Thoughts Engraved

Inspirational

2008-07-29T15:02:00.003-04:00

This was Dr. Randy Pausch's last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away last week. After watching this lecture, I was very moved and realized how important it is to dream and do everything possible when you have an opportunity to make your dreams come true. There is nothing more imperative than loving one's own life and making the most use of it. After all you live each day just once!

CNN-IBN's latest Cricket news

2008-07-22T11:30:00.002-04:00

This is what the title of the article says.. "Sachin's new haircut, thanks to Bhajji!!" Can u believe it?
This links to an article in cricketnext.com.

My iPhone Adventure

2008-07-13T22:51:00.004-04:00

It all started with me deciding to buy the iPhone on Thursday evening after my prolonged discussion with friends and tireless forum hopping :) My miscalculation of people's enthusiasm in Dallas made me go to the AT&T store at 7:45 am on Friday. I drove by the store and for the first time I couldn't find a parking in that strip mall. Then I decided to park at a close by shop and walked to ATT. There were some 80 people in front of me.. I actually thought that there might be some 15-20 people max waiting in line on a weekday morning.. Looks like there are a lot of people like me who would go late to work rather than miss getting the iPhone on the day of its release!

I waited in line with no place to sit or even stretch.. By 8:30 am, our dear Mr.Dallas Sun started showing off his colors and brightness and ofcours the heat.. All of us were asked to fill out some form and were patiently waiting in line . There were some onlookers with a smirk and a "how stupid and jobless can u people get" look on their faces.. We waved and smiled and told that some of us came just that morning and there were infact people who camped overnight! After 1.5 hours of wait in the "stand here for a free tan" line and with just 10 people in front of me, the store manager came out and announced that they were SOLD OUT!!! I was so damned.

"A true hero is one who never gives up" said Master Shifu (Kung fu panda). Following his words, I decided not to give up and try again the next day. In order to better prepare for my battle with iPhone, I gathered statistics and found out that one of the stores was getting a shipment that midnight and will be open for sale on Saturday at 10:00 am. After having burnt my finger (actually my whole arm) the previous day, I decided to get to the store early.. how early was the question. I took a poll with my friends and decided to be at the store at 7:30 am. So I missed partying on friday night with some friends here and went to bed early. I set 2 alarms just in case :)

I was at the store at 7:40 and there were 14 people in front of me... People get a life.. There are better things to do than wait in line for an iPhone... Oops, I was there 2.5 hours before store hours for the iPhone.. I better shut up!! But this time around I was well prepared to brave the heat and the boredom. I took a bottle of water, sunscreen, sunglasses, a book, my iPod and my cellphone. I finally got my dear, lovely, amazing and splendid iPhone at 10.30 am!!! Since then I haven't been able to stay away from it :) It is worth the wait but not worth the sunburn.

Nocera to Yang

2008-06-15T19:29:00.006-04:00

Oh Jerry, It’s No Longer Your Baby

This was an article/memo published on New York Times about Jerry Yang, the CEO of Yahoo!
It was a pretty strong article addressing how Yang has failed to work in the best interests of the shareholders. An interesting read.

Was it worth the wait?

2008-06-15T18:51:00.005-04:00

Picture source: wikipedia.org

After all the waiting and waiting, the movie was finally released. With a lot of expectations my friend and I went to watch the much hyped movie. And the result:

We had to wait in line for 1 hour just to get into the theater. They had a very stupid system. People who had bought the tickets online had to stand in a separate line just to get the ticket stub and join a separate rather long line to enter. After all that we got into the theater.. As expected we got pretty bad seats.. we were sitting on the fourth row from the very front and that too not in the center but the side seats!!

I was just hoping the movie would be worth all that.. The movie finally started (30 min delayed), Kamal's entry as Rangarajan Nambi was awesome. I thought the movie is going to surpass my expectations.. The next Kamal was Govind, a bio-scientist in the US. What was the director and story writer thinking? The character of the Avtaar Singh was absolutely unnecessary. He had nothing to do with the story. It felt like this character was created to fill the 10 roles. In the last 10 mins, the doctor says that the bullet through Avtaar's throat "correctly" removed the cancer better than a surgical procedure!! The only thing I could say was "aiyooo".

Asin was personification of overacting when unnecessary.. It appeared to me like the only dialogue she had in the movie was "give me my God's idol" (I don't remember the exact dialogue).

Overall I felt that the movie did not meet my expectation. Kamal as usual did justice to his roles. The main thing that was lacking was story.. too many characters and unnecessary plots. Go for the movie for Kamal's sake..

My Rating: 2.5/5

Feeding my hunger

2008-05-26T19:07:00.002-04:00

I am a Zero when it comes to investing.. Back in India, my mom being a banker was the one incharge of handling our investments and my dad always found it convenient that he doesn't have to bother about it!! I did not know about credit and debit for a very long time, never stood in line to deposit a check.. The only times I have gone to a bank was with my mother or to see my mother :) My first time banking experience was when I came to this country, I went to a local bank in Texas and stood in the hallway like a kid with excitement in her eyes on seeing an alien mother ship ;) I slowly learned personal banking and now that I am working for a finance organization I can say I know a lot more than what I knew 3 years back!

I felt it was high time I learn about managing my $$ in terms of investments. So I asked my friend at work to help me out.. He gave me 4 books on managing your finances. One book which I found very interesting is "Real Money" by Jim Cramer. It is about making educated investments in the stock market. I totally love this book. He talks about doing your 'homework' before buying any stocks. I am not done with this book yet.. Planning to finish it by this week.

So if you are like me, don't know why the numbers change on Yahoo finance every second, don't know what the hell is P/E ratio and want to learn about the stock market, I would definitely recommend this book for starters.

Startling

2008-05-01T21:58:00.002-04:00

I was listening to the radio on my way back from work today.. I stay pretty close to work and it is usually a 5 minute drive.. But since I left from office at the peak time around 5.30 or so, it took me 15 minutes to get home!! The traffic at rush hour is just unbelievable..

So getting back to the topic, the radio show had this "call us and tell us" thing happening.. The topic of the day was "Interesting ways in which you have taken revenge on your boyfriend/fiance/husband"... In the 10-15 mins I listened, I was appalled at the things women can do to get back at their guy..

Some of the interesting ones, rather ones that I remember :)

Wife baked cookies and made their dog lick one side of them.. Put the licked side down on the baking tray and watched her husband eat everyone of them!

Boyfriend was allergic to fabric softener.. This girl washed all his inner T-shirts and underpants and used fabric softener.. She quietly placed these clothes in his closet and the poor guy was covered in rashes the next day :)

And the very common one, the couple had a very romantic dinner.. the girl made sure that her fiance realized what he might get that night... She did all the dishes, went to the bedrooom, locked and slept.. The guy slept on the couch that night

So to all you men out there.. Don't think that you can easily fool a woman and take her for granted.. We have our own ways of getting back at you :)

Helium Effect

2008-04-28T12:43:00.002-04:00

Found this pretty funny.. Try inhaling helium and then speak - your voice comes out very different.

Sleep, The

2008-04-26T17:06:00.004-04:00

I thought I should stop making a fool of myself especially after my previous post.. But just couldn’t resist

Here is my lame attempt at poetry!! (Have a nice laugh)

The Sleep

The night so dark and scary
I wished I could see a fairy
To make all my dreams come true
Little did I know I didn’t have a clue

I was singing and dancing
Everybody around me was laughing
Suddenly I heard a monstrous thunder
And thought someone had committed a blunder

I got scared and woke up
In sweat I was soaked up
I searched for the noise that made me weep
And found my dad snoring in his sleep

I wonder why

2008-04-25T17:19:00.003-04:00

There are so many things about me which I don’t understand.. I am almost a quarter century old [Yes, I am Very Young :)] and I just don’t seem to get answers to the way I feel about things and the way I react.. Has this ever happened to you?

Of late I have been questioning myself a lot and haven’t got convincing answers.. Simple things like I cannot go to bed until 12 - 12.30 am every night.. Like yesterday, I was very tired due to lack of sleep the previous night, yet couldn’t get some peaceful sleep.. So I called up my friend in the west coast and started talking to him.. I dint let the poor guy go to bed until 1 am (his time, ofcourse)... I am sure he must have been thinking like what the *^&# is wrong with this girl, acting like a nocturnal creature!

I seem to get worked up on simple issues and then immediately feel stupid about getting worked up.. Like the other day, my mom brought up the topic of "settling" down and I started talking to her about how life is not just about marriage and stuff.. Then I realized that my mom asked me a simple question and I could have just told her that I need time!

I have been saying things to freak out people close to me and have been too conscious not to let people get close to me.. I told a very close friend of mine that I don’t trust him all that much!! Can u believe it? He has been a great friend and I actually told this to him on his face.. Thankfully he understood what I meant and dint get worked up like me ;)

So I started thinking of a work around for this idiosyncrasy phase of my life and came up with these options: write poems, go on a euro trip, join martial arts, go to Las Vegas and gamble or just shut up!! None of them make sense except for the last one..

After reading all this, don’t you feel like I am loosing it? I was flabbergasted by my post that I almost deleted it.. But hey, may be 6 months from now I will have a hearty laugh reading it!

Hungry kya?

2008-04-24T12:41:00.006-04:00

My parents took me to this restaurant Cholayil in Nugambakkam, Chennai. It was very nice healthy food. We were served around 7 juices and were asked to drink them in a particular order. These juices are supposed to induce generation of the digestive enzymes. Then we were served raw vegetables followed by semi-cooked vegetables and then fully cooked ones.

Source: cholayilsanjeevanam.com

Then we had brown rice with dhal and then white rice with the usual sambhar, rasam and buttermilk. The interesting thing is that none of the items had tamarind or any masala in them. Only pepper and salt was used in the preparation. Then came desert, you heard me desert! two payasams, one with sugar and the other with jaggery.

They have some branches in Chennai and are doing good business.. Not very expensive. Btw, if you are like me who drinks more water than eating food, you might find it a little difficult eating at Cholayil.. They don't serve water until the very end :)

I'm in love

2008-04-23T12:14:00.004-04:00

Addiction is very hard to get over. Being in love is something you don't want to get over.. You want the initial sweetness to remain for eternity!

Little did I know that it would happen at the very first sight and would last this long.. I cannot go one day without listening to his voice.. All I can think about is him, even at work and while I am asleep. I wake up thinking about him and feel so delightful. There is distance in this relationship, but I know this love is going to be consistent.

