Rahul, My Story

Ancient Indian Astronomy

2009-04-20T14:26:00.004+05:30

Q1) What?
A) Ancient Indian Astronomy Podcast (Download Podcast)

Q2) Why Q1?
A) 365 Days of Astronomy

Q3) Why Q2?
A) IYA2009

The (N-1) Blogger Theory

2009-04-15T12:30:00.006+05:30

In my first year, blogging was very new to us - as is the case with anyone who has not experienced the "core" of Internet before. We used to read the occasional quality posts by SMR and Co. Soon, we began to blog. Why?

Most of them started out on philosophy, culture and other topics belonging to that category.
Others wrote about technical stuff.
Very few wrote with a dose(s) of sarcasm and humour.

My first post was in the Summer of '69 - yeah right, it was the summer of 2005. It went on and on about my likes and dislikes in a very childish way. Before I started to write this post, I went through some of my old posts and my gosh, how embarrassed I felt! A few posts later, the blogging fever went down because I just did not know why I started the blog in the first place. The purpose was missing.

And then came Wordpress, with an aim to destroy Blogger. Wordpress gave out accounts on an invitational basis, just like GMail, and so to have a Wordpress account at that time was like being at the top of the world. Rohith or Badri I believe was the first one in our batch to get one. Soon I was able to snatch an invitation for myself and thus came out my second blog. The stupid Wordpress administrator even created a Hello World post and a sample comment to that as if people were too stupid to even figure out how to blog a new post. This blog just lasted a month. Reason? NO PURPOSE.

My third, and definitely my final, blog came out with a Pilot episode (inspired by TV shows). I finally realized what I wanted to do. Blogging seemed to be a way to preserve memories, let out my frustration, make some people very, VERY emotional - see the following table, et cetera (Long long ago, before we published our first research paper, I used to have the habit of using short forms for certain Latin words like everyone else until my guide scolded me for doing so. Since then, I have been using et cetera instead of etc., namely instead of .viz, et cetera.).

Emotional on the following scale:

10) x-) (I LOVE YOU!!!)

9) :))

8) :D

7) :)

6) :P

5) :|

4) :(

3) :((

2) x-( (Sort of like ripping posters off my wall)

1) X-( (There will be blood!)

Enough of the background information. What is this so called "The (N-1) Blogger Theory"?

Disclaimer: The following is not a figment of imagination of the author. After observing the IIIT Blogroll for 3 years, the disappointed, and subsequently frustrated, author finally decided to let his steam off. So you, as a reader, should not attempt to relate yourself to this post.

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The (N-1) Blogger Theory

Given N bloggers, let the ith blogger publish a post at time t.
By time (t+delta), there will be 2*(N-1) comments (as pointless as the post itself) to that post - comment Cj by blogger j belonging to {N bloggers}-i and a reply to that comment, comment Cji, by blogger i almost immediately.
and Sum(Cj)=(N-1)=Sum(Cji)

Proof: Just check the IIIT Blogroll!

By the way, Blogger editor sucks big time.

Brown Leaves and White Paper

2009-04-09T16:00:00.001+05:30

Bicycle day

On April 19, 1943 Dr. Albert Hofmann intentionally ingested 250 µg of LSD, which he hypothesized would be at most a threshold level dose, based on his research on other ergot alkaloids. Surprisingly, the substance showed a potency orders of magnitude above almost any other substance known at the time, amounting to a much heavier dose than typically given in modern therapeutic use. After ingesting the substanceHofmann found himself struggling to speak intelligibly and asked his laboratory assistant, who knew of the self-experiment, to escort him home on his bicycle, since wartime restrictions made automobiles unavailable. On the bicycle ride home,Hofmann's condition became more severe and in his journal he stated that everything in his field of vision wavered and was distorted, as if seen in a curved mirror.Hofmann also stated that while riding on the bicycle, he had the sensation of being stationary, unable to move from where he was, despite the fact that he was moving very rapidly. OnceHofmann arrived home, he summoned a doctor and asked his neighbor for milk, believing it might help relieve the symptoms. Hofmann wrote that despite his delirious and bewildered condition, he was able to choose milk as a nonspecific antidote for poisoning.

Upon arriving the attending doctor could find no abnormal physical symptoms other than extremely dilated pupils. After spending several hours terrified that his body had been possessed by a demon, that his next door neighbor was a witch, and that his furniture was threatening him, Dr.Hofmann feared he had become completely insane. In his journal Hofmann said that the doctor saw no reason to prescribe medication and instead sent him to his bed. At this time Hofmann said that the feelings of fear had started to give way to feelings of good fortune and gratitude, and that he was now enjoying the colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind his closed eyes.Hofmann mentions seeing "fantastic images" surging past him, alternating and opening and closing themselves into circles and spirals and finally exploding into colored fountains and then rearranging themselves in a constant flux.Hofmann mentions that during the condition every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a passing automobile, was transformed into optical perceptions. EventuallyHofmann slept and upon awakening the next morning felt refreshed and clearheaded, though somewhat physically tired. He also stated that he had a sensation of well being and renewed life and that his breakfast tasted unusually delicious. Upon walking in his garden he remarked that all of his senses were "vibrating in a condition of highest sensitivity, which then persisted for the entire day".

About eleven months ago, Chelli and I visited Amma and Nana. During some random conversation which for some reason diverted to smoking, Chelli asked Nana if he had ever smoked and if he had, how was it? Nana said that he had never smoked in his life, but that did not mean his children should not. We, according to him, were old enough to make our own decisions about such things in life. See? The person who matters much more than certain individuals seems to agree with us! In all these 22 years I spent with him, he never conducted a Shivir for me. Anyway, upon hearing that, Chelli asked Nana if she could try smoking. Nana told her he would get her a pack to try out and asked me if I wanted to join her. Silly me, I was expecting at least a quarter of the feelings that Dr. Hofmann experienced and gave him a nod.

That evening, Nana on his way back from office picked up a pack of Marlboro (He actually asked the salesman for the "safest" ones to try). Chelli as expected chickened out. I however decided to go ahead with it after dinner.

I took out one stick and started to tap one of its end on the packet like they show in the movies.

No sooner had I started, the cigarette got bent in the middle. I then remembered Varun scolding Rohith for "spoiling" a cigarette when he tried a similar thing.

I flung the "spoilt" one away, took out a second one, put it in my mouth and lit it.

Now what do I do? I once tried breathing in smoke from a lit paper rolled into a dummy cigarette I made in my fifth class (Thank you HPS!). The experience was horrible, which was probably why I hated cigarettes until I learned they caused lung cancer.

I drew some air into my mouth and exhaled immediately. I repeated this one more time and still nothing seemed to happen. Was I high already? Definitely not!

Maybe I should have let the smoke stay in my mouth for a while to let the chemicals diffuse into my blood and then float me away into the heavens Saki often spoke of.

