Thoughts @ new year eve

This new year has a really dull start. I was alone for last 5 days in my room since my room mates went to visit their relatives / friends. I was not hoping to have such a spoiled start after arriving in US, you know, generally US seems to be a fun place but after coming here, there were very few fun moments. I am not complaining about the life here but honestly, I was hoping to see a lot fun here, but India seems to be far better place. Last year I remember spending 31st with lots of friends in a boisterous way but this time it was dead cold. We used to have so much fun, ate at almost every place on JM road, checked out girls and then had a very long walk on quite roads at night ! I seem to miss everything here. It's freezing cold ( -12 degrees ) and I am enjoying the new year eve with rice and flower chi bhaji ! I could have gone to my friends, but doing that would have ended in the same way, I bet.

To add to this boredom, I was having cough and cold for last 4-5 days and slept for like 18 hours per day ( really wanted to do this after exams but certainly not this way ). Laptop and internet connection is the sole savior here, thanks to those streaming sites without which life could be hell. I am sleeping at about 3-4 AM and waking up at around 3 PM. Funny thing is in around 2 hours the sun starts setting off and it feels like night again. A cold weather, a heated room and a warm bed - it's so tempting to sleep. Some of my friends suggested to go to downtown and have some fun, but the problem is I don't drink or smoke so there is nothing much left for me to do in pubs. Plus, I am so good at dance that people might stop dancing after seeing few of my ganapati dance steps :-D Since I don't want to spoil their holidays, I don't go to pubs ( what a reasoning !). After doing a lot of thinking ( unfortunately, this is THE THING you do when you have nothing else to do ) I came to the conclusion that this is happening because of the place where I am living. Binghamton is really dull, maybe an ideal place for retired people who want to spend their last days in absolute serenity. I am too much used to crowded places and people and this quietness is killing me. If I were in a city like NYC, life could be much better. Sometimes I wonder how could these people celebrate their only festival in such way. There are so few people, maybe families coming and seeing each others once in a year or so. Younger ones go to pubs and discs and oldies go to churches, I believe this is what I've observed.

I am seeing this as part and parcel of my decision - being here in US. Maybe there is something in my plate worth waiting for. When you experience these days, you really know the value of people, relatives, friends. You don't feel their importance when they are with you, but only when you are alone like me. Each new year has taught me lots of things, this year comes with its own teachings and I won't forget it in rest of my life.

Enough of boring stuff , wish you all a rocking new year !!!

India - the land of eunuchs

For those who don't know the meaning of eunuch, let me clear - it means following

• A castrated man employed as a harem attendant or as a functionary in certain Asian courts.
• A man or boy whose testes are nonfunctioning or have been removed.
• An ineffectual, powerless, or unmasculine man.

I, being an Indian fit in that definition. Because there is nothing that I can do to save my country from those bastards who did the heinous act in Mumbai. I am feeling like a hijada or chakka since I don't have any control on thing happening in Mumbai. I can see news and feel extremely agitated by looking at dead bodies, I can curse politicians and the corrupted system once again, I can blame a certain group or religion for it at the same time I can point out the flaws of India's homeland security system, I can badmouth the so called “intelligence” agencies in India, I can suggest prime minister of India to launch a fierce war against Pakistan, I can tell him to surge in the military forces in Pak Occupied Kashmir, I can dream of driving a fighter aircraft bombing all over the terrorist hotspots. I can think of starting POTA once again. But in reality, nothing will happen. You know why, because we all are eunuchs. We can only see them coming with weapons in hands, starting carnage all over the place. This is fact, and they have proved it one more time!

Today news channels are filled up with "live coverage" of how terrorist could kick our asses and tomorrow they will cover special condolence / condemnation programs. Nothing will change; Mumbai will start its routine once again like nothing has happened. People will blame others, go home, sleep and start another day. Some pundits will argue that "this is life! Shit happens and it happens every other day!” Several people like me will waste yet another important page on internet by writing this useless post and nothing else. The government being the most powerful entity on Earth will promise that they will find out the brains behind it and start up a new team to investigate the matter (which might find out the real culprits). Bollywood will produce one more masala movie showing how powerful a just another stupid common man could be. Those who have lost their family members were the ones, who will remember this day for rest of their lives.

Great job India! The world salutes you for your cowardliness and inability to act on any terrorist attack! It salutes you for being consistent and successful target of terrorism ... There is no other country in this world which is as eunuch as you....

Keep it up! Let people die and let the evil win.....Hats off....

Celebration !

Birthdays are always special occasions. And they become even more special when you celebrate them outside your home country. You meet some people just before arriving to a new place and get mixed up so easily that you never feel like staying with some strangers. That's the magic of friendship , I must say. My room mates celebrated my 25th birthday with such an enthusiasm that I almost forgot I am doing it away from home. Last time it was like a very quite kind of thing, with some of my best friends and yesterday it was with my new mates here in US.

Early in the morning ( FYI it was 10 in the morning, but that's still too early for me ! if you don't think it's true, ask each of my room mate how do we get ourselves going for algorithm's classes ) I got a call from Aai , so my day started with the best wishes of the loveliest person in my life. You know, we generally don't appreciate these phones and internet , maybe because they are overused and commonplace things now, but when someone calls you from thousands of miles, I still get a great feeling while talking to them. So after a long gtalk conversion of 1 hour ( I must write a testimonial for Google now ) and followed by a call from Aaba, I lazily started getting ready for routine.

After some greeting calls , at night we had a small get together with friends around and had fun ! Here is how I looked,

pardon me for the close up smile, but can't help, - with tooth wide open is my style ( people suggested to take bath and wear new clothes but didn't agree since I don't want to loose the original and non formal touch ... aah ! you are right, that was just a sincere attempt to hide my old lazy habits ) and I know, I am having a really bad haircut, but if you see - 12 $ is much worth considering than the time frame for which you look really messy ( due to the hair cut ), the catch here is people think of you as a person who is so busy in his assignments and projects that he doesn't care to take a look at mirror . I really look terrific without my glasses, you know when I saw this picture, I felt proud of my decision of wearing the glasses all the time, otherwise people here get frightened easily and could call 911 anytime they see me around :-D

comments , suggestions on new hair cut, on new resolutions ...
anyone ?

A budding coffee maker ...

Until I got the on campus job, there was nothing that I could do except studying. And looking at my past record of being such a great student (:-D) , it was very difficult to pass time. Also, I was thinking of those who spend their precious time in reading my blog, you see - I am consistently searching for something presentable. Fortunately I got a job in on campus coffee shops called Gourmet Beans and Jazzman's Cafe. From the beginning I was open for all kind of on campus jobs including serving in dining halls to monitoring / assisting in public computer laboratory. And as it is I am not having money to spend (after working for two years, you should not ask your parents for money - is my thinking), the job was like a golden opportunity for me, and fortunately I grabbed it, and you people got a new topic to read!

So as it went, I was given a form which I was supposed to fill and then wait for the SSN to arrive, SSN here carries a lot of importance just like the ration card / driving license / PUC (in case you are nabbed by a mama ) in India. I was on the payroll after around 3 days of my application. On my first day, I met a guy called Steve - my manager to discuss my schedule. Steve happens to be a strict professional but an approachable person also. The first day at cafe house was kind of hectic for a new recruit like me. But people here are very generous and kind, my colleague Dorothy (DoT ! her pen name - the exclamation mark is a part of her name, FYI) and few other helped me a lot. There are these 10-15 different types of drinks and remembering how to prepare each is not a easy task for a beginner. I now know the life of a drink maker and cashier, when you work for a software company you feel like you are the only one who is highly stressed, but after seeing people working in dining halls and coffee shops, believe me - It's nothing different! In fact, a software developer's job should be considered less hectic than this, I must say. My roommates are working in few dining halls and I could see how exhausted they look when they come back home after work.

Anyways, forget the stress. Being a drink maker is a good thing for me, I can now make almost all coffee drinks that you people can see in CCD's and Barista's. Every good thing comes with its own counterpart, you can't see pretty chicks while making drinks - that's really bad :( I am trying to achieve both objectives though - I am thinking of devising a new work plan (remember Ford's assembly line principle?), where everyone gets ample time to check out the crowd :-). Cashier's job here is really easy, even a kid who has one working finger and some basic ability to count things and remember the names of beverages can survive. The counting machines are really sophisticated; with touch screen monitors, you just have to select drinks and charge by cards or cash.

