is -

Loads of holidays this month. Most of which I don't even know the reason for. I follow the kannada calender which has six official state government holidays
Was part of the Ramzan fasting month. Which means daily trips to Md. Ali road for Iftar feast. I have got big holes in my pocket. It'll take some time before it gets back to its original shape
Navaratri season is on. Which means garba/dandia in the campus. Thanks to my friends in Surat who taught me the dance. Rains in Mumbai made it even more eventful
Trip to various Durga puja pandals at various places across Mumbai in the institute bus. Singing/listening to bangla songs all the way. It was indeed a memorable trip. Reminds me of my Bengali connections in surat.
Got my first paper published!! :-)

Current read: How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michael Gelb
Current music: Instrumental (sarod) on loop

Trek instead of run..

2008-09-14T04:37:00.000-04:00

I had to go for running along with my friends here. It was all planned, exchanged emails and all set. It was a 10 km run and guess what, I had to cancel my run. Read on..

I went for a trek on saturday. It was an instantaneous plan. At least I came to know at the very end. Group of friends from the other hostel had decided the place and googled for information as to how to reach, where to reach and stuff like that. They had planned for Bheemashankar. Fortunately this place is also amongst one of the twelve Jyotirlings in the country and also the source of the Bhima river. It is considered as a difficult trek by many.

We started off from the main gate at 5 in the morning. Actually I was supposed to go for a run at six in the morning with my friends but cancelled it in the last minute. We reached Karjat by around 9 am. Did some shopping here, biscuits, fruits etc. We also filled bottles of sugarcane juice which was good idea. We took a state transport bus to Kasala from where we boarded a rickshaw to Khandas village which is the base camp for the trek.

Our starting point

The inital route was simple but as when we climbed up it started getting tougher. It was just after rainy season and the moss had gathered over the rocks which made the trek streneous. We had be cautious all the time. I slipped an slipped again at places. It was not uncommon for others too.

Mukund had something to say

Pitstop #1

Suvajit with the cactus

Pitstop #2 (time for few photos)

The road wasn't very smooth

After we had climbed for say 2 hours or so, it started raining. The place was already covered with fog and with this rain the visibility had dropped to nearly 1 m distance.

It started raining

I had come prepared with my umbrella and shorts.
Others got wet and they did enjoy it. While we walked through the jungle we came across several small water falls and rivulets. We refilled our water bottles here, took breaks for nature calls and biscuits. We also found an old man selling tea for the trekkers.

Chaiwale chacha..

View of the village from half the way

Pitstop #3

Rains made it even more enjoying.!!

Low visibility zone. You can see how beautiful it is

This one was right in the middle of the jungle

We reached the top at around 2 pm after climbing for say four to four and half hours.

We were almost there. The lake on top of the hill

We took our lunch in the nearby restaurant. Paid visit to the main shrine. The best part here was that, there was no crowd and hence didn't have to wait in queues. Also we could pray for much longer time inside the main shrine unlike other piligrimage places like Vaishno Devi and Tirupati.

The final 120 steps leading to the shrine

On our way back we took a bus to Manchar and from there to Mumbai. Reached back to the hostel by around midnight. It was an amazing experience.

Teachers' Day

2008-09-05T12:13:00.000-04:00

It is true most of the times that we miss our teachers after we have passed out of the school/college. When I entered this professional world I realized that there used to be a time when someone always had a watch on me. He/She used to care for me. He/She listened to me, read what I wrote and had all the time in the world to explain to me the doubts I had. He/She led from the front and corrected me when I was wrong. Today is Teachers' Day.

At this point I can remember the famour Kabir ke dohe:

"Guru govind dhovu khade kaake lagav paay;
bhalihari guru apne govind diyo bathai."

Meaning: If you have your Teacher (Guru) and the God (Govind) before you at the same time, I would respond respond to my Teacher for he is the one who introduced me to the God.

Today my supervisor was felicitated with the Excellence in Teaching award for his selfless service in his field and the best part was that he was selected by his students.

There was a debate on the dinner table today on this topic. One of them was telling how he studied in a small rural village in the district of Basra in Chattisgarh. He went on to tell that his hindi teacher was a simple man yet a great person. He quoted his teacher's words "You (students) reflect us (teachers) in someway when you go into this outside world. Make us worthy enough that you were our student..!!". There is so much thought in this statement. For a young boy, this might not make much of a sense but now that we are old enough to see deep inside we realize how much depth this statement really has. When we speak something or when we put up an act, it all reflects how we were brought up.

I salute you all teachers..!! Happy Teachers' Day.

Roller Coster Ride

2008-08-28T23:06:00.000-04:00

What a week it has been.. Lot of things happening and I am running around places not knowing where to go and what to do. In the PDE class the prof. has zoomed past two chapters and I have no clue about it. The French class is proving to be esoteric to an extent where I was once the first bencher, but now giving all sort of excuses for not doing my homework and ofcourse sitting in the last row.

While this is the situation in the academics part, tansa has been doing wonders in the inter-hostel sports GC. Myself being the sports secretary, I have to conduct intra-hostel competitions, select the team and then be with the team while they play. This has bore fruits. We won our first match of the water-polo tournament. We won two matches in the Chess GC. Leaders in the Institute Debating League competition, as of now. And now we are into the finals of TT tournament. Tansa, being a researchers' hostel, is generally considered to be more oriented towards research rather than extra-curricular activities. And it came as a surprise for all of them that Tansa is doing so well in all these events. I take the pride in writing notices everyday: "Tansa has defeated H-7 in Chess", "Tansa beats H-3 in TT", "Tansa screws H-12 in waterpolo" and what not... People are getting more active and showing enthusiasm to play. Already I have received enough entries for the upcoming Volley ball and Carrom tournaments.

This time I could use my camera to the full extent. I seldom get opportunities to click photos. Everyone was happy to see them particularly the video of the post-match celebrations.

No wonder I am not following anything in the class: thanks to the events in the field. Sometimes I think and think again, which is more important? Is it the research or the games and sports? The research ought to get a higher priority and that is why I am here for. I have decided not to spend too much time on all these and get back to my original schedule of studies and research. And of course quickly.

Moving Woes !

2008-08-23T13:26:00.000-04:00

Shifting to a new place is always a headache. But the change is often refreshing. You get new neighbors, new view from the window and more importantly you can make more friends. I have moved to a new place today. I have shifted from a double seated sharing room to a single seated room. Not very far though. Just a floor above the old one. That way I didn't have to sweat out a lot while moving things.

