My heart will go on

My world this week

2006-04-27T20:20:00.000-04:00

Wow! It feels great to be back in the thick of things. It is starting to seem more and more like I am one of those guest columnists that makes a contribution once in 6 months or so, the only difference being that I am a guest columnist in my own blog. How weird is that? Well, Now that I have wandered into this "zone", I think it would be impropriety on my part to just turn back and walk away. On that note, here goes...........

Last weekend, unlike most of my other weekends, was eventful. A bunch of friends and I drove to Kettering, OH for the A.R. Rahman concert. We were very excited and full of expectations and I am glad we(atleast I) were not disappointed. The concert was really good and although Vasundhara "Shakalaka Baby" Das was the only other singer, apart from ARR himself, it was truly amazing. Most of the orchestra, including the conductor, and singers belonged to a group called Global Rhythms, consisting of mostly white Americans and some ABCD'S and ABCC's. What I liked about the concert was , more than the performances themselves which were awesome, the commitment shown by these kids to learn and perform music totally alien to them. What I also liked about the concert was the wide assortment of eye-candy on display :). Yeah, Yeah. I know what you are thinking. Guys will be guys, no matter what. A great concert and pretty girls bedecked in great outfits. It is at times like these.........and other times that I feel life is beautiful. :)

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I am sure most of you must have already read about the precocious Indian-American author, Kaavya Vishwanathan, who was paid $500,000 for two books about an Indian-American girl, Opal Mehta, and her efforts to get into Harvard after being rejected by them for not having a social life. Kaavya herself, like the protoganist in her novel, is attending Harvard. Everything was hunky-dory until a couple of days ago when some readers pointed out that quite a few paragraphs in the just-released first part were strikingly similar to the text from a novel by another author. Kaavya apologized to the author publicly saying that she had inadvertently used the lines from the other author's book because, as a high school student, she was so impressed by the author's books that those lines were ingrained in her mind. Now, Kaavya is in the midst of a legal battle, which if she loses, could sabotage her chances of continuing at Harvard. I have seen the two texts in question and it deosn't seem like something done inadvertently. The lines are strikingly similar. Correct me if I am wrong, but how can someone read a book 2-3 years ago and remember exact lines from it? I've read that elephants have great memories and that they remember routes to waterholes that they frequented as youngsters. I guess this beats what even the elephants can do. I empathize with Kaavya in her current ordeal but as far as I see it, it is plagiarism. It is also in the news that the publishers of Kaavya's book have annulled their contract and aren't going to publish her second book. Well, for the sake of a budding writer's career, I sure hope things go downhill( in a positive way) from here for Kaavya.

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Apparently people in Los Angeles, unable to bear the rising gas prices, are resorting to an ingenious method - letting the fuel tanks run dry and breaking down on the freeway in an effort to get some free gas. It seems there are a few publicly-funded vehicles in LA that provide a gallon of free gas and a ride to the nearest gas station for those out of gas. Wow, I must say that is ingenious, although in a not-so-good way. I am pretty sure it must have been thought of by a desi or a chinese because only these two classes of people are capable of such extreme deviousness. :). I wish there were similar vehicles in Lexington :). On a related note, senators today agreed on a bill that would provide american taxpayers with $100 rebate checks towards gas. Now that's something worth salivating over, especially during this time of sky-rocketing gas prices.

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And finally, these days the only songs that are played in my car and at home are the ones from the yet-to-be-released tamizh movie, Godfather. Wow, the music is zimble awesome. "Innisai" by Naresh Iyer and Mathangi is melodious and soothing. Naresh iyer seems to be ARR's latest blue-eyed boy and man, he can sing well. But the best song of the album, according to me, is "Oh Oh ilamai..." by Aslam et al. It is simply an amazing song and the singers have done a great job of it. That's the song on my lips these days. The hardest part in the song was getting the "thithum thaam thaam thaam thiku......" piece and I am happy to say that I can sing it very well now. ARR, are you reading this? ;)

Its your life!

2005-11-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

Sigh! Roger Federer just lost in the finals of the Masters cup in Shanghai and I, being a great fan of the game and an even greater admirer of the man, am naturally very disappointed to the point of sulking. What makes this loss even more painful is the fact that he was on the verge of creating history by winning the highest number of consecutive matches in the Open era. But alas! that was not to be. The law of averages finally caught up with him.

But why am I feeling disappointed? Did i lose the match? No. Did I fall short of creating history? No. Then why is it that I feel a sharp pain in my heart? I think it is because of my admiration for someone who has done things in a way no one has ever done it before, because each time he plays, I put myself in his shoes and his every loss is like a personal loss to me, because he is doing something I've always wanted to do but could not, whatever the reason. I've had and still have the same feeling each time India loses in a game of cricket or Anand loses in a game of chess.
But that's all it is - a feeling of disappointment which fades away in a few days and I am back to my original self until "my" next loss.

But there are people who take these sentiments to such an extreme level so as to cause harm to themselves or to the people surrounding them. There are instances where people have ended their lives or worse, caused public damage, just because the team (s)he supported lost or because his(her) idol faced a setback. One of my friends from high school destroyed the TV in his house when India lost in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. What I fail to understand is the reason behind such fanaticism. If they stop to think for a while before launching themselves into something stupid, they'd realize that its, after all a game, a single instance of failure, and that its not the end of the world. One's life is far too precious to be given up for such frivolity( as I see it). I hope people realize this soon enough so that we don't have to keep reading about such foolhardy behavior. For now though, I am still sulking and contemplating destroying my laptop........Just kidding :). Cheers.

Rest in Peace, my friend

2005-07-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I received a text message from my dad informing me about my best friend who was very sick. This was followed by another text message a few days later which carried the heart-breaking news that he had passed away. He was at the fag end of his life but I never expected this to happen this early. He was still strong and active when I last met him in January this year. Apparently, things started taking a turn for the worse the last month culminating in his death. I am talking about my canine companion of 12.5 years, Tommy.

Tommy was a pure breed German Shepherd. I still remember vividly that day of March, 1993 - the day he was brought to our house in Guntur by one of my dad's friends who was a dog-breeder. Tommy was just 25 days old when he yelped his way into our lives and our hearts. Even at that tender age, he was big and fluffy. He was the cutest thing I'd ever seen, a setiment shared by the others too. I was so taken by this furball that I persuaded my dad, who, at that point of time, had no real interest in animals, to keep him. But it was under the condition that my mother and I would take care of all his needs and that my dad would have no role to play, whatsoever, in his upbringing. No sooner than we let him into our house, he started to sink his tiny teeth into carpets, slippers, doormat - essentially anything he could lay his mouth on. He would play with us during the day and at night, we would leave him in our front room with a bowl of water and a bedsheet for him to lie on, just in case he felt cold. He would yelp all night and go to sleep only at about 4 or 5 AM. We would wake up in the morning only to find this angelic thing sleeping peacefully in a pool of water - he would have emptied the contents of the bowl on the floor and sleep in it. As days turned into months and months turned into years, he grew into a big, strong and handsome dog. Our neighbors were surprised at how this dog could be so big, strong and ferocious on a vegetarian diet(yes, you read it right. He was raised on a veggie diet). One other big transformation that Tommy precipitated was a change in my dad's attitude towards pets. While, previously, he used to be indifferent to our pets(we had a few stray cats we used to feed, which, in time, became our resident pets), he would bathe and feed Tommy. All who knew my dad were surprised at this big change(ofcourse, it was for the better).