Most important thing and a per month account for that sake -
Deductions -
House Rent - $275 + Grocery - $80 since I eat a lot + some more expenses which are rare in my case.
Earnings -
7 $ per hour - 16 hours per week - 64 hours per month = $448
Looks like I am saving some amount Uncle Sam …

Update - Recently I learned that there is going to be a tax deduction :-( which will be reimbursed in the next year.

Into the wild

Man, after a long time there is something worth seeing. This movie was on my hit list since many days but did not get a chance to see it. It's rated at #137 on imdb, but its worth a top ranker. Anyways, who the hell cares about rankings? It's about a graduate student who turns down his normal life and becomes a voyager and then a super tramp ( Alexander Supertramp rather !) I was lucky to see it with subtitles which created a permanent reflection on my memory. I will never ever forget those great dialogues. If you like nature and if you feel great serenity by being close to it, this is THE movie for you. It's not just about the nature and about an urge to cross almost every human limitations to meet the eternal joy, but it has got a standing of its own.

I generally like out of the way movies, the ones with different story line and plot. And this one came with a complete package - eye catching cinematography, ultimate screenplay and lovely music; philosophy + drama + biography, what else can you expect from a movie. More than everything else, I really liked the message that the audience get ( or at least what I got). I initially used to think that one needs to live a highly materialistic life in order to get away from it, sounds somewhat similar to Osho's principle, whatever. And I somehow always used to think that materialistic people are happier than their counterparts. But when I saw this real life story, it changed my look towards the world. You know what, there is always a deep and mystic relation between human and nature, but we ruin it by our so called mannerism and principles of society. We look at everything, literally everything with a predisposed mind that we could not see something beyond certain limit, we judge people by the look they wear, by the language they speak, by so many things that we sometimes forget that human is also nature's creation and it has some instincts of its own, just like the free bird who lives its life in a way the nature has told it to do, in pure organic form. There are no boundaries, no false limits, no 'so called' fear !

Into the wild is a great movie and I really loved it. Some people might find it boring or a little bit slow, but that's how things happened in Christopher McCandless's life and I really respect him for whatever he has done. In fact, somewhere in my mind there is a rebellion who wants to go to the remote place without having any connection with the world. I don't like to replicate things but think this is a place where I should post some really good dialogues, see if you can find some philosophy behind it.

There is pleasure in pathless woods ,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is a society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and the music in its roar ;
I love not man the less, but Nature more.

- Lord Byron

Rather than love, than money, than fairness, give me truth

- Thoreu

I will miss you too, Ron. But you are wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God's placed it all around us. It's in everything. In anything that we can experience. People just have to change the way they think about those things. You ought to put a little camper on the back of your pick-up and go take a look at some of the great work god’s done out here in the American west.

TWO YEARS HE WALKS THE EARTH. NO PHONE, NO POOL, NO PETS, NO CIGARETTES, ULTIMATE FREEDOM. AN EXTREMIST. AND AESTHETIC VOYAGER WHOSE HOME IS... the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return ‘cause the “west is the best.” And now after two rambling years, comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking, bringing him to the great white north. No longer to be poisoned by civilization, he flees, and walks alone upon the land
to become lost in the wild.

HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.

CALL EVERYTHING BY ITS RIGHT NAME.

What if you saw me running into your arms... Would you see then... ...what I see now?

- CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON MCCANDLESS.

First post from America

Finally I reached US safely. Wednesday, 6th AUG - 2008 is going to be one of the most memorable days in my life. I came before two days in Mumbai and stayed at my uncle's place. Every day in last week I could see mixed emotions on my mother's face, little bit happy but more worried face. Her son is going to study abroad and doesn't know when he will be back. He doesn't have a cell phone to reach and doesn't have much money to spend. His son called her once when he reached airport but couldn't speak for more than a minute in four quarters of a dollar. The Internet is well developed these days but she doesn't know how to contact him through it. With the help of my brother she tried a lot but alas ! the place where I belong has got a load shedding of 9 hours and also the timings does not always match. When I talked to her on gtalk, she could listen to my voice but I did not. So, my brother typed in her words and I replied via my voice chat, so nice way to talk to your dear ones ! I could have bought a calling card or cell phone but looking at its prize I didn't feel doing so. Poor me !

Something about the first air travel -
I did not have a jet lag even though the flight was late by four hours. On the airport my cousin gave me lots of instructions of where things are and where should I start from, what should I do and what I shouldn't at custom checks. I was a bit numb while leaving my family but kept my face smiling ( didn't want to increase the intensity of my absence ). Didn't even cry since when I am here in US. The flight was good ( didn't have any benchmark to compare since this was my first air travel so felt quite okay. ) I did not like the vegetarian food served in flight and the entertainment facilities. Watched Kung Fu Panda for some time but somehow it stopped in between and did not come up again. After trying whatever I could, got fade up and slept for about 8 - 10 hours. I was feeling bit cold so wrapped up the blanket all over and had a nice sleep, in the mean time my friends kept on looking for me all the way but could not see my face :-D. After completion of formalities and custom checks at Newark Airport we stayed for an hour or so and got into the bus which was arranged by our seniors.

About seniors -
Three cheers to you guys ! You are so helpful and understanding that you almost made us feel this country as a home away from home. I really appreciate your help since the first day when we new students contacted you. Thanks for taking your time out of your busy schedules and helping us in every single thing which could have been a disaster without your help. I am looking forward for continuing this tradition ahead when I will be at your position after one year.

Some updates -
I am done with getting my student ID card, which means I could travel all over the city using the buses for free of cost, I could use internet facilities and of course ring up people in America from free phones available in the university. I really like the idea of free phones, I must say ;-) I am quite settled now and got a rented 5 BHK apartment with my room mates, costs 275$ ( including heat, water and electricity) per head, each of us have a separate bedroom and a common hall, kitchen. Two of my room mates are first time away from home and adjusting the turns of five people in one toilet + bathroom + basin room is going to be a real challenge and fun :-D

Looking forward for learning lots of new things which in turn means making lots of mistakes !

Clearing the last hurdle

Yesterday was a big day for me. After going through a painful process of applying to universities, waiting for their admits / rejects, gathering hell lot of document to prove that you are financially strong to survive in States; I was at the last resort yesterday - The Visa Interview. I remember someone saying, appearing for GRE and TOEFL is just the beginning, I whole heartedly agree to that statement now. This process has taught me lots of things of how system works and what it takes to leave your country and go to some unknown place for pursuing your educational interests. Right from getting the study material, preparing and appearing for exams, sending application packets, shortlisting universities, selecting between admits and not crying over rejects; I have got a lot of support from people around me and that's why I feel very much fortunate today. I messed up a lot in between the process, sometime I made terrible mistakes but somehow by hook or crook it got carried away; though I have to pay the prize of my laziness and nonchalance. For someone this post might seem like exaggeration of my feelings but it isn't, if you were at my place, you must have felt the same way. If you are unknown of the minute details and intricacies that needs to be cleared or thought of while / before appearing for a visa interview, go see someone who has gone through it.

I made some mistakes while filling up an online form and that delayed processing of my i20. This was essentially the reason for taking the visa date in July, ideally people get it done in 1st or 2nd week of June or beforehand. But what generally / easily happens with people never happens with me. This is a general observation and I have many experiences to support this argument. This D-Day interview was yet another story to tell. Before going to the consulate, everyone prepares the answers of standard questions and by the wish of almighty, they are asked same questions. As I said it earlier, it didn't happen with me. I was standing last in a queue of 7-8 candidates and everyone in front of me came out with a granted visa in a very short time, none of them had to show any documents. As it happens always, I was standing last and was thinking that they ( visa officers ) can't just let people go merrily without being asked tough questions. Being the last man, I knew that I will have to go through a tricky interview. As I entered in the visa interview compartment, I was welcomed by a middle aged (around 55 years) , fat white woman. She was wearing spectacles and has got a typical style of looking through the passage between eyebrows and the glass. I did not care about her looks as I was known to such styles since my school days, many of our khadoos teachers used to stare like that. But contradictory to what I perceived , she was totally different. She was very well mannered and pleasant, she did ask me lot of questions which don't fall in the list of FAQ's but never ever I felt myself uncomfortable while answering them. In fact, I was very confident, looking directly into her eyes, fearless. She even cracked a joke in my interview, which I did understand and I responded by smiling back, but somehow she knew that I was not in the mood of appreciating jokes at that time. 'I was just joking, please don't take it seriously' was her response to my reaction. Sometime back I used to think of what must be going on in the visa officer's mind ( I am even planning to do some research in this area !) , so that I can use it for my interview. Everyday they take hundreds of visa interviews, ask lot of similar questions and get similar answers always. It's not at all bad if someone enjoys pulling the legs of the candidate at the time of interview. When she joked and I replied back by smiling to it, a thought just passed through my mind - 'Maam' how about exchanging our positions? How about me asking you questions and cracking jokes? How about me deciding your fate of being there or not being there in United States... ' I am quite sure, if I would have been sitting at her place, I could have done lots of mischievous things.