Nah, that did not seem to work either. How about swallowing the smoke? I often heard smokers use the word "drag". So drag == swallow?

WOW. I should not have done that. It was the same old fifth class experience! Either drag!=swallow or smoking sucks for an entirely different reason now, the sharp, stinging learning curve!

There seemed to be no one online in my GTalk list to ask for advice.

WWW? By the time I finished some stupid "How To Smoke for Dummies" manual, the cigarette was dead. For good.

I entered the house with a stinking mouth. Where are the chloromints when you need them the most? I tried washing my mouth WITH soap, TWICE and yet the odour persisted. It took around five hours for my breath to become normal.

Amma was obviously mad but by then I had already made up my mind to NEVER touch a cigarette in my life again.

Mix Karun Ya Phir Edit?

2009-04-07T11:01:00.003+05:30

Our juniors have failed us in yet another aspect, COPYING. Perhaps the value added education has dented their minds to the extent that they fail to use common sense.

IDIOT_1 pastes a version of an SE assignment he finds somewhere, in a Google chat conversation with IDIOT_2.

IDIOT_2 selects the entire text in the chat window, pastes it in a file, mixes/edits the content (reordering paragraphs, et cetera) and uploads that file for submission.

Below is the excerpt from the file uploaded.

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

m****h (IDIOT_1): thr

m****h *** is busy.

m****h: ?

a*****u (IDIOT_2): haan

m****h: abe idhar aaja ek assnmnt mil gaya hai

a*****u: abey ek assnmnt hai mere paas dede wo

m****h: usko edit kar dete hain jaldi

a*****u: mix kar doonga

m****h: tym ni bacha

a*****u: abey mixing aasaan hai rather editing

m****h: thik

Requirements engineering is helped enormously by methods that guide a practitioner in the task of identifying the requirements of the system-to-be. These are some of the roles which UML can play:- 1.UML editors are ubiquitous in the software industry, and many can be updated to recognize new profiles. 2.UML documentation of the requirements engineering process will sit more comfortably with all other UML documentation for a software project. For purposes of traceability between models, integrated documentation of this sort is highly desirable...

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

Comments are most welcome, LOL.

The One With The Day Care

2009-02-07T21:22:00.011+05:30

So we received the following mail from a certain Ms. Soma Paul. It took me 4 days to prepare myself mentally to comment on it.

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

Good News!!! There is a concrete plan to start a daycare at the institute shortly. A supervisor/teacher and one attendant have been identified. Your support and suggestion is welcome. We have listed the immediate requirements for the daycare and also some of the things that people have come forwarded and contributed. We request you to have a look at the list of requirements and let us know if there is anything that you can immediately contribute (things that are left over in your office or house). This will help us reduce our initial capital costs. Please mail us by this Saturday, so that we can plan accordingly.

One time requirement

1. wooden cupboards, 4 shelf with door ~V 4

2. Cubby hole (like mail boxes) ~V 16 cubbies

3. Low table,1 foot from the floor, 6ft x 4 ft - 1

4. Jute mat/ or any floor mat ~V 6

5. Sleep mat, like yoga mat - 8

6. pencil & crayon bowls ~V 4

7. low chairs or stools ~V 10

8. picture frames ~V 10

9. Book shelf, 2 rack ~V 2

10. Garbage bins ~V 2

11. 90 liter small fridge

12. Toys ~V like building blocks, kitchen sets, puzzles etc.

13. Games ~V carrom, Chinese checkers, chess, rolling pins/ball

14. One wall clock

15. First Aid box

Operational needs:

1. Towels

2. Paper tissues

3. Soap

4. Garbage bags

5. Broom & mop

6. Mosquito repellent

7. Bandages, dettol, cotton etc.,

Contributions made to date:

a. Soma - Fridge

b. Nagamani - books cupboard

c. Jawahar - Crayons

d. Kavita - Floor mats(8),toys/games, books, pictures (a few)

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

So here I go,

First of all, What The Bloody Fuck was that? Why in the name of the Holy Mother of God (@schweini :P) does IIIT need a day care? My best guess is that it is for the faculty's and administrative staff's children. It could also be targeted at PhD students with kids. But why? AFAIK, the idea of day care was conceived in the West because it almost always required (still does) that both parents work due to which the kids were left unattended. I would never approve of it though, under any circumstances. But what surprised me the most was that a college like IIIT - Oh I am sorry, what I meant to say was - a college under the dictatorship of a member of The Brethren of Jeevan Vidya, namely IIIT, was adopting a Western non-technical idea.

Here is a short, incomplete list of things that are shunned at IIIT,

Eating food outside college.
Eating spicy food, even if it is inside the college.
Doing anything that would lead to points (1) , (2) , (4) and of course (3). We open source people are too fond of recursive statements and names. :P
Sleeping late in the night.

To sum it all up, we are expected to behave like deterministic machines (and I happen to work in the field of Autonomous Multi Agent Systems, the irony!).

Also, there was a questionnaire given to students at the time of the admission (the link to which I do not have at the moment) which STRONGLY discouraged people who,

were interested in making a living after college.
wanted to lead a comfortable life.
wanted to have a good time during the 4 (+2, 3, ... N for those hardcore researchers) years they spent in the college. The batches can broadly be classified into 3 groups,

(i) batches before X, which left the college in a sad mood (they actually felt the college-student bond break).
(ii) the batch X, which left the college in a "tis the season to be jolly" mood.
(iii) batches after X, which will umm... run of out the college holding for their dear lives.

In my opinion, X = 2004 :)

Now anyone who really knows what JV/HV/HP/whatever is all about (basically a IIITian WITH a life), might be cursing me for makeing him/her read these stupid facts all over again.

My sincere apologies!

I just did not know any other way to put it. The one and only question that I want to ask through this post is, Are we so busy with our research and jobs that we cannot take care of our children? Especially when we are being "brainwashed" into living like "cultured/sensible" people (according to Their definition at least!), are we not being hypocratic here?

RoboCup 2008 Day Three, Four

2008-07-18T21:53:00.004+05:30

Scrambled eggs with pork today. So it was just bread and boiled eggs for us.
Had to go to the Expo Center early today for our presentation.

All the presentations went well, very nice ideas.

I feel Professor Takahashi's idea deserves the Aladdin Prize, will have to wait till Sunday to see who wins.
Met the team from Jacobs University from Bremen. They had implemented a flood simulator. Their team leader, Narunas (I believe that is the spelling) - a Lithuanian and a Top Coder, who apparently started working on it last month thereby putting us to shame (Not that we put in our 100% in the first place) - is a pretty cool guy. Then we met Nour, an Egyptian, from the same team and exchanged contacts.
We will get to work together in the near future, sounds very exciting!