After a few years, all of us moved to Hyderabad owing to my dad's transfer. Our house in Hyderabad was on the second floor and all we had for Tommy to run around was a balcony in front of the house(and the house ofcourse). So I took it upon me to walk him twice very day, once in the morning and once at night. I was a strong boy but even i had difficulty, initially, controlling him on our walks. I was amazed at the power he could generate with just his neck. There have even been instances when I would take him for a walk while running a temperature of 102 F, just because he had to do "it". All I had to say was "veleele polaamaa?" and he would jump around because he knew that phrase meant we were ready for his walk. My dad would buy him cake and samosas from the bakery(I don't remember my dad ever being so doting on us. But I am not complaining :-)) and he would finish them with great relish. During the hot summer nights, my dad would turn the air-cooler on and call out to Tommy, "Tommy, cooler pottirukken, vandu paduthukko"(Tommy, I've turned the cooler on. Come and lie down). Tommy would come running and curl up at the foot of out cot, in front of the cooler, enjoying the cool air. He was so ferocious(he used to charge at our gate when anyone neared it) that often people would call out to us from the road just to make sure he was on leash and tied up. He was very famous in our neighborhood because of his ferocity and antics. Our time at Hyderabad was awesome and then I left for the US, my mom was diagnozed with carcinoma of the breast, my dad retired and they moved to Trivandrum, my dad's native place. That was when Tommy's life started going downhill :-(.

My parents' frequent visits to Kochi for my mom's treatment meant he would be left in a dog care center for long periods of time and that was when he started feeling the agony of separation and the not-very-good treatment meted out at the care center. My mom would feel sorry for him and often blame herself(and her ailment) for his condition. We tried to find him a good home so that he wouldn't have to endure the stress anymore but none was willing to adopt a big and old dog(it was almost 12 years old then). And then the event we had all been dreading happened - my mom finally succumbed to cancer in January this year and my dad was alone in TVM and he was getting older(he is 65) and he couldn't take care of Tommy all by himself. So we decided to send Tommy off to Hyderabad again to a friend of ours. We knew he would good care of Tommy and we could rest assured he was being cared for well. But lately he started getting dull and sleepy and was diagnozed with having a liver ailment. We were contemplating the kind of treatment for him when the worst happened. He had left for the heavenly abode. I felt as if i had lost a part of me and what made it all the more miserable was the fact that I could do nothing for him in his last days being 10000 miles away. Well, as they say,"All good things come to an end" and so did my friend Tommy. May your soul rest in peace, my loyal friend.

Movie Tag answered

2005-06-23T20:45:00.000-04:00

This is in response to KP's tag about movies I have seen recently. Well, here is the list of movies I have seen in the past few months.

Latest movie : Anniyan(Tamil). Liked it a lot, especially the songs and Vikram's action, not to mention Vivek's comedy. Can't wait to watch it again.

Cinderella man - Nice movie about the pugilist, James Braddock. Nice performance by Russell Crowe in the lead and Renee Zellweger as his wife.

Morning Raaga - Good movie with the story revolving around a carnatic singer and the way she puts the demons of her past to rest. Wonderful songs composed by Amit Kheri and Mani Sharma and nice performances by all the actors, especially Shabana Azmi. Definitely worth a watch.

Anand(Telugu) - Nice, clean love story. A feel-good movie. Pretty heroine :-).

Book tag answered

2005-06-23T20:05:00.000-04:00

I was tagged by Prabhu a few days ago to list some books and novels I have read in my short life so far of 27 years. I used to be an avid reader when I was young and the habit gradually eroded as I got older(why?) and now, all I read is the news on the internet and some Reader's Digest. But I was never a big fan of fiction. It was only because my brother had a voracious appetite for books(still does) that I came in touch with a few of them. Well, without further ado, lemme list the books I have read.

Comics(when young):
Tinkle, Chandamama, Jataka tales, Chacha Chowdary comics, Tintin comics, Amar Chitra Katha, Batman, Superman, Tarzan.

The Blue Carbuncle, Hound of the Baskervilles- Arthur Conan Doyle

Where Eagles Dare - Alistair MacLean

Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie.

The Hardy Boys novels.

The Four Faces - Han Suyin

Russia House, Tailor of Panama - John LeCarre

The Firm, Pelican brief - John Grisham

Twenty thousand Leagues under the Sea, Around the World in 80 days - Jules Verne

Time Machine - H.G. Wells

The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Moby Dick - Herman Melville.

The Other Side of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon.

I thought long and hard to see if there was anything I had left off but.... nay. That's it. All these books were read before I came to the US to do my MS. These days, my favorite past-time seems to be whiling away my time browsing the internet. Hopefully I'll get back to my reading habits soon.

Book(s) on my to-read list : The much-hyped "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. Wanna see for myself what the brouhaha is all about.
Signing off, Ciao.

Tag #1 answered

2005-06-23T19:47:00.000-04:00

Tagging seems to be the latest fad in the blogosphere these days. Everyone seems to be tagging everyone else and fortunately or unfortunately, I wasn't left out of it. This is the first of three tags against me, by Dinesh. He tagged me a few days ago and here I am with my answers.

1. Favorite fellow blogger and why?

Uttandaraman because of his ability to write about day-to-day issues
that have more practical relevance in our lives. It also helps that he has a wonderful writing style with nice choice of words.

2. Your favorite person/people in life.(This doesn't include my immediate family)

Stephen Hawking - World famous astro-physicist and a quadruplegic. I admire the fact that he did not let his severe handicap come in the way of realizing his dreams.

Mother Teresa - Who doesn't know her? Spent her entire life serving the poor and the suffering without regard for her own health or aspirations.

3. If you could be one person of the opposite sex, who would it be and why?

Mother Teresa, again, for the reasons mentioned above.

4. If you could be in a book/music band/movie, what would you be in ?

I would be in a movie. That would give me an opportunity to give people a good time(bad time?) and make them forget everything else for a while...atleast.

5. If you were to be marooned in an island and you could pick one friend to go with you, who would it be ?

Why would i wanna pick a friend to be marooned with me? If I still had to pick someone, I'd pick Dinesh. That way, atleast the world would be better off :-). On a serious note, it is in times that like those that I would crave solitude. So wouldn't pick anyone to go with me. Just me and my memories.

The questions were prepared by Dinesh. So please don't hold me responsible if you think they are crappy :).

Weekends of fun

2005-06-07T20:15:00.000-04:00

I am a lazy person by nature but lately, my laziness has acquired frightening proportions. This has largely been responsible for the inactivity in my blog for the past couple of weeks. As my friend Raman puts it, I have become an "insistent" blogger - one who blogs on insistence from others, from being a consistent blogger. The insistence, or should I say persistence, this time, came from Raman himself. He has been prodding me for the past few days to write and he being one of my consistent readers, I acceded to his persistence.

