OMG Its so cool!

this is revolutionary

2007-01-10T01:51:00.000-05:00

iPhone

2006 in cities-n-towns

2006-12-29T00:29:00.000-05:00

Places I visited in 2006

*hometown

[via AWLN]

Hype

2006-11-18T15:01:00.000-05:00

Don-TCBH released and flopped like any hyped hindi movie. It was a big disappointment for the simple reason that the director did not care to keep the original dialogs nor did he add any new mesmerizing ones (he was the writer for the movie). I just wonder, to change the climax, Farhan (director) made a remake of the original and screwed it. Rather, any smart movie-maker would take it a challenge to use this new climax idea for a prequel movie of Don. That makes more sense to me as the idea would be completely original and people won't make comparisons to the 1st one.

Anyways, the whole Don craze has died down. Long back! The IN thing these days is either Wii or PS3. The hype and gossip behind these consoles is mind-blowing. You talk with any one and they seem to know someone is camping out of Bestbuy or Target to get their hands on these consoles, or some smart ass is selling his preorder on ebay.

So are these worth the hype? My say - PS3 has cool graphics and Wii has cool new controller (love the name- Nunchuk). Which is better? Time will decide (as always). Both are great innovations (unlike Xbox360 which is just a convenient upgrade of the original).

Don Days of Summer

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

October is here and in 2 weeks, we'll get a chance to rekindle our memories of DON - one of the most captivating characters Big B has ever played of. Don...The Chase Begins Again, is a remake of the 70s classic. Its not a new phenomenom for Bollywood to remake Hollywood movies for desis but remaking old Indian movies (I say Indian, which include Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and other 23 languages) is catching up. Not only that, audience who never had a chance to catch up with stage performances, called Nataks in Gujarati, are loving their remakes too.

Don will be Farhan Akhtar's 3rd movie (don't even talk about his disastrous 2nd movie). His first movie Dil Chahta Hai set the trend for India's youngsters like a cool freshman course - Fun 101, which basically introduced us to big screen HDTVs (at Aakash's place), mature relationships (Sid), hanging out in Goa and ofcourse, fancy pants (cmon, most of them were wearing shiny leather tights at the sendoff party). On the other hand, this one may probably set a trend of names for newborns like Kamini, Roma, Jasjit (JJ), Vardhan, Narang(?), Mac and ofcourse Vijay (or Rahul?).

As for the character Don, he is a bad guy who deals with suitcases and bombs. His style, charisma, attitude and dialogues captured the late 70s and early 80s with such popularity that my grandfather (whose interests ever went beyond Ramayana and Mahabharata) watched the original in theater.

Coming back to the new movie, Big B's role is played by King Khan. I do not want to comment on his casting (certainly not before watching it!) but I do like to say one thing - he has to do a f***ing good job as Don to even come close to Big B's DON image.

As for the remake's music, its mesmerizing! Trust me, if you haven't heard Don Revisted (by Midival Punditz) or Main Hoon Don (sung by Shaan) for 2431 times (or more), you are not Donworthy. I am sure my iPod hard drive must be having scratches where the DON songs are stored at. Keep listening them and they'll blow your mind away. Listen at max volume in your car! At one point, you'll feel the power of Don in you and probably end up looking for a suitcase and big,blue/red/green sunglasses when you leave your car.

As for the remake, no complaints from me! Once you understand the character, you realise why someone would wanna bring out the true essence of DON, again.

Now, I'll leave you with some of Don's evergreen dialogues:

Jeetna meri zid nahi, aadat hai
Aray deewano, mujhe pahchano, Kahaan say aya, main hoon Don!!!!!! (Updated)
Don zakhmi hai toh kya, phir bhi Don hai!
Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai!
Aww Gawd, Geittin Laitte ... Some otha time bebe!!
Kya tumhe maut se darr nahi lagta?!

and finally (my favorite)....
*Knock Knock*
[A loser in a squeaky tone]: "Yes, who is it?"
[Don]: DON...Don...don....

got root?

2006-09-27T16:15:00.000-04:00

non-Unix users, don't think too hard. You'll never get it!

Roshni

2006-09-24T21:59:00.000-04:00

Smart ad on Indian TV, setup in a princely environment; most likely Rajasthan.

[via GV]

World of Sports this Week

2006-09-10T22:58:00.000-04:00

Highs

Federer wins 3rd consecutive US Open Title (I loved his 5-0 17 minute first set rally against Roddick)

Schumacher wins his 90th race at Italian Grand Prix. Sigh! He also announced he'll be retiring after this season (but he is close to his 8th Championship title! A Tifosi!!!)

Lows
Clemson (ranked 18th) lost to an unranked Boston College by 1 point in College Football (Jay Dean couldn't get that one kick and the performance by defense was just pathetic!!!)

Carolina Panthers lost to Atlanta Falcons in NFL (Damn! Now Dsouza will brag about it all the time)

Don't Care
Baseball, Womens basketball, Eng-Pak Cricket series

Chai Garam, Chai!!!

2006-08-28T23:03:00.000-04:00

Bolo Chai Garam Chai!!!! ISPESIAL!!!
Select your favorite flavor
Beer CHAI, OJ chai or Wine Chai (Merlot)

Only for a $100,000 bucks! Heh, no jokey! I am talking about chai franchise here ;)

Update: Maa, Tera Beta Paas Hogaya

2006-08-14T12:03:00.000-04:00

Previously Titled: Blogger Spam Alert

Apparently, Blogger thinks my blog is a spam blog. For that reason, they have put a "word verification" in the Compose Post section (which I even filled while writing this blog). I wonder why my blog is under spam alert. Maybe,

1. I have been too active on Blogger recently.
2. I changed my blog title to a famous 80s Doordarshan Marathi show.
3. I wrote a blog with the word, Pimp and Sexy.
4. I revealed my true identity that I am Paladin, Destroyer of Eidolon.
5. Since anybody hardly reads my blog, they are trying to save my time to stop me posting further blogs.
6. They just don't think my language is human english (yea, I had a low verbal score. Big Deal! I live with it, so should they)
7. Somebody f#$%ing flagged me!

They are going to let a human verify my blog now. To make that human's life simpler, I thought of helping that human evaluate this blog. Just in case, the human has any doubts, this should clarify that if there is any spam in this world, its not in my blog:

1. Hi, I am a Human. Even though I don't cry watching romantic tragedies, I do make it up by shouting and jumping on my couch while cheering for NFL Superbowl winner.
2. I am also Paladin, Destroyer of Eidolon. I did live in the mysterious world of Hexen. I threw my weapons long back and live peacefully now (or until, Eidolon rises back!).
3. Please, don't blame my human english. I never sat for SAT.
4. Did I ever mention that Blogger is the ultimate tool for blogging? Oh, the features, the quality of this website, the user-friendliness, ... yada yada yada, I love Blogger.
5. Was it Pal who flagged me? Huh, huh! I am gonna f$%^king kill you, man.
Or better, I'll spam your blog ... muhahahahaw (just kidding buddy. You know, I have to pass the blame on someone ;) )

P.S. I typed "uqmoklo" to write this freaking blog.
Update: I also type "rjhocz" to update my blog title to "Red" color.
Update 2: Blogger removed the spam alert after a week. Yippeee!!!

i am buzzing ...

2006-08-12T11:52:00.000-04:00

put ya hands in da air 4 ek glassy ... da song totally rox!!
Features the sexy HardKaur and British Asian crew, Sona Family

[Courtesy: Sanup]

Two Weeks UnNotice

2006-08-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

"Yahoo! Messenger with Voice is so cool!", says my grandma (ofcourse, this is translated from Gujarati), as she was voice-chatting away all morning while she was cooking at the same time. Grandpa loved it too, "Bluetooth headset rocks with voice chat! How do they fit in all this kind of stuff in such a small thing?" Ofcourse, grandpa likes these new gadgets but he is unwilling to use them. "No not me!" Pointing at Grandma, "Let her keep talking! I am happy to see her chatter to someone else" :) So, clearly, grandpa and grandma looks like they love new technology, which is also helping them connect with their loved ones with such ease.

Grandpa and Grandma were with me for a couple of weeks last month. So, I thought of showing their regular Indian soaps at my place. But how? After pimping my Xbox, I hardly got a chance to use it. Fortunately, I got an opportunity last week when I realised I could, in no way, get Indian cable from Dish TV for a negotiable price. I wasn't too keen on buying the expensive dish for this International package and the installation and cancellation charges were just killing me! So, not to deprive senior citizens of their rights to watch total drama-baazi Indian K-soaps, I thought of getting them from the Web. I found a few on a forums website and the next thing I knew, I transferred them on my Xbox and like a Tivo, I could show these K-soaps to grandpa and grandma. I was amazed at this entire new way of using the Web, TV and Xbox for watching different things. They could take mazaa from the shows without ads and that too, at a push of the button. The quality of some shows were really pathetic though. When will desis think of having huge hard drives, Raids and servers to upload quality movies? Still, granny grandpa were glad that most of their afternoons didn't go in boring stares at Jerry Springer show or the blurry channel showing Judge Mathis. Technology, once again, helped me out (or rather, the grandfolks)!

By the way, seeing these K-soaps after a few years, I felt that their standard is almost the same (different masala stories though) but C.I.D. (Desi CSI) has improved quality in dialogues (for a change, I did find some one-liners funny) and even has a pretty face in their team. Ofcourse, grandpa+ma had to leave this Monday; so this was also the last one we saw.

So, now that they have left, I am catching up on other things. Like cooking, doing my own chores and avoiding bollywood movies! After getting saturated with all Paresh Rawal movies (watch Golmaal though! its funny!), I welcomed a change with 'City of God' - a story on bhais (hoods). Lil' Ze steals the show in it. Highly Recommended (its in Portuguese, use English subtitles).

Worth considering ...

2006-08-08T13:54:00.000-04:00

... if only I had not bought my iPod before. This one has an FM receiver, sleek NeoN design and expandable memory. Although I wonder if its user interface is as user-friendly as the iPod. Still, worth a dekho (at the nearby store)!