Infrastructure competition was not received with the warmth that we were expecting. First of all, the stupid dance programs were creating a lot of disturbance and we could not really hear what the presenter had to say. No one really bothered about the complaints made by the volunteers, who tried their best. Finally we got into a small room which was OK. Also, all the agent teams were supposed to come to our presentations to see what progress was being made, etc. However, only a few team leaders showed up. They are the ones who decide which projects wins. None of them even came to see the demos after the presentations. They were too busy tweaking their own codes. We found this a bit discouraging. Yaso did tell us that this would happen. But then Sir had a point. There had been no significant changes in the server for quite some time now, so the agents teams had also become very passive about it. Hope to create a disturbance with the launch of our DDRRS in a few months :)
Simulation in general, as in Rescue and Soccer, did not get enough audience. People did not find the screens on which the games were projected, that interesting. True, even we got a bit bored after the second day, just watching the same old screen.

New measures have to be taken in making the event more interesting. Made some notes on that too.

Made a couple of rounds around other leagues. The small, wheeled robots are very cool. Good control, aim and speed. Very nice passing. The rest have become very boring now. 1 week is really long for such things. From next time onwards, IF there is a next time, I guess I will head out for "tourism" after the third day.

Homesickness is another thing that is killing me! Just two more days and I will get back to my home, sweet home :). Tried calling amma on the day we arrived. Unfortunately they did not have calling cards for India. Excellent!
Went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday. After some sign language, we finally got them to understand that we wanted vegetarian food. The waiter pointed to some rice rolls. I was trying so hard to control my laughter! He then told us that he would prepare the usual food minus the meat. Nice! The pizza, fried rice and spaghetti turned out to be good. The rice was different, fat and sticky grains but good.

On the way, we saw a worker holding out 3 dead tortoises for sale. Come to think of it, those dead tortoises were the first animals, other than humans, we got to see in China. And today we came across a pet store, LOL. I saw an Alsatian waiting in its cage to be bought by someone. Little does it know where it will finally end up :P. Did not come across any stray dogs in China, is the recent "ban" on dog meat related to this in some manner? :P

The seats in the auditorium are very comfortable for sleeping. There is good WLAN reception, so chatting is pretty comfortable too. The dim lights and the speaker's boring voice is enough to make one go into a deep sleep, as was the case with half the people in the room. The keynote address was very interesting.
Our paper got selected as a Poster in the Symposium and yesterday was our turn. They had the poster session running during dinner. Who the hell came up with that idea? As expected, people just went round the buffet table, filled their plates and went back to their respective seats. We waited for about ten minutes and then left to get some food. We spent about forty minutes waiting for someone to show up. But looking at the rate at which new dishes were being put up (formula: {pork, beef}{vegetables}* minus {spices}) it was clear that no one will ever show up.
Anyway, a very funny thing happened during the dinner at the Symposium. We could not find any dishes that "we" could eat. So we just asked one of the volunteers if there was any vegetarian food. This was how is went:

Us: Ni Hao! Is there any vegetarian food here?
Volunteer: Vegetarian? Is that Halal?
Us: No, vegetarian. Not Halal
Volunteer (She put a really confused look on her face): Uhh, what is vegetarian? Is that Halal? (I am not able to recollect the exact pronunciations :P)
Us: No MEAT. Only vegetables.
Volunteer (After consulting another volunteer): Sorry, no vegetarian. We have Halal though.

WTF.

We finally got to eat some french fries with popcorn chicken, chicken and macaroni salad with some curry made with corn. No second helpings, because those were the only chicken dishes available. Had some pieces of watermelon after that, awesome (Yes, even watermelon feels awesome now :D).

One thing that is very noticeable in China is the hospitality provided by its people. Apparently it is common only in Mainland China (NO, not MLC - Banjara Hills :D). The people try their best to help others out, which is very nice.
Went to an Indian restaurant today, Southern Cross. Had some Dal, mixed vegetable curry, naans and of course, biryani! Tasted good, given the fact that we had been living on biscuits and chips for the past three days. We finally got to see what a busy place as in a market looked like. The dormitory and Expo Center are very far away from the main city. So it is very difficult to go out.
Trip to The Great Wall is out, because there is not much time and Beijing is more than a thousand kilometers away. However, we will be going to the local sightseeing tour. And then there is a grand banquet dinner in the evening. Really looking forward to that, especially after the amount of hype Yaso has created :D.
Have to leave for the airport on Sunday itself because our flight is at 0800Hrs on Monday and the first bus to the airport leaves at 0730Hrs. =((

RoboCup 2008 Day One, Two

2008-07-16T19:18:00.003+05:30

Woke up on time, even though we were 2.5 hours ahead of IST. All those nightouts did pay off :D.

Breakfast was OK.

Bland scrambled eggs.
Bread and butter.
Boiled eggs.
The rest were too horrible looking to even try.
On the way to the "mess", I saw some kids ferociously training in the NCC way, can only assume it is for the Red Army.

The communication problem has become a big headache. People here just do not understand simple English. We are using sign language and specific keywords to make any sense to them. However, there are some people who do know some English.

China reminds me of America, the lifestyle here is so similar to that of the Americans. How ironic, given the diametrically opposite nature of the governments.

For example, take the road system which is "right" oriented.

Completed team registration and entered the exhibition rooms, and my first conference. Apparently the International Expo Centre at Suzhou (pronounced as Sew-Joe) is larger than the one in Hitex, which I have never been to.

Covered the entire ground in about 45 minutes.

RoboCup Rescue Simulation.

Some teams were already there, working on their codes.
Had the opportunity to finally meet Mr. Tomoichi Takahashi. It is a privilege to even sit beside him.

His team has come up with a component by which one can import Google Maps and thus use real map data for simulations.

Met an Iranian team for the Infrastructure competition. They introduced emotions for rescue agents which, as pointed by Harith is bullshit because robots are used for the very reason that humans succumb to their own fears and other emotions. We will just have to see what they have to say tomorrow.

RoboCup Rescue.

Real life scenarios, limited to finding the civilians placed at some places in the map. Interesting!

2D Soccer.
Virtual Reality Rescue.
Aibo Soccer.

Looked dumb, however some of the goal keeper's saves were cool.

Small Soccer League.

Small wheeled robots, quick, high speed passing including long balls, observable team work.

Medium Soccer League.

Big wheeled robots, a lot of "Cronaldo" behaviour (which means SELFISH game). Then again, it must be the teams right?

Humanoid Soccer League.

The smaller humanoids looked cool, well balanced.
The life size models required a person to hold on to its back while walking. Purpose served?

Water Polo with fish.

Unlike the original game, the ball in this game is never in the air. The fish looked a bit real from a distance, until the familiar sounds of whirring gears caught out attention.

Home Assistant.

To server us coffee, clean rooms and prepare dinner. Boring!

RoboCup Junior.

School kids putting their creativity at battles with one another in Rescue and Soccer.

Robo Dance.