So, after a rapid fire interview ( it lasted for around 300+ seconds including my answers, which were often precise except at few places. Later when I calculated the time, the rate of asking questions came out to be 1 question per 2 seconds) , it was a time to hear the golden words, words that I read lot many times in other people's visa interview experiences. ' Alright Onkar, I am granting your visa. You will be flying with your i20 and will get your passport back in 3 working days through courier. Wish you all the best in your master's studies, have a nice time'. I felt great after hearing it, and thanked her for her kindness. After many days, I did something which was very satisfactory.

Via Darjeeling

Saturday is the best day of week for me now, earlier it used to be Sunday until I started working. It starts at 11 o'clock and ends at 12 o’clock; you are just at the beginning of a nice weekend. This Saturday was one of the most boring days however. I don't know the reason but may be it was cloudy and almost all of my friends were busy with something. Me and my room-mate decided to go for a movie. As we ran through stupid films and there endless insane narrations / promotions in Pune Times, it was really hard to find a good movie. But we are so determined and hopeful that we decided to go for it anyways. Via Darjeeling was selected mainly because it's a Hindi Movie (my roomie's primary concern, he can't tolerate English movies unless they are action packed ) and the star cast. Kay Kay Menon, Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Sandhya Mrudul and Sonali Kulkarni was a solid combination I guessed. But initial half hour was enough to prove that I was terribly wrong. A boring Saturday morning followed by dose of crappy movie ruined the whole day.

The movie starts with a quarrel between a hired car driver and Kay Kay. It doesn't stop with few heated exchanges but goes on and results into some serious repercussions. Kay Kay and Sonali's honeymoon turns into a nightmare when Kay Kay goes missing. Sonali calls up a police inspector (Vinay) to investigate the case. Upto this level, the film is tolerable but it looses the track when the story suddenly moves to a small get together in Rajat Kapoor's house where Vinay narrates his experience to the group. Then there is a series of endless, illogical and irrelevant discussions. Each one of the group members is from a background somehow related with media and they each narrate a plot of what could have happened to Kay Kay. The movie is a poor mixture of their views about the characters and nothing else. The songs are ultimate examples of how things could be misarranged and lyrics are in any aspect not related to the theme. About acting, everyone played their part but no one is really mentionable. About the overall plot, its very badly arranged, the characters look like not attached to each others and there seems to be a shade of artificiality in acting. The dialogs are so shoddy that at some time audiences feel that they could have written in better ways. On a positive note, the director has shown something which is new to Hindi cinema but the presentation could have been much better.

Few lessons that I learnt:
1. Do not judge a film based on it's cast.
2. Do not go for a movie when you are not sure if it's worth watching or not.
3. If you have an intense desire to waste your Rs. 150/- ; bring some good food, eat and sleep.
4. Always prefer a little nap over any film.
5. English / Marathi movies are generally better than Hindi movies ( this in fact is my opinion since start and Via Darjeeling has made it even more stronger).

ice'2008 digital short film festival

I have never been to a film festival before. It's my friend Waghya ( Amol Waghmare) who took me to my first film festival. The "Catalogue" of the movies to be screened created some interest, at least the plots of some of the movies looked good. They were casting top 5 films that received various awards. After a small introduction to ICE (International Cultural Exchange) and their initiative in promoting and celebrating the quality cinema in genre of digital short film, the screening started. "Hridayattileykku Oru Madakkayatra" was awarded as the best film and there were few other films got awarded in their own category.

Honestly speaking, I did not like all of them. I do respect the hard work and money that these film makers have put in converting a passion into something worth seeing, but I was surprised how some films got awarded. I don't understand film critics and don't have an eye of jury but for a common man like me, some of them were of a very average class.

The 5 films were :-
1. Naanum - Me too : (10.10 min)
An unborn child wants to live with her mother and family but her father doesn't want the breed of pre-marital relations. The child was too cute but overall film was not that good.

2. Life In Sine : (08.45 min)
The title seems catchy but the film isn't. A story of a patient whose mental stage changes from one to another and how a small thing makes an impact on his life. The small thing is a small bush which the patient used to water turns into a dead plant. It has to be one of them, either the film is too good or I don't have an appetite for such movies.

3. Kya Aam Admi Surakshit Hai? : (19.50 min)
Looks like a pretty serious film from name but turns out to be a comical portrayal of how media shows simple things in dramatical ways and make people believe in it. Points to be mentioned are the coverages shown of the local, national news channels whose names sarcastically resemble to news channels we see these days. The news reporter and their style, the comments of people and leaders are fantastic. Worth to be screened in a film festivals.

4. An Insight - Beyond Headlines (19.56 min)
A serious documentary on the burning issue, SEZ. A small group seeks opinions of the people who are actually affected by SEZ (includes people from Raigad, Mundra port ). Some real information which we don't see on channels and don't read in newspapers. Appreciable efforts for bringing out bitter realities behind the national policy of SEZ.

5. Hridayattileykku Oru Madakkayatra (15.00 min)
The best film (which is also the director's diploma project) of the festival, and certainly deserves the reward. 'Theyyam' is a ritual dance form in the northern region of Kerala. The story revolves around a life of 'Chemmaran' the Theyyam player and his family. 'Prabhadhan' (his son) is going abroad discarding his father's wish of making him a 'Theyyam' artist. The first scene tells that this movie is special and made by hands of an adept director, Abhinand H Kumar. It shows the father coloring himself and preparing for a performance. Then in the second scene there is a lovely use of camera which shows different stages of father's life (His son goes abroad, gets a citizenship, marries a German girl, becomes father, the couple splits apart, son decides to come back home with his child). The last scene is also good when the father asks his son to dip into a kunda to become sacred again and the son after bath, turns into a Theyyam player.

In all, a good experience. I wish ICE a very good luck in future and hope to see some great short films ahead. Good work ICE, keep it up !

Mango-Days

Every summer comes with a variety of fruits, mango being the favorite , often celebrated as the "King of all fruits". When I go home on weekends, my mother brings in lots of mangoes for her beloved son. This may sound like a small kid, but when it comes to fruits, I prefer being called as bachha. This Sunday when we were eating Aam-Ras, we had a discussion about the good old days we spent in my small village with my grandparents.

My forefathers ( starting from my grandfather ) lived in a very small village called Rajuri ( Jamked Taluka, Nagar District). Even today, we have our land there and it's cultivated and nourished by my father with help of a local person (called as sarakati in Marathi). These days we hear enormous prices of mangoes, 300-400 Rs. per dozen if you are going for Alphonso and similar ranges if you go for other brands. My great grandfather planted around 50+ mango trees before 150+ years and we used to enjoy the fruits of his efforts lately. I vividly remember those days when we had summer vacations. Myself with my brother and cousins used to go to the farm where mangoes are taken off the trees. We used to sleep in the deepest shadows of great trees and eat paad ( state of kairi, when it is about to be called as a mango ). We used to help those people in whatever they do, bring back the unripe mangoes home on a bail-gaadi , arrange them in a linear fashion called as Aadhi. As the days passed, the unripe fruits get really sweet and juicy. My uncles and their families, other relatives and few guests loved to eat home made Aam-Ras from our farm. My Aajoba ( grandfather) used to offer us a Paan after a heavy lunch, we often played carom / cards together those days. At night, he used to tell us stories ( even when I was in 10th or 11th std.) which were always new; without a single repetition and I used to sleep listening to them.