Patriotic Fool

2006-08-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

Before they take off the link (I hope not! :D ), I'd like to share a story from CNN-IBN Live which says Taj may not make it to the 7 wonders of the new world. Apparently, there is this new online based survey to find the new 7 wonders. CNN-IBN editor Divisha Gupta thinks Taj is at risk. Divisha says that Taj is at 20th place as of now and we have only 1 more year to vote to top 7. From the New7Wonders website, I do not see any "as-of-now" rankings yet. I wonder how she found it. All I saw (and she may have seen) was an ALPHABETICAL list of "wonders" listed. Apparently, Taj starts with a "T" and is 20th on the list.

ROTL!!!!

I can't believe they have such editors in their news agency. Hahahahaha!

Seven Wonders list: No wah Taj
Editor: Divisha Gupta
ibnlive.com
Posted Thursday , August 03, 2006 at 15:49
Updated Thursday , August 03, 2006 at 16:07

New Delhi: Taj Mahal represents eternal love, inspires many a poet’s imagination and has been immortalised in cinema as well.

But all these might not really boost the white-marble architectural wonder’s chances of making it to the Seven Wonders of the World. What can help are some mouse-clicks and a lot of good wishes.

The odds - going by an international online poll to choose the Seven Wonders of the World - aren’t exactly tilted in India’s favour.

The campaign initiated in September 1999 by New7Wonders website to choose the Seven Wonders of the World, is nearing culmination and the top 21 finalists have been shortlisted out of the initial 77 contestants.

The website comes up with periodic ratings based on the polls cast by those registered with it, and if the June ratings are anything to go by, Taj Mahal needs quite a bit of backing and mouse-clicks.

Taj ranks a lowly number 20 on the popularity charts below the Statue of Liberty (US) and Sydney’s Opera House (Australia).

This international campaign is in its final stage throughout 2006 and the results of the poll would be made public in a grand, global live telecast on July 7, 2007 – 07.07.07 – an interestingly apt date for the Official Declaration.

Here is your chance to root for India and get Taj on top. Register now and vote for Taj Mahal at www.new7wonders.com.

You may have read about them in schoolbooks, would have surely watched educative documentaries about them and may have perhaps even visited them and wondered at their architectural marvel. Now here’s your chance to be a part of history in the making by participating in what’s arguably one of the biggest polls of recent times. You have an opportunity to vote for the Seven Wonders of the World from among the following top 21 finalists:

The 21 finalists are some of man’s grandest creations and have been drawn from geographically diverse countries.
Acropolis, Athens, Greece
Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Angkor, Cambodia
Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico
Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Colosseum, Rome, Italy
Easter Island Statues, Chile
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
Great Wall, China
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
Kremlin/St.Basil's, Moscow, Russia
Machu Picchu, Peru
Neuschwanstein Castle, Fï¿½ssen, Germany
Petra, Jordan
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Statue of Liberty, New York, USA
Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom
Sydney Opera House, Australia
Taj Mahal, India
Timbuktu, Mali

West Coast vs. East Coast

2006-08-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't it be cool to have an Air Hockey game like this with my friend on the other coast, Pal??!!

iWait

2006-08-01T09:36:00.000-04:00

Waiting eagerly for August 7

Update: Waiting for some confirmed rumors now :(

Game Over On!

2006-07-31T23:44:00.000-04:00

Finally I pimp my Xbox. Got it modded to basically have it as a Media Center. It even has loads of emulators to play my old-school games. One in particular is WWF Wrestlemania. Man! They don't make such games anymore. Its a very basic game but the final moves of the players are so fantasized (skulls flying, hams falling, wolves), it just brings the game to a different level. Besides WWF, I have a few Mario games for Snes and a few Xbox games to I play.

XBMC is another app which is the multimedia part of the media center. I hooked up my xbox to my router and now, my PC can easily stream all the audios and videos I have (I use ccxstream for now). Which leads me to build my own file server very soon. Hopefully, a half TB to start with!

Another game worth mentioning is the most loved demo game I ever played - Hexen2. Yes, I finally have the game now and am loving it. Its cheats are the simplest (type god to be in god mode) and has almost similar graphics as Quake2. Only difference here is that it has mysterious story involved. Plus, it has unusual weapons which makes it even more interesting.

Truly a gaming month, this has been!

Back From Vacation

2006-07-12T12:32:00.000-04:00

Critics, get ready! (I don't have any fans for my blog, just critics and occasional random reader ;) ) I am back from a long vacation. Most of you know (well, from Orkut scrapbook) that I had been to India for a month. Its been a few days already after coming back and I have no jet lag no more and I am getting on my daily schedule. Regular blogging will pick up soon after my brain stops farting all the nostalgic moments from the trip. It keeps coming out like a smooth 5sec transitioned Picasa-Slideshow. No wonder when I watched Swades the other day, I felt it is the best movie a director can ever make.

Thud! *My head hits hard with a Reality rock* Work is piling up and I have moved out from my holiday mood. I'll not talk about what I did on my trip here. Or even on what happened after I left Mumbai. There are many discussions, debates, arguments, suggestions, help on this matter. All I can say is, my support is for the people of Mumbai. I don't feel an urge to pour my emotions and feelings here! Those worldly things are best handled properly (or umm, improperly) by others. Come talk with me if you really want my opinion (or want to know about my Mumbai experience ;) ).

I do want to say one thing though. My apartment is a big mess now! Before leaving, I was sick for a week and after that, all the shopping and packing left my house in a total Dharavi state. To clean it, I really need to demolish a few things. Will get onto it on this weekend.

I also missed out on the 4th july weekend trip with my VESIT classmates in NC. Ah! I did make up by catching up with a few in Mumbai. I guess I can have all the fun in the world. :)

I am India

2006-07-04T23:54:00.000-04:00

I have always liked Bharat Bala's initiatives to bring a sense of patriotism. This is his latest offering.


"This film is a journey through emerging India, 'the fastest growing free market democracy in the world'. It celebrates the relentless spirit of the people of India, who through their karma give it a place amongst the leading economic nations of the world. Conceived and produced by Bharatbala Productions (BBP) for India Band Equity Foundation (IBEF)."

April Trials with Chutney

2006-05-29T15:07:00.000-04:00

Bored after eating out in restaurants & cafeteria, preparing the usual frozen-to-microwave meals, dal-rice & vegetable curries, I decided to go for something hatke. Here are a a couple of such experiments:

Sev Puri

Looks really good but the red chutney kind of sucked and overall, it wasn't tasty. None the less, had two such big plates of sev puri (to fill my stomach). Also vowed never to make it again! Its a pain in preparing it and its a pain to get it taste-worthy!

Oven-Baked/Grilled Sandwiches

Prepare Cilantro-Chilli Chutney, apply butter (or veggie spread), add sliced cucumber, tomatoes, baked potatoes, green peppers, onions, shredded Amul cheese and salt-n-pepper. And your sandwich is ready.

These were good. I don't have a grill. So, I prepared them in my oven. I could make them again but the chutney has to be less spicy next time. It could give someone a hard time next morning ;)

Newman - New York's Cartman

2006-05-26T15:16:00.000-04:00

Are South Park kids just a bachpan version of Kramer, Newman, Jerry and George from Seinfeld? An interesting observation!

From Good times to Sick-time...

2006-05-24T00:42:00.000-04:00

I was in DC a couple of weekend's back. I had gone for the Paul Van Dyk concert and its become one of my favorites! PVD kick-assed some cool mixes!!! The show was organized at Nation and it supposedly has a capacity of 2000+ people. I don't quite know how many were there that night (yup, drunk!) but the main floor was pack! It was a wild night and enjoyed so much after a long time. At the end of it, Bonda and I even went in the front and shook hands with PVD. We both got an autograph from him on driving directions papers. His assistant was handing out posters and cds but we couldn't get one. So, Bonda and I started shouting, "Hey Paul! Cmon man, a poster here! A CD!!! Paul, cmon!". We thought casual calls to him will feel like we are one of his close buddies. Nope, it didn't work for me. After a while I just gave up. Bonda kept trying. I guess it was the booze but still, he didn't get a cd. We were at least happy about the autograph.

Later, we tried getting a cab to take us back. We found this shit-old 80s hatchback cab which could barely go above 45mph. Dont quite understand why that oldie driver was so scared about speed-traps. His car wouldn't even reach the speed limits mark! Anyways, he was a real smartass and started telling us big big stories. By the time we reached our destination, we learnt that he (supposedly) has real estates in NewYork/NewJersey, day-time businesses, night-time driver, man who never sleeps, bachelor, digs brazillian gals, driving for 23 years (repeated like 10 times) and totally drooled on Bonda's Eclipse. Shakal se toh fatichar lag raha tha...

Jumping on to last weekend, it was complete turnaround. I had a horrible experience. I was sick with throat infection and fever and, I could hardly talk with anyone. I had to take my own medicines, cook my own meals, maintain hygeine, do my own grocery and on top of it, take as much rest as possible. Moving out alone is teaching me a whole new world.

Anyways, since I was caught up with this infection, I had to cancel my long weekend plans, Da Vinci code plans and some shopping plans. I am resting, eating (mostly medicines) and started little work. I am glad I'll be meeting my family pretty soon. All this will be soon forgotten.

Let the Good Times Roll...
-The Cars (Nice band, check them out!)

Respect My Authoritah!

2006-05-09T13:36:00.000-04:00

See how this "common man" broke the chalta hai attitude and took a step to do the right thing against a Traffic Police Commisioner breaking the law.

[via Vantage Point]

Being Desi

2006-05-07T18:25:00.000-04:00

If 2005 was a year of watching South Park, 2006 looks like the year of reading Blogs. Although peer competition forced me into writing blogs, I wasn't into reading other blogs (except my peers' blogs with whom I was competing). Lately though, reading blogs has become a new hobby for me.

It so happened that one fine day, after screwing with XP system files, my Office PC crashed and I lost all my old RSS Blogs bookmarks. Some of them include materialistic blogs like Google's unofficial news, Apple products' updates and Deals2buy. It made me realise whatever I was reading was in fact, not quite worth reading. Otherwise, even after losing those bookmarks, I would have remembered them if they had made a solid impression on me.

I started off fresh after the PC crash. Sitting extra hours, (after office time :) ) I managed to set up a few bookmarks that came out from my memory. I searched for a few ones (related to Sepia Mutiny) on the then, newly introduced Google Blogsearch. I found one of the most popular bloggers on Indian Blog scene - Great Bong. I also found my religion on his blog - Mithunism. As a child, I loved Mithunda's break-dance, His action scenes and now, I love the intense dialogues in his movies, the khoony looks on His face, His heroines and ofcourse, His action scenes. Mithunda is a complete package. I am pretty sure He is The One.