My past couple of weekends have been chock-full of activity with the weekend before last being Memorial day long weekend. One of my friends from undergrad is getting hitched on the 12th of this month and so K and I felt it was the right opportunity to visit him one last time before he was expelled from the elite bachelors' club. So we set out on Friday(27th May) evening, enjoying nature's bounty in the mountains of West Virginia along the way, to reach Raleigh, NC just shy of midnight, in time for a sumptuous meal of chana masala and rasam, courtesy of my friend, P. After the usual friendly banters, pleasantries and a good meal, we watched a telugu movie "Anand". A nice clean love story. It was around 3 AM when we went to bed and as we had nothing planned the next day, we were happy in the knowledge that we could afford to sleep well. As expected, "Good morning" the next day for us was around noon. We got ready in about an hour and decided to go jet-skiing in a nearby lake ,Lake Jordan. But on getting there, after a drive through Reasearch Triangle Park, we found out, much to our chagrin, that there was no jet-skiing there. The girl in charge of the rentals was a hottie and we weren't ready to leave just yet. So we decided to do the next best thing which was to rent a motor boat. Well, it turned out that all the motor boats were booked for that day and the next, and so we had to book one for 8 AM Monday, the day of our return. On our way back, we stopped at a golf driving range and decided to try our driving skills. We weren't bad but the unanimous decision was that I was the one who was most likely to give Tiger Woods a run for his money, ain't it so, guys?

Our next stop was Durham, the home of the Duke Blue Devils. We visited the beautiful Duke chapel built in the Gothic style and the serene Sarah P. Duke Botanical Gardens. All this hard work whetted our appetite and off we went to the nearest Indian restaurant. K (who has an eye for cuties) was eyeing a pretty lady in the restaurant and going ga-ga over her and the very next moment he realized she was a mother of two. P and I burst out laughing, consoled poor K and went on with our dinner. After a great dinner, we headed home, totally pooped out, and settled on the sofas to watch "My brother....Nikhil". We had decided that day that we'd be leaving early the next morning for Asheville, a good 3 hrs drive, for some white water rafting and trekking. But a late nighter did not bode well for our Asheville trip. It was hardly surprising then, that when I woke K and P the next morning at 7:30, I got a "screw Asheville, let's get some sleep, dude" for a reply. I was only too happy to go back to dreamland. And so we all woke up around 12:30 PM, got dressed, went to an entertainment center and did some go-karting, mini-golfing and some baseball hits. It was then I realized I was a natural at baseball and contemplated taking it up full-time. But then the thought of putting A-Rod and Barry Bonds out of work prevented me from doing so. What a player the world has missed(sigh)!!. Next on the agenda was a movie on Coral reefs at the local Imax theater and rounded off the evening with a nice biryani take-out and the movie "Lagaan". I have watched this movie 50 times and I know most of the dialogues by heart but it captivates me even today. We woke up early next morning and kept our appointment with the hottie at Lake Jordan. We rented a nice 4-seater motor boat and cruised on the lake for about 3 hrs taking turns driving it. It totally rocked except for a minor hiccup when P drove too much into the shallows and the rotor got stuck in the mud. We had paddle our way out of it. This was followed by lunch and the trip back to Lexington. That fun trip took care of the entire long weekend.

This Saturday was a day at the movies. A couple of my friends and I watched the 'Cinderella Man', the first time in years that I paid $6.75 to watch a movie. The movie was good, not great. Sunday was a day of great fun with a bunch of friends at Paramount King's Island in Mason just outside Cincinnati. I somehow can't get enough of thrill rides, no matter how many times I go on them. At the end of a very long and fun-filled day, I was delighted to discover a couple of friends in our gang who were just as crazy as I was about thrill rides and were willing to risk the ire of the entire gang to go on one last ride with me, the 'Extreme skyflyer'. This is as close as you will ever get to bungee-jumping in this part of the world. A fitting finale to an adrenalin-pumping day.

That was an account of my past two weekends.

PS: For those unaware of this fact, K and I have been friends since undergrad.

Are we heading towards the Armageddon?

2005-05-20T12:45:00.000-04:00

Sorry folks, for the mini hiatus I had taken. It was motivated partly by the fact that it was getting kinda busy at work and more so by the fact that I couldn't come up with anything interesting worth writing about.

I was reading an article on MSNBC.com today about the massive deforestation taking place in the Amazon rainforests. The article reveals a startling statistic that about 10,000 square miles of the rainforest had vanished in the 12 months ending August 2004 and that it was the second worst ever. The Amazon forests cover an area of approximately 1.6 million square miles and even if we conservatively assume that the deforestation continued at the same rate, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that the forests would be wiped out completely in about 150 years. Mind you, this timeframe is based on a very conservative estimate. It could be way less than that, maybe even in your lifetime.

Now, some of you might be tempted to wonder what all this brouhaha is about a few trees being cut. My friends, a lot of us seem to have no idea how significant an impact the Amazon rainforests have on the weather patterns of the planet we call home. The rainforests are referred to as the "lungs" of the planet because the millions of trees in the forest absorb massive amounts of Carbon-di-oxide and release an equal amount of oxygen so vital for our existence. Imagine what would happen if there were no forests . With no trees to absorb the carbon-di-oxide we release, each breath we take would only take us closer to death. Aside from this, with no trees, there would be frequent flooding and land erosion which would deplete the land of precious top-soil. The lack of trees would result in global warming which would melt the polar icecaps resulting in an increse in sea-level and eventually drowning us all. Just yesterday, I was watching a program on TV in which the scientists said that there had been an increase in global warming lately that a huge glacier in Greenland had begun to melt and that if all the glaciers in Greenland were to melt, the sea level would rise by as much as 20 feet.

The Amazon rainforests are also home to a third of the world's plant and animal species and scientists speculate that there could be many more species waiting to be discovered. Each tree we cut could lead to yet another species becoming extinct. What people, in their endless quest for money or livelihood, don't seem to realize is that what they are doing to the forests is akin to a woodcutter cutting the very branch he sits on. Unless something is done, and done soon, I think we are all heading towards the Armageddon and heading there in a hurry.

The agnostic that I am , I still can't help remembering Vyaasaraaya's kannada lyrics
"Krishna nee begane baaro" meaning 'Krishna, come hither soon".

Amma, I love you

2005-05-08T02:27:00.000-04:00

Uyirum neeyae udalum neeyae uravum neeyae thaayae than
udalil sumandhu uyirai pagirthu uruvam tharuvaay neeyae
un kannil vazhiyum oru thuli poadhum kadalum muzhugum thaayae
un kaaladi mattum tharuvaay thaayae sorggam endbadhu poyyae

vinnai padaiththaan mannaip padaiththaan
kaatrum mazhaiyum oliyum padaiththaan
bhoomikku adhanaal nimmadhi illai
saami thaviththaan thaayaip padaiththaan

This song, from the movie 'Pavithra', beautifully and tersely penned by Vairamuthu, amazingly composed by A.R. Rahman and soulfully rendered by Unnikrishnan, is one of my favorite songs and without an iota of doubt, my favorite song celebrating God's greatest creation - Mother. I am invariably moved to tears each time I hear this song. It elicits the ecumenical truth about mothers and the sacrifices they make for their children. Today, 8th MAY 2005, is celebrated as Mother's day. Not that anyone would forget their moms but let us all take this opportunity, nonetheless, to express our love and gratitude to our moms for the sacrifices they have made to help us achieve what we have achieved today.