And this is him :) - Tom Higgenson's "Hey There Delilah"

Simple yet inspirational

2008-04-19T16:16:00.002-04:00

Cincy and nasal allergy?

2008-04-16T18:15:00.003-04:00

It is going to be almost 3 years since I made the brave move of taking the longgggg longggg hour flight from Anna Airport to the US, withstanding the pathetic food they serve on flights.. And in all these years, I have fallen sick twice.. Any guesses where/when?

When I was in Florida I never fell sick; be it cold, sore throat, fever, insect bites.. nothing. But after moving to Cincinnati I have already been sick twice... once in Jan and now. I don't know if this has got anything to do with Cincy being a sinus valley.. I wonder!!!

During both the times Nyquil has worked wonders for me. The first time was very bad.. sore throat, fever and running nose! I tried everything - Indian medicine, vicks, tylenol, zycam.. Now thinking about it.. may be this was the reason I was sick for 2 weeks!!

It is beautiful spring weather outside and I am just too tired to go.. May be I will pull myself together and go for a stroll..

US Airways - No Way!

2008-04-13T13:52:00.004-04:00

I went to India in March for a 3 week vacation. This is my story with US Airways on my way to India.

I was supposed to catch my connecting flight at Philadelphia to Frankfurt. I did the mistake of taking US Airways. There was a ground strike in Frankfurt and the US Airways people asked all the passengers without a German visa to rebook their flight. The staff was totally discourteous. They were not prepared to even answer out questions. So I got my flight re-booked for the next day. I was asked to go to "US Airways Special Services".. The female at the counter told me that she cannot check for the availability on other airlines and asked me to go to the International Ticket counter. So I went and found out that the US Airways staff there was more rude. She asked me to collect my baggage at a different terminal and go to DOMESTIC to check it in.. All she wanted to do was GET RID of me. When I went to Terminal B to pick up my baggage, I was informed that they did not pull my baggage out of the flight to Frankfurt. What a mess!!

I came back to the International Ticketing counter and went to the same lady who asked me to go to the Domestic Counter. She literally yelled at me and told me that she cannot do anything about my situation and that they will not provide me accommodation as well. I got totally frustrated. She told me that it was no big deal if I spend that night at the airport and that things like this happen! Can customer service get any worse? I wish I had the presence of mind and made note of her name. I for sure would have taken it up with US Airways corporate office.

There was a Lufthansa counter next to the US Airways counter. I went to the representative there to find out about the strike since I was flying Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Chennai. I could see a marked difference in how they treated their customers. I asked the floor manager if there was anyway I could take their flight that evening to Frankfurt. He took my passport, went inside and came back with my boarding pass. He told me that there was only a ground strike and that all flights to India were operating. It was 5.35 pm and the flight was scheduled to leave at 5.45 pm. I rushed to the gate and was almost the last person to board the flight. My sincere thanks to the Lufthansa people for helping me get to India as scheduled.

Although I was flying US Airways to Frankfurt, they refused to even help me out! US Airways could never offer the same customer service as Lufthansa. I can bet my money on that.

Bottom line, if you are flying international - DO NOT fly US Airways unless you are ok with a pathetic service and a don't care attitude. At least that has been my experience. Probably I am not lucky enough to get better basic service from them!

Aloha

2008-04-05T10:59:00.006-04:00

After a long hiatus, I am back! Had been on a 3 week vacation to India.. That is a whole different story to write about. Yesterday at work we had a Hawaiian day.. It was a lot of fun. I learned the Hula dance.. It is not very different from the normal hip movement. With a little bit of hand movements, it was a very slow dance. One thing which I didn't know is that the dance tells a story like the happiness of the people in the islands, a girl trying to woe a guy, elements of nature, etc.

Me in the blue skirt - trying Hula

Hula Hoops - Big No No

Although I sucked at at the Hula Hoop contest, I had a good time! Bottom line, I had a 2 hour lunch break ;)

The Gas Price Monster

2008-03-19T00:55:00.004-04:00

How many times has each one of us felt like cursing our car or have the "Not Again" feeling when the gas tank becomes empty? Have you noted the price of gas on your way to work? Have you wondered how much profit the oil companies make? Have you wondered if the price will ever become what it was in 2004/2005? I have done all that!!

Source: cartoonstock.com

It has been over a year since I saw the gas price fall below $2.75..
When the price of gas refuses to come down, let us at least make sure we are getting our money's worth :) (These pointers are from a friend’s email)

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening, your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products play an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
When you are filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and hi. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.
One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is half full. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

What not to get

2008-02-29T17:34:00.003-05:00

I have come across a lot of websites which lists the things you can get your friend (girl) or girl friend... But do you know what Not to get? Based on my limited knowledge here is my top 5 what not to get her :)

Gym classes or Jenney's meal plan (weight loss plan.. Dont try to hint anything about a woman's body, especially "your body is not so great" aspect)
A teddy bear (why do guys think all gals love cute cuddly stuff?)
Movie tickets (that is not so creative)
A make over session (Hey, how would you feel if you were told you look like a squid?)
A knife set (It is for your own good..unless you would like to be the apple in a knife throwing session!!)

I wait and wait and wait

2008-02-22T21:52:00.003-05:00

Every time I had to call a service provider be it mobile company, insurance, bank or airlines I always get frustrated waiting on the phone to get to a representative. The IVR systems suck big time and the call center people make sure that the customers are made to wait for as long as possible.. I use this website called gethuman.com which has direct numbers to operators/CSRs. I noticed that some of the numbers are the same as listed on the company website but they have short cuts for e.g. press 2 and say agent etc..

Hopefully you will no longer have to go through the frustrating ever lasting wait on the phone to speak to the Angel at the other end :)

No more speeding :)

2008-02-12T14:49:00.000-05:00

Got this in a forward... Interesting! Hopefully people don't get into accidents thinking every pothole or damaged road is just an illusion ;)

Eureka!

2008-02-10T16:00:00.001-05:00

This past whole week has been full of discoveries..

Found out that my dearest friend is getting engaged this summer. Congratulations!
I registered for Jazzercise and realized that I could have immense fun while exercising. - Hurray ;)
A close friend and neighbor of mine is a radio jockey at a local desi radio station in Cincinnati.
A friend's friend is dating someone and shared it with me and also asked me not to tell my friend :)
I learnt what relationships are all about.. They are about 3 As : Acceptance, Adjustment and Adoration.
I am not very patient (oops have known it all my life) - hehe
And that I am the long lost Princess of the land of fortune - Now that's a wish :)

Now all this made me think as to how many things surprise us (happy and sad) every week and how much we learn.. Ever wondered why certain weeks are boring while certain others are a lot of fun? Imagine a week where u do not find anything fascinating or interestingly new.. Imagine a second week like that.. I would feel bored to death! Life is all about learning...Now I am getting philosophical..

Anyways, I did learn something very interesting about relationships from a friend. He told me that it is not about finding the right person, it is about feeling right with that one person.. So far I have never felt right and confident about being with a person in my life.. I have always had the fear of commitment and I never knew what it was about me that made me run away from things I wanted.. I was discussing this with my parents and my mom told me that I am scared to make a commitment.. This got me thinking.. Am I really terrified about loosing my freedom? I guess not.. I know that in relationships, one will loose his/her space to a certain extent.. Then what was it? I racked my brains for more than a day and finally I think I found the answer.. It is about feeling right and the 3 A's. Will I be able to accept, adjust and adore the other person with all my heart? Will I ever feel so right and confident? I guess lIFe is all about the "If" and"?".

I'm awestruck

2008-02-02T18:22:00.000-05:00

Picture source: photoseek.com

Another place added to my ever growing list of ‘must visit before I am too old to travel’. Meteora is the second largest and complex monasteries built in Greece. The way to get to the monasteries is by staircases which are cut through the rocks! Although women are not allowed into the monasteries, I at least want to get to a point from where I can witness the majesty of these architectures :)

And the result..

2008-01-25T20:15:00.000-05:00

I tried being a 'guy' for a day and I should say I was pretty successful. The day started off by rolling out of the bed at 7.15 am after having a very sound sleep and not doing the bed, ofcourse :). Then got ready to go to work.. Didn't pay too much attention to whether my shoes matched my shirt color or if I looked pretty. I was at work at 8.10 am and logged on to espn.com, yahoo finance and then cricinfo! Then the day went by pretty smoothly, had a couple of meetings, as usual projects were behind schedule and as a guy, I let my manager worry about it ;)

During lunch, I went with my friends to a Thai place. Ordered food and were chatting for a while about company politics and cars. Came back home after work at around 6.00 pm, made my coffee and sat in front of the Tv for 2 hours. Then I realized that I had to cook something for dinner. I did not panic, instead I picked up my phone and ordered pizza with extra cheese! Did not bother to clean the dishes from the previous day.. I continued to watch the idiot box and answered a few phone calls, spoke to my mom for 5 MINS and then put the phone down :) That itself is an achievement coz conversations with my mom last atleast 25 mins everyday! I felt lazy to put my bed and ended up sleeping on the couch!

On the whole, pretty relaxed day, no worries, and did nothing productive ;) Now I realize why guys love the way they lead their lives..

Guy For a Day

2008-01-16T19:27:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wonder why life is so complicated for women. We worry about the most trivial of all things whereas the men seem to be the easy-go-lucky type. Although every time I have asked my guy friends about their not so emotional attitude, they always seem to give me the same reply - “We just don’t show our emotions”. Why is that men seem to feel it is not important to show their emotions? We are not asking you to cry at the drop of a ball, but why not tell us how you feel instead of making us “nag” you for things?

Wouldn’t life be simpler if we women are also the carefree type? We not only worry about things related to us, but also why the men (friends, father, bfriend, husband etc.) close to us don’t worry about things.

For one day I am going to try my best not to let things bother me. I am going to be a guy for a day!

A short week

2008-01-04T19:06:00.000-05:00

Took off Monday, Tuesday was a holiday and ended up working from home today!! Nice :)

Thanks to my friend who snowboards like a maniac, I was introduced to this amazing stand up comedian!

What now?

2008-01-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

Another year has gone by. Every year seems to go faster than the previous... Was speaking to a friend of mine and found out that he retrospects his new year resolutions at the end of each year and evaluates how much of it he actually accomplished.. I have made resolutions, but never actually sat and thought through how did on those resolutions!!