By far the most pathetic competition. Maybe the teams are to be blamed because all I saw were a couple of robots simply rocking back and forth to some stupid beat while humans danced around them trying to make it look like everything is SO spontaneous.

Good Stalls.

Many commercial robot manufacturing companies showcased their products.
Got a cool poster from the RoboCup 2009 @ Graz (pronounced as Gratz), Austria stall.
Small demo of the NAO robot, looked nice. Apparently the usual price of one such humanoid is 10000 Euros. However, for the "sake" of RoboCup, they put up a special offer, "Buy 1, Get 3 FREE!".

Bathrooms stink! Well that will never be the case if the guys try to "aim" rather than you-know-what!

Some of the girls are very pretty, mostly Iranians and some Europeans too.

"Zee Germans" have pretty good physique, so it is not just Schweini! Well that kind of applies to all those Nordic descendants. A prefectly _straight_ point, no comments.

The food, OMG - where do I even start!

Fish sandwich, pasta (looks and tastes like crap), pizza (local bakeries in India bake better that these) and some Chinese buffet provided here, costing an average of RMB 35.

Walked around the Expo Centre (more than 2km) in search of some place to eat. The map was of no help to us because even the locals could not make any sense of it. Finally ended up eating at the stupid "food court" in the centre.

Living on stuff like biscuits and ice tea, SAD!

Might be going to an Indian restaurant the day after tomorrow, yippee!

There is a KFC approximately 7 minutes away and the nearest Pizza Hut is twice as far (McDonalds is much farther and Subway is not even on the map), so I guess tomorrow it will have to be KFC :)

The opening ceremony could not have gotten any geekier, with a Star Wars theme in the background. And then there were robot dances, lame!

2D Soccer looked really interesting, one particular team was playing a sexy short pass game just like Arsenal :).

Observed a couple of through ball passes made by actual robots, looked very impressive, although it was just a mathematical equation :)

Very weird people around.

The RoboCup Junior party hosted the day before kind of sucked because the electric guitar was not working properly. Apparently the person who was supposed to play it was really good at it.

Had some Lays chips for dinner, tried to swallow them with the help of some stupid tasting lemon ice tea - sucked!

These Chinese people have no extremes at all. I actually found "Blueberry" and "Litchee" flavoured Lays chips. WTF!!! Samba on the other hand would say, "Cool!". LOL.
Being a non-vegetarian, even I feel so repelled by the odours that come from their kitchens. I wonder how Sir is taking it =)). What is wrong with adding a few pinches of salt and pepper? All these people think that food must be tasted in its natural flavour, or else it must be sweet (Wrong sentence, lite).
All I could see in the lunch menu was pork, cow, sweet pork, shredded cow, duck, blah, blah.

Enough of complaing and LOLing for today. We have our presentation tomorrow. After that it will most likely be a trip to The Great Wall. I read a quote on men somewhere which went somewhat like this, "If you have not seen The Great Wall, then you cannot call yourself a man". LOL.

RoboCup 2008 Day minus One

2008-07-16T16:25:00.008+05:30

I am so in the BLAH zone right now that everything here for the next few days will be very discreet.

Bad journey.

Tough luck for Harith, this being his maiden flight experience.
Flight to Bangkok got delayed by an hour.
Why do all flights other than Air India to and from India are inferior to every other flight in the world in every aspect? I did not consider Air India because it is too fucked up.

Hyderabad-Bangkok - Food, environment and hospitality were pathetic.
Bangkok - Food was OK and the rest was great.

Bangkok airport is beautiful and HUGE. We had to walk a little more than a kilometer to get to our connecting flight.
Slept in the plane for the entire time.
Shanghai airport feels like a really big Begumpet airport.
Had to wait for 2 hours for the "special" RoboCuppers bus.
The bus then did not move for another hour.

Had to experience the humid climate of Shanghai, worse than Visakhapatnam.

Reached the dormitory 3 hours later.

Some Iranian team was too "busy" to reserve rooms in advance and so we had to stop at every damn hotel for them to check for vacancies. They finally ended up at the dormitory.
Saw countless men, and I repeat - MEN, just lying on the roads and lawns, without shirts. The reason became very clear the moment we stepped out of the AC bus.

The hospitality team is awesome, very friendly people.

Special thanks to a girl named Kenny (do not remember her Chinese name), who gave us a very warm reception and helped out whenever possible.

The dormitory room is excellent (Will update with pictures later).

Able to accommodate 4 people in a room, with all the necessary furniture, which is 1.5 times the single room in GHEB.
Attached bathroom and a very powerful AC, what more can one ask for?
Rent is RMB 180 (INR 1260) per day, which is pretty good for the quality of the room and service we get.
Had Oreo and Chips Ahoy! biscuits for dinner.

Slept peacefully after a very tiring day.

Speed Kills...

2008-06-12T00:00:00.001+05:30

Yes, we all know that! We have seen so many instances of it in movies and real life. Yet our know-it-all attitude always makes up keep the throttle wide open.

“Dude, watch your speed!”

“Dude, you cannot cut him off like that!”

Dude this, dude that.

“Oh come on! As if I do not know what the hell I am doing? I always take calculated risks. Do not worry about me mate!” is the usual response. I personally hate it when people tell me how to ride my bike. Valuable suggestions they may be, but they can keep those to themselves. People who have had the opportunity to get behind me on my bike know what I am talking about!

But one day, it just had to happen. For it must have been time that I finally learnt my lesson. A fine cloudy morning it was, with a cool breeze brushing against my face. I was gliding along on the smooth shiny tarmac between the Guest House and Faculty Quarters at around 40 KMPH towards OBH when suddenly a chipmunk, trying to cross the road, came in front of my bike. There was very little time to apply the brakes, and so I tried steering myself clear of the tiny obstacle. After passing the chipmunk, I looked back to see if I was successful in doing so. To my shock, the poor thing was lying on its back, shaking its hind legs violently. I jumped off my bike immediately and ran towards it, and all the time I was thinking, “It might just be the tail, or a leg. I can take care of it as a pet if possible!”

Little did I know what horror was awaiting me. As I approached the scene, I noticed blood oozing out of the chipmunk’s nose and right eye socket from which the eye had popped out. The black silky looking tarmac had now turned red. And all the while its legs, all four of them, were shaking violently in the air, its heart beating wildly, trying to pump as much blood as possible to sustain life for a little while longer.

I just stood there helplessly, watching the mother die slowly. The mother who was probably going back to her kids, to feed them, to play with them, to freaking BE with them! And there was NO bloody thing that I could do. There was nothing anybody could do.

A minute had gone by, and the mother’s twitching started to slow down.

And then it stopped.

It was my first road kill, after a decade of riding a cycle, a scooter and a bike. As I touched the body hoping to see the mother spring back to life, I felt the warmth of the blood inside and the softness of the now limp body. Eyes filled with tears, I picked up the lifeless body and placed it near a small plant.