Amma, You were the best mother any son could have and if there is such a thing as a next life, I'd like to reborn to you. You were the most gentle, caring, affectionate and compassionate person I've ever known. My love of music and animals are just a couple of the many things I inherited from you. The days when you and I, as a team, would beat appa and anna in carrom are still vivid in my memory. I still remember the days when you would take anna(brother) and I to Bruce Lee movies because appa was not interested in movies. You were my closest friend, guide and companion. I could discuss anything under the sun with you, even stuff that boys find awkward discussing with their moms. The great cook that you were, I knew I could always count on you to have piping hot samosas and cutlets ready when I arrived from college, tired after a long day of loitering in the canteen. Etched in my memory are the days when you took care of appa and I, when both of us had chicken-pox simultaneously, day and night, without any concern for your own health. These are only a few of the countless instances of sacrifices you've made for us. I don't know if I have said this enough but I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU. I love you more than anything in this world and I know you are always with me, watching over me, wherever you are. I wouldn't be half the man I am today if it weren't for you and for this, I owe you my life.

All that I am or ever shall hope to be, I owe to my loving angel mother. God Bless her - Abraham Lincoln

PS:
1. My dear friend, Raman, had written a wonderful article celebrating mothers on May 5th. His blogspot can be reached by following the "Uttandi's blog" link on this page.

2. A nice english translation of the song mentioned(for non-tamil speaking readers) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

To Si'R', with gratitude

2005-05-03T16:30:00.000-04:00

"A real teacher is someone who can instill a thirst for knowledge in his pupils"

Today is National Teacher's day in the US, a day dedicated to teachers who shape our lives and careers. Actually, it is celebrated on the Tuesday of the first full week of May and so the date keeps varying each year. I am sure all of us have had special teachers in our lives - someone who went a little out of their way to teach us or do stuff that would remain with us forever. Over the years, I've had quite a few such teachers: Sheila Miss, in middle school, who taught me a lot of the English I know today, Solomon Sir, in high school, who turned this Math and Science nobody into a Math and Science "know"body and Somayajulu Sir, in junior college, who taught me the concept of a derivative, not just as a mathematical operation but as a physical quantity. These are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head and I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to them for moulding my life the way they did. But this post is not about any of the aforementioned persons. It is about another one of my great teachers, someone I had the chance to interact with in graduate school.

This was when I was in the second semester of my graduate studies. I had taken a course on Programming Languages under Dr. R and that was the first time I was taking a course under him. But I was well aware of his capabilities as a teacher. My seniors at that time had told me about how sharp his mind was and how he was a stickler for correct grammar(in documentation. Alas, I found this out the hard way :)). So naturally, I was very excited to have finally had the opportunity to take a course under him. I discovered, not to my surprise though, that he was very much the great teacher that my seniors had told me about. Come first assignment, I found out the hard way what a stickler he was for correct grammar. He docked quite a few points for my grammatical transgressions but it did not matter much. I was learning a lot and I was happy about it. My performances on the subsequent assignments were much better than the first and suddenly, I found myself in the 'A' grade region. But it was cut-throat competition in the class for an 'A' grade and a small slip-up could easily relegate me to the dreaded 'B' grade.(not that I hadn't had a 'B' grade before. It was dreaded, nonetheless). I was also very active in the class, answering a lot of his questions and participating a lot in the discussions. At that time, I had no idea he had noticed that, but, as I would find out later, that was what proved to be my savior. It was almost the end of the semester and the final assignment was handed out. It was nothing extraordinarily tough and I completed it on time.

A few days passed...the semester ended and the time came for us to check our grades. Most of my close friends secured an 'A' but to my horror, I discovered that I had secured a 'B' in the course. Tears are not something that come to me too often but that day, I was about to burst into tears....not because I had secured a 'B' and definitely not because my friends got an 'A'. There have been courses where I have received a 'B' but was not bothered about it too much because I was found lacking in effort in those courses. It was different this time because this was one course I had put my heart and soul into, and I felt a 'B' did not reflect my efforts or my performance. Anyway, what was done was done. I decided to meet Dr. R and find out why I had secured a 'B' which is what I did. He showed me my final assignment and pointed out the error. I had done something completely different from what was expected. No wonder, it did not seem "extraordinarily tough". I knew it was my own (un)doing, cursed myself(on the inside), thanked him and was about to leave the office. That was when I heard the best thing I'd heard in a long time. Dr. R said, "Moni(yahoo! He even remembered my name. that's a good start), I am going to change your grade to an 'A'". I couldn't believe my ears but found the gumption to ask him why. He replied, "I had noticed that you were very active in class, answering a lot of questions right. And your performance in the other assignments were also very good. One bad assignment shouldn't strip you of what you truly deserve". And that was it. Tears started welling in my eyes but somehow i managed to control them. I felt like prostrating(saashtaanga namaskaram) in front of him, then quickly realized that would be too melodramatic for real life. So I shook his hands, thanked him and scooted out of there.

The reason I am writing about this today is to bring out the greatness of the man. I already knew he was a great teacher but, that day, I realized he was great in more than one way. I cannot imagine anyone else doing such a thing. I bow before you in gratitude, Dr. R. Thank you.

Technical papers for free

2005-05-01T13:00:00.000-04:00

This post is mainly aimed at students of Computer Science but I am pretty sure others will find it just as amusing, something to lift the spirits of my friends reeling under the burden of finals week.

First off, I'd like to thank my friend, Venugopal Puram, for bringing this most amusing news item to my attention and so any credit for this is rightly his(is that a rhyme there? Must be all the anonymouses messing with my head ;) ).

I am sure most of you are aware of the umpteen number of technical conferences being held around the world each year and the infinite number of papers being submitted to these. But have you ever wondered how many of these conferences are really genuine? If not, it's never too late to start thinking about that. A group of graduate students at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have written a program called SCIgen which, given the author's name, generates a technical paper which consists of an eclectic hodgepodge of technical terms, mostly Computer Science. At first glance, it seems like a very genuine paper, complete with graphs, figures and a multitude of references. It is only on careful reading that you realize it is full of absolutely nonsensical stuff. The reason the students worked on creating such a program was to expose some of the so-called "International symposiums" which, sometimes, do not even review the papers submitted.

So, the next time someone tells you he/she has published a paper(you know he/she is not really capable of that) and you are wondering "How,on earth, did this person manage to do that?", you know where it could have come from. ;).

I suggest that you visit the site and amuse yourself by trying it out. SCIgen.

Hope you find it just as amusing as I did. Until my next post, cheerio.

An evening to cherish

2005-04-29T19:45:00.000-04:00

How many of us would be crazy enough to spend an entire evening at a concert inspite of having a tough examination the next morning? Now, I am not talking about the nerds amongst us that finish studying a couple of days or more prior to the exam. I am talking about the more predominant group, the lazy bunch, and that includes me, that likes to procrastinate things as much as possible. Well, I definitely was crazy enough. This happened when I was in the junior year of my undergrad in Hyderabad. It was only the afternoon of the day of the concert that I came to know about it from an acquaintance. The concert I am talking about was a violin concert by none other than the maestro, Dr. L. Subramaniam. He was accompanied by a few other notable musicians-Vikku Vinayakaram(ghatam) and Jorge Strunz(KB), being the two that I can recollect, at the moment, off the top of my head. Would any musically inclined person be moronic enough to pass up such an opportunity? I knew I wasn't gonna be the moron to do that although I was quite prepared to be the moron to flunk my exam(if that happened) :-). But it took me all my persuasive skills to convince my dad to let me go. And he did let me go....finally.

I came to know about Dr. L. Subramaniam when I was in my 9th grade. That was when I had a chance to listen to a cassette of his concert in NYC commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and that was when I became a great fan of his. Since then, I've listened to quite a few of his Indian classical style concerts and also a few fusion albums, 'Conversations' with Stephane Grapelli(another great exponent of the violin), being the one I liked the most.