This year, yet again resolutions have been made.. But I am going to remember to do a monthly instead of a year-end evaluation.. Following six sigma :)

Oops almost forgot.. Wish you a Very Happy New Year!

Tamilzh Pasanga (Tamil Boys)

2007-12-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my friend who shared this video with moi!

No longer a Virgin

2007-12-08T13:36:00.001-05:00

I lost my Snow Virginity last Wednesday! We had 1-3" snow around the Cincy area. When I woke up in the morning, it was all white and beautiful. I sat down near my French window sipping a cup of hot coffee and admiring the beauty of whiteness!

(Apologies for the picture - too cold to go outside to take the pic)

Then came the time when I had to drive to work.. I walked outside and my car was covered in 2" of snow. I started the tedious job of clearing snow, surprisingly it was not half as bad as I thought it would be! The only stupid thing I did was initially when I was pushing snow off my car roof, I stood too close to the car and had a nice snow shower :)

Winter is almost here and I'm not complaining :)

2007-11-08T19:24:00.000-05:00

It has started to get cold these days in Cincinnati.. This is going to be my first winter!! Hurray :) I am pretty sure that by the end of this season I am not going to be saying this!

After looking at these pictures, I decided that I am not going to complain.. I am in Heaven when compared to living in Geneva City :)

I already did my shopping for winter jacket, gloves, scarfs and sweaters. Letz hope we have a white Christmas this year in Cincy!

Am I Cynophobic?

2007-10-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

For some reason I had an affinity towards animals when I was a kid. Usually kids my age used to be scared of going near them but I used to look forward to meeting my animal friends!

I should have been about 5-6 years and I used to love watching an elephant making its evening rounds on my street. If I remember right, the elephant and its mahout used to come by on weekends for close to a year. They used to stand in front of my house and I used to run to the gate to give the elephant a banana. My sister, being the timid one, used to stand near the door and watch me feed the elephant.

My other friend was the cow which used to come to our house every morning (5 am) with its master to milk. We used to get fresh milk and most of the days I used to get up and used to feed the cow.

Picture source: msnbc.com

Now I go no where near animals. For some reason I have grown to be really scared of dogs (cynophobia). Although as a kid I always wanted to get a dog, now I stay 10 feet away from them! I am not sure if it was a dog chasing incident when I was in 6^th grade which made me fear the species or something else.

Can you udnertsnad?

2007-10-29T17:41:00.000-04:00

I funod smoehtnig vrey itnesreitng and shcoknigly ture!

Wnat to konw waht I am tlkanig auobt? Ciclk hree

Through My Eyes

2007-10-28T23:50:00.000-04:00

This past couple of weeks, I turned into a complete movie buff! I watched so many new and old movies that it kind of got difficult to keep track!! So here are few of my reviews..

Bourne Ultimatum:

Cast - Matt Damon as Bourne, Julia Stiles as Nicky and others.

An amazing movie with great stunts and cinematography. The movie starts of with Jason Bourne being chased in Russia and someone in Spain trying to get information on the true identity of Bourne. A journalist in London has the information and publishes in the newspaper that he has details on Bourne’s identity. As expected, the journalist is murdered even though Bourne tries to save him. The scene at the Waterloo train station is very engaging! I loved the chase sequence at Morocco. It was very well taken. On the whole this movie is definitely worth the watch!

No Reservations:

Cast - Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kate, Aaron Eckhart as Nick and Abigail Breslin as Zoe

If you have watched Chini Kum starring Amitabh Bachan and Tabu, the role of Catherine (Kate) is almost the same as Big B, the arrogant but excellent chef. Kate is an excellent chef with a bad temper. She has a sister and no friends. One day, her sister and her niece meet with an accident and her sister dies. Kate brings home her niece, Zoe. In the meanwhile, to keep the restaurant running, the owner hires the new chef Nick. The rest of the movie is about how Kate deals with the situation and what happens between Kate and Nick. Not exactly a chick flick but don’t watch it with great expectations.

Sathampodathey:

Cast - Prithviraj as Ravichadran, Padmapriya as Bhanu and Nithin Sathya as Rathnavel

The movie starts of with Bhanu getting married to Rathnavel who works for the Railways in Chennai. Soon the couple discovers that Rathnavel is impotent. Bhanu believes Rathnavel did not know about his disability and decides to give her marriage a second chance by adopting a child in spite of her family asking her to divorce Rathnavel.

One day Bhanu discovers that Rathnavel is a recovering alcoholic and that he was very much aware of his impotency before their marriage. Shocked by the truth, she decides to get divorced and returns home. Bhanu then meets Ravichandran and gets married to him. What happens between Bhanu, Ravichandran and Rathnavel forms the second half of the movie. Worth the watch if you have time to kill!

Small things

2007-10-10T20:53:00.000-04:00

I remember the times when I was a kid, my parents, sis and I used to sit and watch Just for Laughs on TV.. Those simple times are memories to cherish!

Never get bored of them - even now :)

Don't forget your muscles at work!

2007-10-07T22:40:00.000-04:00

Picture source: fitness.com

How many times have you felt really tired and worn out at work? An easy solution to that is to do some simple stretches.. Don’t worry these stretches are not going to look odd to your co-workers!

If your work involves sitting in front of a computer screen, the first thing which you should do every 2-3 hours is eye relaxation exercise. Close your eyes and move your eye balls up and down (3 times) then side to side (3 times). Once you do that, rotate the eye balls in clockwise direction (5 times) and then in anti-clockwise direction (5 times).

To relax your shoulder, hold one arm straight in front of you. Then use your other hand to bring the stretched arm to the opposite shoulder.

To loosen your chest, top of shoulder and lower arms, try this:

Make circles (clockwise and anti-clockwise) with your ankles and wrists.

Stand up, bend forward and try to touch your toes without bending your knees. If that is difficult for you, give a slight bend at your knees.

You can also do the same stretch seated.

To relax your neck muscles, move your neck very slowly up and down (3 times) and side to side (3 times). Then very carefully rotate your neck clockwise and then anticlockwise 3 times each.

This 10 minutes that you spend on relaxing your muscles will help you loosen up and feel better!

How many times a month?

2007-08-30T08:27:00.000-04:00

Off late I have been super lazy to do anything.. When I come back from work, I watch TV, speak on the phone, eat and then sleep. This has been my weekday schedule for more than a month.. Probably the fact that I cannot access Gmail or blogger from work is one of the reasons for my sabbatical!!

Picture source: cartoonstock.com

Anyways, I got to thinking as to how many times in a month do we buy something online? I buy a minimum of 5 items online each month from electronics to chocolates! So on an average I spend about $150 on online purchases. There are a lot of websites which offer deals and discount coupons. But couponsChief is one which I use the most. You can find most of the coupons from fatwallet.com and slickdeals.com here. The main reason I like to use CouponChief is because unlike the other deals website, the coupons here are classified and categorized. So it is easy to find coupons without getting frustrated!

Some of the good deals going on now:

29% off on Adidas products
Savings on digital cameras from Circuit City
2 DVDs for $15 at BestBuy
The Body shop discount

Something which I have learnt after coming to the US.. Never buy something without googling for discount coupons.. whether it is car rental or some purchase. You can always find something!

Men, Women and Marriage!

2007-07-21T17:22:00.000-04:00

I got this forward from my friend and just couldn't resist the temptation of blogging about it.. Here is fodder for 5 mins of laughter!!

"When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her" - Sacha Guitry

"Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them." - Dumas

"I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me." - Anonymous

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays." - Henry Youngman

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage." - James Holt McGavran"

"The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once..." - Anonymous

"My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met." - Rodney Dangerfield

"Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy. " - Anonymous

First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!" Second Guy "You're lucky, mine's still alive."

All that said and done, you cannot force yourself to love someone but it just happens! When that happens, marriage happens and the way your life is shaped after that is completely in your hands!

Amazing Amazon

2007-07-19T16:41:00.000-04:00

Picture source: amazon.com

For me, Amazon has always been a great place to find books, electronics and DVDs at a very competitive/low price. One month back I got a memory stick for my then brand new Digital Camera! Since I had just moved to OH, I gave the hotel address where I was staying temporarily as the shipping address. I waited for about 3 weeks and then contacted the seller stating that I hadn't received the shipment. The seller sent me an email with the shipping details and told me that the item was delivered to my Florida address. When I looked at the address, I found out that it was not delivered to my previous home address but to the address where I was staying 1.5 years back! When I told the seller about the mistake in the shipping address, he simply told me that he cannot do anything about it..

As a last resort, I decided to try my luck with Amazon and wrote to them about the situation. Yesterday I got an email from Amazon.com telling me that they have credited the entire $$ I spent on my purchase to my account. I was amazed at their customer service. Amazon for sure knows what customer service is all about :)

Whom to blame this time?

2007-07-17T18:55:00.000-04:00

Phew.. It has been exactly one month since I blogged! The past 40 days has been so crazy that I even forgot the feeling (contentment) of sleeping for 12 hours a day ;) Slowly I have begun to realize what 40 hours/week means.. It actually means that even though they pay you only for 40 hours per week, you must work a minimum of 50-60 hours/week just to make sure that you get your next pay check!! If your team or group has fellow desies, you will not only have to be careful about your work hours but also watch your back!! Competition in every aspect gets tougher with them around!! On the whole work has been a jumbo roller coaster ride, but only with twists and turns and no fall-outs so far.

Now that I have pretty much settled down at work and in my new home, I will definitely try to blog regularly and try not to blame time and/or work!

No time!!!

2007-06-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

This past week has been so hectic. We have been having Project Management and financial classes. And the highlight of the week was a Quiz on Friday! We had a chance to visit a call center and we had a good time learning about the things they do there.

A few of my friends and I watched Ocean's 13 on friday. I liked the movie.. Although a few scenes were similar to Ocean's 11, it was way better than O-12.. I thought George Clooney did an awesome job as usual. There were a few scenes which seemed too far-fetched. I would give it a 2.5/5...

Oh, btw there are so many Indian restaurants in Cincinnati...I went to another restaurant last night and the food was ok but the service was good..I am slowly discovering desi stuff in Cincy..

At last !