Advantages of having a single seated accomodation:

You have your own personal space. You can listen to your favorite song, watch your favorite video and nobody to complain.
You can keep the lights on till late in the night and wake up whenever you want.
You won't have to worry about the other person locking your room while you are bathing.
You can eat your favorite food without having to shell out half of it to your roomie :-)
You won't have to worry about refilling the drinking water bottle even though you hadn't taken even a single sip from it.
You can come to the room any time in the night without disturbing others.
The cupboard is completely yours!

Having stayed away from home for almost six years now, I have got accustomed to new roommates, their daily habits, the sharing thing and what not. But I don't know, off late I am getting sick of these room mates. I am grown up now. I can very well take care of myself.

Yeh Kashmir hai..!

2008-06-25T12:04:00.000-04:00

I was in Jammu & Kashmir recently. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Yet, unfortunately, people step back when they actually want to visit J&K. My itinerary started off with visiting Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra and then moving towards Kashmir.

Day 1: Reached Katra by around 9 in the morning which is roughly 2 hours drive from Jammu. Every devotee has to register himself/herself the moment he reaches Katra. Register as in: name, place from where you have come. After that one can start their trek towards the holy shrine which is about 14 to 15 kms from the base camp. The road is very steep and takes 3 to 4 hours on an average to complete by walk. One can avail ponies if they want. Throughout the route you'll have to undergo mandatory frisking procedures which is quite irritating especially if you are carrying a baggage. You cannot carry any leather articles (belt, watches) inside the shrine, so better to not to carry one. Another helpful tip is that, avoid climbing stairs while going up. It is more tiring than walking on the normal flat road. Also after the Ardh-Kuwari shrine there are two routes to the main shrine. Take the new one, which is flatter and easier to tread. The old route is very demanding and not advised.

Day 2: Reached Srinagar by taking a taxi from Katra. It charges around Rs. 3800 for three in a Tata Sumo. We had our rooms booked in advance in a boat house. Booking in advance has several advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are that: you can simply land up in kashmir wihout any worries and occupy the rooms. Disadvantages: you'll have to pay more than the usual price. Yes it happened with us. We had to pay almost double the cost which the other familes paid who had hired the room after they landed in kashmir.

Typical interiors of a boat house on Dal lake

Dal lake

Boat house from the outside

On Shikara with a Kashmiri Old man who was our mobile guide.

We went for the Shikara ride on Dal lake in the morning. Many other shikaras would dash into yours to sell Saffron, jewelleries and what not. Don't entertain them if you want to actually enjoy the pleasant boat ride. The ride usually lasts for 2 to 3 hours. And in the second half of the day we could visit the Mughal gardens(five of them). Shalimar, Chashme Shahi, Pari mahal, Nishat Bagh and Harwan. We could also visit the shrine of Hazrat bal.

Shalimar Bagh: One of the Mughal gardens.

Day 3: Left for Pahalgam early in the morning. Reached by around 12 or so. You have 4 main places to visit nearby Pahalgam. One is the Aaru Valley which is beautiful and also its besides the Lidder river where you can go for White water rafting. Believe me, they charge Rs. 250/- for the rafting and it was a life time experience. With that cold water splashing on you all the time. Cold as in 4 or 5 deg C. And this was in summer.!!

Aru Valley

The lidder river. You can see the violently gushing water..!

Day 4: After Aru Valley it was time for the real Kashmir treat. We hired a pony to climb the hill and could see the Kashmir valley. It was superb..!! I am not getting any adjectives to actually express it. From there again we went to the Dabian valley and then one more spot (don't remember the name). Another tip on selecting the right pony. Try and avoid the young looking ponies. They are not stable during the climb and the older ones are very stable and you won't feel the jerks. In fact I had the bad luck of falling off from my pony as it was trying to overtake the other and doing all sort of mischieves.

Kashmir valley.

Day 5: Reached Srinagar airport and took a flight to Delhi.

Jammu & Kashmir is still very sensitive. I mean you'll find the military men at every 100 meters distance. It is supposedly for the safety of locals. They don't harrass outsiders either unless you are not able to prove your identity.

In all it was one wonderful break that I took from the hectic work schedule back in Mumbai. Need more such breaks for every two months :)

Busy-ness!!

2008-06-03T00:08:00.001-04:00

People are busy. Busy to an extent that they don't find time to peel an orange. Read this. It goes on to say that the modern mania to being feverishly busy, is sometimes a symptom of exaggerated self importance.

Swalpa Adjust Maadi..

2008-05-29T13:12:00.000-04:00

Let me come back to this picture later.

They say 'Sharing is Caring'. But is that valid all the time. When I was a school kid and was traveling in BMTC bus, I used to hate all those adults who ask for that non-existent third seat in a two-seater. Similar is the case in the Mumbai local train where you ought to oblige for the fourth seat.

Today in our mess I came across this unusual scene where two of my friends are sharing the same chair during their dinner.! I guess they been too much into this sharing business. :)

What's in a name.....

2008-05-23T12:20:00.001-04:00

The other day I was wondering how is that most of the names of cyclones that I have come across were all feminine. I searched on the internet and found some really interesting stuffs.

It seems the names of these cyclones are chosen from a list of names which are prepared years ahead of time. It is different for different regions. In the North Atlantic and Northeastern Pacific worlds, feminine and masculine names are alternated in alphabetic order during a given season. The gender of the season's first storm also alternates year to year. Six lists of names are prepared in advance, and each list is used once every six years. Five letters — "Q," "U," "X," "Y" and "Z" — are omitted in the North Atlantic; only "Q" and "U" are omitted in the Northeastern Pacific. This allows for 21 names in the North Atlantic and 24 names in Northeastern Pacific.

You can find the list of names here.

Some of the cyclones which were recently in news were Nargis, Gonu, Monica.

Today there was a light drizzle in the morning. So the rains are not far away. Need to unpack my bags and get the umbrella out. Yes, this one gifted to me by my Prof. (Kenny) last September when I lost my third umbrella.

Traveling eastwards..

2008-05-12T05:37:00.000-04:00

In continuation to my last post, I shall jot down few experiences during my various short-trips across India. Today let me start of with West Bengal. It was in the year 1998 and winter time when dad told us that he would take us to Calcutta. I was in class 9 then. I knew where Calcutta was, as I was pretty good in geography. As far as knowing my geography is concerned, believe me I knew the capitals of almost all the countries then. It is a different story that I don't remember any of them now.

Okay so let me not digress from the main theme. So we were to go to Calcutta. Dad had booked the tickets by Howrah express. If I remember correctly, this train used to start from Bangalore at around 12 in the night. Me and my sister we all excited for the almost-two-days-journey-by-train thing.