The setting for the concert was simply breathtaking-the vast expanse of land sandwiched between the scenic Necklace Road and the majestic HussainSagar Lake, the land basking in the golden hue of the twilight and the cool zephyr from the lake gently caressing the face-and the chief guest was none other than the then CM of AP, N. Chandrababu Naidu. I was quivering with excitement, never having imagined that I would be able to see one of my idols live in concert. The moment the musicians entered the stage, there was a deafening roar from the 10000-odd crowd and it could easily have been mistaken for a game of cricket had it not been for the venue.

Dr. Subramaniam kicked off the concert with one of his compositions in memory of his dear friend and fellow musician, Stephane Grapelli, who had passed away earlier that year. It was haunting, to say the least. This was followed by a slew of tunes, almost all of them being a fusion of Indian and Western Classical music. Many of them were his own compositions(he had even composed one to honor Naidu) while a few were from his past albums, the most notable of them being 'Conversations'. I stood awe-struck at the mastery and wizardry of the man. It was as if he was just holding the violin and it was playing by itself. I was so enthralled that I hardly noticed time fly by and before I realized it, four enchanting hours had passed by and he down to the last tune. This time it was a jugalbandi with just the ghatam and the violin and the song was "Vathapi Ganapathim'. It was absolutely mesmerising to see two maestros perform in tandem and a fitting finale to an absolutely magical evening. That is one evening I'll cherish my entire life-the evening I saw my idol live in concert. But wait, it gets even better.

The very next day, he was performing at a local temple and this time it was strictly Indian classical music and his wife and noted singer, Kavita Krishnamurthy, performed the vocals. I was there with my mom and although I do not know much about Indian classical music, I was still able to appreciate it a lot. And now for the icing on the cake. After the show, my mom and I went up to him and spoke for about half hour. My mom is a great classical music aficionado and knows a thing or two about it. So, as luck would have it, I got to spend a very precious 30 minutes with my idol and I was greatly impressed by his humility. What a great man!! What more could I have wanted.........atleast for that moment ;)? Who says you can't have the cake and eat it too? Rubbish!!.

In case you are wondering how I did on my exam, fortunately for me, I passed it and so was saved of some serious a**-kicking from my dad :-).

PS: Anyone who hasn't heard the "Conversations" should. Trust me, you will not regret it.

Instant justice?? does it really exist?

2005-04-27T12:35:00.000-04:00

Lately, there has been a spate of incidents of sexual assault on women in India and that is what prompts me to write this post. My views regarding such matters are very strong and outspoken and so I tend to use really strong language, and I make no bones about it, to drive my point home. Readers, please be advised and continue reading at your discretion.

The latest in a series of sexual assaults on women is the rape of a 16-year old girl by a police constable in Mumbai which has caused widespread furore all over the metropolis. The public opinion is that he should be hanged or atleast jailed for life. I am not too sure if he'll be hanged because, even though India is one of the few countries in the world that hands out capital punishment, it is still handed out only very rarely. Being sent to prison for life is probably the more likely verdict although, considering the idiosyncrasies of the Indian judicial system, it should come as no surprise if he is let off with a 5 year sentence. Apparently, the constable was drunk when the incident happened and all it took was a single act of indiscretion on his part to bring the girl's world to shambles. Had he paused for a moment and thought of his sister or mother, the girl would still be enjoying life like any other normal 16-year old should. How can women in India trust the police, when the very people who are supposed to uphold the law, commit the most heinous of crimes? I, personally feel that the perpetrator of the crime should be hanged although, a few among my friends like S might argue that a 14-yr sentence is all that is needed to make the guy realize his mistake. After all, he is a human and he needs to be given a second chance. But I ask you, Does the girl get a second chance? Can you bring back her lost honor? and can you guarantee the fact that, after serving his sentence, he will not recidivate and spoil another poor girl's life? Would you still be arguing with me if, God forbid, the same thing had happened to your sister or wife or mother? According to me, rape is the worst form of crime you can commit against someone, far worse than murder. When you murder someone, you are killing the person as a whole, body and soul. But when you rape someone, you are killing only the person's soul leaving the body to endure the pain and humiliation like no other.

A similar case cropped up in the news a few days ago about a man raping a 2-yr old infant. Can you believe that? A 2-yr old infant!! It makes my stomach churn at the very thought of it. I still can't understand what kind of sick mind can even think of doing such a thing. I am still awaiting the verdict on that one too to see if there really is such a thing as justice in India. If you ask me, I'd say these kind of sick freaks should be bobbitted. After all, in some of the Middle-Eastern countries, your hands are chopped off if you steal something. The low crime rate in those countries is proof of the efficacy of this method. So I don't think there is anything wrong in my suggestion considering the gravity of the crime. I know I am being draconian but this, according to me, is the only way such sick people are going to be deterred from doing such a thing. But again, that's according to me. I can already hear murmurs of disapproval from the human rights activists among you but everyone is entitled to their own opinions and so am I.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe it was Mahatma Gandhi who said "The day a woman can walk alone at night without any fear is the day India will have gained true independence". Incidents like this really make me wonder whether we have indeed achieved the independence that Gandhi and other martyrs laid down their life for. Now that's some food for thought.

PS: 1. What I have spoken about applies not only to India but to other countries around the world too. It's just that I am more familiar with what goes on in India than elsewhere.
2. According to the news on the 27th April 2005, The Govt of India has categorically refused the death sentence for rape.

Hail Mary, I pass(ed) !!

2005-04-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

I had taken a self-imposed exile from blogging and hence the inactivity in my blog for the past few days. During this period of hibernation, I had a chance to view the fireworks and airshow at "Thunder over Louisville" in person, watch superstar Rajni's "Chandramukhi" and catch up on some stuff that had been screaming for attention for quite sometime now. Now that I've tended to all that stuff, I am back to my rejuvenated self, attempting to regale my readers with my (mis)adventures. Today's post is yet another incident from the pages of my life's book(Huh!! I hate it when I get too philosophical) that is guaranteed to ATLEAST make you chuckle. Without further ado, here goes...

I was in the 8th grade at a christian school in Guntur. As is the norm in all christian(missionary or non-missionary) schools, we were required to spend atleast a half hour every morning singing the Lord's(read Jesus) glory before we actually started classes. As much as I despised doing it(nothing against Jesus. I just don't have the religious proclivity), i must confess, the songs were rather good and melodious that the singer in me insisted on singing and so I did. Our class teacher in those days was an elderly gentleman in his 50's named Mr. P. He used to teach us Social studies and English and he was rather good at what he taught. He was a very cheerful guy and we used to enjoy his classes. That is, until something related to religion cropped up. He was a very nice guy at heart, his only blemish being that he was a religious fanatic. He was a fanatic to such an extent that he would abuse other religious beliefs and practices openly. By abuse, I don't mean the soft words some people use just for the sake of it. I mean, really hardcore expletives which I shouldn't mention in this post(after all, this is a PG-13 rating post). Once, he even abused and humiliated a christian girl in front of the whole class for wearing a bindi. This aspect of his personality invited the ire of some of the students(hindu including me+muslims+some christians) and this would lead to serious arguments in the class. But none of the students was grevious enough to hurt him or anything just because, after all that was said and done, he was still a very nice man at the core.