2007-06-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

It has been more than a week since I blogged. Work has kept me really busy.. Have to get up at 6.00 a.m. everyday and get back home by 6 - 6.30 p.m. Once I get back to my room, I am completely drained out of energy! I think it is because after one month of solid vacationing, my body thinks that I am still on vacation! I am guessing everything should be fine by this coming week!

I finally got hold of my dance video on Google! Eight of us performed for an Indian event in 2005.. It was a lot of fun! We choreographed the dance and had practice sessions late in the night..

Went with my friends to the Cincinnati reds baseball game last night! We had loads of fun.. This was my first ball game and I simply loved it.. There was this guy sitting in the row in front of us, he was so totally drunk and was very entertaining.. He actually made the game more lively and enjoyable..

Marriage = hell?

2007-05-30T13:52:00.001-04:00

Picture source: cartoonstock.com

Most of the guys always talk like after marriage they were literally tortured by their wives.. Is it true that we women actually change? Do we start expecting more out of the relationship? Do we blow the smallest of misunderstandings out of proportion? I personally believe that it takes two to fight! So guys, stop blaming the wife for every fight... May be she has a point about your clumsiness, forgetfulness or laziness!

Here is a conversation between a husband and wife.. Have a good laugh!

Before the marriage:

He: Yes. At last. It was so hard to wait.
She: Do you want me to leave?
He: NO! Don't even think about it.
She: Do you love me?
He: Of course!
She: Have you ever cheated on me?
He: NO! Why you even asking?
She: Will you kiss me?
He: Yes!
She: Will you hit me?
He: No way! I'm not such kind of person!
She: Can I trust you?
He: Yes.

Now after marriage you can read it bottom-up !!!!

May be next time

2007-05-28T12:22:00.000-04:00

When we made a trip to Key West, I tried to book one of the inns near Duval Street but then all of those beautiful inns were completely booked. When we went to Key West and saw those inns, we decided that we should stay there next time.. These are old houses transformed into inns and have beautiful gardens, swings and close proximity to Duval street and the beach!

Picture source: hawaii.com

I remember the time when me made a trip to Munnar in Kerala, we booked a house rather a mansion and had lots of fun. There was a river flowing behind the house and there was a huge waterfalls 5 minutes from where we were staying.. It was an awesome vacation. It is always nice to stay in rental houses instead of hotels. You get the feeling of relaxing at home and still feel like you are on vacation! The same feeling can be got now if you are planning on a Hawaii vacation.. You can rent villas and have an amazing vacation! These villas are very well described, you can have a look at the photo gallery and choose the one which is spacious/suitable for your vacation..One cool thing about all these rental houses is that they are all located near the beach.. it is not like you choose a cheaper one and you end up in a house in the middle of the town! Now I am tempted to go on a vacation to Hawaii.. the only thing is that a vacation in Hawaii can cost you a fortune. So if you are planning to go on a super - dooper vacation to Hawaii make sure you book everything in advance, have your wallet full and be prepared to come back with an empty wallet!

Where next?

2007-05-18T12:51:00.000-04:00

I am planning to take my parents to Orlando, the land of theme parks! There are a few parks that my parents haven't seen yet, so most probably this is going to be the next stop!

Picture source: wikipedia.org

One thing about Orlando is that not even one weekend goes by where you don't do anything but sit at home.. The three months I spent in this wonderful city during my Internship was awesome. Slowly I found out that water rides and roller coaters are not the only things this city showcases. Be it the Tragics - Orlando Magic games or the wonderful downtown with lots of restaurants or the vibrant Winter Park walks, I for sure had lots of fun! My friend and I discovered a German cafe and pub in Sanford downtown. We had a German friend and we went with him.. It was lovely, the live music and dancing was so much fun. Those good old days, I am going to miss all of that for sure once I leave the sunshine state!

Coming back to the theme park tickets, I found this website called Orlandofuntickets.com where you can purchase tickets at a discounted price. I am planning to take my parents to Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Last time we went to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Sea World. I have been to all of them except Magic Kingdom. I have already purchased the Universal Studio Tickets. Hopefully there won't be too much crowd.. I know I am just hoping against hope! This time of the year is the peak season for theme parks and each ride might have a waiting time of upto 3 hours! But in sipte of that, you can definitely manage to have fun and thatz exactly what we are going to do!

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

2007-05-16T20:28:00.000-04:00

Have to write about it after all the frenzy the media created about their wedding. One thing which I don't understand is that there are thousands of Indians getting married each year, but why did this couple get soo much of attention? Is it because Ash kept denying the fact that she was dating Abhishek Bachchan while Abhi actually talked about it very openly with Simi on her show?

Anyways here is fodder for those who want to know about Ash after marriage..

Ash's interview with Rajeev Masand on CNN-IBN

Women - the unsolvable mystery?

2007-05-14T10:54:00.000-04:00

God created men and women to strike a balance just like his all other creations. Whom did he create first - man or woman, which of the two was the blunder, which was the solution and why? Nobody knows the answer to these questions but a woman can definitely write about her gender and help in solving the mystery about women to a tiny weeny extent!

What women think of men

Picture source:beconfused.com

So here is my contribution : 5 things about woman married/in a relationship

1. When she cooks and serves the food, tell her it is good. Don't exaggerate and please don't say "I think the dish needs a little more salt". She takes this as an insult and especially if you are married she will definitely think/say that you never complain about your mother's cooking!

2. All of us have heard of "no means yes".. here are a few other truths : 'I don't know means don't you dare do it', 'I am not sure means definitely NO' & after a fight if she is acting like she is not going to talk to you, most of the times she wants you to keep trying to make her talk/smile!

3. Women are by nature forgiving especially of their dear ones. So if you fight and then she brings it up in another fight, she is just trying to make you fight back.. not that she wants to bury you alive.

4. Don't ever ever tell your wife that your mother said something and you are going to do it when your wife is not ok with it. This will be the beginning of the "I have a MONSTER-IN-LAW" feeling! All a woman wants is you to discuss things with her rather than just tell her your decision. Convincing your wife is generally not as difficult as it seems ;)

5. Women are not big givers, but are definitely takers. They will never forget the things you forgot like anniversaries etc. but will very easily forget all the dates you remembered and the gifts you got. Get her gifts, never forget anniversaries, dates and make sure that you plan out things and surprise her even if she knows your plan!

A memorable holiday

2007-05-12T08:16:00.000-04:00

Seven mile bridge - Key West

Last week was awesome. I took my parents to Miami and Key West. The three of us had a wonderful time. We went to the beaches and my parents loved the ride to Key West especially the 7 mile bridge. I have been to Miami before but this was my first trip to Key West and it was great. I was thinking that the whole place was going to be very crowded since all the hotels were booked, but surprisingly I could not find too many people.

Miami

In Miami we stayed in a hotel next to the Miami river on the 15th floor and the view we had from there was breathtaking. My dad utilized his camcorder to the fullest. He took video of every small thing that caught his eye. I could remember the times when my parents used to plan out trips and take my sister and I to various places. This time it felt very different. I did the planning..

My dad driving

My dad drove my car on the way back from Key West and he did an awesome job. Initially I was very scared to let him drive because in India we are not aware of 'lane discipline', 'speed limit' and 'honking'. But my dad has been driving for more than 35 years and so I allowed him to drive for about 50 miles and he drove very confidently and was able follow lanes and speed limit.. of course he didn't have the need to honk as everybody else on the road was also driving carefully!

Graduated! Wuuhu

2007-05-04T14:37:00.000-04:00

Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I graduated yesterday.. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life! Although the moment lasted only 10 seconds (on the stage) it was well worth the hard work of 2 years. The announcer pronounced my first name correctly but KILLED my last name.. Poor thing, my dad was listening to the announcer totally mispronouncing his name!

The whole of yesterday was very hectic, had a lot of last minute things to complete. Somehow I managed to get all of that done, came home got dressed and went to the ceremony. My friends were able to make it for the ceremony. It was a great feeling to have all your well wishers next to you.

The ceremony took place at the Basketball stadium and the place was very crowded. It somehow felt like there were a lot of PhD students graduating this time. I saw a couple of my TAs graduating. We took a lot of pictures and my parents were so proud. I am very glad that I was able to share this important day of my life with my parents! It is only because of their hard work and encouragement that both my sister and I are who we are today. Kudos to them!

Signing off - Swetha Vaidyanathan MS ;)

Strange things

2007-04-30T22:08:00.000-04:00

A very strange building in North Korea. It is called the Ryugyong Hotel. They stopped the construction of the hotel in 1992. If they complete it, this will be the tallest hotel in the world.. Any idea about the offices/hotels in Burj Dubai? May be there will be some hotel in the top most floor.. Imagine looking down from there ;)

I am planning to take my parents around Florida. One month of total free time and I am going to make the most use of it. Planning a vacation is pretty tedious and time consuming. Although I have decided the places I need to cover I am yet to make the Hotel Reservations. Places like Key West and Miami seem to be so expensive at this time of the year. But these are places which every person visiting Gatorland should see. I found out about this website Hotel Reservations.com where you can find hotels at discounted price. I first thought of booking hotel room through Priceline.com but then later thought about the kind of rooms people get especially at places like Miami. They also have offers on car rental and vacation packages. I like the way you can choose hotels and the diverse options you have to make your reservations.

Speaking of priceline, I need to write about the pathetic experience I had once when I went Tampa. I stayed at the Wyndham and paid $70 per night. I got the worst room which was so dirty and they refused to change my room. The bed cover had some stains and when I told them that I need a different room, they told me that since I had booked through priceline they cannot change my room. I had at argue with the receptionist for more than 15 minutes to have them change my room. Finally that guy budged. After that I decided not to book hotels through Priceline. Now that I am taking my parents along, I am surely going to book a hotel through a proper website!

Last exam for my Master's

2007-04-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

It was a great feeling to write the very last exam for my Master's... I am unofficially done with my MS..Hurray! The whole of last week I just could not concentrate and study. I kept thinking about graduation and trips.. Finally I somehow managed to finish studying the night before the exam. To top it all there was a power outage in Gainesville on Thursday night for about 3 hours! Somehow I managed to study and finished my LAST exam.

Yesterday my parents came from India to attend my graduation ceremony. It is always a great feeling to see your parents especially when they are your best of best friends! I am sure the three of us are going to have lots of fun together. The only thing is that they did not get their baggage! I hope they deliver the bags home today.. At least we were saved the trouble of lifting the bags.