But they say, time changes and so do things. Our old trees no more bear any fruits. They are too old to stand in a hot Sun and these days we have a great water crisis. My grandpa and grandma both passed away recently and nobody lives in the wada, which was once considered as nothing less than heavens. Today when I add milk in Aam-Ras, I feel very bad ( we didn't do it in those days, neither did we add extra sugar), also I don't like crushing the mango pulp in mixer. And when I hear such high prices, sometimes I feel proud of myself that I have seen those Mango - Days.

P.S.
Being a problem solver by nature, I proposed to plant few new breeds of mangoes so that we could see those days again but the water crunch is a major hurdle. Also, trees in their initial days need great care and being a so called "professional" deeply engaged in materialistic, urban and suave lives, I could not go to my village and do it myself. My father is aging and can't push this extra burden on his shoulders. In all, I am not sure if I can see those sweet mango-days again ...

Jaipur Serial Bomb Blasts

Before 60 years, there used to be a big country, they called it "Bharat". The countrymen fought for the freedom of their motherland and worked with shoulders to shoulders. Their efforts bear fruits when they got freedom, but it came with a cost of partitioning. Then after some years, another nation was born called Bangladesh. If you trace the roots of these nations, you essentially find exact similarities. They belonged to the same civilization and had similar culture, their religions and customs were different, but they still lived together. And today, the sons of same soil are turning into beasts, hungry for their own brother's blood. Go back and read news papers, bomb blasts are becoming as common as street accidents these days. And it's not India alone but all of these countries are severely affected by these "self-run" calamities. I don't know if there is any other example in world's history which showed such a hatred in a society who was known for brotherly relations.

The Jaipur serial bomb blasts might bring a medal of honor to someone or maybe an increment to the post of commander, for someone it might be an ultimate way to reach Allah, for someone it will be a sacrifice of Jihad, but for those who lost their loved ones, it will bring nothing but tears and lots of uncertainties. Our intelligence agencies will certainly find the culprits but one thing should be made clear, are we really catching the big fishes, the masterminds or are we punishing the pawns? There are clues that the RDX was brought from Bangladesh and this heinous act has a lots of similarities with earlier series of blasts. It's clear as water that we do have large number of traitors inside our homes and they should be punished to death. They all should be killed in a similar manner as these innocent people. Unless we clean our homes from such unhealthy worms, we will never be able to fight against the external forces. And to be very clear, one day will definitely come when Pakistan and Bangladesh have to pay the prize for knowingly / unknowingly supporting these activities.

Jaipur was known for its tourist spots and there are many other cities in India which are on hit-lists. As a responsible citizen it's our duty to report if anything "fishy" happening around us. It's seen that the terrorists are using new technologies to make this happen. I would be much more than happy if by any means I could be of any assistance to the country.

Sherlock Holmes rules !!!

Some legends are unforgettable, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of them. These days I am virtually living at 221B, Baker Street, London. In school days, I read a translated Marathi version of Sherlock Holmes and used to tell those stories in class. But being a translation, it did not create an impact as such. After all, it's difficult to keep the same original level in a translation and it makes even more difficult when the original work is of someone like Sir Arthur. One thing is sure, Sherlock Holmes impresses every age group - from a school going kid to a retired old person. There is something in his character that creates such an influence that nobody forgets him. There are his ways of deductions, which seem so simple, yet so uncommon and productive.

I am about to finish the first volume ( Study in Scarlet), probably I am way too late, since some of my friends have already read the complete collection of stories. The language is not easy, certainly not like we normally speak, but it is written is such a way that we don't mind keeping dictionary besides us and understanding every difficult word that comes across. I am getting a severe headache because of my late night readings, and also these days I reach office at around 11, I never had such experience earlier, never ever I was so much into any book. Sherlock Holmes' narration is so perfect that as if we are seeing this great consulting detective working in front of us. I envy Dr. Watson who had a chance to see Holmes so closely and who observed his intellectual prowess . Sherlock Holmes rules the hearts of readers and I bet, world will never produce someone who will surpass the magic ( rather the deductive reasoning ) of Holmes. No wonders, people still write their cases at his address.

O.D. salutes you S.H. and pray, you live long in my heart ...

Time changes and so the interests

After a very long gap today I happened to see my Orkut scraps. There should have been a award called largest turnaround time ever or the laziest Orkut user on Earth, and I would be amongst the highly nominated candidates for it. Some of the scraps were 7-8 months old and still waiting for reply. I hate people who don't reply and that makes me most hated person. I don't remember if I replied to all of them but at least to those which sounded like "How are you?" because others were wishing me "Happy Holi", now God knows in which month Holi comes but I can't now reply them saying "Happy Holi to you too !"(assuming that I don't have a cron job that identifies Holi and keeps scrapping all of my friends each year)

When I was in college, (we are not talking about ancient times here, I am not that old) before around 2 years, Orkut and those social networking sites popped up like anything. There were other similar sites I was knowing but didn't try their taste. So someone from my friends sent me the invitation and it all started. I did not have internet connection at home in those days (neither do I have it today), so I remember sitting in my college's internet lab and scrapping like a crazy person. I had a good reason to tell and that was my BE project which kept me away from the bureaucracy of public internet cafe. Later people started me finding all the time in that cafe and some of my juniors started thinking me as the person who runs the lab. On a positive notes, some of them also started looking at me like a person deeply engrossed in his project work. As they say, overuse kills everything, I gradually lost interest in social networking. Today even FaceBook and their fancy applications doesn't attract my attention. When I joined my company, emails were my prime means of passing time. I used to forward almost all crap that I was receiving until I read about a serious article on network traffic and spams. That backed me off from forwards but I still like to send good emails, although they are rare these days ( or my interests are changing).

I have now found out other ways to use ( waste is the proper word ) my time. It's searching anything on Google, anything here means stuff that adds to your useless knowledge quota. I am glad that it's not that useless as you see on the link. And since the time I came to know about Wikipedia, I am again back in Orkut phase except this time it's Wikipedia. There are two more things I am enjoying after engineering - blogging and reading. I have a habit to read nice post or articles on internet. Today when I was looking through my 450+ Orkut friend's list, I was trying to find a Blogger Friend, someone whose blogs I can read ( with a little but practical hope that he / she keeps the blog updated), but I did not find one. I wish people should start blogging now. All of us have a life which is full of incidents, encounters and emotions. Shouldn't blog be the place to put those reactions or views?

But it rained ...

Sometimes you know that something is going to happen. You kind of have a premonition. Your good old friend had also seen the same days. But you have hopes. It's important for you since it's THE THING for which you do all this stuff. You try to prepare yourself for it. And suddenly the D - Day comes. You sit and listen. You listen to all the crap that the person in front of you is talking about. You suddenly "discover" things which are expected from you. Imagine, you are expected to know lot of things in a small time frame and you try for it. But poor you! the knowledge is so vast that your small information is hardly useful. Then what you do? You seek help. And there you are !!! You made a greatest mistake, you have done things which you are not supposed to do. You suddenly EAT UP other's precious time, so now the verdict is : face the music.

You have never felt so stupid before. You don't speak neither answer. You do have cards to play but someone with such a feeble brain is sitting in front of you that you take a step back. You don't shut yourself up completely, but again when you listen to the childish remarks from the other person, you feel awful. It's like you are talking to someone who knows it but tries to cut things in between, creates a scene in which he virtually BALANCES things. Really, your comments / opinions hardly matter in a predefined world. It's just an illusion that you see, which sometimes gives a feel that you are in control of things. You think, you WILL get what you have expected since you worked hard for it. But alas! some external factors make so much impact that your real efforts are not at all appreciated.

And you know the worst thing? It hurts. It god damn hurts a lot!!! It takes out the zest / joy of doing things. Had it been the case that you didn't put in efforts, then it's OK. But what is painful is instead of your honest contribution, you never get counted. You never get what you deserved. You get bitter lessons from life that teaches you hell lot of things and bring you back on Earth. You are not perfect, there are certainly things to be worked on, but they are weighed in such a negative manner that it crosses over every good thing that you have done before. And you know, you are sick of being called as GOOD, you starve to be EXCELLENT and in pursuit of this excellence you give your 100% and in doing that you forget about the system for which you are doing it.

The result is , you think it will shine tomorrow but it rains !!!