The train went via Chennai and there it stopped for 2 hours. The two berths in our coup were still empty. Right when the train was to leave two gentlemen came in looking for the seat numbers right next to ours. They were traveling upto Howrah, just like us. One of them was busy listening to his walkman all the time while the other gentleman was reading this book 'How to make friends?' !!

As the train chugged its way through Andhra pradesh, it started getting hot. We were traveling in the Sleeper class compartment. The train route through Andhra pradesh was pretty dull. It was just paddy fields all over. I used to wonder how much rice they produced and survived only on them. It was only after Vijayawada that I could see some really long bridges and wide rivers. It was Godavari and Krishna. It was in the afternoon time I think, we reached Rajahmundry. It was known for the ONGC refinery there and most importantly the long bridge across river Godavari.

It was then that my co-passenger, say Mr. A spoke to me. He offered me his walkman to listen songs. He had these two cassettes with him, one was of the movie Maachis and the other one of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It was a nice feeling hearing to that 'Chod aaye hum, woh galiya' song while the train was racing itself towards its destination, while we gaped outside through the windows. I went on to hear other songs 'Chappa chappa' and the rest. I was apprehensive about hearing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's album for I hadn't heard any Sufi song before. Mr. A insisted that I hear that and said it was a good one. And believe me it was really good. 'Afreen afreen'. These songs have had such a deep impact on me that whenever I hear that song, all those memories connected with this journey and of couse Mr. A comes alive.

The train was late by an hour or so. It went through Kharagpur station the next day which is believed to have the longest platform in the world. Another strange thing observed there is the tea that you get at the platform is served in earthen cups. Some two hours from there I guess we reached Howrah station. We all could see the renowned Howrah bridge from far. The station was too crowded as compared what it was in 1998. Yeah it is worse now in Bangalore.

We were put up in the Salt lake city area in Calcutta. We had to pass through the streets which had this tram tracks engraved within it. I have heard from my Bengali friends that the tyres of automobiles burst because of these tram tracks. The journey in trams was another nice experience. It is ideally meant for the couples who have all the time in the world to reach their destination. The nights were very cold, the temperature going as down as 3 degree celcius.

Next morning we thought we 'll go for a metro train ride. We went to this station called Esplanade . Ironically, right in front of the metro railway station there is this theatre called Metro. Initially we stood in the queue right outside this theatre for the tickets, far from realizing that it was a movie theatre. Only when some bloke came upto us and told that no tickets available for today and we can book for tomorrow, that we realized that we are at the wrong place. Metro rail is sophisticated. The train in itself was a sophisticated one. Once we are in, a recorded voice tells us which side the next platform comes, which is the next station and the best part is that it comes in Bengali, Hindi and English languages one after the other.

We went to the National Library and could see some really old scriptures. Of course it is the oldest and one of the largest libraries in our country. Later we took a stroll in the park street where you have these books available for sale on the footpaths. Later in the afternoon we left for Victoria Place and Eden gardens. Both the places were wonderful. Took lot of pictures but not the digital ones. I'll see if I can scan them and put them up here.

The food in Calcutta was one thing where I have few complaints to make. It has potatoes in every item and most of it is sweet. 'Mishty' as they call it. But 'Rosagollas' were good. And they use this sesame oil to cook which I dislike.

I wanted to visit many other places in Calcutta but time was short and I can still recollect that Cauliflowers are grown in the back waters across the highway leading to the main city from the Salt lake place. After that I always think twice before taking cauliflowers during meals.

On our way back from Calcutta to Bangalore, we took halt in Bhubaneshwar. I shall write more on this in the next post.

Travel..

2008-02-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

Every journey has its unique piece of memory attached with it. It can be either a song, a special dress that you wore or anything for that matter. But certainly those instances come to your mind whenever you come across a similar act.

I have been traveling ever since I was in 3rd standard. Thanks to my father who used to take me along with him for his national conferences despite the fact that I was very young. It was indeed a nice concept and the best way to educate your children. Children mature faster when they see the actual world outside and talk to people from different backgrounds also someone has rightly said that one can learn more by actually visiting places than reading about it in a book.

I initially thought of listing all the songs which take me back along the time, but for a while I felt it would be unfair if I miss anyone of those. Let it be where they are for the best reason.

'Heel'ing problem..

2008-02-20T04:38:00.000-05:00

I have been away from this blogosphere for quite some time now. I apologize for that. It is just that I am becoming lazier everyday, spending more time on Edulix and Gtalk. I have started attending classes in Aero and the Chemical engineering department to strengthen my basics. I am also learning Python programming language as a part of the Numerical methods course with prof. PR and MATLAB with Prof. MB.

I suffered a major injury onto my heel few weeks back while practicing the triple jump. It was a cold breezy evening and after the regular warm up, I along with Alok and Sourabh starting taking our jumps. It was just that I started getting my jumps right. The action was getting smoother. And then in one of the jumps I didn’t reach the pit and ended up landing right on the concrete lining around the pit. The impact of the fall was so hard that I got a shock-kind-of-feeling onto my knee. It was ridiculously painful. I reached the hospital to find out that I have the cushion around my heel punctured and I need to rest for at least a month.

As and when the days passed the injury didn’t agree to subside. I decided to put a full stop to playing badminton and running. I sat at home for a week, completely paralyzed. It was rather sad for someone who was so much involved in much of the physical activities.

But then recently there was this inter-hostel badminton GC. There weren’t many who could play badminton in our hostel. In spite of my injury I decided to play. And guess what we got the third place. We defeated hostel 5 and hostel 13 on our way to the semis where we lost to the freshies’ team.

Now again they say we have the inter-hostel athletics GC coming up. I guess I’ll participate in that as well and finally rest till my heel completely ‘heals’.

As soon as it is 6 in the evening I get this sudden rush of blood to go out to the field and play. I can’t laze around sitting back in the room and gaze at my idiot-box.

2008-02-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Tale of baby pigeon growing up only to be killed before growing up!!

2008-01-07T05:27:00.000-05:00

Today something compelled me to write. Writing was the last thing I would have thought of now. Let me start of telling you a story.

There used to be a male pigeon and a female pigeon dating in the window besides our room. It is actually a window for the toilet in our block. Pigeons are not new in hostels. In fact with the 'concrete jungle' growing, these birds have found shelter in the attic of our houses and windows. The pigeons started building its nest, collecting all twigs and sticks from different places. They worked day and night. So this mummy pigeon one day laid her eggs. It was three in number. Mummy pigeon kept herself busy with incubating her eggs. Be it day or night, not even the freezing cold deterred her love towards her young. Out of the three only one survived and went to become a healthy pigeon. But it was still not ready to take her/his first flight. Days passed by.