By the time I reached my room, the cool wind had cleared my eyes of the tears. I was however left with a dent in my mind and heart, that no paint job could ever cover up. The upcoming Sunday will mark its 1 week death anniversary…

Drool Drool Drool!

2008-06-08T07:44:00.002+05:30

Following are some pictures of a few HOT babes I came across at Sea World, taken without their permission of course. So what if they feel violated, it is not like I will see such beauties up close in the near future!

1)

Yes, I was referring to bikes. These ladies made my day!

I think Robert Frost was riding this one when he wrote,
"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."

Very simple looking gauges on board

Just look at the chrome work, silencer and rear tyre on this one!
Owner is a lady, how cool is that!
Sexy metallic black, heavenly...

6)

7)

That is a big engine alright! And the paint makes me go oh lala!

8)

9)

Now that is a HUGE disc brake!

XBox 360 "Elite"

2008-05-30T09:03:00.007+05:30

6 days ago...

After 2 weeks of consistent pestering, I have finally managed to convice amma to buy us an XBox 360 Elite. It took me more than a week to crawl through the Internet to find the cheapest deals, finally landing on a decent deal in Sams Club (A wholesale store). I am not able to control the excitement, and I might not even sleep tonight! Rock on GTA IV tomorrow!

5 days ago...

Woke up late (Having not slept at all the previous day) at around 10 A.M. We had to wait for nana's friend because Sams Club required a membership and we did not have one. So I had to wait for 8 more hours and then, I FINALLY GOT MY XBOX! However, I could not find the GTA combo deal (Game+OST CD+Photo Album+Metal Deposit Box+T-Shirt with GTA IV print on the front side) in any of the stores that day. And the games that I got with the XBox combo, namely Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance were obviously going to suck (The main reason for bundling such games with consoles). I did not want to play Halo 3 having not completed Halo and not started Halo 2. Next on my list was Gears of War. I could not play it on my laptop because of lack of a solid graphics card and this game was pretty much available in all stores. So GoW for the next couple of days!

STRIP TEASE, g33k style, LOL...

STEP 1:

STEP 2:

STEP 3:

STEP 4:

STEP :5

STEP 6: Put my pinkie in my mouth and laugh at all my friends :D (Like Dr. Evil, for the ignorant ones)

Is it not simply beautiful! I had to buy the "Elite" version for the sexy black colour(100 GB more than the regular Pro model @ 1 GB costing $1 and a HD cable). The entire setup took about 30 minutes. Well who would want to hurt that baby?

The wireless controllers are terrific. Excellent battery life and range. It took me about 10 minutes to get used to the FPS shooter mode in GoW. Luckily GoW is not heavily dependant on "mouse", if you know what I mean. It is not as rigid as PoP III either.

Well I have started playing GoW. So far, it has been excellent. Awesome graphics, gameplay and the usual story. The notable feature in this game is the "taking cover" option given for a player under fire or in other situations like reconnaissance which is usually what the military/S.W.A.T teams rely on (As we see in Hollywood movies). There is heavy use of this option in the game. There is absolutely no jumping, except for over small blockades using the "taking" cover combo moves. Surprisingly, there is no recoil in the weapons. But then again, take a look at the suits those guys are wearing, nothing short of those things we saw in Matrix:Revolutions. I hope to finish the game soon!

4 days ago...

Completed 3/5 Acts in the game. Pretty short with the less than average looking villains. Some of the weapons are awesome though. The characters in Doom III were COOL.

3 days ago...

Woohooooooo! Just got my copy of the GTA with the bundle (minus the T-Shirt :(()! Now I HAVE to complete GoW ASAP.

2 days ago...

Complete GoW yesterday night. The ending was cool. However, the game was a short one. Not really worth $60.

And OMFG, GTA GTA GTA GTA is freaking AWESOME. Starting with the titles itself (Heroes style for every episode), the game looks so sexy! The city is HUGE, with a subway now! I am yet to try "driving" a subway, LOL. The bikes are easier to manuever. Dating, strip clubs, etc. added. And the game is not like GTA San Andreas which felt more like an RPG with all the minute details like working out after having eaten a slice of pizza and maybe gettting a haircut, etc. The sex (Staight, till now atleast. I am yet to play as a gay partner for a mission) part felt stupid because the controller would just vibrate for like 10 seconds with the girl screaming out my name (Well I am the hero right?). WTF is up with that? The plot has become a real twister. I cannot wait to see the end!

Yesterday...

25% of the game completed. Already 1/5th of the town is against me. The Russian mafia is behind me, lol. The plot is dark, funny with loads of sarcasm and lots of Shits, Fucks and other combinations that follow. The common bugs are still there, like the person you are supposed to take with you (Like your girlfriend on a date) stops following you after getting stuck (Like in a gutter, and yes - I did take her out for a walk in the gutter - dumb computer program did not know that :D) and some fences simply DO NOT fall down not matter how much you try ramming into them with a bus :P.

Today...

I have only 6 hours left to play the game because tomorrow, the packing starts :((. I will not be able to play it for another 2-3 months. CRAP! Some of the missions are hard, and I hate finishing a game using cheat codes. And I have to go now because as they say, "Make hay while the sun shines."

A Visit to an iStore

2008-05-29T20:12:00.005+05:30

Few months back, the plastic covering over the AC charger that came with Revanth's MacBook melted (I believe the reason was overheating) and the wires inside went FUBAR. I felt sad (for him) every time I watched him set up a fragile arrangement by tweaking those tiny wires till the green light came on, only to be accidently disturbed by some random guy passing by, lost in his own thoughts. The incident made me lower my respect for Apple (Not that it was high before), because Apple, with such innovations, failed to see such a simple point!

A few weeks ago, Apple announced the opening of its largest iStore in USA, in New York City. I then checked if there was an iStore close to my place. And of course, I found one in Northpark Center Mall in Downtown Dallas, the largest and poshest mall I have been to till date.

So Revanth asked me to get a new charger for him ($85!). When I went online to place an order, I could not help but notice that not even a single comment/review under the product description was positive. The product itself was rated 1.5/5 stars. I thought Revanth's case was an extreme one, probably one in a ten thousand. However, the probability now seemed to be even more and guess what? Most of the customers complained about the meltdown.

Well this was my chance. A 30 minute drive and viola!

The tiny store stood out among all the shops in the mall, just like its products - simple, white, clean, angelic. There was so much of white in the store that it really made me sick. There were more sales executives than customers (Mind you, this is Downtown Dallas and is packed with high class customers). OK! So Apple is always prepared, nice. There were two arrays of tables with the latest products on display, including the MacBook Air and iPhone (Which by the way is out of stock) of course. WHITE and BORING! I went to a guy and asked for the charger, because I wanted to get to get out of that place ASAP (I guess I will be going to hell, I cannot take all the white in heaven, lol). He called up some other guy and asked me to wait for a couple of minutes. Now what was I supposed to do for those couple of minutes? Why not check out the iPhone? I touched the screen to open the browser and oops! My fingerprints were on the screen, and I noticed all those smudges made by customers before me. It really spoiled the look of the screen. I then remembered an argument Kirthi and I had about the iPhone's screen (I believe this was before the meltdown incident). Kirthi kept telling me that Mr. Jobs would have obviously considered the smudges issue and must have developed some way to counter it. And in fact he did, I saw some sales representatives occasionally cleaning the screens using some cloth.