A Surprising Find

2007-04-26T01:19:00.000-04:00

Picture source: movietune.com

I am sure that most of us (esp. people from Tamil Nadu) are excited about the release of the movie Sivaji starring Rajinikath and Shriya Saran. After the release of the music, people are looking forward to the movie all the more. A.R. Rahman has proved his worth once again!

Speaking of songs, I personally like Sahana and Balleilekka. Want to know more about the voice behind Sahana? The male singer is Udit Narayan and the female singer is Chinmayi. Most of us know her as the Kanathil Muthamittal voice! When I was blog hopping, I came across this blog "WhatToNameIt".. It was Chinmayi's blog. Initially I thought that someone was making a fool out of people because where is someone like her going to find the time to blog? But I was surprised to learn that it was indeed her blog. I should say that she writes very well and posts pretty regularly! She has written about her experiences and has a photo blog too!

I am sure that you must be thinking, why on earth is this post about 'chinmayi'? I just thought that I should write about her blog and tell myself that I should blog more often and always make time to post here instead of giving excuses like I am busy.. too much work!

Why make moving so painful?

2007-04-20T09:34:00.000-04:00

Picture Source: allseasonsmoving.net

A lot of my friends are moving to different places for job. It is surprising that they actually want to carry most of their stuff along. They are thinking about transporting their couch, dining table, chairs, study table, bed and even Comforters.. How ridiculous is that? As graduate students more importantly desi graduate students, none of us buy NEW furniture. It is either got from the dumpster or thrift shop or hand down from graduating folks! I got my bed and couch from a friend who was graduating.

I have decided that I am not going to carry any of my stuff when I have to leave Gnv. There is no point in carrying stuffs which have been used for 2+2+2=6 years. When you get a good job you would want to buy new stuff and settle down.. You know for a fact you are going to be in that place for at least 2 years. From the time you came to the US, you have been using "used/pre-owned" things. Why not go in for new things now. I understand the reluctance in buying a new car but not a new bed or a new comforter! I have always wanted to buy one of the bed sets displayed in Macy's. They look so good and obviously expensive. So I was searching for cheap new bed sets online and found out about this site DownDeals.com. They are actually suppliers to shops like Macy's, Dillards etc. and are selling things at a much lower price! They have comforters, blankets and other bedding stuff. I found out that they have featherbeds. When I read about these beds I came to know that they are actually stuffed with bird's feathers. Has anyone actually used this bed?

I am going to make my moving very simple.. Just my clothes, some utensils and left over groceries! I don't want to make my "moving" so painful!

Deadliest college shooting at Virginia Tech

2007-04-16T14:25:00.000-04:00

Picture source: cnn.com

Today was a horrifying day for the students and staff at Virgina Tech. There were two shooting incidents at around 7.00 am, one at the dormitory and the other at the Engineering building.

22 people were killed and 29 wounded. It is reported that the gunman was also found dead.

More Information

The Namesake

2007-04-16T10:18:00.000-04:00

Picture source: impawards.com

I watched the movie 'The Namesake' last night. It was a last minute plan to go for the movie. My roommate and I have been asking for the DVD of the movie at the Indian store for over 2 weeks and finally we saw that the movie was screened at a theater here. So we decided to go and watch it. I should say that the movie was worth the $$$.

When we entered the movie hall there were exactly 2 people. Then a few more desies came and totally there were 10 of us watching the movie.. What else can you expect for a 10.00 pm show on a Sunday night?

The movie was very good. I have not read the book by Jhumpa Lahiri but my roommate has and she told me that the movie has done justice to the book.

So here are my views:

Pros:

The story was told very well.
The movie was not fast paced at the same time was not dragging.
Tabu's make up suited the role very well.
Irfan Khan and Tabu did an amazing job. They seemed very natural and I thought that they acted very well.
The costumes for all the actors was very nice and appropriate for the role they played.

Cons:

Choosing Kal Pen to do the pivotal role might have not been the right thing. Although he did a good job, I thought that he is better suited for movies like the American Pie! In the first half although there was a lot of scope to be Kal Pen, he did not fully utilize it. In the second half, when his father dies, I could barely see any acting from Kal Pen. He was good towards the end.

Overall: Good meaningful movie.

Gruesome week

2007-04-15T18:34:00.000-04:00

Last week was really busy. I had so much to do in so little time..a lot of time became less time due to procrastination. I have tried real hard, but this is always the case.. It all starts with thinking that I can complete one task a little later since I have 2 more days before the due date.. then the postponement has an avalanche effect! But somehow I managed to get all the work done.

Weekend was fun.. I went to the "VISA Talent show" which is a multicultural talent competition. There were clubs like the Japanese club, Brazilian club etc, participating. Last year the Indian club, 'Indian Inc' won the talent competition. This year they won it again! I personally thought the performance by the Brazilian people was very good, but they lacked variety! The Indians performed Garbha and Rass followed by Bharatnatyam.

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Just two more weeks to go before I get done with the Spring Semester, the last semester in my grad school life! I am kind of excited about it but also sad that I am going to be leaving Gnv, which has been my home for the last 1.5 years..

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Today I went to Wal-mart to get some empty CDs. But as usual you never buy one thing when you are in Wal-mart. I went there to do a purchase for $10 and ended up spending $30 and guess what, I did not buy the CDs. Instead I got a (Florida) Gator T-shirt for $22 and a cap for $8. Now that the Gators have won the Basketball and the Football National championships, the price of all the Gator stuff has increased like crazy. I am sure that I could have got the same T-shirt for $15-$16 some 1 month back.. I guess this is the price you pay for being a part of the Gator Nation!

Indian Cricket players - a new leaf

2007-04-09T15:03:00.000-04:00

Imagine what would the Indian Cricket players do if they loose all the advertisement contracts they have.. Switch to some other profession!

Here are some of the players doing what they are passionate about rather doing what they are good for!

Virendar Sehwag

Robin Uthappa

Sourav Ganguly

Dhoni

Ajith Agarkar

Zaheer Khan

Building our house

2007-04-06T13:14:00.000-04:00

For Indians building their own house is one of their biggest life time goals. They take this job very seriously and once done all the relatives say "Ohh, they have built their own house now. No more worries for them." I understand the feeling of accomplishment when we build our first house. But people buy/build 4 houses and for the 5th house the feel the same way. How many houses do u need to live in? I guess the idea is one house for the kitchen, one house for the living room, one house for the bedroom etc. One thing I have noticed is that people believe that real estate is a great investment which I completely agree with the roaring price of land in Chennai!

I remember when we built our house in Chennai, my parents took the role of an architect, supervisor, contractor, manager, name it and they did it. I don't think many people in the city would have done as much as my parents did while building the house. Usually what they do is go to an architect and ask him to make the plan and they just approve it. But my parents went and sat down with the architect and designed each wall. The energy and involvement they had was awesome. I was in undergrad then and was too busy with friends and din't bother much about the house. Now I feel guilty for not helping them around. I remember once we went to 'Thousand Lights' to purchase a chandelier for the living room and to buy some special lights for the bedrooms. My parents took me to some 6 or 7 shops before they decided what to buy. Then came the task of buying fans. In the US, you can buy ceiling fans and lights online. When I was a kid we got a fan with a light in the center and my friends thought that I had a very cool fan. Nowadays you have various kinds of fans, fanimation (animated ceiling fans), hunter fans, designer fans (monte carlo fans) etc. Things have changed so much that the pleasure of building a house is kind of lost. Everything is delegated to agencies/contractors. The owners come and see the progress of the house once in 2-3 weeks. Nobody has the time to get themselves involved anymore.

My parents are living in the house they built and are constantly making improvement and changes to the house. The day we had the 'Grahapravesam' (house warming ceremony), my parents were so thrilled and at the same time felt relieved because they built the house in less than a year. They faced lots of problems while building the house with the masons, painters and carpenters but somehow they managed to swim across and reach the shore. I wish I will have the same the energy and enthusiasm when I build my house!

India vs. the US

2007-04-04T15:07:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of things which are different between India and the US. When Indians come to the US, they change themselves a little in certain ways to suit the land of the free!

Some of the most common things are when people in the US have coffee they have dikashun/black coffee but in India by default coffee comes with lots of milk and sugar! First floor means ground floor and ground floor means basement. The way they pronounce words that have the letter "j" for example, jalapeño is pronounced as halapeno and not Jalapeno.. Fuel for vehicles is called 'gas' and not 'petrol'. People are honest in this country even our own folks learn to be honest..

Indians never change when it comes to a few things like bargaining.. I saw an Indian aunty who was trying to bargain at JcPenny because the shirt that she took had a button which was not stitched properly!

Picture source: desithreads.com

Indians always go in for the cheap stuff, be it vegetables, groceries, clothes or insurance. Speaking of insurance when we come to the US as students all of us are told to purchase the cheapest medical insurance possible. The policy hardly covers anything but still all of us do it. Even for car insurance, Indians go in for the cheapest. They buy insurance from some unheard of company thinking that they are saving a lot of $$$.

One thing that all Indians in the US do is complain about the Indian food at the Indian Restaurants. There is always something bad to talk about.. Most of the people who give such raging reviews about restaurants are men, I bet they know for a fact that the food at the restaurant was 100 times better than their wives' cooking! Also most of the Indians here always discuss about the economy of India and how corrupt the politicians are. The men here always tell their mothers that they are planning to come back to India the next year and that next year never comes! The guy's mother topic is a separate issue and will definitely write about it soon!

Buckeyes, whatz the deal?

2007-04-03T18:52:00.000-04:00

Picture source: espn.com

Yesterday's game was awesome. Gators proved it once again.. Remember the Monday, Jan 8th when the Gators played against the Buckeyes for the National Football championship? The outcome was unexpected! Gators won.. This Monday the Gators faced the Buckeyes and the outcome was as expected, the gators won again! This is the second time the gators are winning the NCAA Basketball championship!

I watched the game at home and few of my friends went to the Basketball stadium to watch the game and they told me that the entire University Avenue was crowded.. When the game got over, I could hear people bursting crackers near my place. On the whole, it was an awesome game and hats off to Corey Brewer and Taurean Green!

Go Gators!

2007-04-01T17:19:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting game.. Florida vs. Ohio State Men's Basketball Championship. The Buckeyes are meeting the Gators for the second time this year, the first time was for the National Football Championship on Jan 8th at which the gators had a meritorious win!