Movies are all that I have

It has to be either books or movies or a cricket / football match. These things give me ecstatic feelings, that's why even after coming home at about 10 o'clock in night, I prefer watching movies or reading books before going to bed. Last few days I am enjoying movies on a regular basis, a daily ( and partially nightly dose you can say). Few of the ones that I saw were The Shawshank Redemption, Blood Diamond, Rendition, American Gangster, The Holiday, A Walk To Remember and some more.

The Shawshank Redemption is the best movie I have ever seen, in fact I have already seen it twice but watching Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in their perhaps best performances is a treat in itself. The specialty of this movie is the powerful storyline and splendid performances. It's ranked at 2nd / 3rd place in IMDB after Godfather, but I believe it deserves the top rank. A must watch movie.

Blood Diamond is a drama film inspired from a true story of a diamond smuggler and an African fisherman about their quest for two different things. Leonardo DiCaprio is in search of a diamond which is buried by Djimon Hounsou who wants to rescue his family from the rebels. After seeing this movie, I literally started hating the diamond makers and their advertisements.

Rendition accuses a controversial CIA practice called extraordinary rendition through which US has transferred suspected terrorists to countries which are known for harsh tortures and interrogation techniques. It's a story of a chemical engineer who has Egyptian origins, lives in states since about 20-30 years. He gets kidnapped by CIA under his suspicious links with the terrorist groups.

American Gangster is a typical Ridley Scott movie inspired from true life stories of Franc Lucas and Richie Roberts. The film is about bringing down a Franc Lucas's drug empire. Denzel Washington played a character of Franc Lucas who smuggles heroin directly from the makers in Vietnam and uses US military planes for the transport. Russel Crowe, a detective and a womanizer who has lost his family life exposes the racket and sends almost 150 criminals behind the bars. Again, must watch movie.

The Holiday is quite nice movie with a different storyline than typical romance comedies. Thing to enjoy are Kate Winslet's performance and lovely sound tracks. Jack Black's small but jolly role is also worth seeing. A Walk To Remember is a romantic movie between a popular but rebellious high school student and a daughter of a reverend. Mandy Moore's soundtracks are worth listening to.

Prabhakar Pustakalay - An eventful journey of 75 years

Last weekend I went to Nagar to see my parents and celebrate Gudhi-Padwa with them. In Hindu rituals, Gudhi Padwa is considered as one of the most auspicious occasions and as it is a beginning of Hindu New Year, it is chosen as the best day to start new things. 75 years back my friend Nikhil Dharmadhikari's grandfather chose the same occasion to start a book shop called Prabhakar Pustakalay. Today Prabhakar Pustakalay is considered as one of the oldest book stores in Nagar and known for giving an honest and transparent service to the customers and a place where you can find rare books.

I was invited to the Satyanarayan Pooja on Sunday. It is a small but nicely organized store proudly presenting the history of its birth. There was a small album with black and white old photos of my friend's family. One of the newspaper cutting was showing a small introduction of how things started in early days and how the founder struggled to make it happen. People came and congratulated Nikhil's father for carrying on the lamp ahead and I could clearly see a "feel of satisfaction" of Dharmadhikari Kaka's face. When they asked the question, who will be taking care of this store after you? He proudly said that it's his next generation. I didn't believe it as Nikhil and his brother both are software engineers and settled in their lives. I didn't expect they will carry on the tradition.

But when I asked Nikhil what he thinks, he said "We are going to do it. We will be bringing in latest technology and modernity in this shop. The day will come when Prabhakar Pustakalay will compete with other book publishers worldwide". I took it lightly and laughed at him but what I really appreciated was Nikhil's attitude. It's great to see our generation, even though technically, intellectually, economically and materialistically considered forward than their ancestors, still value the feelings and traditions. Not only he wants to keep the things going but also wants to change according to the time and that's really a good sign.

Nikhil and his brother will both be having a MBA degree in few years and I will not be surprised if they take their family business to a new horizon. And who knows this could be the first blog which introduced Prabhakar Pustakalay on internet :-)

Wish you all the best guys!!!

Now students evaluate their teachers

University of Pune has come up with a really good scheme to evaluate a teacher's performance. Now the students will be appraise their teachers. Looking at UoP's age, this should have been implemented years before but anyways, it's not late to start a good thing. The VC said that this move will bring in greater transparency and accountability in teachers. I am a bit confused with the word "greater" here because there was "no" transparency earlier. Student is always assessed on a lot of factors be it academical, social, behavioral or anything. However, teachers are rarely applied to such criterion, at least not after they get a job in an institute. There might be factors to be considered in teacher's appraisals, but students were not directly involved in it.

I recently came across a shocking article in a Marathi newspaper that questioned teacher's ability to teach children. It was showing all the statistics of how the quality of teaching is degrading day by day and the possible reasons for it, money and surprisingly decreasing social respect were the most important of them. There were times when a teacher was very much respected, it was until I went to high-schools. I feel very lucky to have some great teachers but now when I go to the same school and see these teachers, I feel ashamed. We used to have some classmates who were notoriously known for some reasons which I can't explain here, these guys are now teaching at my school. I guess, the system is turning out to be so bad that we hardly can expect something from it. I teach a small 3rd standard boy everyday. He is very regular in his classes, does his homework timely, get it assessed from teachers. But when I ask a simple problem, he gets totally lost. His teacher says that he is a good student but doesn't seem so to me. She teaches a class of around 60 kids, you can see how extensively she worked on her students by looking at their notebooks but that impression vanishes the moment you ask something. This is because the students never "understand" a subject, all they do is mug up things and put them on papers. Students are built on foundations and if one does not have it then all we are going to get is a "crowd" having smart degrees but no ability as such. I remember my teacher S.D. Kulkarni Sir who used to teach all classes from A to G ( supposedly "brilliant" to "poorest") and God knows he was liked by every student. That's because he had an amazing knack to get hold of students and create a joy of learning things. I doubt if such thing ever exists today. Maybe all of talented junta get lucrative job offers and no one cares / wastes ( if this is the word they use) his / her life in being a teacher.

Certainly this new scheme has a power to change the things provided it gets implemented with similar seriousness. Students could be very good to get feedback from since they are the ones who knows what they want and what is being offered to them. More importantly the implementation of these scheme should be transparent, if the teachers are willing to change / modify their skills then students should see it from their teaching otherwise this will be just another thing which is "routinely" done at universities. Students also have certain responsibilities, if they are appraising someone, they should have that "level of maturity" otherwise it will be a mess all around. I think such things should be implemented in Engineering colleges also, and what I mean by implementing is "followed very strictly" just like the way it is done in Corporate Sector.

Nine things developer wants more than money

Prashant forwarded me this link that discusses some of the things a developer looks forward for. Pretty much realistic and direct to heart conversation. Some of the points are quite well mentioned and explained. However not all points are agreeable, especially point #9 ( Having few legacy constraints). What I infer from that point is nobody likes working in a system which is poorly designed and buggy. And while implementing something one needs to follow lot of constraints which takes out the gist or joy of writing a software. To approve your fix or new enhancement in a "working" system, you gotta go through series of reviews / meetings (if needed). According to the author, this is what a developer hates. I believe some part of this argument is true ( sometimes we see a strong reluctance from the approver) but certainly there are few things I disagree.

I don't think you always get "bored" while maintaining some legacy software, provided it's not exceptionally stable. One thing is true that some day or the other we have to maintain a software if we want to make money out of it. If you have got customers who pay for your product, you can't just go on pouring your ideas in a working code, you gotta look at the issues of a current system, issues that a customer face while using it. Howsoever brilliant and well tested your software is, it gets a real taste when some potential user uses it. And I believe, fixing those issues do need a lot of creativity. Such fixes might sometime increase your knowledge, who knows, you might come up with a great patch which fixes a nasty bug nobody have ever thought of. On a positive note, you get a great code repository to walk through. We always read and analyze algorithms but in a system like this, you see their real life implementation which is never seen in any book. It's always good to design and code something "from scratch" but to do that I think, one needs to have a great expertise. It's a thing which comes to oneself when one writes and "reads" good code. And such systems actually give us the opportunity to do so.

However, not everything is as rosy as it seems. Sometimes I get stuck at some point and can't do anything. A complete code doesn't help me reproduce a bug. That's because I don't understand why that code is written and don't find a document / note which explains me its purpose. I really get frustrated / bored and all I need is a guy who knows how this works. And once the problem is understood, half of the job is done. To me, reproducing and fixing a challenging bug in a complex system is as fascinating as developing an equally good code.