Besides GB, I started my quest for other Desi-themed blogs. I found my city, my streets and brilliant photos from Indian photographers. Blogs about Mumbai street food just makes my mouth water. Ofcourse, my taste buds have developed to gulp down anything now but how can I forget the food that I cherished for 20 years? And I love the witty style by Crystal Blur and her to-be-continued series of Mahabharata. I like reading the blog of people who stand up for a cause and support such. I like staying updated with current events from India Uncut. Somehow, these blogs just click! I guess its because this is the world I belong to, the people/place/food I can relate to, and its fun to read them. They have made my online reading experience so much interesting!

Move

2006-04-14T20:03:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends back, I moved to my new apartment. This past 3 years, I had been living with roommates but now, I have gone away from this whole "common" experience. No more sharing bills, meals or blaming each other for the apartment's conditions! I am by myself now.

The first step to start off living in a new apartment is a painful step. It's the Move - packing, transfering and un-packing! How hard can that be? For starters, there are hundreds of websites which will give you advice to do things in certain ways for making it least painful during this miserable stage. Advice also starts coming in from other directions (family, friends or the stranger from office breakroom). In fact, I got a lot more advice for this Move than my earlier Moves. Since giving advice is free, people tend to use it rather, umm, freely. But every advice has to be heard, understood and analyzed to see what advice will actually work. I got advice about how I should move, where, when and which places to consider. Is it really the best time to move alone? How much money will I not save? How will it affect my life? And I thought this to be one of those easier Moves, huh!

For the actual move, we rented a truck and called a couple of friends to help us out. We shifted our stuff in just half a day. Then, like how a couple of days went in packing, the same process began for unpacking at the new apartment but ofcourse, it'll drag for a few weeks. In fact, moving by yourself is like a week's workout in a few hours. Change addresses, pay fines, dues for apartment's conditions, make adjustments to new place, dump ugly stuff you hate etc. But then, you only feel the pain when you move and tend to forget about it later on. Its similar to how Dilbert cartoonist, Scott Adams, felt while he moved his home office on the very same weekend. Yea, its that bad (unless you hire movers)! None the less, after the hard labor, I am glad to have my own place. No place like your Home Sweet New Home!

Not Just Another Day...

2006-04-07T18:51:00.000-04:00

Ever had a day when you find that everything goes wrong? For me, it was 4/2/06. Nothing went right. I keep six alarms to wake me up (yea, I am a deep-sleeper :) ) but that day, none of them woke me up. So, I get up late which leaves me only 20 minutes to attend office meeting! I could have skipped my bath and saved some time there but guess what? I felt so dull the moment I woke up that I felt I needed a bath. Badly! By the time I got ready, it was already time for meeting. I hurry up on the hair & clothes but got stuck on the jacket. I realised I had left one in my car, one at Patil's place and the third and last one was missing. A bright, yellow jacket had disappeared in thin air! I scan my entire apartment and couldn't it. After wasting 10 minutes in finding the jacket, I opted to just run to my car. I drive like a crazy NASCAR driver to reach office in record time. Never seen a NASCAR race but that's my general impression about this sport. Crazy, ass driving!

When I reach office, I was already late but I hurried my way to the gate. I put my hand in my pocket and I find I don't have my I.D. Nor do I find my wallet in my back-pocket! All this rash driving (way above speed limit in residential area) was risky and I would have been jacked for not having a license (if caught).

Anyways, I head to the meeting room and I find the Engineering Director (now, Executive Vice President of the company) sitting in the meeting. Damn! I missed out on a note sent by my manager the previous night that we'd have an unexpected guest. Everybody was early for the meeting except me. Not that I would feel anything about it but still...! :)

After the meeting, I open my cellphone to make a call and BAM, it shows, "no-service". I couldn't figure why would they disconnect my service? I looked up on my account online but no illegal activity seen. I sit on my desk wondering, "What the hell is going on?"

After lunch, I got my cell phone working. I remembered that the previous day, my phone flew from my hands and dropped on the concrete road. That made my cell's sim to get loose. I just adjusted it back and it started working. I was hoping rest of my day would get back normal like this but late in the afternoon, I see another problem. Internet connectivity goes down and I am left with no outside access. This was really irritating. I was expecting some important emails but I was crippled. So, instead of staring at the computer screen, I thought of doing some other useful work. I called up a travel agent for some ticket quotes for my brother's trip and then they kept me waiting for 20 minutes. By 5, it became really frustrating and I just decided to head back home.

It wasn't my day!

XP to X

2006-04-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

Its about time I wrote something about the company I admire the most (even more than Google).

Apple will officially support dual-boot XP on their hardware.

This'll give me a chance to switch to Apple without completely losing my XP usage experience. Gradually, I can move away from Windows apps and transition to Apple.

[via tuaw]

Pudchya Warshi Lavkar Ya!

2006-03-27T18:42:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder what happens to the Ganpati idols immersed after Ganesh Chaturthi? Scientifically, it should dissolve but we are not talking about science here. Its religion, faith! We should see extraordinary things happening beneath the sea. Just like this! ;)

My favorite part is the M.I. theme. What's yours?

(via The Eternal Optimist)

Portman Rap

2006-03-17T00:16:00.000-05:00

No doubt that Natalie Portman looks cute and ofcourse, hot! Well, she revealed her "true" side on SNL when she was asked, "What's a day in the life of the real Natalie Portman like?" Find it out!

I ♥ Clemson

2006-03-13T22:23:00.000-05:00

Link: Photo Blog of Clemson Trip March 2006
Bonus Video: Rocking Clemson (credits: Bonda)

Impractical Laws

2006-02-28T15:15:00.000-05:00

Proving Atlanta's speed limit absurdity...

Not So Hot Anymore ...

2006-02-12T16:17:00.000-05:00

Think of this - you go out for a cruise for 2 months. You come back and check your email only to realise they are all gone. Or in case of some long illness, you are not able to check emails for a month and when you do get a chance to catch-up, you find them GONE! Hotmail has a policy that if you don't login within a month's time, your emails are gone FOREVER! Gmail has 9months (understandable) and Yahoo has 4months (so-so) but 1 month is preposterous. I didn't check Hotmail for a month and they just removed all my emails. I can't believe I lost hundreds of my emails in there. Damn! I sooooo freaking hate Hotmail!!! Plus, its slow, has heavy graphics and gives less storage space (just 250mb!). Hotmail sucks!

The Secrets of playing guitar, Now!

2006-01-21T01:20:00.000-05:00

Want to learn play songs on your Guitar in less than a day? Check out Mark's website. I am not kidding here! He's got no fancy website but has some amazingly simple videos/mp3s teaching you to play. Mark will get you started with a few songs in a jiffy. Guitar beginners' Heaven!
Strongly recommended!!!

Chapter 7: Thrillers

2006-01-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

I believe I can fly
We saw the last of Williams that day. We skipped breakfast and hurried to get back to GC. The reason being a helicopter ride over the Canyons which we were eager to take. On our way, we noticed it had snowed last night and we were lucky to see a white outfield. We reached the airport to get the ride but it turned out to be the wrong one. At this pitstop, we even had a snowfight! Those who stayed in the car were forced to come out when they were targeted :) After playing for a while, we realised we were getting late for the helicopter ride and all of us hurried back in the van to again search for the airport. The right one, this time!
The chopper people gave some initial instructions to better prepare for our adventure. We got an awesome helicopter, a 7-seater - perfect for us! And we even got to see both North and South rims of the Canyons. It was spectacular!

Hoover Dam
After the ride, we hurried back to Las Vegas as Dsu, Kokate, Korade had to leave that night. Plus, we had to see Hoover Dam on our way. I was driving at 90mph to cover the distance. People in the car were also getting really anxious. Paper balls, spits and cold words were flying all over inside the car. When one of the paper-balls got me as a target, I realised the situation was getting out of control and I halted the car from 90 to 0mph next to the freeway and did not budge to start it unless the chaos died down. Here, Pal took the opportunity to take the driver's responsibility. After the door-slamming and the heehaw incidents, the car was really frustrated with Pal and somehow, "it" took control over him. Even after spotting cops, he was going 80-90 on a 65 speed limit. I don't know how the car made him do that cuz within half hour, he got a speeding ticket. Fortunately, Hoover Dam was pretty near and the car kept its calm till then. We saw the Hoover Dam from the top but I found it strictly ok. All those Bond-movie expectations being shot on this dam thing didn't just live up! It wasn't so spectacular but none the less, a part of our trip.

Back in Las Vegas
Wasting no time after entering Las Vegas, we headed to Stratosphere for its amazing rides. Our first ride was the Big Shot and it pretty darn suprised me. It started off so suddenly that for a second, I must have lost a heartbeat. Think of it, at 1000 ft height, you go up another 100ft high at 50mph. Its thrilling!!! Just like the Goliath ride with a drop of 250ft at 85mph! Sends chills down your back! We took a couple of other rides (Xscream & Insanity) but they were strictly ok. After the rides, some of us had dinner and a few, gambled. The trio were dropped at airport after dinner and we came back to the strip again to visit Venetian and Paris. Ofcourse, we saved the best for the last though. The Bellagio fountains! Yup, the beautiful part of that night were these fountains and we enjoyed a couple of shows with classic music playing on the streets.

This was a clue for our trip's end, a perfect one!

Beetle

2006-01-11T20:00:00.000-05:00

"Can you tell its a CG car? Look carefully there's more than meets the eye."

(source: TheMichaelSmith)

Chapter 6: Quick Grand-a-view Canyons

2006-01-09T02:38:00.000-05:00

The Grand Canyon
We left Williams after having omlettes and Cowboy-Coffee for breakfast at a downtown diner. For the first time, I saw speed limits of 75mph in USA. Nice to be "officially" above 70! When we reached the point where we could see the Grand Canyon, Pal and Dsu ditched us to be first to see the GC. We were still searching for parking but found one spot at some distance ahead. So, it was a little further from the actual point to see the view. While heading towards the point, we actually found this *spot* which was about 50 feet inside the Canyon. Instead of going to the point, we explored a 360-degree view from over the spot. We ditched the ditchers this time!