Picture source: gatorshop.com

I am sure the gators who were the 2006 champions will re-prove their worth in tomorrow's game. Poor thing the Buckeyes are going to face loss against the same team for the second time! May be the Michigan Wolverines need to take some tips from the gators on facing/beating the Buckeyes ;)

Here is the video of the Gator's White-House Visit. Enjoy

Some of the best ads

2007-03-28T17:51:00.000-04:00

Jamaica, it is!

2007-03-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

I have started counting the days before graduation! I am all excited about this new chapter of my life. I hope it is at least as adventurous and interesting as the past 3 years of my life. The age between 21 and 35 is the fun-filled and most challenging period of person's life and we should try to make the most use of it and accomplish our dreams.. Speaking of dreams, I have already started dreaming about the places I am going to visit in the month of May. I want it to be a true vacation.

Picture source: nationalgeographic.com

I am actually planning to go on a week's trip to Jamaica. We are going to be a group of 3 and we have decided to spend money like water..whatever little we have! I actually have a friend from Jamaica and have asked him about the place, things to do etc.. I found the website vacations.net to be very helpful in finalizing where I want to go for the summer. I really liked they way the had categorized resorts. They have listings for Family Vacation Resort, resorts for couples, resorts for honeymooners etc. You can save money as they are offering upto 50% discount on regular price. This is amazing especially if you want a low budget nice vacation.. We have already shortlisted our resorts.. It is only a matter of time before we swipe our credit cards! Can't wait for this fun-filled, relaxing get away..

The art of bidding

2007-03-25T11:52:00.000-04:00

Picture source: cartoonstock.com

On eBay, when you bid on certain products, even though you are the highest bidder you keep getting a message saying you need to bid higher as someone has already made your offer. And when you go and see who the bidders are, it is you who has been bidding your own price. Has this ever happened to you? Basically this is a way to keep increasing the price and make one bid for a higher price. Next time you are on eBay and you keep getting that message, you know what to do.. "Quit Bidding on that product"

Speaking of bidding, I came across a website "bid4prizes.com" where you win free gifts by bidding, not to increase the price but to decrease it. So the lowest unique bidder wins. Isn't that very innovative? This is a game where there are lots of sweepstakes. You can bid using your cell phone or online to win cash prizes. You need to register for playing this game. Once you do that, you need to select a prize and place a bid on it. Then you will be informed if the bid you placed was high, low, unique or duplicate. So once you win the prize, you do not pay any money to get the product other than the shipping and handling costs and applicable IRS taxes. So in case you want a different experience in bidding, try playing this game.

A world so beautiful

2007-03-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

I am guessing most of you know about Matt Harding and his famous website "wherethehellismatt.com". I just thought I should post the video on my blog. All the places that you see in this video are real and the way Matt dances is the best he can do!

I like the music of the video too. When you see the video you feel like there is so much to see in this world, hopefully people will realize the need to preserve whats left.

Traveling is something which I love. Some countries I want to visit by 2020: Egypt, Italy, Japan, Iceland, Dubai, China, Spain, New Zealand, Bolivia and Brazil.

Websites playing cupid

2007-03-22T19:28:00.000-04:00

Picture source: speedysigns.com

When I was in undergrad, orkut was the in-thing to find friends or boyfriends/girlfriends. I remember how all of us used to be on orkut everyday. Now it has become a site where you can catch up with long last friends and scrap each other.

These days adds for online dating has become very popular. There are quite a few sites which offer this service. To join this growing cupid list is "JustSayHi.com". Unlike their brothers, this site offers free dating service. All you need to do is register for their service and then hopefully you will find someone interesting! There is no "if you are not satisfied, you get 6 months free" thingie. I personally don't think I can choose my life-partner over a dating site. But hey it is the web2.0 generation, soon websites might be built to choose your kid!

Somehow a lot of people seem to believe in finding a spouse online. Even if you look at Indians, shadi.com and tamilmatrimony seem to be very popular to advertise for prospective brides and grooms. At least till now my parents haven't brought up the topic of placing ads on websites or The Hindu Classifieds. I think they know that I am going to tell them "Not now!".

Time to make a Change

2007-03-21T16:44:00.001-04:00

I prefer to change my cell phone carrier every year, the reason being that you can get better phones as well as better deals. I used have a T-Mobile account but then I changed to Verizon. The problem with Verizon is that you get less minutes for a higher price than T-Mobile.

So, I am planning to change my phone since my contract with Verizon is ending soon. I am ok with T-Mobile or Verizon. Anything other than Cingular works fine for me. I was browsing for free phones that are available with the purchase of a plan and I checked out the free phones available at Alltell and Wirefly. Both have some good phones. But the free cell phones at Wirefly are simply amazing. You can get a BlackBerry Pearl with a new T-mobile account for FREE, thats right for free!

They also have some cool deals going on now. Sony W300i is also available for free "without any mail-in rebates". But this is on Cingular account, not going to work for me. With a new Verizon account you can get a Razr for free. When I got my Razr, I paid $70 for the phone for a one-year contract. I should have just got a free phone. So I have decided that I will not make the mistake of paying for a phone when you can get it for free for the second time!

I really like the offers at Wirefly which don't have any mail-in rebates. All these rebates take like 100 days or so and you mostly don't get the full amount back. The best thing to do would be to go in for free phones without any mail-in rebates on them. I think I am going to go in for the Nokia 6030 which comes with T-Mobile. On this I can get a $50 cash back after mail in rebate. Even if I don't get this amount, it is ok. I am happy that for once I was able to find some good deals on phones.

Gold <-> Indians

2007-03-21T11:24:00.000-04:00

Picture source: gc.maricopa.edu

Most of the Indians tend to invest in real estate, gold and stocks or mutual funds. If a family has a girl then they start buying gold ornaments for her right from the age of 7 months. For some reason weddings in India seem to be a display of jewels and silk sari. I feel that weddings are more like festivals in India. It is a time for celebration, feasts, happiness and bliss.

I have noticed one thing that people do, they buy gold and silver coins or biscuits. I feel that this is a better thing to do than buying jewels when the girl is 10 years old. This way when the girl grows up she can choose the type of ornament and the design she wants. Designs keep changing each day and what you bought last year has become "Old-fashion"! I found this website where you can buy gold coins in the US. Now we don't have to leave our practices behind in India. The only thing is that you might not get "Mahalakshmi" or "Shiva" or "Ganesha" in the coin. Instead you can get the "American Eagles" or the "American buffalos" ;)

Remember Tata's Rs.1 lakh car?

2007-03-20T23:49:00.000-04:00

Tata came up with the idea of making cars to suit the lower-income class. The car was designed to be affordable as well as to serve the purpose. This proposal was made sometime in the year 2003.

Click on the image to see the animation

One of my Dad's usual forwards had the animation of how this car would look. It also takes you for a test drive.. Have a nice laugh!

Any idea as to what has happened to Tata's plan to make this car after all the commotion and "fasting" sessions of Mamata Banerjee?

Credit score, the Magical Number

2007-03-20T20:36:00.000-04:00

I realized that if you want to get a credit card or a loan in this country, you OUGHT to have a good credit history. Everything revolves around your credit score and your credit history. I have been looking at forums and websites to learn about ways to improve my credit score and was not able to find a one stop to learn about things related to credits and loans.

Recently I came across this site creditloan.com where you can actually learn about loans, credit cards, credit history and anything related to finance. It is pretty useful if you are a novice in the field of finance and would like some guidance and tutoring. I especially like their Simple loan calculator. You can calculate the monthly payments or the loan amounts. if you have been in this country for less than 2 years the Credit Report Score section talks about ways to enhance your credit score.

Before you get a loan it is very important to get quotes from two or more finance companies or lenders. You should also remember that everytime someone runs a credit check or you apply for a credit card, your credit score is affected. So don't just randomly apply for credit cards because too many credit checks will affect your score. These are somethings which I didn't know until now. I should say better late than never! If you don't have a great credit score, start working to build one now. All it takes is some effort and caution.

Something Useful

2007-03-20T12:17:00.000-04:00

If you are looking for hot deals, coupons or codes to get discounts Coupon Chief is a great place to find coupons based on what you are shopping for. I buy electronic stuff and books from Amazon.com. It is a great place to shop at. Getting discount coupons to shop at amazon makes shopping on the Internet even more useful. You not only have to leave your home but you even save for being lazy! The best part of this website is that you choose the shop and you get the listing of all the coupons available like coupons for dell, travelocity, ebay, target etc..

Hmm.. Interesting!

2007-03-19T15:25:00.000-04:00

Picture source: d-winner.com

Do you know who are the top four contenders for the "Worst Company in America 2007"? - RIAA, Exon, Walmart and Halliburton।

And the Winner is RIAA getting 53.8% of the votes, followed by Halliburton.

15 companies were chosen for this 'prestigious award' . Best Buy, U-Haul, Sony, Exon, Verizon, Bank of America and United Airlines were among the fortunate contenders! I am sure that disappointed losers would have had an "urgent" board meeting and decided to try harder next year to bag this award ;)

Hearty congratulations to the winners and keep up the good work!

source: consumerist.com

Indian Cricket team - Time to face the Bitter truth!

2007-03-17T19:06:00.000-04:00

source: http://content-www.cricinfo.com

I watched the India vs. Bangladesh cricket match today and was very disappointed by India's performance. Looks like the much trash talked person, Ganguly came to rescue India's miserable batting. He was the only one who scored more than 50 runs.

Tendulkar must retire as soon as possible. It is better to leave the team with dignity rather than retire with disgrace. All of us have a lot of respect for our Little Master but it is time he hangs his gloves and goes home.

Bangladesh, supposed to be formed of players from 'the streets' proved their team spirit and confidence today. They were definitely underestimated by the Indians.

India vs. Srilanka is going to decide India's fate at the 2007 World Cup! Initially we were talking about India's strategy at the semi-finals and the finals, now it has come down to Qualification for the super 8 stage!

Checklist to buy a Used car

2007-03-17T15:53:00.000-04:00

I have been on the look out for a used car for over 3 months. I have done a lot of research and thought that I can share my knowledge with my blog readers on this subject!

1. It is better to buy a Pre-Owned "Certified" car than buying a Used car. The reason is, with a certified car you get about 7 years warranty. This way you will not be risking your savings.