And I think I pissed off one of the guys because the first and only thing I did on the iPhone and MacBook Air was browse through http://www.microsoft.com/ while he was looking. ROFL!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip to the mall. I ate an original SUBWAY sandwich (The details of which shall be posted later!), listened to a live musical performance, by an orchestra, of the latest Indiana Jones movie and had a good long walk in the mall, not the mention the visit to iStore!

Long Weekend - Day Three - Photos

2008-05-25T00:23:00.003+05:30

Star of the show "Believe", in fact "Shamu" is the star of the park!

Dancing in circles...

"One way or another, I'm gonna find ya'

I'm gonna get ya', get ya', get ya', get ya' "

A couple of detectives trying to solve a case on missing fish.

A water-ski show, pretty good.

Feeding time for sea lions.

10)

That fin reminds one of "Free Willy".

11)

:), no words to describe it!

12)

Feeding time for dolphins.

13)

"Viva!"

14)

Stars of the show "Viva!".

15)

Dolphins, Beluga whales, Syncronized swimming == "Viva!"

Amazing stunts they were...

Long Weekend - Day Three

2008-05-25T00:21:00.001+05:30

After a good day at NASA, we left for San Antonio, to visit Sea World. Sea World is AWESOME. Just looking at those beautiful animals makes one go wild. All the shows arefantastic, starring different sea animals very well trained by their trainers. They also have a 4D theatre, showing some kid-pirate movie starring Leslie Nielsen (No wonder the movie rocked!).

The best moment of the day was me touching a dolphin. Well I got to touch its tail only, but so what! The major roller coaster ride, "Steel Eel", was closed due to some technical problems, so that was a bummer. The rest of the rides had a waiting time for atleast 2 hours, so lite.

The River Walk in San Antonio Downtown is quite famous. We found out why the moment we reached the place. It was magnificient, astounding. Think of Mall Road in Simla, except for a water channel instead of tar and countless restaurants, hawkers and a pavement on both sides of the channel along a stretch of 1500m. There are small boats which server dinner and a short trip for about $35 per person, which is good enough. I still kick myself (Yes, you can really do that) for not bringing the camera with me. Riverside dining with ducks floating close by for morsels, it was quite an experience.

Long Weekend - Day Two - Photos

2008-05-24T19:46:00.003+05:30

A beautiful morning to start the tram tour

Apparently, even the "President of the United States of America" cannot override the "Flight Director" during a mission. Cool!

Old Mission Control Center, monitoring ISS 24/7.

The plaques on the left wall are from successful missions, and the ones on the right wall near the door are from failed and yet-to-be-launched ones.

The three projections show, from left to right - some technical details of ISS - orbit and current position of ISS (Over the International Date Line at the time of our visit) - live video feed from ISS.

We got to watch the sunrise over the Pacific - big deal, the astronauts get to watch it 16 times in a day =))

A replica of ISS in Building 9, training ground for astronauts.

A replica of the Canadian Arm, used to perform heavy duty work in space aboard ISS.

Wierd treadmill setup for the astronauts to get used to walking in zero gravity.

Mars rover, and apparently that really is Au all over it.

F1 engines (Primary Stage) of Saturn V rocket

Another view of the same engine.

10)

Ashamed of myself, to be not able to cover it in one shot.

11)

Just cannot get enough of it!

12)

OK, one last time.

13)

A J-2 Engine (Second Stage)

14)

Just look at those horns! The cattle raised here are part of some project by students majoring in Animal Husbandry.

15)

Back to engines! I am not sure where this goes though.

16)

Complete model of the ISS

17)

Some Space Science Competition Award, looks pretty cool.

18)

More engines! This time it is a space shutte's engine.

19)

Some stuff designed for astronauts in space which reminds me of that joke where Americans designed a hi-tech anti-gravity pen - Russians used a pencil. ROFL!

20)

Replica of the camera used on the "Moon"

The End.

Long Weekend - Day Two

2008-05-23T23:57:00.003+05:30

After a very tiring journey the day before, coupled with the awesome adventure at Moody Gardens and _cold_ breakfast (which also was _awesome_) in the morning, we started out to Houston. Nana and I in particular, were very keen on reaching this place as quickly as possible. It must be a guy thing, we are all gadget freaks right? Kirthi told me about his experience in NASA and we did some amount of research about the places we were to visit so as to "save" time.

The trip to NASA turned out to be neat. We were among the first ones to reach the place. We on the tram tour which took us around the Johnson Space Center. Mission Control Center, Building 9 - where the astronauts train, and Saturn V rocket display were the waypoints.

After that, we watched a couple of movies featuring "man landing on moon" and "America the Great" ("" for the obvious reasons ;)). The movies were good. There is a space gallery where some artifacts used by the "astronauts who landed on the moon" are displayed. Some "moon rocks" are on display too, with one in an open case for people to touch. I saw so many people going "Ooooh" and "Aaaah" when they touched it. I mean really! Come on! It reminded me of an episode from the TV Show Monk (an awesome detective series I got hooked on to here, thanks to amma) in which a thief steals the moon rock and replaces it with a replica. And guess what, nobody realizes it, lol! I agree that such a feat is quite not possible but it does make one think!

This place is a good place for kids, because they have lots of stuff to play with. A few space shuttle landing and docking at ISS simulators for everyone to try. Kirthi told me that he crashed his shuttle during landing. I played around with mine, tried to do a 360 degree turn and flip - stupid programmers did not let me. Instead some stupid voice kept telling me, "WARNING! You are approaching landing strip. Please align the circle on the square" or some crap like that. I finally landed it perfectly, poor Kirthi - it really is a piece of cake!

Having covered almost everything, we left NASA and started towards San Antonio, the home of Spurs! Pictures, good ones as always, coming in the next post...

Long Weekend - Day One - Photos

2008-05-23T21:22:00.013+05:30

See what I meant by "pyramids"? What would one expect?

Inside the "Rain Forest Pyramid"

OK. The reason I rarely, in fact never, appear in the photographs is because I cannot trust others to take reasonably good ones.

A ray waiting for its prey

Artificial Coral Reef

I expected the whole pyramid to be constructed in this manner. This tunnel is just 5m long!

Oooooh, Green Anaconda!

I deserve a 10/10 for this!