Sorry, no tip for you!
Our entire day went by sight-seeing the Canyons. Sunset part was really beautiful but it was chilly enough NOT to enjoy it! By the time we were done with the *tour*, we were really hungry. We decided on a decent restaurant with some fine wining-n-dining. To serve us, we had a wierdo waiter. His accent made simplest thing complicated. He messed up initially while taking orders and he even kept asking us to try more bread even when we were done with our food. This behavior really offended all of us and on top of that, he really pissed me as he did not give me enough wine like others on the table. So, we decided not to leave any tip for him. Served him right for his stupid behavior!

Back to Williams
It was couple of hours drive to Williams. No hotel fit in our budget at GC. Williams was not too far and we headed right back for the same hotel. We got the same rooms too! For this night, we were tired to hang out in a pub. So we decided to have beer at the hotel room. Dsu and I joined Pal to get some beer. We found the one-and-only store open to get beer. Pal drove the minivan right on the footpath next to the store. As we entered the store, the store-owner said we actually parked next to her drive-thru. Wow! I couldn't believe it was a drive-thru but when I saw our van from the small glass window, I realised she was not bluffing. After picking up some beer, we decided to *explore* Williams and roamed in some lanes. We found this one road which had a huge bump (more like a speed-breaker for monster trucks) and it was like a small roller coaster ride for us. We three agreed to take one more shot at full speed on the van and go over the bump. We grabbed our breath and put on our seat-belts firmly. Pal pressed hard on the gas and raced the van for the mighty jump. As we were approaching the jump-spot, Dsu discovered a guy standing outside his house seeing what we were doing. So we have a spectator to watch our stunt! And in a few seconds, the moment arrived. *Swoosh* ... *Thud* ... *Thump*

"HeeeeeHaaawwww!!!!" ... It was a breathtaking ride! ;)

The "Breakable" Touch

2006-01-08T11:02:00.000-05:00

Its very rare that I make trips to my office on a weekend. This is a story about one of those days. I came to office on Sunday afternoon. There was not a single soul on my section of the floor. It felt odd doing work without the chatting, typing noise and the smell of your neighbors' lunch-food (or was it the smell of their farts). So, to make my life more interesting, I thought of making some strong espresso coffee shots. Not that I am addicted to caffeine but occasional coffee is great to have. So, I head down to the break-room, freshly grind some coffee , put the coffee in an espresso "spoon" (don't quite know what its called) and fix it in the espresso machine. I press the coffee button and vola, my coffee is getting brewed. Nothing special about this here except for the fact that I was kinda doing this for the 1st time (2 half-hearted attempts to use it had failed earlier). So, once I have my cup-ful of coffee, I try to remove the espresso "spoon" from the machine. I tried every way to remove it but it was not even moving. The stupid thing got stuck! Since it was hot, I didn't even get a proper grip to remove it. After struggling for a few minutes, I finally abandoned the espresso machine just like that.

I returned back before leaving office again. Even this attempt went in vain. So, I left the espresso machine just like that. Nobody could use the machine now until someone throws the used coffee and washes the "spoon". "

Hmm, I am sure somebody will take care of it".

Next day, when I checked on the machine, it was still broken. Nobody touched it the entire day! Finally, in the evening, there was an email sent out to everyone in the facility. "Espresso 101 training classes"! I could not believe it! They literally had to hold a training session for my greatness. I haven't touched the espresso machine since. And no, I did not attend that class. Its too silly to attend such a class. I am an engineer. I am sure I can figure out a coffee machine. Just waiting for another weekend-work opportunity! ;)

My Gujarati Soul

2006-01-02T02:00:00.000-05:00

Karmacy's 'Blood Brothers' video - Its brilliantly funny!
Funny cuz its a Gujju hip-hop!!! Brilliant cuz it looks so professional and sincere!!! ;)

If you are a Desi, you'll giggle and enjoy it (probably even laugh your ass off)!
And if you are a FOB, you'll even relate to it!
Or if you are a ABCD, you'll sing it!
But ofcourse, if you are a Gujju, you'll understand it! :)

Chapter 5: Way to Grand Canyon

2005-12-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

Let's Go!
We left Las Vegas in the morning. Nothing exciting about it but just to mention that the entire ride to Grand Canyon involved lots of sledging, shouting, getting emotional about relationships and talking about other's affairs and marriages. Yeah, I completely agree with you here - aren't my friends becoming *uncles* and looking like settling in life? (besides the sledging and shouting part) ;) Anyways, all this happening with loads and loads of music (thanks to my iPod+FM transmitter). We noticed a few listening patterns here. All of us have similar music taste but which song to listen to next depends on the mood. Everybody tried DJing but some failed to put the right song next. While the iPod rotated through different people, it was only one iDJ who came out on top (the one who *created* the best mood in the car). Unfortunately, that award does not go to me (I admit I suck at DJing). Its Bonda! From "Qayamat se Qayamat Tak" to "Love Rap", it was a selection that kept us *happy*. No one else could catch up with him. Oh, Dsu did not qualify as a DJ cuz he sucked at even using the iPod.

Town of Williams
Destination Grand Canyon was a little too far than we expected. So, by the time it was sunset, we came to a town called Williams.We thought to take our final break out here. Its a small town 2 hours away from Grand Canyon national park. Its ambience itself makes you feel very laid-back and relaxed. We found 2 rooms at a motel ran by a Desi. Probably, the owner was drunk and he was happy to see us desis. In fact, he was so happy he came out of his office and shouted, "I am Hindustani" Lol! No "big" kiddas in this hotel except Dsu tried, you know, doing "zabardasti" with Patil. :)

Night at Williams
The rest of the night was ahead of us. So we decided to enjoy the nightlife of the country-side. So far, we could not see any civilization in this gaon. Fortunately, after driving like 1/4 mile from the Motel, we see Christmas lights on the streets. It was the Downtown. A whole of 2 blocks! We scanned the entire downtown in about 86 seconds (twice!) and rested our hungry (and thirsty) souls at a Mexican Pub. The setting was, once again, perfect. It had a small bar on one side, tables all around and a live music stage at another corner of the Pub. I would say, the stage would be about the size of a portable restroom. A local Country musician (more like an old, neglected fellow) with a banjo was playing country music. The bar itself, was lit up with pale, brownish-yellow lights and a nice-looking waitress took our orders. The shaam was mastani and most of our talk was some good ol' bashing of people you hated, disliked or the ones you liked. Food was delicious, the beer was chilled and the drink shots that we had in the start, took its effect pretty well.

Red Neck Pub
It was about time to lift our asses off the chair and hop to the next pub. We had the best time of our day with Pritam entertaining us with Patil as the center of his jokes. I guess Patil was most eager to move out of it. So, we searched for another pub and lo-n-behold, we did find another! This town is 'happening'! We enter the pub and find every guy in a cowboy suite - from the hat to the boots (and not a single non-Caucasian). No, it ain't the 19th century that they take out their guns and shoot you. They were friendly folks playing pool and drinking beer. Korade and Pritam joined them to play pool and rest of us had some beer at a table. A middle-aged Southerner came by and started some small talk. She was really friendly. She liked what we do, where we studied/stayed and even talked about her "sweet" daughter. Plus, she found me cute! Now what are the odds of that being happening! What striked us, in the end though, was she made this remark: "You know fellas, theese people heeere maiy be afraid of you but I ain't". Hmm, why would any one be afraid of drunk, unshaved, metro-sexual Browns? Only if they thought we would drink up all their beer or beat them in pool! No other reason I could think of.

*Frowning my eyebrows and rubbing my chin in wonder*

Chapter 4: A Toast To Friendship

2005-12-11T17:06:00.000-05:00

Drinks with Cleopatra
Just an attractive title to catch your attention :) But its ok. There is a Cleopatra in the story. Read on!
After freshening up in the hotel, we decided to visit a few more casinos. We headed to the heart of the Las Vegas Blvd strip and considered parking in Ceasar's Palace parking lot. We enter the parking lot without taking a parking ticket or anything. It was free! Its not what you'd expect in US where in most big cities, parking is like $15-20 bucks. I did tell my friends about this little fact but they didn't seem to believe me. At that point though, everybody agreed with me that parking is indeed free all over in Las Vegas. Actually, my friends never believe me the first time for anything as I come out with these wierd facts which simply sounds, umm, made-up. Well, sometimes they are not! :)

So, as we entered the parking lot,

[Again, this section is censored. Its the damn confidentiality agreement of 813ers].

... and we walked out of the parking lot as if nothing had happened. I call it the "Seinfeld Effect". Insensitive to most matters to which people would be touched, moved, afraid, careful or emotional. Not us! We enter the casino, fearless! Reminds me of Kaante or rather, Resevoir Dogs. Inside Ceasar's Palace, we decided to take a break at their night lounge, "Cleopatra". We got on its 2nd floor lounge-area and settled down at a table right next to the stairs. Soothing music playing in background, comfortable sofas and the dark, redish tint made the ambience really relaxing. Pritam left early to gamble and rest of us chilled out with some casual talk, cold beer and that kind of reminded us our time in Clemson. Good ol' days at TDs, TTT and Keith Street! Some day, I'll write a few chapters of my Clemson days. An experience that went off from ugly to bad and finally to good is indeed worth blogging! :)

Live Music
I would have rated this pub an 8/10 (-2 cuz drinks were not free as in beer) had it not been for the live music part. A band (and a really diversed one) with a lead Asian singer started playing live music (some American classics I guess). But that wasn't the annoying part! The "live" part was annoying! The volume of their music was so loud that it became irritating to me after some time. And ofcourse, the very scene that a middle-aged Asian singer in a band was freaking unbelievable for me. Not that there is anything wrong with that! Still, we suffered (or was it just me?) and continued to wait at the pub for the arrival of "My name is ..." star. Nope, its not Eminem.

Flashback (Summer of 2004)
Cut-one: A bunch of us from Clemson go to Six Flags. My friend, Pradeep Korade, is amongst us.
Cut-two: While waiting in line for a ride, a bunch of teenage girls start checking out Pradeep. I was fortunate to stand next to Pradeep and see the entire incident. These girls were pretty young (alright, they looked like 16!) and so, Pradeep knew they weren't the *type* he was looking to chat with. So, Pradeep didn't quite wanted to talk with them but one of the girls started asking him a few questions. I believe she asked him his name and Pradeep gave her a sincere reply, "Hi, M-y n-a-m-e i-s Pradeep". The "My name is" part took about 3 seconds to say. Say it loud, you'll realise the joke!
Cut-three: Back in Clemson, Pradeep gets famous for his slow-motion dialogue and becomes the "My name is ..." star! Famous for the wrong reason, that is!
Fyi his voice message was about 43 seconds long with just 16 words at one point.