2. Decide the make which you want to buy. Most of the Indians buy a Toyota, Honda or BMW. Once you decide on the make, decide on the model, the year range and the maximum mileage of the car.

3. Always, I repeat ALWAYS check out the cars on the dealership website and contact the "Internet Sales Manager". This way you will get the Internet pricing (mostly you save about $500 - $1300)

4. Go to edmunds and 'appraise your used car'. Here you can select the make, model, year of manufacture, zip code, color and mileage run. Edmunds gives you the Private Part price(if you buy from an individual), Dealer price, Trade-In price and Certified price.

5. During this appraisal you can add additional equipment like CD, ABS, air bags etc. which come with the car. You should be able to find all the specifications on the dealer's advertisement.

6. Note down the edmunds value and go to the dealership. Tell them you saw this car "ONLINE" and that you would like to test drive the car.

7. Drive the car on the freeway or at 60 mph and see if there is any noise from the engine by switching off the AC/Heater. Then make a thorough inspection of the car (outside, inside, seats, storage, trunk, lights, wipers, engine, oil, brake fluid etc.)

8. Ask for a carfax report of the car. This is very important. You will be able to see how many owners the car has had, was it bought in an auction or was it a trade-in, any major part change or any accident etc.

9. Then ask the car Out-of-the-Door for the price quoted in edmunds. Remember that edmunds does not include the dealer fee, tax, tag etc. Try to get it for about a maximum of $1500 more than the price quoted in edmunds depending on the condition of the car. If you are able to do that, you have got yourself a good deal.

10. You can ask them to run a credit check after you finalize the "Numbers". This way you will not have too many credit checks which will hurt your credit score. Remember to ask the dealer to do a detailing of the car before you take it. This is your last chance to get something from them.

Buying a car whether used/new is a tiring task because you never get satisfied. Sometimes paying $100 more than what you wanted to pay will be worth it.

Those British comedies

2007-03-15T11:42:00.000-04:00

Do you remember the British comedies which used to come on Doordarshan? I used to watch "Are you being served?" and "Mind your language". My sister and I used to love them. We used to make sure that we watch them every week. If I remember right, 'Are you being Served' used to come on Mondays and 'Mind your language' on Tuesdays.

Those were good old times. No worries, no tensions and very happy times. Wish I could go back 10 years and relive my childhood!

I started watching both the comedy shows on YouTube. It felt amazing. Only thing which was missing was the company of my sister! May be when I visit her next time I will watch them with her.

Pyar ke side effects - very true!

2007-03-13T13:03:00.000-04:00

source: http://www.indiafm.com

I saw the movie Pyar ke side effects starring Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat. I liked it a lot. I thought the movie was very realistic and had captured the true attitude of women. Until they get into a relationship, women tend to be carefree and easy-g0-lucky. But once they are in a relationship their whole character changes. They become very demanding and keep expecting their boyfriends to do and say the RIGHT things (which only women know). Being a woman myself, I feel that we change a lot everytime we take up different roles. Our expectations seem to increase each day when in a relationship.

Coming back to the movie, I thought Mallika Sherawat had done a good job. Rahul Bose was amazing as always! Time pass yet paisa vasool!

It is already Spring Break!!

2007-03-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

My Spring Break unofficially starts in another 2 hours! Time flies..Last spring break, my mother was with me and we had lots of fun together. This time it is going to be with my friends.

This is going to be my last spring break for at least a few years.. Graduating semester seems to be the most fun-filled at the same time the most learning period in Grad school life.

For some reason, it is only now that I am discovering things which I have missed out.. So I am trying to live life to the fullest and make the most of this exiting part of my life.

When will there be "equal opportunity" in India?

2007-03-06T09:31:00.000-05:00

I came across this news on rediff about reservation in the IIMs for Other Backward Castes. Why is India called a Secular nation when the government itself is drawing fences among the Indians?

IIMs are prestigious institutions because only the smartest and brightest can get in. Now it is going to become just like the other universities in India. They are also going to increase the number of seats. It looks like the Indian government has made up its mind to bid farewell to Quality of education.

I am not saying that there should not be any privileges to the under privileged.. but let the privileges be based on economical status and not on caste. Even today a cobbler's son remains a cobbler. Just because there is reservation system, has the government been able to eradicate poverty? has the government been able to educate the villagers? has the government been able to demolish the slums?

It is only the lower-middle class Forward caste people who get affected because of this reservation. If someone is smart enough to score marks, then irrespective of whether there is reservation or not, he/she should be able to do well. Actually I have known people who converted to BC/MBC from FC, just to get admission into good colleges. This is just unfair advantage given to people who are misusing it.

Irrespective of how many educated politicians come to power, "Vote Bank" is all they care about. They have never been bothered about Quality of education or professional service. This is India's fate in the hands of dirty politicians!

Weirdest week of my life!

2007-03-02T23:34:00.000-05:00

This week has been the roughest and the most sensible week of my life.. How weird is that?

I saw myself being impulsive and mature at the same time. I made a lot of decisions this week than I have done in the last 1 year.

It is amazing how I handled things with patience and at the same stood my ground.

Sometimes making the toughest/saddest decision is more practical than living in a world of false hopes and beliefs. Reality is bitter but much better than Imagination!

Lessons of this week:

- Always believe in yourself and never loose your self-confidence.
- True friends will be there for you no matter what happens. If a friend is not there for you when you actually need her/him, then you called the wrong person your friend. Also, make sure you are there for your friends all the time, more importantly during the rough times.

Movie review

2007-02-19T16:10:00.000-05:00

I watched the movie "Deja Vu" on Friday with a couple of my friends. It was fine till the point where they start talking about time and space travel. It reminded me of the movie "The Lakehouse" starring Sandra Bullock and Keanau Reeves.

Anyways I really couldn't believe that part when Denzel Washington comes back even though they showed like he dies. It felt like although he traveled back in time and dies, he is still living in the present. I just wish the last 20 mins could have been made a little more sensible. Also sometime in the middle of the movie, I completely lost interest because there were a lot of unnecessary scenes.

On the whole, it was OK.

Now I have to write about the movie "The Departed". It was mind blowing and the entire cast has put in their heart and soul into the movie. Jack Nicholson has proved yet again as to why he is simply the best! I personally thought that after a real long time Leonardo has done a fantastic job. I have been wanting to watch the movie "Bloodline".. Shall write about it once I watch it.

If you haven't seen The Departed, you are missing a very good movie.. Watch it when you get the chance..

Chennai shocked me (Part 2)

2007-02-16T19:04:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the good things about Chennai:

There are so many shopping malls, restaurants, movie halls, clubs etc. I went to this new place "Citi Center". It was very nice. It looked like a smaller version of the malls here. There is a lot of parking space and well organized.

I went for walking in the Anna Nagar tower for about 5 days at 5.30 AM. I noticed the changes, there were lights, the walkway was clean and no homeless people sleeping in the park. I remember how this place used to be some 5 years back...Great improvement to how it was before and how it is now.

I also had a chance to go on the ECR road as well as on the Old Mahabalipuram road (OMR). ECR is still the same, a few more restaurants, but OMR has a lot of IT companies and apartments. There is a lot of construction activity going on, more buildings and they have also widened the road a little.

A lot of people like the new Chennai but i still prefer the old one.. It was safer, more clean and less people!

Chennai shocked me

2007-02-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

I was in India a month back and was amazed at the way the Chennai and Chennaites have changed.

A lot of vehicles on the road and totally unmanaged and indisciplined traffic. People don't stop at Red lights, they don't use the indicators to turn, they don't care about the pedestrians... What has happened to us?

I went shopping and got a couple of pants. I thought the bill was going to be around Rs.2000. But when I got the bill, I had a heart attack.. Rs.3000 for 2 pants = $70 for 2 pants??
I felt that the prices of salwars and silk skirts were a daylight robbery.. Agreed due to the "IT boon" people are earning a lot of money, but I don't think that they MINT money in TCS or Wipro.. or do they?

I kept wondering as to how the middle class people are surviving with this kind of high prices? Even food has become so expensive.

Now lets focus on the teenage girls and guys, they seemed to be so westernized that I actually had a "cultural shock" visiting India. South India is supposedly more conservative than the north.. God save the kids' parents.. I went to Coffee day in Numgambakkam and was taken aback by the way the girls were dressed up and the things they were talking about. My friend told me that all this has become very common in Chennai..

Are we changing too fast? It just feels like 'peer pressure' is the IN thing!

A video about Call Centers in India

2007-02-11T13:04:00.000-05:00

This is a very funny video. Shows the true development in India's economy.. No denial that there are a lot of people investing in IT but call centers seem to be the most popular of all..

Swing Dance!

2007-02-10T01:38:00.000-05:00

I was introduced by my roommate to Swing dance last night.. About 6 of us went for this dance session. We had loads and loads of fun..

Although none of us knew anything about Swing dancing, the people over there were kind enough to help us learn the steps. All of us started dancing. I kinda liked it a lot.

I have decided to go for it next week also.. Something new is always interesting ;)

India today!

2007-02-09T09:10:00.000-05:00

I am sure most of us have read or listened to the Grasshopper and Ant story. I got an email about the Modern Story.. This story talks about the current state of India, mentality of people and how the government runs. Everybody is so self-centered that they refuse to see or believe in morals.

Nobody can change India and Indians overnight. This has to be done by the people. Self-realization is the key and it is going to take another 20 - 30 years for things to change. No denial that India is doing great when compared to how it was some 30 years back. But India can do a lot better if people are not so corrupt and are concerned about others and are honest to themselves and to others.

Anyways, here is the story!

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter and reservation for Grasshoppers in the private sector industries.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India .

*No offense to anybody who was mentioned in the story.*

Boston and I are having fun

2006-12-24T00:37:00.000-05:00

My visit to Boston has been awesome so far.. I am meeting my sis and b-in-law after a long time and getting home cooked Desi khana...

We went to Harvard square and then to a restaurant called Finale which is a Dessert Restaurant. It was soo yummy. We ordered the Pineapple upside down cake and the molten chocolate cake and they were so tasty and as I am writing mouth is watering.
If you go to Boston, make it a point to go to this place. It is usually crowded like crazy during weekends, so may be it is a good idea to make reservations!