Out of their minds & Programmer's at work

I started with a book called Out Of Their Minds : The Lives And Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists few months ago but because of lots of disturbances in between, could not finish it completely. And when my librarian called me asking for that book, I had to return it. I fairly read that one but completing it would have been more fun. So, that books tells a story about 15 greatest computer scientists who, with their fundamental research gave a new dimension to the world of computers. Everyone of the mentioned scientist holds a Turing Award for their great contribution in the field of computer science. The book is exhilarating and engrosses a reader with small anecdotes of the life of these scientists. I was surprised to know that many of them earlier had a lot of different interests other than computers. Many of them came across computers at the time when they had done nothing promising in their lives, someone learned computers to earn money some of them just wanted to try out few things. Out of the one's that I read, Donald Knuth and Edsger Dijkstra were the most appealing chaps.

While returning this book, I took another one called Programmer's at Work which is a collection of interviews of some great programmer's of all times. The most common thread which they share is that all of them loved mathematics and had a great ability to simplify things at the deepest possible level. These guys tell us some of the TODO's which they followed before writing any program. I am currently reading this book and enjoying it very much. Seems like there are a lot of things that I don't do which these great people were practicing since the start of their career !!!

Concepts-2008

Yesterday I went to PICT ( Pune Institute of Computer Technology ) to see their national level technical event called Concepts-2008. I have always loved such events, the reason is I really enjoy watching people materializing some really cool ideas into reality. More importantly it gives a well set platform to students who wish to contribute to the diverse and dynamic world of technical advancements. Unfortunately our educational system differentiates students depending on their grades / marks in a particular examination and not on their understanding. I am not against it, in fact I agree that this is the fairest way to measure one's academical abilities. But, we must think that there lies a huge real world which needs problem solvers and not bookworms who are practically of no use. Such event are the places where we can find these independent thinker and problem solvers.

Concepts has always been a great place to present your project in front of large cognizant audience. The people who have expertise in a particular area come to judge your projects, sometimes you are praised sometimes completely trashed. But that's not important. What is important is you get a place where you can show that look, this is what I can do. I may not have good marks, but hey, I am good at this. I may not be amongst the smartest in the class, but I have proved myself that I am amongst the best in certain domain. Some startups deliberately sponsor and judge such events in order to find the hidden potential amongst the students and call them for interviews if they feel the candidate is apt for it. I believe, it's the best way to catch the young talent.

PICT has got a good tradition of taking initiative in such events, they deserve all praise. They also have got a good alumni network which really cares for their juniors and nourish the talent. Unfortunately this does not happen in all colleges, some of them are still stuck in the old theories emphasizing more on attendance and jeopardizing one's career for the sake of it. I pray, one day these colleges will understand what's really important and learn from their mistakes.

I should have attended Concepts for all three days but could not do so. Last day is so short to see all good projects. Good job PICT, keep it up !!!

Murud-Anjarle-PratapGad Trip

So, looks like I am traveling a lot these days. After Pabe's nice trip, I went to Konkan with my project mates. It was supposed to be a small trip sponsored by our client, but my team size is so big that we decided to share the expenses together and add few people from different groups of our project. We planned to have a one night stay in Murud and were back to Pune on Sunday evening. Since there was no girl in our group, staying was not a problem. We moved early in the morning at around 6 o'clock. It happened that at one place we stopped by to wait for some time, and a van passed by. I didn't notice it as I was busy taking snaps but other guys said that there were pretty girls sitting in that van and they too were heading towards Konkan!

Hooha !!!! Suddenly some of our project mates got a mission to accomplish. We started chasing the van with all our strengths and fuels, but we couldn't since some of our gentlemen were busy vomiting.... :-( I hate this but one can't stop the nature's call and after all they were my project partners and so I stood by them. After a long relentless pursuit, we managed to find that van but unfortunately learned that those girls were going towards other place... There came a glitch in everyone's plan... alas.


But everyone forgot whatever happened as we moved into the coastal areas of Konkan. It's an amazing place. One can never find the serenity that lies in listening to the sea and wind if one lives in a crowded city. We stayed in a local house in Murud and had lunch in a beach resort. There is this place called as "Kadyawarcha Ganapati" in Anjarle, a small beach in Konkan. The way to Anjarle is full of turns and twists and there are some great spots to stop by. We visited an old but nicely maintained Ganapati Mandir and while our way back, stopped near a Sunset point. That point was far above from the sea shore and we could see small houses of a village called Harne. We didn't mean to see the sunset, but what we saw that day was simply wonderful. I have never seen the GREATNESS of sea before. That was hot and scorching sun but we were truly mesmerized by the beauty. There was this blue sea all over and some of its portion was literally illuminated by the sun rays.


We had a lot of fun on the beach that evening, swam near the shore till we get really tired, enjoyed a lovely sunset and came back to where we stayed.

Next day, we headed towards Pratap Gad, I haven't seen it before. Pratap Gad is situated in one of the highest ranges of Sahyadri. These days we have vehicles and roads but in early times one has to cross the deadly Javaliche Khore to reach Pratap Gad, some of the trekkers still prefer that way though. We visited the fort itself and Bhawani Mata Mandir where Shivaji Maharaj was bestowed by the Bhawani Mata with a sword. The Gad was quite well managed and they have preserved lots of things which still today showcase the legacy of The Hindavi Swarajya and its Shiledar. After remembering the great Shivaji Maharaj near his statue we went to have lunch and then on a way back to Pune.

One the way back home, all of us have shared a common bond. One of our team mates, Harish, doesn't understand Marathi but Vivek was prompt enough to translate every detail that the guide told us about Pratap Gad. We had a nice chat that was far better and real than the one which we do everyday. We definitely shared a great moment.

Aniket, Kedar, Harish, Vivek, Mayuresh, Samir, Nikhil, Urjit,Tushar, Milind thanks a lot for spending your time with me. Let's hope for yet another trip in future...

Pabe Ghat Trip

I haven't heard of Pabe Ghat until Jogya told us some interesting stories about it. So, after hearing so much about it, we have decided to visit the place. Contrary to my earlier trips, we made a plan before around 7 days or so and surprisingly kept our words . We ( Me, Kedar, Sneha and Jogya) went to Kedar's place last Saturday morning at around 5:30 AM. It has been ages since all of us saw the beauty of rising Sun, so we chose to go early in the morning. Of course, as expected Kedar took more than 25 minutes to get ready and we slipped off a bit with our schedule. But with Kedar, it is obvious and I have kind of expected this to happen. There is always an incentive when you have a girl traveling with you in a trip, you don't have to bring anything. Sneha, being a typical Puneri Mulgi, bought few eatables and a bottle of water . FYI, that bottle was so small, that one could sip it up in one shot, but you know, girls and their girly things ;-)

After Kedar's typical "I am sorry" apologies, we headed off to Pabe. It's a beautiful place in the curvy mountain roads, usually chosen for biking . Jogya is a regular visitor of Pabe and since he was knowing everything about it, he became our driver-come-guide. After some great scenery and lots of hard turns ( which demonstrated Jogya's driving skills ) we reached to the place. The Sun was about to rise but the skies are already showing the great glory of golden rays. It was an amazing experience to see the sunrise after so many days. We took some snaps of it and parked our car on a mountain top. This place was really great. You can see Torna and Rajgad through a small mountain passage. Since it was a clear sky and a beautiful morning, we could see a sharp range of Sahyadri without any problem, (things which you can't see through polluted air of Pune). I always have a feeling, if you want to really know who you are and where you stand, compare yourself with a great mountain and you will have an eternal feeling of legacy of the creator. I revived this feeling after a long time.

After visiting Chapet Dharan which was built by Dnyan-Prabodhini with the local co-ordination, we went back to Pune. It was a great experience overall, and I am looking forward for more such trips. Kedar, Sneha, Jogya and I will never forget this wonderful experience.

V'day Special

Well, I could not come up with any other name than this one for a post. As it is 14th Feb and I do not have anything to chew on, thought of writing something about Valentine's day.