Illusion
Pradeep has changed (or rather revealed) a lot after Clemson. He's a different person to me but yea, he still struggles some times to keep up with his speech-timing. He drives Acura nowadays (at 100mph), a bike (fastest one) and has a *healthy lifestyle*. He was the only one left to arrive. With a schedule mix-up, he bought a ticket 24 hours late :) He arrived straight to the pub missing out on the sight-seeing part. Anyways, we were thrilled to have him and he quickly joined the gang. All of sudden, Patil signals us to come close as if he wanted to say some secret. He tells us (it sounded more like a whisper with that damn music behind) that he found a table next to ours with a bunch of *Thakele Desis*. It was funny cuz all Patil saw was an Illusion. It was actually our reflection in the mirror. Probably he saw himself (I assume) and passed that remark. Who knows? ;)

Flamingo Dinner
We left Ceasars at 10ish and hurried our way to Bellagio. We reached there but the famous Bellagio fountains were silent. We spent so much time in the pub that we missed out the fountain-show and even, dinner. All of the restaurants looked closed. Everybody was tired to even look for a restaurant. They wanted to go to IHOP. Argh! I complained and protested and so, Dsu, Pal agreed to accompany me to search for a restaurant. We found a 24 hour restaurant at Flamingo casino and called the others inside.
At 11ish in the night, we wait at the restaurant door. The head-waiter made us wait at the door for about 10 mins. The restauarnt was mostly empty and still, the jerk was figuring out something. Here's what extreme hunger made me think about him during that 10 minutes. Either he was
A Racist - That mo****f***** discriminates us browns!
A Gentleman - I guess he wants the rest of my friends to arrive so that we may seat together (you know, like being courteous and stuff).
A Corrupt - Do I have to pay *extra tip* to enter the restaurant? To hell with that! Or,
A Moron - yea, that fits more to his personality! A**-h****!!!!

Even when we sat down at a table, our orders were delayed. My hunger was growing exponentially every minute. I had to repeatedly take in some quantity of water to supress the dragon inside me. My order of chicken sandwich was a safe bet to fill up my stomach. Especially, when you are really hungry, you don't want to take chances! I forgot to give this advice to Bonda. He ordered some freaking sliced salmons! For some 10-12 bucks or so, all he got was a few chunks of salmon (or imitation-meat?) scattered in the plate. Lol! It was a total rip-off and I guess, Bonda must have cursed the hell out to Flamingo.
After the meal, we headed back to the hotel. Before sleeping, we decided on a Getting-up policy. One of us in the room gets up first, takes bath, gets ready, wakes up second and so on so forth!! I was glad to get the last slot.

Overall, a satisfying (first) day of our trip :)

Chapter 3: Night-Riders of Las Vegas

2005-12-09T02:35:00.000-05:00

Arrival of the Corporate
Pal, Bonda and I were leaving Luxor's 32nd floor when we got a call from Patil. He announced the arrival of "Black Beauty", otherwise known as the Corporate. The Corporate's characteristics are very peculiar. His poker-face will hide every thought in His mind but His *broadcasting* nature will make sure we are up-to-date with the latest in our common friends' lives. Why is he THE Corporate? Because He is known for his adventerous lifestyle, having extravagant dinners, buying latest gadgets and ofcourse, his frequent trips to Europe, Mexico and to his ideal city, Raleigh. The Corporate made no exceptions in this trip too and made sure he had the most expensive airline ticket and paid a whopping 25 bucks for a cab from the airport to our hotel. But it took us only a few hours to bring Him out of his *corporate* mode.

Bus ride
Pal, Bonda and I leave Luxor to return back to our booked hotel. We had to catch up with Patil/Kokate to pickup *corporate* Dsu. It was already dark outside and we could see the bright lighted casinos on Las Vegas blvd. We took a bus ride from outside Luxor to our hotel. It was a Double Decker bus and it reminded me of the joy, bumpy, sweaty, smelly rides of BEST buses in Mumbai. The funny part was that the Bus driver kept announcing not to stand while the bus is in motion. Lol. In Mumbai, BEST buses had given us enough training to handle any jerks.

Funny Escort Story

[This story had to be censored otherwise, I would be sued for disrespecting the confidentialty pact signed with my friends on this trip. I have decided to keep certain *incidents* in the Vault and lock it up for good. ]
[And sorry, you won't find the password/hack/crack for the protected Vault on any Google search. Its there somewhere but it all depends on which pill you take to get your answer]

Confidentiality Pact of 813ers
1. Thou shalt not comment on embarassing events (like Dsu's cracky skin)
2. Thou shalt not reveal stupid mistakes (like scratching a car in the parking lot)
3. Thou shalt honor thy-self's word and thee's words too. (like not talking about stories of Pass The Topi game outside the *car*)
4. Thou shant behave normal (you got my point)
5. Thee....(heehee)
Thou breaketh this, then, thou pay consequences by sleepen with Barman or kisseth Bhavani.

Crazy@Riveria
We booked our rooms in Riveria. Its the home of the Crazy Girls show or something. Didn't get a chance to see it but saw some flyers handed over by Mexicans on the road. Looked interesting but that was way off our priorities. If you understand what I mean :)

Hotel Masti
Our Hotel tradition is to ensure we make full use of the hotel rooms. From bathroom doors (knocked it out in New Orleans), Wrestling (theRock [Me] vs. StoneCold ["diploma" Dave] night in Miami) to Pillow fights in Las Vegas, it was our way of saying "Thank you for having us" to the hotels. We love the bedsprings and we love jumping over them. We love the soaps and shampoos flying in the bathroom. We love swapping "Do not Disturb" tags outside other's rooms. We love to sing and shout and drink-n-spill and do whatever we are not suppose to do in our houses. We simply love to make ourselves *happy* in a boring, 100sqft, squicky, smelly hotel room. And that tradition was lived up in Las Vegas as soon as Dsu arrived at the hotel room :)

Welcome to Sin City!

Chapter 2: Morning at Las Vegas

2005-12-07T00:51:00.000-05:00

Rental Car
We booked a rental car at the airport itself. All five of us were waiting in line to get one car. Its the kind of close friendship we have (umm, and the other reason is that otherwise, they would have just left the whole goddamn thing on me). So we got a Ford freestar but boy, its horsepower felt less than my Honda Civic. This ford minivan dragged like a hand-cart and a full press of its acceleration pedal only resulted in the rpm zooming into the red zone (but the speed would remain the same). That's ford's magic for you! Anyways, Pal was the navigator and he sure knows how to be a *pain-in-the-ass*. For the car! :) Our rental car policy is simple. Drive to its extreme! Taking some hints from New Orleans trip, Pal jumped up to take the sole responsiblity to check the music system. Yea, it did sound *loud* at full volume and no, it didn't break the car windows. Oh, he even tried slamming the doors a few times in the parking lot to make sure it sounds *closed*. Boy, at that point, I knew the car would want to take revenge with Pal. Yea, its a different story in itself and I'll probably cover it in a later chapter.

Desi Lunch
So, what's the first thing we do when we arrive in the Las Vegas? We eat. We searched for a few restaurants and had Indian on our minds (with those unlimited-food buffets and spicy dishes), it was hard to resist to enter The Tamba. The ambience was just perfect. Bollywood music in background, no chatter nor baby crying, and dim lights made the settings just right. But that was before we sat to eat. When we started, we were shouting and talking and eating and getting pictures. It was chaos at its best!

Casinos and NY-NY ride
With everybody's jeans buttons opened up from a heavy lunch, we headed off to Monte Carlo casino. So, it began! Surfing casinos, taking pictures but no gambling! We reached NY-NY and we were bored with sight-seeing. We needed some adventures. What better than take a fun-ride over the NewYork City (casino). As usual, we tested everybody's fear limits. Patil was siked to the max that the roller coaster would bring his intestines out and Bonda was again amused with goo and vomit. Fortunately, those 2 did not quite listen to Pal and I and they did enjoyed their first roller coaster ride. Pritam could not join us - he has fear of heights (I forgot the phobia word for it ... too lazy to google it now). After the ride, I guess Patil and Pritam(?) were exhausted and they headed to the Hotel while Pal, Bonda and I headed for more casinos. We finally reached the end of the strip near Luxor. Luxor (the pyramid-one) faced us with a unique challenge. It ran into our minds how would it look like from the top floor of a pyramid. Since the elevator would not let us in without a hotel key, we had to use other measures. We could have used dropped the idea or taken the stairs but instead, we followed people with keys into the elevator. Couple of tries failed but eventually, a gullible couple fell for our devious plan. We reached the 32nd floor and gasped at the spectacular view from the top.

Vassool!

Chapter I: A Reunion at Sin City, A Trip to Wonder of the World and A very Happy Thanksgiving

2005-12-05T01:08:00.000-05:00

Poop Fluid
When we left for the flight, we didn't have breakfast. So, we grab a quickie at the terminal only to find the coffee was horrible (that liquid shit made me dehydrated throughout my flight). I had a muffin too which was really wierd. It had a shape like a wild mushroom. Somehow, in the anticipation of meeting old pals, I gulped it down.

The Airport Timetable
03:00 EST: Bonda leaves Erie to reach Pittsburgh in 3 hours time due to heavy snow. His first experience of driving in heavy snow went alright.
05:00 EST: Along with Patil, my journey starts from Raleigh. Keyur drops us to the airport while he was suppose to leave for India the next day.
08:00 EST: We meet Bonda on Pittsburgh airport. Our connecting flight is the same flight to Las Vegas.
08:15 EST: Patil calls up on Pal. He's fast asleep. Lol. PST, EST mein gadbad.
10:00 PST: Pal confirms he's waiting for us. So does Kokate
11:00 PST: We reach baggage claim. In a second (literally), we find our bags and Patil finds his friend, Kokate. But where is Ankur Pal? We had searched the whole area and he was nowhere to be found. Let me tell you some facts here. Ankur has a new habit of missing flights or arriving late at the airport. He missed a couple of flights to Boise lately. Plus his awesome sense of direction (of taking Uturns all the time) may have taken him more time to reach the airport. So, the big question - did he miss it again?