We went for a Potluck today and it was a lot of fun. We were about 7 of us and we had real good good and great dessert (walnut and chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream)... I know for a fact that I am going to put on a lot of 'lbs'. I guess once I am back to FL, I will need start jogging everyday to loose the weight I am going to gain in the next 5 days!

What if oil price increases further?

2006-12-05T15:03:00.000-05:00

This is what might happen if the price of gas continues to increase!!

Who says Money can't buy happiness??

2006-11-27T14:25:00.001-05:00

I came across this article where a psychologist from the University of Illinois has said that MONEY can indeed increase happiness to some extent…

I guess Master Card needs to change its ad now… "There is nothing that Money can’t buy, so get yourself a Master Card"?

To some people, money is very important. To a lot of them happiness and peace of mind are more important. Does happiness/peace of mind and money go hand-in-hand??

Look whoz using Google :)

2006-10-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

Google with its simple UI and amazing popularity is conquering the world...

Even the President of US seems to use it. Watch a video of him talking about Google!

I wonder who else is Googling???

Gatorade is not working for the Gators!

2006-10-15T10:54:00.000-04:00

Last week the gators were awesome against LSU... This week against Auburn, they got burried!!
Are the gators winning because of Tim Tebau?

What is happening to Chris Leak? Yesterday in the last 3 mins, Leak caused the gat0rs a very expensive fumble...I think Leak has lost his confidence especially when the freshman (Tim) is simply unstoppable...

Hope they beat the Bulldogs on the 28th!!

What does it take to make it work??

2006-10-06T20:02:00.000-04:00

I have always had this question in my mind..

What does it take to make a relationship work? But I have never found an answer. Be it a relationship between friends or couples.

Things always work out between parents and children (of course there are living exceptions to this) because parents are only looking for their children's happiness. They would do anything to make sure that their children are happy.. When parents do that, children tend to reciprocate the love and affection. Children respect their parents not because they get what they want but because they realize that parents want their happiness.

But with friends, it sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't. I think the main reason is that everyone of us is different. We have different thought processes, different frequencies, different perspectives.. In spite of all these differences, it works because you have your own breathing space.

When it comes to couples, a lot of the relationships have problems because it involves a Male and a Female. Men tend to change after getting into a relationship and women don't. Men are happy as long as things are smooth and women want things to happen at a decent pace especially when it comes to getting engaged. As long as it doesn't get to a point where one regrets being in a relationship, things go on.. There are always arguments and difference of opinions but ultimately when u love the other person a real lot, these things don't matter.

Isn’t it amazing that a single person deals with relationships very differently when playing different roles? I think Shakespeare was absolutely right about people and their roles in his work “All the world’s a stage” from the play As You Like It.

Why do men have simpler life??

2006-09-18T22:29:00.000-04:00

Here are some answers I could think of...

Chocolate is just another snack.
You can wear a white T- shirt to a water park.
Wrinkles add character.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

Are they good enough??

But hey, Women are the ones who never loose the spotlight!!! Women have the talent of multi-tasking.. Women are the fortunate ones to create life (and destroy).. Finally Women are the smarter ones!!!!!

Florida, The Sun shine State for YOU!!!

2006-09-08T09:57:00.000-04:00

YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN FLORIDA IN JULY WHEN. . . .

The birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.

The trees are whistling for the dogs.

The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.

Hot water now comes out of both taps.

You can make sun tea instantly.

You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.

The temperature drops below 95 and you feel a little chilly.

You discover that in July it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.

You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.

You actually burn your hand opening the car door.

You break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m.

Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"

You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper.

Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.

The cows are giving evaporated milk.

Ah, what a place to call home. . Inspite of all this.. Florida is still the best state in the US... The colorful beaches, the palm trees and the fact that there is no snow... Now you know why people love FL!

Back to School!

2006-08-23T14:30:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day at school after a long gap of 3 months...

I got done with my internship on Monday, packed on tuesday and reached Gainesville last night...
I had a 8.00 AM class today... I devoted the whole morning after the class towards cleaning and arranging stuff. After all this I feel like a Zombieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I guess it is going to take me a while before I settle down.

Lets see how this goes....

Movie mania

2006-07-06T14:47:00.000-04:00

Taxi

Watched this movie over the weekend… Hilarious!!!! I guess this is one of those movies which is very funny/good but not very famous.

The movie stars Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon. I would say that this is one of the funniest movies I have watched. Latifah is New York’s fastest cab driver whose dream is to become a NASCAR Racer. Fallon accidentally takes Latifah’s cab to chase four bank robbers. The movie is about how they both catch the robbers and all the funny things that happen in the process of doing so…

If you get a chance, do watch this movie..

Syriana..

I watched this movie a couple of days ago. I just couldn’t understand the plot. I had to go and read the plot on Wikipedia to actually assimilate what the main theme of the movie was.. After watching the movie, I thought that Matt Damon’s character was a waste. I really dint see any point for such a role in the movie.. WHAT IS THE CONNECTION???

Even if you are paid to watch this movie, DON’T!

Over the past 3 weeks, I have watched about 10 movies. I guess I am kind of getting addicted to watching a movie every alternate day.. Thanks to my coupons to Hollywood Videos, I dont spend too much on my little addiction!

Yet another Google product

2006-06-06T10:42:00.000-04:00

Google has begun its chase after MS Office now....Google is coming up with a Spreadsheet to compete with MS Excel. Will this work?? You can read about it here

I personally feel that Excel has a lot more features and people are used to using Excel. Will all of them shift to Google Spreadsheet??
The big question "Is it a freeware?" If yes, Google has a chance of out beating MS.

So what do you guys think about this??

Long weekend!!

2006-05-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

Finally the long weekend is almost here. People at work are all talking about their plans for this weekend. People have been talking about their Memorial day Weekend plans for almost 2 weeks now...Why cant people take a day off and turn a usual weekend into a long weekend??

I guess I am either going to stay at home and catch up on lectures or go on a road trip... I am 99% sure that I am going to end up doing the latter!!
Let me know what your plans are! May be I might end up in the same place ;)

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Most of you might have seen this video already. But I thought that I should write about it...

BBC had scheduled a live interview with Guy Kewney of Apple regarding the Apple Vs. Beatles lawsuit. But the interviewer ends up interviewing a guy named "Guy Goma" from Congo who is there for a job interview!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4D8w2v7IB8

It is a very funny video. A must watch!!!! I guess Goma did a real good job. If I were in his place, I am sure I would have freaked out... He answered the questions boldly even though he didn't know what he was talking. Listen to what he has to say very closely about the Internet.. But on the whole I think Goma did a good job of helping the show go on...

It is high time I posted here!!

2006-05-20T10:15:00.000-04:00

It has been quite a long time since I posted.. Been pretty busy with shifting and settling down. Din't have internet at home until yesterday!!

Finally I have my access to the WORLD (Internet)!! Work has kept me occupied.. I work from 9.00 Am to 6.00 Pm and my supervisor makes sure that I am at work until 6.00 Pm.. Nothing to crib about... I am better off than a lot of them.. Atleast I don't have to carry work home.

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I followed the elections in Tamil Nadu and looks like DMK is back to power. Hopefully they will take 90% for themselves and give at least 10% back to the people of Tamil Nadu!!

Another interesting news is about Lok Paritran.. I just can't believe that they have already split. What a way to start. I think they made a big mistake of contesting at 7 places. Instead they should have stood at one place and concentrated on getting that one seat. According to be they are a bunch of learned idiots. Sorry to say this but after I read the news about their split and ego clashes in about 6months, what else can I call them?

Managed to survive

2006-05-07T16:32:00.000-04:00

I am officially done with the Spring semester tomorrow!! I also managed to get a Summer Internship. Thanks a lot for all your wishes and encouragement during the SEARCH!

Cant believe that I have completed one year of my Master's..

The last week of a semester is always unimaginably hectic.. There are assignments, project submissions, presentations and exams... All this makes you feel like u wanna run away from school.. But I guess people somehow manage and pull it through..
At the end of each semester, I generally have the same thought.. Man this semester was the toughest.. But I know for a fact that I would say the same thing in six months again ;)

Jobs to look out for!!!

2006-05-02T12:54:00.000-04:00

Came across this website which lists the top 100 companies to work for in the US!!

Thought it might be useful to people who are looking for jobs... also might give people who are working in one of these companies a good feel about working there!!!

Finally... Before I forget how to blog!

2006-04-19T08:27:00.000-04:00

The past two weeks have been unimaginably hectic.. Assignments, presentations, projects as well as exams.. I am just waiting for this semester to end..

Too much of work makes you feel like u just wanna quit.. But I guess grad school is not about getting a 4.0 GPA.. it is more about hanging on with all the amount of work being thrown at you, being independent and most importantly "time management"... Most of us (Indians) lack the time management skills.. We tend to do things is the last minute and feel that things cannot be more tough on us.. I definitely fall into this category.. I hope that at least from the next semester onwards I will not procrastinate things!!
Lets wait and see ;)

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I got my Driver's license last week.. After infinite times of postponement and laziness I finally made it to the DMV and got it.. I am actually happy that I don’t have to go to that stupid place for another time, at least until my license expires!!

Dedication!

2006-03-31T10:14:00.000-05:00

Last two weeks have been very hectic with back to back exams and assignments! Finally everything is done..

Today is a very special day for my family! It is my dad's b'day... More than that it is a very special b'day... I am dedicating my blog (not a big b'day gift) to him.

He has been my best friend, philosopher and guide. My dad and myself have never been like father and daughter.. We have been like great pals. He has taught me so much in life. Without my parents' blessing and goodwill, I will not be who I am today.

I have seen a lot of my friend's parents and seen how they are with their children. Most of them have this imaginary screen between themselves and their children. But my parents have always been very transparent and so friendly with my sister and myself that we always considered and will consider our parents to be our best pals.

May be the fact that they are so good to us and always put our happiness before theirs has been the reason for us to love our parents so much and always want us to be together...

I started missing my parents the day I landed in the US.. Now I am really happy that they were able to stay with me for a few months..

To my dad:

Dad you are the best human being I have seen all my life. You have always been a wonderful brother to your siblings, a great husband to mom and an amazing father.
I pray to God to give you happiness and health for all the years to come. I also pray to God that in all my next births, I should have the same parents and the same wonderful sister. Without the three of you I wouldn't even know what happiness means.

Thanks a lot for everything dad. I know that I can't repay you. But I know that I can always love you!