For someone who is enamored about someone else, this day may carry lot of importance. But for me, who is 'happy to be single' this is just another regular day... Today morning, my friend Harshad analyzed the current situation and explained the reasons behind my 'single hood' ( I am unaware if English dictionary has this kind of word in it, but will still use it.) I admit that there are very few girls in my friend circle, but almost all ( without some dignified exceptions ) boys fall in the lukhha category. I am writing this post to just remind them that it is neither a high time nor end of the road. We still have got lot of time in our hands. I realized that people might get disappointed while seeing others seeing each other but there is nothing to worry about it. So, today/tonight if you happened /happen to see a couple getting cozy with each other, don't take it personally. Today it has happened with someone else, tomorrow it could happen with you too...

Generally, there is a common myth ( of course , amongst my friends) that, it needs a lot of time / money / ... to get someone fall for you. I totally disagree with this because likings are all relative. Someone might like your nature, other might get impressed with your face, someone with your overall personality. So, you never know who likes what. Today if you are changing yourself just to please others then it will be a biggest defeat ever, if someone really likes you, he / she should accept you as you are. And who cares? We are enjoying every moment of being single. One day, everyone is going to get married and going away from this phase of life. Instead of craving for these wonderful days then, shouldn't we enjoy right now? I mean, it's so nice. You don't have to ask anyone before doing anything, you can come home anytime you like, can wear same jeans for two months without ever washing it, can grow hairs like hippies used to do, can hang out with friends late night, can do whatever you want to without bothering about social etiquettes.

This is heaven... Why should we spoil a life of a free bird ? Consider this, how about watching Friends / Football or Cricket or Tennis matches / Movies all over the night than going out with your girlfriend to some boring place ?

My message to all singles : We are leaving in paradise, so enjoy your life as it's going to change one day when you will starve for these days.

To hell with Valentine's day ;-)

A waste of 3 / 4 hours

One of my friends called me yesterday and said that he wanted to meet me. I was not in much contact with him and since he has called me after long time, I said yes. We met near my company and he asked me to come with him to a place. Neglecting my question, "Where are we going?" he took me to a cafe restaurant in Kothrud where I was supposed to meet his new FRIENDS. These guys ( who work for so called "Indian Software Giant" firms) earn money in their leisure time by working for a company in chain marketing. I was brought there to meet a guy who was very good in marketing that company's product, a gold coin which costs 30,000 rupees. To prove his point, that the coin is not just a 'lump of gold but a rare piece of art' ( fyi, this coin is for numismatist), he started to give me company's overall information.

I was not told that I will be sitting for his presentation when my friend took me to the place. Maybe that's because my friend ( who is a part of the chain) must have thought that after hearing it, I might not come with him. But I wasn't new to the presentation. This company is supposed to work in 100+ domains and have a variety of products, and being a so called smart software professional (who knows nothing but working for 5 days a week and freaking out on weekends, still considered as the brilliant of all white collared corporate people), he invited me to listen to his plan . So, the presentation started off with a question 'Do you want to earn money or not' ? I was kind of surprised, first thing is I just know this person ( the presentation guy) for not more than 5 minutes and he is asking me a question for which everyone will answer 'yes'. I don't want to start the presentation with a shade of quarrel so I answered yes. Then the guy was like unstoppable. He explained me like what is the company, showed me the details (registration no., ISO-9001 certificate, some token of appreciation from some British Institution) for authentication. Then he talked about various products that the company makes and came to the point that I should also invest my money to one of their products , a gold coin.

This was not a normal gold coin, but instead the one on which you get an embossed image of a famous personality. The company get these coins minted from some German minting company and for each image that it emboss, pays royalty to the person who is being embossed. This was about the coin, what I was supposed to do was to pay 30,000 Rs. to a person and get this coin ( which was assumed to be of 99.9999999% purity, 24 carat gold) to join their business. If I want to earn some money, I should refer few of my contacts so that they can buy this coin. If I could refer total 6 people, my account will be credited with 11,500/- check and as the chain grows up, I will be benefited. To explain the business strategy, he talked about the tree structure of the business, the profit that I will be getting after each 2 raised to n people at each level and so on. Moreover, according to him, this was a zero investment business where you can pay 30,000/- by using the credit cards of several banks ( transferring the money from one bank to another ). Then came the most clashing point, he started comparing this business with that of Ambani's, Tata's and all big shot entrepreneurs. I agreed to his point that by traditional means of a job, one can not make a huge money, but strongly disagreed to his analogy that by doing this business I could be rich like Ambani's. Come on. they did not start a crap chain marketing business, all they had was a vision and a strong desire to achieve their aim. I did not see anything of that sort here. Moreover, these people did not have a product as such which has a potential money making future.

So, after wasting my 2-3 hours listening to that guy's management / marketing fundas, I said "Just stop it, I don't want to hear you anymore" and walked away with my friend. It should have been much more better if we could have met for some REAL BUSINESS or for some social cause or just to say hello. Why are we in search of quick money making mantras ?There are so many things which we can do other than chain marketing, real estates, bidding for stocks and can still earn money. I would definitely love to join a thought provoking seminar or a meeting where people come and discuss ways to CREATE / IMPROVE any open source software, put forward a nice idea that could be marketed or maybe start implement yet another killer software application. I would like to join hands and more importantly contribute to ameliorate the current situation of software field or social atmosphere.

This guy and his plan, I think was just a waste of time and nothing else.

Talya got married :-)

Talya, one of my best friends, got married last Tuesday with Chaitrali. It was great to see someone from our group wearing a 'married' tag. They looked very pretty and we friends could really sense a 'made for each other' look on the couple's face. Talya was wearing a cool Sherwani and she was wearing a Saree. He somehow looked much more matured than what he is , maybe because it was his wedding that day and I have never seen him before in Sherwani. I think, you gotta look like a MAN than a BOY when you get married. Talya has invited few of our friends for his wedding but Sankya, Babu, Charya were in Japan, Canada and USA respectively so they couldn't come. They must be missing him very much, after all, you get married only once and it was really a special moment for us as it was to Talya and Chaitrali. Me, Chaddya, Dhumma, Anpya and Sankya's Aai( on behalf of Sanket) were present on the occasion.

Talya and Chaitrali were college friends and fell in love with each other in Engineering. Soon as their families knew about it, the couple decided to start a new inning of life. After seeing him getting married, I felt that he is transformed from a usual Talya ( remember, who used to play Cricket like a crazy person ?) to a guy who has a wife and a lovely married life ahead. But at the same time I had another thought that he will not be with us anymore, as he has to spend most of his time with the better half. We will not go out in the midnight say to have a cup of tea or a mastani or an ice- cream anymore. Suddenly, he will have more responsibilities than earlier.

But anyways, I was more happier on that day, because someone from us has just started a league of married couples and the honor for that of course goes to Talya and Chaitrali. Let's see how many more are joining this league...

I have some snaps of the JODI but could not post them here. You see, internet is no more a safe place.

Wish you a very happy married life Talya and Chaitrali. May God's blessings and the happiness shower your life forever...

Mulashi Trip

After a long gap, we went to a trip. Last time it was Konkan and this time its Mulashi Dam. Paresh was the reason why we went for an outing otherwise we do not usually roam around on weekends. And that's really bad because since we left VIT, there are hardly few occasions when we friends have spent some time together. Seems that everyone is so busy in their work that we forgot to relish some small moments of happiness . First rule of going to a trip is don't plan it, because if you plan well before time, reasons start coming from people and then the whole purpose of the trip goes futile.

So, as usual we did not plan it. We gathered to Vaibhav's place and decided to go to Mulashi Dam on Sunday. We did miss Tejas, BD, Vikya, Moonchacha, PM,Sachya as almost all of them were present in Konkan Trip. After a hour of riding, we reached to Mulashi. I was planning to go further to Tamhini Ghat but there was not enough petrol in my bike so we stopped. We parked the bikes in a nearby hotel and went out to see the beauty of nature. We had two digital cameras with us which were sufficient to capture some small wonders . After hanging around for some time, we went for lunch. The hotel was very good, especially good for family outings. They had a big chess boards placed over there which has big pawn, king, rook, bishop, queen and knights. My friends sat around the board and posed a highly thoughtful avatar as if they were playing against Vishwanathan Anand. Being a nice friend and an Orkut lover, I took their photographs so that they can flaunt their styles. All except me and Mukul everyone was tired because of a long journey or might have over eaten and needed a small nap. I don't want to waste time in sleeping so went out with Mukul to see few more places.