It was mid-way through the year and time for our half-yearly examinations. That particular day it was social studies. I was very confident about my preparation for the exam and was confident of topping the exam as was my wont(do I sound pompous? so be it:)). I began taking the exam and things were running smoothly for the first hour or so and then screeech.... the roadblock. I could not remember the answer to one of the questions and however hard I tried, I was drawing a blank. I was pretty sure I had studied for the question but it was as if someone had broken into my mind and stolen it from right under(or should I say over? :-)) my nose. I tried to remember hard as I could not afford to miss it. It was a 30-mark question and if I missed it, I was sure to be relegated to #2 in the class or even worse. This was one ignominy I wasn't prepared to stomach. After much brain-racking, I managed to remember part of the answer. But that would still not get me out of the woods. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't persuade my memory cells to help me with the rest of the answer. So, I resigned to the fact that I wasn't gonna top the class that time and decided to write something for the other part of the answer instead of leaving it blank. That's where my teacher's fanaticism came to my rescue. I immediately starting writing praises in favor of Jesus like "Hail Jesus. Glory be to him. Jesus is my savior" and the like and finished the exam. Heck! I had nothing to lose and everything to gain from what I had written. It was time for the papers to be handed back. I was sweating in anticipation of what I might get. Finally, the moment of truth arrived and my name was called out. I walked gingerly towards the teacher and opened my paper and what do I see? Lo and behold! I had a 90/100 on the test. I was amazed at my luck and my teacher's fanaticism. I went on to top the class but it was only a year later, safe from any repercussions, that I shared my stupefying secret with my friends and they were gracious enough to have a laugh about it. But the one thing I haven't figured out yet is what Mr.P was thinking when he awarded me marks for the answer that I had written. Was he thinking that I would never show it to anyone and that way his foolishness wouldn't be revealed? Or was he too blinded by religion to realize the stupidity of his action? I'll never know but one thing I know for sure is that his action was what saved my position in my class and for that, I'll be forever grateful to him. Thanks, Mr.P, wherever you are.

PS: For those of you wondering what the title means, it is just a play on the phrase "Hail Mary pass" in American football, the last desperate pass in a game that results in a game-winning touchdown. Correct me if I am wrong, football aficionados :-).

Clash of the Titans

2005-04-21T16:05:00.000-04:00

As of today, it's been exactly a week since the clash of the titans began. Nope, I am not talking about the Redsox-Yankees games or India-Pakistan matches. I am talking about the simultaneous release of the Rajani starrer "Chandramukhi" and Kamala Haasan's "Mumbai Xpress". It was a momentous occasion, one which the masses had been waiting for a long time with bated breaths. Not since Thalapathi-Guna(blame our Vasu if I am wrong:)) have the two behemoths of the tamil film world released their movies simultaneously. The critics and the people have been salivating at the prospect of the clash of the titans for a long time now. Rajani's last movie "Baba" sank without a trace at the BO. I guess the masses who had been so used to seeing Rajani as the do-it-all man were mighty disappointed to see him go the spiritual way. He badly needs a film to resurrect his fallen image and hopefully, Chandramukhi will be his panacea. Kamal, on the other hand, had a fairly decent run with his tamil rehash of the Hindi blockbuster, "Munnabhai M.B.B.S", even though I personally felt that "Vasoolraja M.B.B.S" fell well short of depicting the same emotions that were portrayed excellently in the hindi version.

Let me give you guys a brief gist of the two movies. "Chandramukhi" is a remake of Fazil's Malayalam classic, "Manichitrathazhu", no matter how much director P.Vasu denies it. The malayalam original has been remade in kannada as "Apthamitra" and apparently, it ran to packed houses in Karnataka. The storyline is about how a couple moves into an old mansion and shortly after that, the wife becomes delusional and starts imagining that her husband is out to murder her and finally gets cured by a psychitrist. I have seen the malayalam version and the movie is amazingly made. Shobhana, as the delusional wife, was a treat to watch, what with all the sudden change of emotions and all. This movie garnered her a National award. The other cast members including Suresh Gopi as the husband and Mohan Lal as the psychiatrist also did a great job. The tamil version has Rajani portraying the doctor and Jyothika as the wife. Although in the original, MohanLal doesn't have a heroine oppposite him, we obviously can't do that with Rajani, can we? So throw in Nayantara as his heroine although it doesn't matter that all she has to do is to look pretty and utter a few sentences.

In "Mumbai Xpress", Kamal has teamed up with Singeetham Srinivasa Rao yet again, after the duo gave us the memorable and rib-tickling silent movie "Pushpaka Vimaanam". "Mumbai Xpress" is kamal's movie all the way. He has written the story, screenplay and the dialogues and has even sung a few songs. It is supposed to be a "laugh-riot" but it remains to be seen how kamal measures up as a comedy dialogue writer. The story is about a stuntman, Kamal, who unwittingly gets embroiled in a conspiracy, and eventually gets out of it andt things end well.

There have been mixed reviews for the two movies so far and it remains to be seen who comes up trumps. As for me, I haven't seen either movie but I plan to this weekend with a bunch of my buddies. Hopefully I'll like what I see. Even if I don't, I'll have had a great afternoon with my friends. That's what matters. Adios.

PS: Another much awaited movie of the year which was supposed to be released on the same day(April 14th), "Anniyan" starring Vikram and directed by Sankar, has been scheduled to release at a later date. It only takes two to tango so the third one is out :-)).

ssshh.... love's "on the air"

2005-04-20T20:00:00.000-04:00

Well..... Judging by the response to my previous post, I came to the conclusion that either it did not sit well with many of you or that the topic was far too mundane to hold your attention. Ofcourse, all this is based on the assumption that you have read it. But sadly enough, fact really is stranger than fiction. I promise..no more preachy stuff from me for.......I can't say. Anyway, in an effort to thaw the frozen relations I may have developed with a section of my readers, today's post is going to be in a lighter vein.

What I am going to narrate now is an incident that happened in my office yesterday. Every Tuesday afternoon, we have a meeting of all our team members where we discuss the progress of ongoing projects and issues about future projects. This tuesday was no different from any other tuesday except that, this time the discussion among some of the senior team members was a very interesting and heated one. They were discussing about bugs that had to taken care of in the current product releases and features that had to be implemented in some of the future products and each one had his own opinion about the way it was to be done. In the midst of this heavy brain-storming session was poor yours truly, sitting beside a TV, not able to watch it though. I had joined this company only a few months ago and I was still learning the ropes although I had worked on and successfully completed a few challenging bug-fixes. So it was obvious from my countenance that I was clueless about a lot of the stuff they were discussing. Coupled with this was the fact that the meeting was right after the lunch break. The quintessential connoisseur of food that I am, I'd had a great lunch and was desperately in need of a quick siesta. Needless to say, my eyes started drooping mid-way through the meeting and I dozed off for a minute or so. The next thing I knew, I was rudely awakened from my slumber by the sound of moans. And what I saw on opening my eyes made me pale with embarrassment. The TV was on and what was even shocking was that a scene from some soap opera was being shown in which a couple was making love. I must have accidentally bumped the TV's power button during my nap which triggerred the hilarious and embarrassing(to me) event.