Now another part of the story. There was a cat(pussy?) which surfaced from nowhere one day in our hostel. It used to linger around in our mess for the left overs and keep 'mewing' all the time. It started climbing stairs. Peep into people's rooms and grab away if any edible stuff visible. It was a dirty cat unlike other cats which keeps it self very clean by licking her/his body.

Last night the cat paid a visit to our block. Spent the whole night on an unused bedding dumped near the dustbin. Most of us in the block left for our work early today. When I came back to the room during the lunch break I felt like going and saying 'hi' to the baby pigeon. But this time the baby pigeon was not there. I could see the feathers all over. I peeped hard through the glasses only to see the body of the baby ripped off and lying in the pool of blood. Its claws separated from the body. A disgusting sight it was. The cat was 'mewing' as usual but this time with its stomach full.

Jeevan

The Camp has started

2007-12-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

The much awaited inter-IIT camp has started. As expected it has been very hectic and painful for most of us. Especially when it comes to short distance running we run a risk of injuring our selves when we overdo something. The initial hullabaloo over all that stretching and running that extra round has eventually faded away. Almost nobody is in a mood to give any time trials.

The training sessions starts as early as 6 30 in the morning and goes on up to 8 30 or so and the second one during the day starts at 5 in the evening and going up to 7. It is customary that the whole team goes for walk round the 400 meters track before starting the actual warm up run. Whosoever manages to come later than this has to treat the whole team with a mug of fruit juice in the canteen. Five rounds of the field and we are all warmed up.

This is where we practice

The close up

Preparing the ground

Fitness of every athlete is of utmost importance when it comes to athletics. Each one has his importance in the team. IIT Bombay had won last year's athletics championship and has a tremendous pressure to retain the cup. Needless to say, we have the home ground advantage. The grounds have been readied according to our requirements. Some parts are yet to be rolled and leveled but the authorities are confident that it'll be the best inter-IIT ever considering the golden jubilee celebration year which also means the budget for the whole event is nearing one crore!!

As a part of sports kit, each athlete would be getting a pair of running spikes (yeah it is weird when it comes to throwers who don't use it), track suits and jersey.

The food for all those attending the camp has been arranged in one of the hostels and is definitely better than what it used to be on normal days. Breakfast includes a fruit juice, egg/omelet, bread butter/jam. Chicken is served during the dinner.

The jingle song for the IIT Bombay team has been the Mr. Lowa lowa song from the movie Ishq for a long time.

We had this opening ceremony the other day when all the coaches of different sports spoke. Every one spoke on how we need to train, keep our selves fit and work hard and blah blah. But one person who spoke said 'I don't believe in talking!! '. The message was very clear by then.

Hope all the teams perform to their best and we win the General Championship for this year.

90s revisited...

2007-11-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

I found this on some else's blog. I thought let me post it with my comments in red. It applies well to anyone who has spent his youth in the 90's.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You know you grew up in India in the 90s when...." is a group in facebook. And it is hilarious! Everyone of us should be able to relate to more than one of these!!! Have fun! :-)

1) You know the words to 'In-pin-safety-pin' and 'akkad-bakkad' by heart :

2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Kapil Dev/Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly

3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics

4) You've watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
Sorry Shaktimaan :)

5) You have some 'NRI' relatives.
Nope not yet. Hope I won't become that relative

6) You couldn't wait for it to be December so you could have the Toblerone chocolates your NRI relatives brought you
N/A

7) You watched Cartoon Network, and then the late night movies on TNT that came after Cartoon Network ended.
The Popeye show

8) You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie

9) You were THRILLED when McDonald's opened in your neighborhood (or even eight kilometers away)
Surprisingly, the first time I went to McD, was in Mumbai, October 2007 with Noel
10) Your first burgers were at Wimpy's or Nirula's.
N/A
11) A visit to Pizza Hut used to mean a special treat

12) You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each
Yes!!!
13) You still remember the theme song to Hum Paanch.
Yeah, also of DD-2, with Tu-Tu-Main-Main, shriman shrimati, marshall, tehkikaat, Chandrakanta

14) You have played hours upon hour of Pukdam-pakdai, oonch-neech, kho-kho,'Doctor,doctor, help us!', 'Lock and key'
Lagori, Book cricket, Pen fight....

15) You have played 'Uma Joshi' more times than you can remember.
who is Uma Joshi?

16) Dog 'in' the bone was your favorite co-ed game.
Unfortunately I have studied in a boys school all the way till 12th :(

17) Much of your free time in school was spent playing UNO.
Learnt this game while in hostel during the engineering days.

18) You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
Hitman rank 1, Undertaker height 7 ft 11, Yokozuna highest chest and weight. Hulkhogan- highest fights fought.

19) Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents

20) Your parents, at some point, told you 'Dark Room' was a bad game to play. But you still loved playing it.
Which game was that?

21) Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!
Yellow yellow dirty fellow

22) You know the song 'Made in India' by Alisha Chinoi
Alisha rocked.. 'Mujhe na chooooona, dadada dadada da...' :)

23) You have seen many many many episodes of 'Antakshri' on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Anu Kapoor.

24) Amy evenings have been spent watching little kids gyrate vulgarly on Boogie Woogie on Sony.

25) You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
Yeah I had a computer when I was in 4th std and I remember playing Prince, Helicopter and Dave

26) You learnt LOGO in school!
I was expert in it

27) You couldn't wait to start 4th/6th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!

I could use the pen when I came to 7th. I still have that ink pen that I used that time and it is still working.

28) You often terms and phrases like 'kutti', 'abba', 'same to you, back to you, with no returns', and 'shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.'
and for someone from Bangalore it was 'nayi baala, kudre juttu'

29) You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized singing songs in mustard fields like in the movie.
I remember watching 'Qayamat se Qayamat tak'.

30) You have seen David Dhawan and Govinda movies and laughed at them.

31) You have said 'haw' or 'haw ji ki pwji' when you saw people kissing in English movies
late night Zee MGM movies waiting for that non-existent kissing scene.

31) You have seen Titanic at least 12 times.
Not really..

32) You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
There are people who still think that :)

33) You remember the Orissa cyclone, even though you didn't know what a cyclone was.
I remember very clearly the clips showed on TV and also the Surat Plague

34) You remember the Gujarat earthquake very clearly and could possibly tell everyone EXACTLY what you were ding when the earthquake occurred.
Yes.

35) Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols. You just wanted more more more and more. And how can I forget Hot Wheels, for both boys and girls?
I didn't have any of them.

36) You have worn Osh-Kosh B'gosh and United Colours of Benetton clothes while growing up. And you thought 'imported' clothes were definitely way better than 'made in India' clothes (never mind that a lot of clothes brought from overseas by NRI relatives were actually made in India, before 'Made in China' started appearing on EVERY existing thing)

37) You know the words to 'Posham Paa', and like it better than 'Oranges and Lemons' even though you'd sing the latter to sound cool (see 32 above).

38) At some point or other, cool was your favourite, and therefore, most overused word.
Cool...

39) Captain Planet was your first introduction to environmental consciousness.

40) You have tried to convince people around you to not burst crackers on Diwali, and then gone straight back home and burst them yourself.

41) You have had endless packets of Parle Gluco G biscuits, and of Brittania Little Hearts biscuits.
I still have Parle-G after my running practice.

42) You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
And the cheap cream bun and cream roll also from kaaka's shop

43) There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
They are still there..

44) You have probably consumed more Frooti in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq.
or Rasna and Gold-spot

45) You watched Baywatch on Star World even though (or because) your parents said you shouldn't watch it.

46) You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting Tazoa. And you had Tazos depicting everyone from Confucius to Daffy Duck to Daffy Duck dressed as Confucius.
With Boomer we used get this tatoo.

47) For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road, and the Contessa was cool because it was bigger.
Yes

48) You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!

49) You spent a good part of 1998 drooling over the Hyundai Santro and the Daewoo Matiz , debating which one was better.

50) You used to chew Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tattoos.
Also that bubbling add.. Boom boom boomer

51) Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand, forehead, wherever.
Nah!

52) You thought Mario and Tetris were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
Even Dave

53) You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
Oh! I had Atlas Concorde.. The racing wala type. I was only in 4th standard and used to cycle it all the way to school. The best part was I wasn't able to touch my feet once seated.

54) You can imitate Sushmita Sen's winning gasp to perfection.
Nah!

55) You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
or the chain with 'cool' spelled out on it.

56) Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, KKHH actually make sense to you.

57) You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.

58) If you lived in Delhi, you went bowling at Essex Farms, or Go-Karting at 32nd Milestone and couldn't think how you could get any cooler than that.
Fun World and Jumbo Circus

59) Baskin Robbins ice-cream was THE thing to have!

60) You know what Campa Cola is. And you also knew that Coca Cola was THE drink.
First time I had Coca Cola was in Goa in 1994 and it wasn't out in Bangalore then.

61) When you would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and really think that Undertaker had 7 lives and he made an "actual" appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka Khiladi.

62) When all backpacks (or 'schoolbags') and water bottles and tiffin boxes had strange cartoon characters that were hybrid versions of seven or eight different characters, and you still bought them, because a green man wih a water pistol, boots, a jet-pack, Johnny bravo hair, a rajasthani mustache, gloves, and underwear (long johns) over his pants, called 'Mr. X' was OBVIOUSLY a status symbol.

63) You remember the Nirma tikia jingle.
Washing powder nirma, doodh se safedi.... also char boondon waala ujaala

64) You remember the Nirma girl.
Yeah, everytime her skirt used to fly upwards slightly.

65) You remember the 'doodh doodh' ad and also the 'roz khao andey' ads.
Doodh-Doodh to me is the best TV-ad I have seen

66) You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much coller than reading Tinkle.

67) Towards the late 90s (1998-99) at least some of us started our Harry Potter obsessions!

68) You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you wnet to Mumbai! "Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!"

69) You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
Everyone saw BQC

70) "Jungle jungle baat chali hai, pata chala hai. Chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai, phool khila!"
90s Classic! Yay for Rudyard Kipling and Doordarshan adaptations!
Sundays had to have mowgli, Uncle scrooz, Balloooo and yeah Chandrakanta ki kahaani..

Tag time..

2007-11-22T01:43:00.000-05:00

I found this simple game on Indicaspecies' blog. It is fun.

Two names you go by (besides your given name):
1. Baretto (Friends at the hostel)
2. Baka (engineering college friends, after my eating habits)

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Black running shorts (am in my room)
2. White sleeveless T-shirt

Two longest car rides:
1. Mount Abu to Jodhpur (200 odd kms)
2. Bangalore to Ooty and return ( 500 odd kms)

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Travelling
2. Eating.. ;)

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. Sleep
2. Reco ( yes, have been waiting for it for quite a long time now)

Three animals you have or have had:
1. Tommy (Labrador at home)
2. Chikku (our pet pig while in Mangalore)

Things you ate today:
1. Uttappa (breakfast)
2. Bread-butter with milk (breakfast)

Two things you are doing tomorrow:
1. Experimenting on an experiment (during the day)
2. 5 Sets of 150 mtrs after the regular warm-up (in the evening)

Two favorite holidays:
1. Holi (fun-time in the hostel)
2. Ganesh Chaturti (get loads to eat on this day)

Two favorite beverages:
I don't take Tea or Coffee :(

100 in 12..????

2007-11-22T01:20:00.000-05:00

For someone who isn't acquainted with the terminologies used on field, it is going to take some time to digest what an athlete refers to when he says I did it in under 12. Yes, you might say 12 for 100 isn't a great achievement. Most of you might be wondering what is this 12 and 100. What is the unit or is it just a random number. Similar was the case with my friend AK.

Our mess was supposedly closed-for-diwali last week. AK was there for my rescue. He was of the Never-have-breakfast-in-the-morning types. Likewise he had to face the brunt of me dragging him all the way to the mess at the appropriate meal times.

On one of these dinner times, he asked me "Hows your running thing goin on?". "I could do it under 12 today !", I said.
"How much distance?".
"100".
"Ohh 100 kilometers?".
"No no its 100 meters only".
"So you could complete in 12 mins??"

Now what was that? Three of his friends at the dinner table who were following our conversation burst out in laughter. One of them yelling at him "he's gone crazy today!!". "kuch zyada padhliya kya?"

I agree with what we had studied in school. Units are very important. But not all the time. Sometimes they are.

Celebrating Diwali with a difference

2007-11-18T00:19:00.000-05:00

It was long time since I had gone out somewhere with friends. It was Diwali and more importantly a holiday. I didn't want to go to beaches nor was I interested in visiting Gateway of India. My ex-roommate had mentioned about Haji Ali and its whereabouts. So this time we, group of school friends, decided to visit the Mosque.