From the hotel room

These sea gulls made my day

10)

Plenty of life in the rain forest

11)

Spent a lot of time watching these birds in action because we were too tired to visit the beach. Do we not have RK beach for that matter? LOL

Long Weekend - Day One

2008-05-23T03:04:00.007+05:30

We visited Moody Gardens on Day 1. And man! What a disappointment it was. People, DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT visit Moody Gardens on Galveston Island. Unless of course, if you are totally jobless with deep pockets and bored of the beach then this is only way. Or if you want to watch a good IMAX movie.

Why am I so disappointed by it? Well to start with, when I looked at the website for the list of attractions, I saw a picture of the location with couple of glassy pyramids in the background. Upon reading the details, I found out that those pyramids were actually an aquarium and a rain forest. So the picture I had in my mind was a spiral tunnel going all the way to the top of the pyramid, which unfortunately was _wrong_. And after visiting them I was so pissed that I actually brainstormed for a few hours to come up with a such a design.

It was the same old aquarium and the same old humid climate. Maybe I expected too much out of it. And then came the shows. A 4D theatre seems to be the norm here. What good is it anyway, if the movie is so full of crap? Some movie about the underwater life was shown with really stupid effects like poking from the inside of the back of my chair for a snakebite, vibrating chair for a jellyfish (I really do not know how they connect) and spraying water on the face for a splash effect. Then we went for a "180 degree FoV Ride Film" (FoV = Field of View, Quakers know better!). It was as pathetic as the 4D movie. No wait, it was more pathetic because I was expecting some fast paced motion sickness inducing action and got a PIXAR movie gone haywire.

Then it was time to visit "Discovery Pyramid" where artifacts retrieved from the Titanic were put on exhibit. Sad stories to read but good background music.

But the day ended well with "Grand Canyon Adventure", a 3D IMAX movie. This is probably the best thing in Moody Gardens. Very good experience because you see, it is very unlikely that I will get to see the Grand Canyon first hand.

Some good pictures taken by _the_ photographer, yours truly, coming next.

Project P605162008

2008-05-16T05:49:00.003+05:30

It means, Prawns, rating 6/10, experiment conducted on 16th of May, 2008.

PREPERATION TIME

15 minutes

READY IN

5 minutes

INGREDIENTS

5 semi cooked prawns (Experimental right! So why take a risk?)
3 Red Chilli Flakes packets from Pizza Hut
3 Cheddar Cheese packets from Pizza Hut
1 tablespoon Kraft Mayonaise
2 tablespoons Heinz Ketchup
2 tablespoons Real Lemon Concentrate

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the flakes, cheese, mayo, ketchup and lemon concentrate in a small cup.
2. Microwave the mixture so as to melt the cheese. It is going to stink, you have been warned!
3. Marinate the prawns in the paste and brush some oil on them.
4. Add some oil just enough to wet the frying pan.
5. Fry the prawns for about 3 minutes, or until they turn brown.
6. Serve with ketchup!

The taste was OK, but not worth the stench that came after step 2.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

2008-05-16T05:28:00.003+05:30

The trailer looked ok. The usual Adam Sandler comedy, with an accent this time. Lots of catching up to do in the movies section. I wonder how many movies have been downloaded in the college in these 2 weeks.

Getting a haircut is an expensive affair in America. The cheapest one I have had so far is $12, here in Texas. I cannot see the point because there is minimal labour involved. which generally is the primary reason for such high prices. A simple algorithm for the the process as follows,

Assuming that you have already entered the salon,

1. Write down your name on the notepad at the desk to get in line.
2. Sit down, read some magazine, unless of course you have some other way to pass the time. For some reason, I keep finding golfing magazines in every salon I go to.
3. When you are called upon and finally seated, you will be asked for a number or a combination of numbers. This is the tricky part for they use trimmers. The trimmer trend is catching up in India as well, simple and neat. So basically, there are varied depths which the trimmer can reach depending on the type of accessory attached to it. A zero is just above getting shaved and usually a six is the highest, meaning the least amount of hair is cut. I forgot which number meant what. So I just showed him my photo from first year. LOL. He was a bit shocked, I was expecting that! And then in his Korean accent he said, "Ahh, medium!" In his mind however, it must have been something else like, "Ahh, phat boy want a airkhut!" And anything that cannot be done by the trimmer, usually the finishing touches, is done using the scissors.
4. Do not expect the hairdresser to take out a blade for shaving behind the ears and at the back of the neck. So no point in splashing some after-shave-lotion either.
5. Tipping is customary here. So unless you plan visiting some other salon the next time, please tip for we are at their mercy.

See my point? More than a dollar a minute plus tip! For ladies, hehe, a totally different story.

A very long weekend ahead.

1. 5 hour drive to Moody Gardens in Galveston, spend the night there.
2. 1 hour drive to NASA in Houston.
3. 5 hour drive to San Antonio, spend the night there.
4. Sea World in San Antonio, spend the night there.
5. 1 hour drive to Prime Outlets in San Marcos.
6. 5 hour drive to home!

The Grand List

2008-05-15T02:28:00.009+05:30

Everybody must have made such a list. Not the localites. They get to go home every weekend. We, the non-localites, get to make such lists. What is so special about it? Read on!

Tiffins

Regular Dosa, Idly with Onion Chutney
Poori with Aloo Kurma
Chole Bhature
Rava Dosa with Coconut Chutney

Chicken

Gravy Chicken with Kobbari Annam
Chilly Chicken with Fried Rice
Chicken Biryani
Chicken Pepper Fry with Miriyalu Chaaru
Tandoori Chicken

Mutton

Gravy Mutton
Gravy Kheema Mutton
Kheema Mutton Fry
Gravy Mutton with Pappu Kalupudu

Seafood

Any Fish Pulusu minus the Fish
Vanjaram Fry with Vullipaaya Pulusu
Prawns Fry
Gravy Prawns

Miscellaneous

Allam Chaaru
Potato Fry
Mamidikaya Pappu with Dondakaaya Fry
Teepi Pappu with Aavakaya Pachchadi
Sambar
Yam with Onion Fry

A small list amma asked me to prepare, for the 30 days that I would spend at home. Red colour indicates that I have had the pleasure of mekking it!