It all happened so fast that it took me a moment or two to gather my wits and turn the TV off. But by then, unfortunately for me, all my team members had had a chance to watch the scene. Everyone, including me, was aghast for a few seconds that there was absolute silence in the room. Those few seconds were the longest of my life. I desperately wanted to shrink into oblivion. But, alas, that was not to be. But after the "eternal" few seconds, contrary to what I'd expected and feared, there was a burst of laughter from my team members and the customary pulling-my-leg stuff for the next few minutes. It all ended well, atleast for me. I will be forever thankful to my team for taking the incident in their stride and not making an issue of it. But deep inside, I was chuckling, having realized how my seemingly innocuous act that day helped break the monotony in that room. I seem to have this uncanny knack for making people laugh at my expense, but I am not complaining, as long as everyone has a hearty laugh. Over and out.

A case for the defenseless

2005-04-19T00:40:00.000-04:00

What does the word "peace" mean to you? non-aggression? or maybe the feeling of calmness in your heart that would make you want to think of everything or everyone as good? Each person may have his own connotation of "peace" but to me, it means going about your business, not having malicious intent towards anyone or coveting other's belongings. If people really believe they understand the meaning of peace, then why is there so much unrest and upheaval in the world? Why are we baying for blood of our brethren? There has always been a clamor about human rights, the latest instance being after the recently concluded bloody war in Iraq. The advocates of human rights made a hullabaloo about how the POW's in Iraq were treated inhumanely and what not. But what these advocates do not realize is the fact that they are lobbying for something which they themselves fail to provide, albeit not to humans. If you are still clueless as to what I am talking about, it is animal rights. Yes, you heard it right. Some of you might be wondering whether there is even such a thing as animal rights and why I am for animal rights when there are pressing human rights issues. To them, my answer is, Yes, every sentient being is entitled to its rights and there are a lot of organizations to fight for human rights but very few for animal rights. There are, in the world today, peace marches, peace runs etc but do you honestly believe that there will be peace in this world as long as you perpetually perpetrate violence against defenseless beings? In this context, I'd like to quote Pythagoras "As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love".

Mahatma Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated". Even proponents of non-violence seem to condone the violence being imparted on animals. So does that mean only we humans have a right to non-violence? Is it only because we can speak out and express our feelings and animals cannot? What kind of a dubious tenet is this? I've spoken to a number of people about this and all of them seem to share the same sentiment, that God put animals on this planet for our use. Yes, I do agree with this view but what the people fail to understand is that the animals are there for our use and not for our misuse. According to the Holy Bible, God said that the animals were for us to rule. But never did God say that we should turn tyrants. You can definitely rule without being tyrannic and that was the kind of rule that God meant. The Bible even quotes Jesus as preaching "Thou shalt not kill", the "kill" being applicable to all living forms alike. Even in the Bhagavad-Gita, under chapter 9, text 26, Lord Krishna says ,

patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanaha

which means "If one offers me a leaf, flower or even water with devotion, I will accept it". Nowhere deos He mention "maamsa" meaning meat. Don't you think He meant something there? I am sure many people would abhor meat if they happen to see the conditions under which it is produced. I have a number of friends who are really great persons. They would go to any extent to help me and would do anything for me but all of them share a common blemish(according to me). They all happen to be meat-eaters. They would be much greater persons if only they gave up meat-eating. The hard-core carnivores among you may be tempted to counter my wisdom of a plant-based diet by suggesting that even vegetarians kill plants and how that is different from killing an animal. It has been proven scientifically that plants lack the central nervous system which is responsible for the sensation of pain. From a spiritual stand-point, Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita says that killing plants is also a minor sin but which can be easily atoned for since God Himself out them there for our consumption. In this context, I'd like to narrate a small incident that happened a while ago. A good friend of mine(hardcore carnivore at that) and I were driving and we happened to see a dead possum on the road, most likely rurshed to death by a speeding vehicle. On seeing the dead animal, my friend exclaimed "Oh Poor thing". This remark of his took me totally by surprise. Here was a quintessential carnivore beside me who would have eaten the same animal had it been sold as meat in the supermarket, pitying it. I often wonder why a person who loves his cat or dog to death can be inconsiderate about the plight of a cow. Were they not made equal? Did God specify that certain animals are to be revered and certain are to consumed? I guess everyone is essentially compassionate deep down but somehow we tend to get desensitized somewhere along the way.

To summarize, all I am saying is that animals deserve just as much life as we do. They are also caring, sentient beings capable of all emotions we humans go through. God put them on this earth along with us so that we share the resources and live peacefully. Humans should learn to live with them in peace and only then can we ever dream of real peace in this world. Until then all the peace marches, runs or prayers will do no good. I am sure I will have antagonized more than a few of you with this blog but according to me, that is a small price to pay for a great cause. Hopefully when people realize what I am talking about, they will change their opinion about me. If this blog can coax even one person into adopting a more compassionate lifestyle, it will have served its purpose well. Peace unto everyone and everything.

A trip to the Georgetown Kite Festival

2005-04-17T15:25:00.000-04:00

What do you do when you've had a busy and frustrating week at work? Look forward to the weekend and hopefully some fun and frolic which is exactly what happened to me last week. I'd had a thoroughly frustrating week at work, not able to achieve what I'd set out to achieve at the beginnning of the week. By Friday, I was sure the worst had happened. My brain had stopped functioning and I was afraid I might have killed all the grey cells in my brain. I badly needed a break from work to regrow my cells and put on my thinking cap again. And boy, was I glad the weekend was just around the corner. Even better, I knew this one wasn't going to be just another weekend because a bunch of my friends and I had planned a trip to the Georgetown Kite Festival, a carnival-esque atmosphere only a quarter of an hour's drive from Lexington. For those of you who have never heard of it(which included me until recently), the Georgetown Kite Festival is just a gathering of myriads of people, most of them flying their colorful kites of all shapes and sizes. Other activities like live performances, are aplenty. It promised a lot of fun and I was all agog about my first trip.

Come Saturday morning, we all set out for Georgetown where the festival was being held. There were about 20 of us and we all took off in a convoy of 4 cars at around 11:30 AM and reached the venue by 12. One of my dear friends, KS, along with a couple of other friends had worked hard on making a kite of their own for the festival. We were supposed to enter it in a competition for the best hand-made kite and apparently, there were great prizes up for grabs. According to the grapevine, there were even pictures of KS in the effeminate act of sewing the kite. I'd love to see them sometime. Boy, what a catch that would be. The head honcho, KS and his sidekicks, had done a pretty good job of putting together the huge kite although, I must confess, it looked like a sleeping bag or Kareem Abdul Jabbar's(For the basketball Ignoramus, KAJ was an incredibly tall basketball player of yore) shorts from afar. We also had a few kites that KS, in an act of incredible foresight, had brought from India. Well, coming back from our brief comic digression, the first thing we did on reaching the venue was to enlist ourselves in the best kite competition. The results were to be announced at 5PM, still 5 hours away. So we decided we were going to test the aerodynamics of our home-made kite. KS, as he is wont to doing, took charge but I guess the kite was far too heavy and snap went the strings(or was it the stiches? You tell me). So much for our kite's maiden flight. Either way, we had a bust up kite and so we decided to switch to plan B and that was to hoist our ever reliable kites from india. And by jove, KS did a great job of it. He would elevate the kites to a decent height and hand over the reins to someone else. To the onlooker, it would seem as if the latter had done it him(her)self, which, on second thought, probably was the idea. While KS was engaged in this, a bunch of us, me included, tried our hand at a game of frisbee. This went on for about an hour or so after which most of us were out of gas. We desperately needed a refueling, which, to our sheer delight, came in the form of home-cooked meal of an assortment of dishes, each dish having been prepared by one household. My contribution to this culinary treat was a potato curry. I am not sure to what extent the people enjoyed it but I guess they did(or maybe the pangs of hunger were so severe that they were left with no choice but to eat it), since there was nothing left of it at the end of it all. Either way, I am glad they finished it as this gave me chance to stroke my ego, whatever little there is of it.