Meeting Bonda
Since our connecting flight was from Pittsburgh, we were expecting to meet Bonda there. In true Bollywood style, "Bichre hua yaar ek saal baad milte hai. Aur shuru hoti hai hamari baatein". We had one problem though. In the flight, Bonda had a different seat. Courteously, I asked this mother-son pair to switch seats to allow us sit together. I am sure they (and others) must have regretted why did they allow us to sit together. We were talking (and laughing) so loud the pilot could have heard us. It was fultoo timepass. Especially, Bonda's "Harry" stories!

Finding Pal
We reached Las Vegas airport and I was a little surprised they have slot machines even in the terminals. I am surprised at the fact people have so much to gamble (or waste) even while they are leaving (or get an early start if they are arriving). Anyways, we were eager to meet Kokate and Pal who had already reached there. Once we reached the baggage claim, we spotted Kokate immediately and got our bags. We called up Pal on his cell and found he was in a different section. Thankfully, he HAD made it! In perfect Mithunda style, he makes a "yehhh mmmaa" appearance.

The fun-trip begins!

A Reunion at Sin City, A Trip to Wonder of the World and A very Happy Thanksgiving

2005-12-03T01:20:00.000-05:00

"We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life."

Introduction
I look back two months ago and I don't even see 7 of us ready for the trip. Two weeks back, we had no details of the trip. Somehow, we got it right. As always! :)

There is so much I have to say that I could write a 200-page book on it. But who has the time for it, unless ofcourse, somebody is ready to pay for it :) So instead, I'll just write my experience in a blogger's style.

We planned this trip in a way that, with one stone, we kill 2 (actually, a lot more) birds at the same time. We visit Las Vegas, drive to Grand Canyon, visit some *points* and return back to Las Vegas. Ofcourse, during the trip, we see casinos, take fun-rides, see the sunset at Grand Canyon, maybe even a helicopter ride and gamble. The icing over the cake was that this was suppose to be our 1st annual reunion. But not everything worked out. We planned for a "Frisbee Football Championship" (a Clemson tradition) but we forgot (or rather, avoided) to get one. We wanted to gamble but not everyone wanted to "waste" their money. We wanted to camp but the weather was real bad. We wanted to hike but could not find a trail (this one, I made up ;) ) All in all, it was a "Screw-up" Planning.

The Photographer
So we screwed up with the sleeping bags, the camping, the maps, directions and even with the schedule but in the end, it was all too right to believe it. Another spectacular trip! A trip with 300+ "Kodak" moments! Most of these snaps were taken courtesy of a new member in the group - Pritam. Although his camera didn't take clear photos (that was the popular opinion), he became an instant favorite to take snaps. I guess it was his passion for taking snaps of casino buildings, nature scenery and even ducks that made him our official photographer.

Yaadash - Circle of Knowledge

2005-11-20T14:32:00.000-05:00

Some Bollywood movie titles are unique. They have 2 parts. First is the actual name and the other is the slogan. I like the slogan part. Sometimes, they would not even match the actual meaning of the name of the movie. I feel its gotta have a deeper meaning to it! Or maybe, that makes the title sound *interesting* (to the producers, I guess). Double Cross - Ek Dhoka, Fareb - Twisted Love, Lucky - No Time For Love, Waqt - Race Against Time and Aan - Men at Work are a few. Ofcourse I like this concept. No wonder they inspired me to title this blog in the same way. After you read the rest of the blog, you'll think, and think again, to realise the true essense of this title.

I work in the storage industry. Since it involves understanding SAN configurations, I gave a thought for a second and realised if I were to give a brief description of what SAN is, I would be stumped!

A short, simple answer of my industry should be good enough to prove my knowledge here. So, I start Googling for some quick answers. I find a search result which sounds pretty *knowledgable*. The website looks familar but I was too occupied for getting the answer than paying attention on minor details. I click on the file and a Lecture Notes file pops up. I go through it and finally read the professor's name on it and a logo of "Clemson University" alongside. Then it all came down on to me. I took this class in my first semester, I studied about SAN and I had completely forgotten about it. Damn! What's happening to my memory?

Yaddash (my memory) and the completion of my circle of knowledge.

P.S. The author appreciates his readers NOT to throw big stones at him. He understands the frustration of the readers here and requests for small pebbles or maybe, a few tomatoes only.

The End!

I Recommend

2005-11-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

"VANDE MATARAM"-TRIBUTE OF A.R.RAHMAN.

"I dedicate this album to the future generations of India. I wish that this album inspires them to grow up with the wealth of human values and ethics that this country is made of. I wish that the youth of today would wipe out phrases like 'chaltha hai' from thier vocabularies and find themselves motivated human beings." - AR Rahman .

Get it Here

Privacy is DEAD!

2005-11-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

Google has given us more ways to see a lot of things that we did not want people to look at. Be it your house via satellite (Google Earth), your achievements (Google search your name), your phone number and even your address (Google Phonebook feature). It so happens that if you are good at googling, you can pretty much find anything. The other day, I was buying a computer accessory from CraigsList and I made a deal with this person. He only revealed me his email when he replied to mine. Not only did I get his full name, I got his significant achievements, his video, his phone number and his address. Virtually, I am over his house right now in Google Earth. Is this bad? Good? Who knows? I got an idea beforehand what his address was and it was easier for me to get a printout of the directions. I won't reveal his identity here but its a classic case of identity revelation.

Take for instance the Phonebook feature. My cousin wanted my mailing address and I gave her mine. For curiosity, I looked up for hers in google and got her complete address/ph from Phonebook. I sent her Google Earth snapshot of her house and she was completely stunned. Ofcourse, I told her to remove from the public listing (yup, its possible). Plus, I could even find for our other cousins/friends. I guess its all nice and fun when you do for "good" reasons.

So, what's the meaning of privacy now? One thing is for sure. Its shrinking day by day and somehow, we are like celebrities now. Knowing the whole time that somebody may be watching us. Its strange we used to hate celebs crying over such issues but we are in the same situation and can't do anything about it. Or can we? How long can we save our privacy?

Punk'd

2005-10-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

I listen to these prank calls from Z100 and watch Punk'd on Mtv. I wondered whether I would be gullible to such pranks. "I am sure I would never get mad", I said to myself.

Unfortunately, Bonda punk'd me! I was so so mad at him for not joining us for our reunion trip as I must have put so much efforts to find him a deal. I was helping him make the decision on buying the ticket and he kept delaying, sorta lying. Basically he just stumped me! During my lunch time today, I was at my peak when I talked with Dsu, Korade, Pal - all sympathizing with me of Bonda's behavior. Then Bonda revealed the truth. He had bought the ticket a week back. He just got me (or rather, us) big time! I must say, his act was pretty darn good .... I guess I am gullible to such pranks too

"I got punk'd, man!" "Damn!!! I always wanted to say that :):)"

18 till I die

2005-10-17T23:56:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I went to my first concert in the US. The performers were top 2 of my college-time favorites - Bryan Adams and Def Leppard. The better part was Bryan Adams though - Def Leppard acted like jackasses towards the end of the concert. Man, they were just rushing. Who cares? They played all the ones I liked (and a few more). Some people got turned off with that but I am loyal to their music. On the other hand, Bryan Adam's performance was amazing. Not only his music and his voice was so damn clear, he has an amazing stage presence. You could actually feel THE Bryan Adams performing on stage.

... and all this for 30 bucks including food, lawn chairs and beer!!! Not bad, huh! :)

Salu - First Impressions

2005-10-05T22:43:00.000-04:00

[Its my story but I am giving it a twist. I have written this blog in a style (cheaply) imitating a dumb Blondee writing it. Enjoy]

This one time, my roommate had an unlimited 10 bucks-a-month blockbuster account at which time I used to join him to get some movie. There were these DVDs at a particular shelf that always attracted my attention. The DVD cover was white and showed 2 feet. Yea, Actual feet!! The font used for its title was a little strange and I read the title as, "SALU". So, I thought this could be a documentary about some tribe who walk bare-foot.

After 4 months of that incident, my friend suggested me to watch a movie in which there's this 2 guys tied by chains in a room with a dead man's body in the center of the room. The whole movie revolves around it. When I went to blockbuster to get that movie, the BB guy pointed it to the same DVD I thought was a documentary. It was actually SAW.

The font was deceptive. So, yup, that was about it. Nothing extraordinary. Only my senses were brought back!

5000 miles over 6 weekends

2005-10-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

Can you freaking believe it? I drove all those miles in just 12 days. It took me 8 bottles of Aquafina, a bottle of Dasani, 4 Rest Areas stops, a dozen food exits and NO speeding tickets to drive those miles. Facts aside, all the trips were special to me in some way.

Newark, NJ + Manhattan, NY - 1300 miles
I started off this long 10-hour journey over long weekend and let me tell you, its exhausting! I tested my limits of driving alone in this trip. You know, after 8 hours in traffic, you are at a different level than other drivers. I did not even feel the speed, the traffic noise and the AC of the car. I was like Neo from the Matrix. I pushed my car to 90-100 miles on the NJ Turnpike while it was full of traffic and dodged all the way to my destination cutting my time by a couple of hours. I was changing 5 lanes at a time just to get ahead of those cars. I moved so fast that others thought I was being chased by the cops that they actually made way for me :) For a second, I thought time was slower than me ;)
Anyways, cut the crap - I made this trip to meet my bro' whom I didn't met for the past 1 year.

Clemson, SC - 700 miles
Next weekend, I made a nostalgic trip to Clemson (read about it here).

Germantown, MD - 600 miles
This is a residential town near Baltimore where my aunt/uncle stays. I called my bro' down here and had to make my 3rd DC trip to show him the monuments around (thank god! we skipped the muesums!!!). To reach MD, I have to cross the dreaded state of VA where people fear speeding. I would say, 90% of people driving over I85 would be at or below the speed limit. Ofcourse, I was amongst the 10% of them who drove like 10mph more than the speed limit. The fact is the cops around there are so strict, smart and ruthless, they'll catch you sooner or later if you speed.

Clemson, SC - 700 miles
Oh yea, you read it right! I was back in my US hometown after just 2 weeks! That's because this time, I wanted to show off my university to my parents. I showed them around in the University town, Stadium, workplace, golf course, all my previous apartments and the campus.