The entrance to Haji Ali mosque

For me it was a special day. I am a christian, it was a hindu festival that day and we were about to visit the Muslim holy place. I chalked out the itenary using Mumbai navigator. I found Byculla was the nearest station on the central line to reach Mahalakshmi. We took a taxi and reached on the minimum fare.

It was the first time I was visiting a mosque. The most interesting part I found there was the number of women without the burqas on. Also it wasn't commercialized unlike most of north Indian hindu temples. I can't forget my experience of Puri Jagannath temple in Orissa. The place was neatly maintained and has a beautiful view of the sea.

Our mess was closed on the occasion of diwali and we were left no option other than either crashing into some other hostel mess or have it outside. We chose the former.

Ande ka funda...

2007-09-23T15:17:00.001-04:00

I found this one in the window next to my room. Pigeons had it unattended for a while and I grabbed the opportunity to take a snap!!

Tomato + Ganesha = ??

2007-09-10T10:43:00.000-04:00

I found this tomato which looks like a 'Ganesha' ... Isn't it?

P.S. Apparently Noel has put it up on e-bay for an auction !!

Photography competition !!

2007-08-26T05:33:00.000-04:00

There is Photography competition coming up this week. And the theme for the first event is Water. I was at the Powai lake last evening trying hard to capture that water-splashing picture. Every time something or the other used to go wrong until I got one good photo. I started at around 6 30 and by the time I got the final pic it was already 7 30. My friend, whom I had taken along to throw the stones, was really frustrated. Every time I either don't zoom properly at the splash or click after it had splashed. Finding the right size of stones to get the right splash was another issue. People around us must have been wondering what these guys are upto.

This one was the first one taken.. completely missed the splash.. The waves have almost died out.

Here I could capture some waves along with the splash..

This was good splash.. but I missed the main part.. didn't focus well.

This on went awry..

Out of Focus..

The best one I could capture till now..

I 'll go this evening again to try my luck..

Jeevan

Work Place...

2007-08-15T12:52:00.000-04:00

The term 'Responsibility' has such a an intense meaning especially when it comes to professional life. Each one of us are responsible in his/her own way. While we study in the college it is indeed demanding for one to completely understand this term. When I entered the industry each one of us were given certain tasks and made sure that we complete it in time. I was put in the Central Control Room where one needs to be vigilant all the time. I was given all the powers to take decisions. The 1.4 MTPA alumina refinery was running on my instructions. Well this may sound cool but imagine that something goes wrong or some equipment goes dead. The production is affected and I will be the first one to be put into question. Why did such a thing happen. What was I doing all that time. Why didn't you take any action well in time. Yes all these questions have been raised and I have passed through all these tests. It is a challenging task to answer your superiors unlike submitting a tutorial notes assignment of Reaction engineeing of the seventh semester of Chemical engineering.

There has been number of incidents involving tank overflows and pump cavitations but it is all about how one handles the situation is what matters. That is where I learnt the real meaning of 'Responsibility'. Any say...

Some more rantings...

2007-08-11T04:27:00.000-04:00

There was this convocation ceremony held for the batch of 2007 yesterday. Most of the passed-out students had come in their formal attire along with their friends and relatives. It was nice to see all of them. Unlike me most them chose to attend it. I had not attended the convocation during my time. During my convocation I was in Delhi busy with work. I still regret that I missed it.

Later in the day during the dinner time I could see many of them with their parents. Their son leading their way and helping them getting their dish. Seeing all this I missed my parents very much. It has been a long time since they have come to any of my home-away-from-home. Last time they came was when I was finishing off my BE in Surat. Missed them a lot this time.

I have not filed my IT returns yet and the last date is already gone. I still don't have my PAN card. :-( I had gone out cycling to the Hiranandani area nearby to get my PAN card done today. There is this UTI bank where you can get it done. It seems it'll take 15 more day for it to be processed.

It is difficult for someone who stays in the clean and green environment of IIT to cycle his way in that polluted and snarling traffic roads. It took me almost 20 mins for that 2 km stretch.

While returning I met Shekar on my way and we both decided that we'll go back to the same area and spend sometime having pastries. We went to the Bells and Ribbons cake shop and had two pastries each. It was yummy and sweet and chocolaty..... ummm

Who is it anyway?

2007-08-09T09:37:00.000-04:00

It has been almost two months since I've joined IIT. I have been meeting many interesting people around here. I could also meet many whom I had met sometime early in my life. Like this guy from IISc (don't remember his name though !!) had come to the lab to meet his future room mate in the Univ where they he had got into. Another one was AS whom I had met during my training in Mangalore, surprisingly he has registered for PhD here.

I was with an impression that my memory is kind of weak and I keep forgetting things. I keep forgetting my umbrella and other things in the weirdest places that I can't trace it back and this is perfectly in support to my low-memory-notion. But that turned out to be false when I could recognize these guys after such a long time and the best part was that they couldn't recognize me which was pretty obvious.

Now moving on to other things. I was reading about Reunions in some article recently and I thought let me share some of my experiences about it.

Reunions are meant to be real getting together sessions where you share and exchange lots of things as to what is happening on the other side of the working-wall. There have been many GTs in the past that I have been part of but very few of them turned out to be that enthusiastically active reunions.

Tomorrow is the convocation for the passing out batch here. It seems LNM is going to be the chief guest..!!

Accident hogaya...!!

2007-08-06T14:27:00.000-04:00

Today Joyline had come to the campus. It seems she's been kept on bench for a while with an MNC nearby. She called me up by 1 and told that she'll be at the main gate by 1 30. I agreed to pick her up at that time. Later when I came to the room to check for new mails, I had this mail from my prof that there would be a meeting at 2 30.

I decided that I'll have to bunk the meeting else I'll be guilty of not fulfilling my promise which I have been making since weeks. I met her at the gate and took her to show the lake from the Guest house, the new hostels 12/13 and of course Tansa.

Finally by 2 45 I sent her back in an Auto and rushed to the S2 bay for the meeting. In the process I met with an minor accident. The cycle is intact but injured my wrist.

Not finding enough time nowadays to blog. Hope to come up with more updates.

Jeevan

Updates..

2007-07-30T12:38:00.000-04:00

Life is getting more challenging now. The definition of work is changing. It is more of involvement and thought process in a package.

Last week when I was at home my sister was curious to know about my new job. They all started laughing hard when I gave my reply. I told them that I reach the lab by 9 in the morning and first thing I do is sign on the attendance register. Then sit on my seat and THINK. Think and think until you feel that you have thought enough to be paid for that day..!!

The project status is very dull. The road seems to be bumpy with almost zero visibility. And this rainy season is making it worse. I am still not in a position to define my model completely. And my professor knows about it. But ultimately it is on me. "Do whatever you want, beg, borrow or steal... I just was the results.."