X rolls

2008-05-12T20:22:00.006+05:30

PREPERATION TIME

10 minutes

READY IN

2 minutes

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons each of leftover X_i curry, 0 <= i <= N, number of non-vegetarian curries available
1 tablespoon each of chopped Y_j, 0 <= j <= M, number of raw/pickled vegetables available
Some Z_k sauce/dressing to taste, 0 <= k <= P, number of sauces/dressings available
2 leftover rotis/pulkas

DIRECTIONS

Kitchen.Microwave.preHeat(rotis, 2); //to soften them
Kitchen.Container C=new Container();

//to make the filling
for(int j = 0; j <= M; j++)
{
           C.addVegetable(Y_j);
           Y.delete(j);

           int l = rand(0, P);
           if(Cook.checkTasteBuds(Z_l))
           {
                     C.addSauce(Z_l);
                     Z.delete(l);
           }
}

C.mixContents();
C.emptyInto(pulkas);

for(int i = 0, k = 0; i <= N; i++, k++)
{
           C.addCurry(X_i);
           X.delete(i);

           if(k <= P && Z.exists(k) && Cook.checkTasteBuds(Z_k))
           {
                     C.addSauce(Z_k);
                     Z.delete(k);
           }
}

if(!Z.empty())
{
          C.addAll(Z);
}

C.mixContents();
C.emptyInto(pulkas);
Cook.roll(pulkas);
Kitchen.Microwave.heat(pulkas, 2);
Cook.serve(rolls, coke);

//GG

Mothers' Day

2008-05-11T22:36:00.003+05:30

It has been a week since I have come here to spend a month in my summer vacation with my parents. And a week well spent with a lot of discussions with parents, cooking and eating excellent homemade food. Now that we have a router, I have access to the Internet 24/7. However, that was not the case before. Chelli and I kept fighting as always for time on the Internet. I need it to stay in touch with my friends and she needs it to do some stupid stuff, as always. So when she was hogging the laptop, the only form of entertainment available was TV with basic connection comprising of 40 odd channels. The Food Network and TBS happen to be the only channels with any interesting shows. Of course, Monday is CBS time. I get to watch the latest HIMYM, BBT and 2.5 Men episodes before my college does, HA!

Anyway, during these 7 days of my stay here, I could not help but notice the propaganda carried out for Mothers' Day. It felt like the TV shows and movies were being showed in the breaks between the advertisements rather than the other way round, seriously!

1) "What are you getting for your dearest mother on this Mothers' Day? A card, jewelley, dress?"
2) "Mothers' Day sale, 50% discount!"
3) "Free lunch buffet for all women on the occassion of Mothers' Day!"

LOL.

I have always wondered about the necessity of celebrating a Mothers' Day. Why do people celebrate it? Do we really need a day to make it all women feel special? Then one might as well argue against the celebration of more established days like Birthday, Wedding and Death Anniversary. They have been looking after us since Day 1 and will continue to do so as long as it is physically possible for them. Giving your mother a day off and some gifts does not make up for the hardships faced by her during her daily routine in keeping her family happy, healthy, safe and united. Our mothers know how well they are appreciated by us. The little things that we do everyday to help her in whatever way possible deliver to her the message of love and appreciation that no other gift can.

The occassion sounds more like, "Happy Mothers' Day amma! Thank you for all the things you have done for me till now. Here is a gift as a token of gratitude. Keep up the good work!"

However, after looking at the people here, I feel that they really need such a day after all. In a society where kids are left to fend for themselves since childhood, where they are encouraged to leave home after their 18th birthday, the need for such special days exists. The sons and daughters take it as a daunting task to even call up their parents, let alone meet them. An appointment needs to be taken by one family member to meet another. Everything has to be so formal here. So they celebrate Mothers' Day, one of those 7 to 10 special occassions out of 365, and get back to their daily lives the very next day. I feel sorry for them, not to mention adoption of business tactics to capitalize on this issue. The sad thing is that this culture has been in existence since time immemorial, hence has very deep roots in society, and only some people realized the flaw and took the appropriate steps.

The thing which depresses me is the 180 degree change in the thinking process of Indians who come to America. After experiencing the freedom here, they start believing that American culture is superior to ours in every sense. They forget the K, P and T taught to them and instead learn Khe, Phee and Thi. It reminds me of a small joke by Russell Peters, an very good comedian, in which he points out the strange behaviour in immigrants who use American accent only when speaking English and use their native accents otherwise. I have observed that everywhere. I too did it for a couple of months in my childhood and then stopped as I found it extremely stupid. And it does not stop there, the mindset slowly turns towards the Live-Life-Independently ideology. The Indians here know what they are doing and yet, they continue doing them.

It must be understood that I am referring to the majority here, in Indians as well as Americans.

I was watching this movie, Mom, Dad and Her the other day. Almost all movies made here involve a seperated couple. And so did this one. The stupid thing about this movie though, which probably was the main reason for its poor rating of 2.8 in IMDb, was this part where the teenage daughter of the seperated parents releases her frustration over the divorce after her grandfather's death, so typical right? In order to console their child and to make feel more independent, the parents conducted a Divorce Ceremony, similar to Birthdays and other anniversaries. Yes, you read that right, a Divorce Ceremony, to celebrate their passage into new lives. WTF . Apparently they read about such a ceremony in a book, most probably written by another American.

So a new day added to the calendar, Divorce Anniversary.
Correction: new days added to the calendar, Nth Divorce Anniversary. I do not even want to get started on this topic now.

1. Mothers' Day
2. Fathers' Day
-soon to come-
3. Sons' Day
4. September 23rd Day (some random date)
5. Glad To Be Still Alive To Celebrate Today Day
6. Anything else that needs to be invented? The greeting card companies are probably blowing their brains out at this very moment for new ideas.

"Live to Eat"

2008-05-07T21:59:00.000+05:30

It has been, is and will be my motto.

So it is natural to like cooking; to go behind the counter and see what really went into that tasty chicken you just devoured. And if possible, to try new ideas on it like making it visually more appealing or tasting better. At home, I am either behind amma in the kitchen, passing time on my laptop or doing something remotely fun like studying or working on my project. I observe what she does and how she does it. Be it cooking or cleaning up, there is always a new lesson to be learnt. She never lets me touch her stuff when she is cooking, a great cook never allows anyone to touch his/her work. But I do get a chance to experiment and try to make something using the leftovers, small snacks to start with. I have gained enough experience making excellent omelettes at home and great Maggi noodles in OBH-97. My mother and gang will vouch for this statement.

With at least 3 weeks to go before I return to college, I have a lot of time in my hands to learn some more cooking. Right now I am not learning to make the core recipes, but working with the leftovers.

I will post the recipes of the experiments that have turned out successful. I will also post the ones that flopped so that you will keep them in mind when you plan to experiment too.

Many of you will find this either informative or funny to read, or both. However, for those potato couches who do not lend a hand in their respective homes by pretending to be deaf to all the clattering in the kitchen, I intend to make them feel as guilty as possible.

The Pilot

2008-05-07T08:40:00.002+05:30

It all begins here, again.

Q. What is the speciality about this one?
A. In a few words - NOSTALGIC and INFORMATIVE. Also, I am planning to try out a different format so that it does not get boring (The primary reason for the failure of previous blogs).

Q. Why Blogger?
A. I am a Google freak, hence the Blogger.

Q. Why now?
A. I was so bored being bored, I had to take such a step. Also, blogging had been on my agenda for a while.

Q. How often?
A. It depends on what I am trying to recollect and put down. I will try to be as regular and chronologically correct as possible, keeping it to atleast a post a week.

Q. Anything else?
A. That is it for now!