Germantown, MD - 600 miles
This was not much of a vacation trip but rather kind of like, cab service. For my parents. I just dropped them around to my uncle/aunt's place. I had an old-fashioned Indian dinner (along with American wine) with them. I returned back the other day while my parents headed off to NJ/NY (to meet my bro').

Asheville, NC - 700 miles
So the last weekend marked my last of the 6-in-a-series weekend trip. It was a pure vacation trip. Ironically, the previous 5 trips made me feel exhausted that I thought of taking a break from all relatives, friends and I headed off to Asheville with my parents (their last weekend with me). Its a beautiful place and since my mom loves fresh stuff, we used to stop by some road-side farmer's shop or juice stall and enjoy the *simple lifestyle*. For me too, it was a different experience and I enjoyed it. We also went to a vineyard for wine-tasting but the wines weren't that good. I am not too good with remembering wine names but I remember their taste and I thought I had tasted much better wines than those available at that wineyard. Anyway, it was my first wine-tasting experience (and for my parents too) and was something unique.

This weekend, I was at home and I thought I kind of missed something. I just wasted away 2 days. I am now thinking of getting on track of doing something interesting from next weekend onward (besides partying and booze).

Shaken but not broken

2005-09-07T16:40:00.000-04:00

A half-filled tea cup is sitting on my desk. The tea-bag is still in the cup and the tea should be lukid warm now. An Eddie Bauer transparent pearl-grey water bottle is right next to the tea-cup. Its cap is hanging on the side and there is some water left in it. An empty coffee disposable cup is lying in the trash can right behind my desk. Some statistics are running on my desktop screen. My fingers are cold and my hands feel the burden of my fingers. And my mind is swinging from one topic to another. You may be wondering, "What's going on with this guy? Had I not been surrounded by tea, coffee and water, most of you might think I may be high. Apparently I am not high or dry but just feeling weak and am trying all things to get better." So how did it all come down to this?

One or more of the following caused me to fall sick -

1. Change of weather (suddenly, today morning I felt quite cool - but that maybe because of the sickness)
2. Dropping off car for service and doing grocery (grocery-shopping is quite stressful, you know!)
3. Getting up earlier than regular time (in short, less sleep)
4. Eating dinner prepared with garlic paste which may have expired (food poisoning could be the culprit)
5. Light breakfast (cereal bar - but I have light breakfast a lot of times!)
6. Evil spirits (c'mon, that's soooo possible :D. In fact, demons saw the opportunity that I am giving my car for service. So I won't have the chance to go home early even if I'm sick. Damn you, you satan!). Isn't 6 considered to be some demon number? ;)
7. GOD (God is angry that I don't pray too often. Please don't punish me, God.). Isn't 7 considered a heavenly number? ;)

Whatever is the cause, I am just waiting for Patil to pick me up so that I go home and relaaxxx. I am fighting back to get back normal. I may be shaken with a few symptoms but have not broken in a fever or anything. Go Tigers! Clemson is ranked 25th now. Oh man! Not again! My mind has started switching topics again! Actually, I was listening to the Cars yesterday and they have some pretty good songs. Oh yea! I need to get my car back from the car dea ...

Back To School

2005-08-28T22:20:00.000-04:00

I was in Clemson this weekend and boy was it a nostalgic trip. From the lush green Bowman field to the lively Clemson Downtown - it was all the same! I met my old friends at Keith street, friday night playing pool. Believe me, I went straight to Keith street the time I reached Clemson. Ofcourse, I passed by Astro, our $2 movie hall (which shows 2-month old movies), Louis Bregger's house (his backyard was our pee-hole :)) and Village Green (desi-hub).

It all started when I thought of meeting up Dsu and Korade in Atlanta. As it so happened, Patil's research-group friend had invited him to Clemson too. Now, with a lil pursuasion, Viraj joined us too. Keyur, my roommate, was ready to come Atlanta/Clemson but last minute "health problems" forced him to stay home. Even I was not sure of making this trip then till Dsu made a final call to invite us in. And since I wanted to meet Dsu's girlfriend about whom I had heard such good things, I wasn't disappointed meeting her. She loves "Seinfeld" and I happily welcomed her in our club. But yea, she complained that all we talk about is food, where to go next and what to eat next :)

Ok, so after around 6 months, Clemson experience did not change. Dsu had more scales in his skin and in a month's time, he may become a new species. No hard feelings Dsu but please use Dove :) Korade was as usual cool dude (man! he's got a job of a research scientist ... lol). Most of the time, Korade was showing off his Acura TL and his driving skills. He's in the making of junior Pamya getting the best out of the most you can think of. Also, Korade takes 2 hours and 6-8 shops to do sticker shopping. "Sticker Shopping" is something like going out to buy a small thing (like a Clemson sticker for car) but landing up with something bigger, like a Clemson title plate :)

Viraj was with his ex-roommate for some time and we caught up with him for playing pool. And yea, his pool skills really needs polishing. Patil was off to meet his research-lab friend and I was at the mercy of Korade, Dsu and Pinky. BTW, Saturday afternoon lunch was at Seasons which is an awesome location with water fountains, lake and golf course behind it. That place is awesomely nostalgic for me since I used to work part-time for Madren catering. Saturday evening, we were hanging out in Village Green outside apt 147 and chit-chatting about usual *stuff*. You girls might call it gossip :)

Sunday morning, we set off for a boat ride. It was our first time for most of us and did not even bother to follow directions. After 2 hours, we realised we were lost somewhere in the lake. Fortunately, Viraj and I have great sense of direction (hahaha... bragging about myself :)) ...) and brought the team back to base. Boating by ourselves was so much fun and the tube ride (a bubble tube tied behind the boat) is awesomo...

I like the idea of visiting my hometown every few months but need all my old pals out there, like a reunion. Pal, Bonda - you guys listening?

FW: Pani Puri

2005-07-21T09:26:00.000-04:00

Anyone from Mumbai would have experienced this at his favorite roadside vendor -

Paani Puri - You are there, in a queue, and the vendor is in a zen-like state of panipuri-distribution, his hands working purely on instinct.

He does multiple things at the same time, juggle preferences - like one customer wants only sweetened pani, one wants more of the filling, another wants more onions , keep a count of how many of the gobblers around him have gobbled how many panipuris.

You are part of the system.

You lift the panipuri from your plate in one fluid motion, taking care not to spill the water on your clothes or your shoes or ( sacrilege!) the ground.

You gulp it down, making sure that you do not breathe when you do so - lest you cough up the puri on your neighbour and cause all the devotees considerable distress.

And you also ensure that you're done with the panipuri that was assigned to you before the next one lands on your plate - otherwise the older one will get soggy, and the newer one will unbalance, and that causes a disturbance in the Force.

And that, my friend, is the Panipuri Experience

(Disclaimer: I did not write this article although I would love to take its credit. It was forwarded to me by a friend.)

Launch of 3.0

2005-07-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Officially launched the new version of my homepage - 3.0. I had started my first release with a plain white interface with orange Flash buttons to match my university theme. For a year, I had many 1.x releases where I changed the logos and the main content of my homepage. After a year, I came out with Welcome2.0. This homepage version was an instant hit among friends and had a cool neon interface. DHTML links and CSS layout were its highlights and lasted for a couple of years. In early 2005, the Welcome2.0 bugs were prominent and the site's popularity gradually went down. Took fresh efforts to come out with 2.x releases but could not complete due to lack of resources.

Finally, inspired by Andy Runton's homepage, I thought of considering a simple and elegant style for my homepage. This new 3.0 is my simple homepage with Antipixel design buttons and a collage of me and my previous releases. Hope you like it :)

Its Wikid!

2005-07-12T14:40:00.000-04:00

Try it out! Wiki is really wicked! You can get all kinds of information from definitions, concepts, guides, tutorials to images, ideas and advice. Its much more than an enclycopedia. Its beyond that! Its based on the idea that anybody can edit and create content for free. You may not realise that this makes it so powerful that over time, all of our knowledge would be in Wiki. Really, I am not kidding.

My company has started using Wiki to manage our Engineering documentation. This approach allows us to edit pages so that we have the RIGHT content all the time. In fact, I am glad a bunch of Computer Science students from my university has started off with a ClemsonWiki project. They are trying to list departments, professors, dorms, housing, dining areas, happening places etc in it. Students share their on-campus snaps on it. I was interested in knowing about Dr. Geist (his teaching is amazing) and I am pretty sure that Patil, my friend, would be interested about his advisor, Dr. Ligon (check out his snap) :)

This unique concept of storing information is one of the best thing to happen on the Web. Google, Firefox and now its Wiki that's catching up.

So start 'Wikiing'!

Life has to move on...

2005-06-27T23:55:00.000-04:00

I got back to my work today and it was a long and busy day. I had piles of work but got it almost done. This week is surely gonna keep me busy (and maybe, over the weekend too). Its good that last weekend's trip was not tiring otherwise the side-effects come over the week.

We had been to Blowing Rock to meet Vishal's "business-friend" over the weekend. The place where we met him was Blowing Rock which is at the border of TN and NC. Its a beautiful place but I found mostly oldies out there. Its actually good for skiing and winter sports and is considered to be in the Appalachian mountain range.

ALso visited a waterfall. Although the falls weren't that great, the view was fantastic. Here's a glimpse of it

In memory of Maa

2005-06-26T18:34:00.000-04:00

Today was a very sad day for me. My grandmother expired yesterday and however hard I try to control myself, my eyes get wet. Maa (that's what we used to call) was suffering with a deadly disease, as suffered by Michael J. Fox and M.Ali. She was an intelligent woman and had great will power. She fought the disease for many years. I think in her final years, she struggled a lot to live and suffocated in that body. Her body shook for hours and she needed a lot of support. Maa even started forgetting her near and dear ones but occasionally, remembered one of us. She would always smile when my brother used to visit her and would keep holding my hands when I met her last summer. She had very strong likes/dislikes and also had few common tastes like me. I know this because I stayed all my childhood along with Maa in a joint family.

Maa was respected by everybody in our society and people occasionally came to visit her. I had hoped that she would get cured some day and lead a normal life but that day never came. Even though she has left us forever, she has been a part of my life and be remembered always. May her soul rest in peace.