Today we had a two hour long discussion with our professor. Lots of possibilities discussed and the immediate task assigned.

I have been asked to deliver the responsibilities of a Teaching Assistant for the Final year students. I am not sure as to what extent this will help me in building my CV but I have accepted it. Will have to spend 6 hours a week to teach CFD simulations in the Reaction engineering course.

So here I quote..

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

Back pain blues...

2007-07-28T00:41:00.000-04:00

Like any new person to the campus I too was impressed with the lush green lawns and the facilities we had with respect games and sports leave apart the other things. Ever since I passed out of my college I couldn't find a place where I could play Badminton. Obviously I was thrilled to find the wooden badminton court in the Gymkhana here. I asked people around for the timings and rules for playing out there. The next day, I was in there with my kit and full of enthusiasm.

Badminton is a kind of a game which requires endurance and stamina. It appears to be very simple and effortless to someone who is new to this, but only when one plays the game knows that it isn't so. Everything matters. Your movements, your muscle power and coordination (in case of a doubles game).

Last weekend I was in the court playing my natural game. I think I over-stretched for one of the points and pulled my lower-back muscle. When I came to the room I realized that I have injured my back severely. I was not able to bend down what so ever. I could either fully stand or sleep, nothing in between. In fact when I was done with my food I couldn't bend at the wash basin to rinse my mouth. It was worse the second day. When I approached the doctor I was referred to the Orthopedic. The X-ray was taken for the pelvic region and was found that there no fracture anywhere.

It was a relief to hear that. I was told that it was only a muscular pull and nothing more than that and also I can continue playing..!!

I was back on the courts today and back with a bang. I could win all the matches that I played this morning and was careful enough not to over-stretch..

Security checks

2007-07-18T23:50:00.000-04:00

I didn't know how the metal detectors at the security checks work. I asked one this security personnel himself as to how does he come to know if someone carries a bomb with him. He replied "it'll start making loud noises and then we know he is carrying a bomb". To find out to what extent was it true I found this on net.

Metal detectors can do more than just detect metal.... You can read more here

Wikipedia defines Metal detectors as this.

We need to educate people, especially the security personnel themselves about this, to ensure that there are no security lapses and proper action can be taken whenever required.

Rain is such a pain - 2

2007-07-17T12:48:00.000-04:00

I lost my third umbrella last week. I think I kept it somewhere in the seminar hall during the workshop and have forgotten to collect it. Or may be I 'd have kept it in the department. Or is it that some desi chor has flicked it from my room. I have poor memory.

I bought this Chata for Rs.125/- at the students' store last month. The previous one I lost was at the Narayana Nethralaya in Bangalore and the other one at the engineering college.

At the eye hospital, when my turn came to see the doctor I went in with the chata in my hand holding it tight. Mummy had instructed me specifically not to lose it. The doctor put some drops onto my eyes and I totally forgot about this Umbrella thing.

At the college I lent it to someone and couldn't recollect who it was.

Now whenever it rains here, what I do is wait till it stops and make sure it doesn't rain till I am at a safer and a dry place and then move on !! It has worked till now. Mumbai rains have been reliable till now and hope it'll be for some more time.

So this time when I went home last week, mom and dad were asking about the rains here. I didn't dare to tell dad about the Umbrella lost. While talking to mom it just slipped out of my tongue and guess what she told me not to buy an umbrella ever else you 'll lose it the same day!!

Recent Movies: Little Miss Sunshine, Eight Below, Cheeni kam, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind, 50 First Dates.

Workshop at KReSIT

2007-07-11T09:55:00.000-04:00

I was part of the workshop on Advanced Distillation Process and Reactive Distillation throughout the last week. The fees for registering for this event was Rs. 7500/- for students. I requested my prof to allow me to attend this lecture and hurray I could attend the whole course for free. And guess what, every afternoon a grand luncheon at the Vihar Guest House was included in it.

I must be thankful to Ankur, from whom I bought this comp. and now moved to Bahrain and is scheduled to join UPenn soon, who told me about this workshop and gave me such a wonderful idea.

I was a bit apprehensive if I would be able to follow the lecture. I went around in the hostel searching for the text book of 'Mass Transfer' from 'Treybal' or any book on Distillation for that matter simply to brush up my knowledge on Distillation. Didn't find any. Last option left was to ask my prof himself. I went to him and he was pleased to lend his book for that week.

The lectures started at 9 in the morning everyday. We had two sessions in the first half and a practical session in the second half. It was all video recorded and would be available in the IITB Distance Education website soon.

Many things like the RCM and RD part was interesting. It must have been incorporated in the UG level course.

I could meet many interesting people during the whole course of the workshop. There was this prof from NIT Rourkela, I don't remember the name that well but it was some Aggarwal, who went on questioning speakers with no apparent logic. At one point of time he pointed towards the decanter in the Reactive Distillation lab and says why is the condenser split half the way !!

And there was this another person from Bangalore who was busy taking photos all the while. This guy opens his Nokia 6600 handset in between the lecture and starts clicking left and right. It was made very clear in the beginning of the session that it was video recorded !!

This one taken while I was introducing the Aspen Plus simulations.

This is the group which came in from various parts of the country.

Jeevan

Rains - 1

2007-07-08T12:04:00.000-04:00

This is the view from my third floor window..

Rain is such a Pain

2007-07-03T08:50:00.000-04:00

Rains are back in Mumbai. They say it's been an esential part of Mumbai in itself for a long time now.

I had been to the Factory outlets at Parel recently to buy a pair shoes for running and for the badminton. We started at around 3 in the afternoon and finished our shopping by 5. It was the wrong time we chose. Because :

1. It started raining really heavy then.
2. The local trains were extremely crowded at that time.
3. With two bags and an umbrella, it was difficult to board the train.

We had this Thane bound local train coming and expectedly it was 10 times its capacity. I told Noel to chuck this one, but he was hell bent on boarding that train. He said, 'this one is only upto Thane, if it was Kalyan it 'd be worse'. It sounded logical to me.

We boarded the train amidst heavy rains. It was so crowded that people almost killed me when the train reached Dadar. All those who wanted to get down at Dadar pushed me out while those who wanted to get-in, pushed me in. I was the sandwich in between. Somehow pushed my way inside and Counted every second that passed by till my station arrived.

It was so relieving when I got down. Decided it's not worth going all the way upto Parel to buy the shoes.