Post lunch was the most fun and replete with incidents of interest to the gossip-mongers. We started playing a game called loaded questions. The way the game works, there is a bunch of cards, each having four questions on it. One round of the game involves one person picking up a card at random from the bunch and reading one of the questions from that card aloud. Everyone else has to write his/her answer to that question on a piece of paper and hand it over to a moderator(who is not involved in the game). The moderator then reads out each of the answers and the person who read the question has to try and match the answers with the person that wrote it. It is basically a test of how well you know the personality of the others in the group. There are as many, or more, rounds in the game as there are number of players, if fully played. One of the questions that came up during the course of the game was "What is the most romantic place to meet your true love?". There was a whole gamut of answers ranging from the Scottish Highlands to Greece to Paris. But the most rib-tickling of the answers were "bedroom" and "railway station". There were a lot of other questions and a fair share of silly answers, some too silly to even merit a mention. As the blog is already long, I'm going to leave them out. Hold no
grudges. In the midst of all this, my dear friend, Z, had his own travails to deal with. He had a crush on this girl and he was telling me how he was not able to gather the courage to approach her and was asking me for my suggestions. Hey buddy, I empathize with you but if I had known the answers to your questions, don't you think I would have had a girlfriend of my own? By the time everyone was tired of the game we had been playing for a couple of hours, it was already 5 PM and it was time to see if we had won the prize for the best kite. So we all trotted along to the venue of the prize distribution with trepidations in our heart, the kite makers leading the way, and the rest of us following them to applaud them in case they won.

It was only reaching the venue that we were informed, to our surprise and ecstasy, that our entry was the only one and that we had won the prize unanimously. Well, not a bad way to end the day. Coming out tops among 1 contestent is not something you get to do very often. The guy who handed over the prize wished us well and wanted us to make it three in a row. Heck, with us as the only contestent, you bet we would. Having been rewarded with a plaque acknowledging our unique accomplishment, we took a few snaps with our non-flying kite and decided to head home. That was when I realized that there were more couples in our group on our way out than there were on our way in. And I was not in any of them. Nothing like that ever happens to me. I decided to bide my time hoping for something to happen soon. But will it? Only time will tell.

But it was enjoyment par-excellence that evening, atleast for me. Hope we get to do things like this more often. Well, that was my account of our trip the Georgetown Kite Festival 2005. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Until my next blog, sayonara.

PS: Only 3 or 4 out of the 17 had anything to do at all with the kite making. So they deserve all the plaudits. Nothing I have written in this blog is aimed at defaming any individual and that's precisely why no names have been mentioned. It is all in jest, an attempt at humor and I sincerely hope all of you will take it in the right spirit.

what u lookin' at?

2005-04-15T15:31:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, I am back with my second blog in as many days. I am not a very philosophical guy and so you won't be reading many soul-stirring blogs from me. There are a few in here that do that job fantastically and I will leave it to them. But once in a while, I might be tempted to write something in that genre. But until then, I guess you'll have to make do with this. Without further ado, let me get to my blog.

This happened when I was in Junior college doing my Intermediate second year. For those of you unfamiliar with this system, Junior college is the two years of college after your 10th grade and before your undergrad. I, like countless other students, used to go to coaching classes for Math, Physics and Chemistry in an effort to sharpen my oh-so-ever rotting brain cells to face the Entrance examination for admission to undergrad. My math coaching class used to start at 5 PM everyday and my teacher was a strict guy. So 5 PM had to be 5 PM for him, not a minute later. My house was about 5 KM(~3 miles) from my coaching class and I used to go home after college, freshen up, get ready and ride my bicycle to the class. It was nothing different that particular day from any other day. Just as I was wont to doing, I started for my coaching class on my bicycle. No more than a couple of minutes into my ride, I started noticing something very weird. People on the road were ogling me and I had no idea what the reason was.

And so I kept riding. This ogling happened all the way to my coaching class and I still had no idea why. Then a thought struck my mind. Was it because I looked handsome? Was it because my hair was weird? or Was it just that I was imagining that they were ogling me? Still I had no idea. But all this distraction had slowed my speed and I was afraid I'd be late for my class and was sure to incur the wrath of my teacher. But, whew, thankfully, I reached my class just in time only to see that my teacher had not yet come in. Whew, I thanked my lucky stars, wiped the sweat off my brows, parked my bicycle and walked into my class only to be greeted by a roaring laughter. Oh God, it had finally happened. The very thing that I had dreaded my entire life of 17 years. I had been laughed at, not by my teacher, not by my relatives, but by my own classmates, my friends. I started thinking what I had done to deserve the worst of ignominies. That's when a whiff of breeze caressed me and I felt a strange, cold sensation in my groin area. I looked down and guess what? You guessed it right. Much to my horror, my fly was wide open. I couldn't believe it. How could I have been so forgetful, I thought, immediately zipped up and took my seat. That's when the teacher came in and the class went on as usual without any further incidents.

After the class, I got together with my friends and had a good laugh about it. That is one incident I'll never forget my entire life.

Until my next post, Enjoy.

PS: For the lascivious people among you, I had an undergarment on when this happened.

To write or not to write

2005-04-14T19:20:00.000-04:00

Even as I write this, I am working on something in my office which is thoroughly frustrating and starting to get on my nerves. So I have decided to take a break and blog for a few minutes. I had known about blogs for quite some time now but my curiosity was piqued only a few months ago. That was when I chanced upon a blog written by a dear friend of mine. It was very simple, nothing too fancy, nothing verbose, just about things that happen to all of us in our day-to-day life. But it was very impressive. That was when the thought "Hey, this looks like a fun thing to do. Maybe I can try it too" cropped up in my mind. But the problem was that I had been in a state of inertia of rest for far too long. I am sure all of you must have read about Newton's law of inertia which states that "A body in a state of inertia will change its state only upon the application of an external force". This couldn't be more true in my case. All I needed to get out of that state of inertia was an external force, something that would tell me to move my rear end. But alas, that was not to be. Even after reading my friend's blog, all I could do was muse how well he had written and wished I could write as well. So my thoughts about writing a blog were consigned to my mind's closet and were left to accumulate cobwebs.

Travelling forward in time to the present, lately, I had noticed a proliferation of bloggers among my friends here at UK. I couldn't stop myself anymore. I had received that external jolt that I very badly needed. There was no looking back now. I decided to scour my closet for the long-lost thoughts, clean them of the cobwebs and mould them into something concrete. I had been told by many that my spoken english skills were very good but I wasn't quite sure about my writing skills. It had been eons since I had written anything except, maybe, the odd technical report. And so, after much deliberation, I decided to take the plunge into the deep, dark waters of blogging. But I should say it was a very nervous plunge, akin to a small child being thrown into water for the first time, his arms flailing desperately, not knowing what to do, where to go, desperately trying to stay afloat. But, hey, I did take the plunge and what you read here is the result of that.

This is my first foray into the world of blogging but I think I am beginning to enjoy it. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. As I get to know my way around and get more proficient in this stuff, I will post blogs about more interesting, funny or thought-provoking issues. Thanks for your time. Please do not hesitate to comment and critique this blog. Until my next blog, carpe diem.