It was around 5/6 PM when we left for Pune. In all it was a wonderful trip. We had a great time together and enjoyed it very much. There is always something in nature that has a power to refresh your minds and helps you start a new day with new spirit. This trip was no exception.

Click Mohsin's post and Paresh's Post for some more details of the trip.

Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak

Remember Aamir's dialogs from 'Rang De Basanti' ? It refers to Aamir's reaction that one day all of his friends depart from each other to find their own ways.
Ek Din Ye Kuch Nahi Rahega... Life De Ishaaron Pe Nachte Jao, Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak...

I am experiencing this harsh reality today. I belong to a small town called Nagar and have got my intimate feelings with the city. People call Nagar as the Biggest Rural City because of its lack of advancements. Some of them even say that its not a city at all as Nagar could not fulfill the basic criterion of being a CITY. But I feel that there is something worth in Nagar which I could not find anywhere in the world. The worth things include my family, friend circle and the festival of Sankrant.

Unfortunately Pune do not celebrate Sankrant with zest. In Nagar you will see lots of thing happening on Sankrant. In fact, from the month of December, the skies look multicolored. Boys play kites all the day. And believe me, its not just a game, it is a ritual. I remember, making a manja ( A sharp thread using which you fly kites), the art of making a manja is called as manja sutavane in Marathi. Few days before Sankrant, you do following things in order to make sure that you own one of the best manjas and you rock on the day of Sankrant.

1. Find the best thread in the market
2. Gather initial stuff required to make manja, e.g. tyre tube ( when burnt, used for heating), a sticky thing called shiras ( using which you apply powdered glass to the thread), Aloe-Vera ( you intend that your manja is smooth enough to cut other manjas) , powdered glass ( preferably of tube, and you don't buy it from stores, instead you break the tube-light and mill it down to turn in a smooth powder). A big iron tin ( in order to heat the shirash so that it acts as a glue)
3. Find a big ground and gather few of your expert friends, go to that place to prepare a manja.
4. Once that is done, bring new kites.
5. On the day of Sankrant, do not, I repeat, do not go to you home for whatever reasons, you are supposed to be on the field ( be it your terrace or ground) to enjoy the lovely world of kites. In my case, my mother comes to the terrace and I have my lunch there only.

This whole procedure takes a lot of time and needs lot of enthusiasm and interest. I could not find time to do this when I was in Pune during my Engineering and started buying Bareli manja, to spare myself from the above ritual.

Today is the first day in my life where I am not in my home town amidst my friends playing kites and that's why I feel devastated. I enjoyed Sankrant more than any other festivals including Diwali and today I am not present to catch the glimpses of a great festival. Believe me, I have never felt so bad about myself. I could not find time out of my office schedule for whatever reasons and hence could not go home. One of my friend Sanket, who is in Japan currently shares the same feeling. My job is the reason why I am not in Nagar today. I have never thought that this day will come when I need to adjust my priorities so early, I am just 24 years old and like every small child, have a right to enjoy this game. But my stringent and always demanding job does not allow me do it, I envy my friends who work for a small printing press, marketing firms, and some still doing their studies.

Aamir said it right... Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak.... :-(

Taare Zamin Par

... And I kept saying that Indian Film Industry is not trying out new things, the 'bollywood' fails to make a movie which gives a social message, I must confess, that Taare Zameen Par is THE MOST emotional Hindi movie I have ever seen. Going forward one step, I will say that it tops the hall of fame Hindi Movie list.

Yesterday morning when I went to see this movie, I was aware of the storyline and the plot. But the way, it is presented is just awesome. The fragility of Inoo's little world, the imaginative mind which accepts no bounds and compares 3 * 9 with Earth colliding with Pluto. The innocence and originality that you see in his drawings and imaginations truly mesmerize the audience. The harsh and competitive world which continuously burdens a child's beautiful world with cutting competitions, never satiated greed of success, the unending pursuit of gaining materialistic achievements are portrayed with an absolute reality. Perhaps the most important aspect of the movie is the wider range of the audiences that it covers. Keeping the Dyslexia as the reason behind Inoo's lack of grasping things, the story ends up giving a great message which everyone should take into consideration. Every child is special, the tag line, proves it all.

Aamir keeps up with his 'the perfectionist' image and does not give room for a single mistake. From the beginning till the end, the movie focuses on the central character. Aamir himself take a position of a 'maker' than that of an 'Achiever'. The most appealing point is the intensity of Inoo's feelings. Meri Maa is sung and presented in such a perfect way that tears roll on our chicks and heart cries out with a grief. Look at the music and lyrics, Adnan Sami's song when a drop of paint falls on Inoo's cheek and the ecstatic feeling we see on his cute face is beautiful. The scene of Inoo's hug when he wins at the drawing competition shows that all feelings can not be expressed in words like Thank You! ...

I have never cried so much in the theater before,and must admit that this movie is the milestone in the Indian Film Industry and has shown that people still appreciate human emotions more than anything, as sometimes tears convey more than what words can ever say...

Hats off to Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safary.... Hope Aamir will come up with some more fantastic creations wearing his 'Director's' hat.

Folklore.org

My friend Mohsin, 'stumbled upon' a link called, folklore which narrates some anecdotes about development of Apple's original 'Macintosh' computer and the crew which developed it. There are total 118 stories, I have completed reading few of them and believe that all are enchanting.

We are living in a much simpler world of computers these days. When we scroll our mouse nicely and easily to read something on the monitor, plug in head phones to listen to songs, press a key on keyboard to see a character printed on screen, we did not appreciate the efforts that are behind implementing this magic. We must thank those legendary software programmers and hardware engineers who simplified initially cryptic world of computers so that an average person can use it without knowing the internal intricacies . After reading some stories, we understand the challenges those people faced while making a full-fledged COMPUTER with the optimized use of hardware and smart programs communicating with that hardware. It involved right from developing a small kit which has a limitation of addressing 64K of memory( which is solved by using cascaded memory banks) , a graphics routine which shows a Scrooge McDuck sitting on a large pile of dollars saying 'HELLO' to the user ( remember those were the days when GUI was in its nascent stage, and 'Look and Feel' concept was very new ) and many more challenges. Those were the days when people worked hard to increase Apple-2' s 192 scan lines to Macintosh's 256 scan lines. There were times when people need to put in extra intelligence to pull up extra bit from a stream of 8 bits in order to increase the bit density by using group encoding technique instead of FM encoding. The stories also depict the 'cult' work culture at Apple. The developers there enjoyed playing Nerf Ball after lunch and even went out to play a video game at the nearby restaurant in the lunch time. Like every work place, there were some sad events of firing from the job, some encouraging moments like promotion, words of appreciation. In all, those stories are so real yet look like so dramatic and interesting that the reader wants to be a part of Macintosh Team.

In all a worth reading link...

31st Dec.

So much of hoopla and hype... New year comes and goes as always and we do not let 31st Dec. go away without boisterous merrymaking. What's so special about 31st? Is it another reason for revelers to booze off? Is it another 'marketing day'? Is it a day for making resolutions ( and in my case, never try keeping them)? Is it a day to see celebrities flaunting all the way? Is it a day of retrospecting 'all that happened' in last year and hoping to perform better in the coming year? What is it exactly?

I went to see few of my friends yesterday who came from Bangalore and had a chat with them. Being a person who likes to eat variety of food and also love to see people celebrating, as usual I went to Fergusson College (FC) Road and Jangli Maharaj (JM) Road. Had some food in a Maharastrian Restaurant and then went on walking to see the 'glimpses of crowd'. This is undoubtedly ONE OF THE REASONS of being there at FC and JM. Missed some of my old friends very much as they are either not in India or Pune. Somehow this 31st was much boring than earlier ones, may be because I am doing the same thing again and again. No special places to go with special people, no fun as such makes it a stereotyped 31st. It would have been far better if I would have celebrated it at my home in Nagar. At least I might had a chance to eat some special recipes of my mother. It is really fun watching Marathi Programs with her on TV. I missed it very much this time. We were planning to go for a movie but people did not turn up on time and plans went awry.

So, in all a boring 31st Dec, but I pray that this new year will come with lots of surprises and with much of the fun....

Wish you a very happy new year!!!!