Dinner at Jon's Place

2007-06-11T08:29:00.000-04:00

I have tried to sleep hard these days. Often people find it difficult whenever there is a swing in shifts. Many reasons associated with it. One of the reason may be the change from Day to Night shifts. The other one, a major one, which I face is the telephone calls from people assuming that I am at work. That is the reason why half the time during a day my cell phone would be in the switched-off mode.

I was invited for a dinner at Mr. Jon Seem's place last night. It was the first time that I had ever had any meal with a westerner having a western food. I knew their food would have very little spice in it unlike the Indian food. I was prepared for it. As expected it was Spagetti and Chicken Curry ( he say so..) with French Cheese spread. The Chicken curry had this Chicken in it (of course :-) ) along with the Tomato sauce, ginger, garlic and salt in it. Literally it was only this. Peter helped me out by giving some tips on how to eat the spagetti. I had a tough time completing it. :-)

Watching French Open finals on TV and sipping beer. Discussing about trips to different places in the world and about the time taken to travel to Australia on different routes.

The occasion for the dinner was, I am quitting this company in three days time. It was sort of a farewell dinner. I am moving to IIT Bombay next week.

Happy Birthday Jeevan

2007-05-15T02:02:00.000-04:00

Hey finally completed 23 years on this world.. Yesterday was my birthday.. Very few knew about it.

Few who knew called me up... It was our HR department who keeps track on all the employee's birthdays n they are the ones who spread the news in my department. It was a grand celebration in the end. In the evening I threw a party to all my friends here.

Mogambo khush hua..!!

2007-05-15T01:40:00.000-04:00

I seriously don't know why I gave this not-so-serious title here.. I like that catchy phrase.

Someone said it rightly that ‘Never go by Looks’. People look very modest and might behave in the dumbest way you can ever imagine; but never take things for granted. We have these experts from Australia who look really old but behave very modestly. They observe things very carefully. Initially when I met them I was with an impression that the management is silly to spend around 10 lakhs per month on each one of them.

Mr. Peter is specialized in Operational maintenance and training. He is a jolly kind of person; whistling and singing most of the time. Last night the crusher unit got jammed and the whole refinery was on a standstill. Mr. Peter was relaxing in his cabin. I called him up and told that there was such and such problem. Guess what, he just taps his legs for some time and says ‘this was a short walk!’ He reached the site and in no time the problem was solved.

The other day in the control room he simply pushes the chair across and waves towards the chair to move further, encouraging. Also when there was an alarm he gestures to shoot (tishkun tishkun) them out..!!

Today I went to his cabin to listen to some music in his laptop and have some coffee. Started off a conversation with him and learnt that he used to train people in ALCANE, one of the largest refineries in the world. He then started telling about various aspects of operations and he had software with him, which had every detail in it with regard to the operation of a chemical refinery. He had so much of useful resources with him but only that the company is not utilizing them in time.

Proud to be 'south' Indian...!!

2007-04-19T20:38:00.000-04:00

Being a south Indian I have had an upper hand when it comes to learning a language. Every other person in Bangalore will be in a position to at least understand Tamil and Telugu while he can manage Hindi very well. Kannada being the local language and English, the official language, one can be capable of handling at least five different languages at a time.

My family hailed from the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada where Tulu and Konkani are widely spoken, and then moved to Bangalore a decade ago. Whenever I used to visit my native place, may be once in two months, I used to interact with people in their local language. Over the time I have learnt these languages and able to speak pretty comfortably.

All my education up to 12th standard was in Bangalore and I could get the brew of the colloquial touch in my speech. While many of the students in my class were Tamil and Telugu, I could learn Tamil and Telugu by hearing to these fellow students in class and while at play. We had Hindi and English as the compulsory subjects and of course were watching Hindi serials and movies on television.

Later when I was in the NIT hostels, in my first year my roommates were Bengalis. They preferred speaking only Bengali all the time. Pass comments in Bengali, Fight in Bengali and listen to only Bengali songs. One of them was from a Bengali medium and didn’t know Hindi, while the other knew a bit of Hindi. Now that I had to stay with them, I was forced to learn their language. Every time they spoke to each other I used to observe carefully and ask them what it meant. Slowly with time I learnt the language completely.

Now I am posted in Orissa. I knew that Oriya and Assamese are very similar to Bengali and shouldn’t have much of a problem in adjusting to the place. I observed people who spoke Oriya and got some of the word meanings clarified. With time I could speak Oriya too.

Last time when I was traveling in the company bus, there was this group of Oriya friends who were unaware that I could very well understand their language and went on commenting and having fun. The moment they passed a comment on me, I took on them and they were all embarrassed for what they did.

Once when I was in the hostel, during the ragging period, I entered this Tamil Nadu guy’s room. His senior was present in his room at that time. The senior asked the junior, who this B***** was. I replied politely that I was from Karnataka and in Chemical engg. Department. The senior’s face was a sight to see then.

No wonder my friends ask me how I knew so many languages.

Control Room

2007-04-14T12:06:00.001-04:00

Many times we find our selves in a situation where your presence is not acknowledged. I have heard from people that as long as a person is in power he is valued. The day he retires and visits his office he might not be received well from his so called own people. It is very similar to a situation when you end up being in a party where you feel most uncomfortable.

Why do we get into such circumstances? Is it that we get into such a fix with any reason? I find the answer to be YES. There are lots of expectations that we keep from people whom we worked with. Unknowingly these expectations don't turn up to be fulfilled.

Recently I had a change in my shift rooster, I was put to C group from A. The reason for the same was absurd and strange. I am a person who believes in healthy interaction and hence I used to talk very freely with the operators in my team. Fortunately or unfortunately I have only girls as my operators. It happened that one of the operators, say A, became so close that we used to move around together all the time. Be it lunch or dinner or for that matter travel sitting besides each other in the bus. People around us took it the other way. In fact even the senior management wanted us to be separated.

I know it isn't Bangalore or Mumbai where you can hang around with girlfriends late night. But here in the office, instead of looking at this as a boy and a girl relationship why can't we see it to be a normal peer relationship. Needless to say, I was changed to another shift which effectively meant I cannot meet this lady ever. It happened a month back and I am still in touch with her over the cell phone.

Today I was on my off. We have this system where you get three days off after every six days of 12 hrs each shift work. I visited my workplace where I am the lone shift in-charge. On usual days I am very much in demand. Any decisions to be taken, I would be one of the first persons to be consulted. But today when I went there, it was as if some visitor has visited that place for the first time and everyone had that dumb look on their face as if seeing me for the first time, sadly even A had the same reaction (later she gave a bland justification for the same though!!). I felt really bad and moved out of the control room immediately.

The system is bad. Or is it that the expectations were too much???