Back to Back

2005-06-07T00:43:00.000-04:00

I made a second trip after the memorial day and it was completely unplanned. My cousin Jinal was on an East Coast trip and she was here in Maryland. So on friday evening, I set off for Maryland and dodged the cops all the way to reach in like 4 hours. I had really nice time with her (and some good time with my uncles, aunts :)). I tried to show off my ipod music collection only to realize I deleted them somehow which put me in an embarassing situation (she knows I am good with techie stuff but still made this blunder). Then, I had to listen to her songs which, surprisingly, were mostly desi. I hardly have any desi songs with me. Its time I should get some.

nho on Sunday, I called up a dear friend of mine - Maulik. He told me he could meet me in the evening. We met at a gas station after 4 years! Some nostalgic moment, huh? Naa! we talked for a couple of hours as if we meet each other often and then I headed back home.

You know, the best part of these unplanned trips are no expectations and you'll love whatever you do on such trips. I loved every moment of this trip.

Memorial Day Weekend Trip

2005-06-06T17:09:00.000-04:00

I was returning home last week at this time after a 2-day camping trip at Gatlinburg. Dsu, as usual, was the jungle guide trying to explore new trails (mossy rocks, messy streams and muddy paths). In the process, I broke my sunglasses and Dsu fell flat on his back (that brought him to his senses). Kris came along with his childhood (or was it undergrad?) friend and I came along with Viraj and my roommate. You can visit here for the snaps. We planned for bungee jumping only to realise Gatlinburg has like, 20-feet jumps which was a complete turnoff. We thought of going for go-kart racing but thought it was tooo childish and decided to play mini-golf :) It was a tiring game! :D Actually, there was lot of traffic behind us and we had to hurry up our game. I would also count this as one of my excuses of not winning the tournament ;) Since I lost my sunglasses, everyone felt bad for me and took me to an Optics shop. They all bought a pair except me!

This trip brought something new for me - Wine-tasting! Inspired by the movie Sideways, I would love to taste more wines now. And yea, I puked for the first time after drinking (not wine, silly!). That's the one thing I would like to forget from this trip.

"Not enough Mana!"

2005-05-22T18:23:00.000-04:00

Where do Mana, strength, dexterity, magic, weapons and skills come into picture? In video games! I love to play these games occasionally. Since I do not have a PS2/Xbox, I play them on my PC. For a few years, I had been playing only the Need for Speed racing series but I have jumped to a different game now - Diablo II. I am all hooked up to this game these days and just want to finish it. Ofcourse, I use cheats and trainers so that I do not "die" if some enemy hits me and it also helps me finish off the game earlier. I love the idea of playing "God mode" even though it is criticized by avid gamers. I think its a good work-around for people like me who don't have sufficient patience and time to keep playing the game the sincere way. The next in line are Populous: The Beginning (Fantastic concept for a strategy game) and GTA series.

At The Beach

2005-05-21T18:25:00.000-04:00

@ Wilmington

Nature's beauty

2005-05-20T21:32:00.000-04:00

A beautiful Rainbow after a very dull, wet day. As seen from my apartment on 3rd floor

Scratched that itch!

2005-05-17T22:22:00.000-04:00

Everybody knows how annoying spam could be! I even stopped using Hotmail for the simple reason that I started getting more spam in my Inbox than the real emails. Ofcourse, it became really slow service too! And even Bulk folder seemed helpless!

Now, has anyone ever got junk emails that were automatically subscribed to you for some newsletter service? I hate it when they do that! I had bought a gamepad from Overstock.com and they kept sending me a newsletter everyday. I unsubscribed to their newsletters about a dozen times but it kept coming. I think its about time I take some action.

About 3 months back, I had made some email enquiries for new car price quote. I keep getting their email newsletters even now. I clearly remember requesting them to please remove me from their list. No reply and the mails kept coming! Today, I got really irritated by their mail but instead of a rough reply, I thought of a better reply:

"UNSUBSCRIBE. I don't need any more updates as i have moved out of state to Hawaii! Thanks"

I hope they don't have any branch in Hawaii. If so, this should do the trick!

Sting Journalism and its misuse

2005-05-03T00:14:00.000-04:00

Recently, there was this "exposure" of Shakti Kapoor (aka Goga, Mogambo ka Bhatija :D) on a b-grade news channel. Shakti asked for "favor" from a girl who wanted to be an actress. The channel staged the whole thing and caught Shakti in the act. What they did was helped his wife find out that he was cheating on her. Shakti is neither a politician nor a government employee. He neither works for secret services nor does he work with public affairs. So, why the focus on him by this news channel? Just a stupid entertainment stunt by a naive news channel! My belief is they misused technology and behaved in a childish manner. They have no right to invade privacy of this person. I completely agree with Anil Thakraney on this issue. Read his article.

Glimpse of California

2005-04-03T00:11:00.000-05:00

Scenic Sunnyvale With Pal and Myself

With Pal in Silicon Valley

they are back!

2005-03-09T23:03:00.000-05:00

Potholes! Lots of potholes and much more dodging with them! I face them after roughly two and a half years. Ofcourse, I had a brief period of their encounter last summer but they are back again to haunt me forever. I thought I would never find them in the States but I guess I was wrong. And yes, there are differences between potholes from, back on the streets of Mumbai, to the curvy roads of Durham-Morrisville. Here, the potholes are much deeper but smaller, ruin your car suspension by those deep impacts and a big pain in the ass. Back in Mumbai, the potholes were larger (so you basically can't avoid them), shallower and since the Indian cars were not comfy anyway, so it did not much matter what your car is going through.

There is a protocol that car owners follow for avoiding potholes. People are very cooperative out here. If you are following a new car, the driver will take all the steps to avoid his car going over a pothole. So, follow his footsteps! If he diverts a little left, you are approaching the danger zone and you better follow the leader! On the other hand, if you are behind an old car, its a little tricky. First, you need to figure out who's the driver? Is he the age of your grandpa? Again, better follow him. Or, is he professional, office-going person? Better follow him too! But if the driver is a female, or anyone on cell phone, or a punk-kid, I suggest do not follow him blindly. He may take you right into the middle of the crater. And lastly, if you are the leader, better take everyone through hell! ;-) Just kidding! Take last minute dodging and avoid yourself through hell :)

Tandoor Munching

2005-02-18T00:18:00.000-05:00

For the past two and a half years, I was deprived of my right to eat at Indian restaurants for the only reason that there weren't any desi restaurants in my locality. Now that I have access to half a dozen desi restaurants, my aim is to make up for the 2 years in one week. This would definitely upset my stomach and eventually, feel a "spicy curry" punch down my intestines. But as long it satisfies my cravings, I would keep munching tandoori khaana :)

An iCar please!

2005-02-17T01:19:00.000-05:00

"Right? Or left?"
"Argh! I better go right!"
"Oops! Wrong direction!"
"I told you to take the left from there"
"Yea! Yea!"

That's me murmuring while trying to find my way back home. I have lost my way almost every time while trying to reach home this week. Since I have just moved from Clemson, a tiny town in SC, I have been puzzled by the twisty highways of Raleigh area. What I really need is an accurate GPS navigator which can guide me and tons of music from my collection so that even if I get lost, I can still listen to some good music instead of the stupid talk shows on radio. Apple, help me out! ;)

Coming Back to Life

2005-02-04T03:43:00.000-05:00

I lost my touch.
I think so much,
still find no luck.
I used to write
a blog, I found right.
Now I need to be bright
and sharp like the edge of a knife.
Yes, I am coming back to life.

Unplugged

2004-10-06T19:23:00.000-04:00

Two days of working on my research and finally when it looked like it would just glide, I face something really unexpected. Known as Obstacles, they can be really, really frustrating. I was just about to test my final version of my experiment when suddenly, I receive a system message saying that all the machines are going down for some updating patches. I thought, "Here I am, with a working piece of code and this system does this shit now. Great!". So, I wait for an hour. Systems reboot and I set everything up for my experiment. Guess what? Scripts doesn't work. The updates did something to the environment which screwed up my runs. So now what do I do? Check for alternatives. Let's search on Google. Opened browser and that shit shows me the annoying 'page cannot be displayed' page. "Aren't you showing me a p-a-g-e? Then, WTF. Say, you can't show me the page I want". So, finally here I am, sitting offline, writing my blog in a notepad (eventually, I'll copy-paste so that you can read it).

I tried my hands on my experiment again. I just found out something kinda embarassing! :) Should I share it here? Lolz. Oh well! What the Heck!. I forgot to make an executable for my program :D ... :)) (laughing at me, stupid!). No wonder the scripts could not find the file to run. Now, even though I could run my servers, the network is down and there is not point wasting time. I mean I could wait for everything to get online or go home and sleep. Latter sounds better :)

Walkman

2004-09-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

Look out for a man age 30+, walking around Clemson campus and downtown in his grey/white tshirt and blue denims! I call him the Walk-man. Blonde hair, head up and his big tummy hanging down, I have always seen him walking at a steady place. Saw him at different times of the day and at different places (Brackett Hall, Outside Riggs, Downtown, Papa John's, US123 signal). So far, Walk-man count is around 8-9 (Obviously, I don't know the exact number cuz I never knew he'd be walking around Clemson all the time.)
Walkman fact: His walking speed - roughly around 6-7 mph cuz he reached Papa John's from Sikes Hall in 10 minutes and that would be 1.1 miles of distance (Yahoo maps ;) ). Hehe, I did not follow him. I was waiting for my ride at Sikes and when I reached Papas I saw Walkman pass me by.

Clemson's Eleven

2004-09-29T23:52:00.000-04:00

Last week, 10 Clemson students were found on Vtech campus in nice formals (a couple of them in suits!). They were in fact, even spotted in the Career Fair at Vtech. What the Hokies are wondering is how did they enter the Career Fair? Guards say all 10 had the security tag on each of them. A couple of them also got interview calls from companies from the career fair. Well, I call them 'Clemson's Eleven'. I am fortunate to be part of that 11. Hehe, btw, the 11th is actually from Vtech. He is, I would say, the informer. In the snap below, we were heading towards VA. You could actually see my hair in it :P

To Vtech!!!

P.S. Real purpose of this blog: To test whether Hello.com software rocks or sucks! It took me few minutes to understand Hello software but I figured it out eventually. I say it rocks and you would see more picture stories in my blogs in the future. --v

mv Think\ Nothing V.B

2004-09-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

Yup. Got bored with my first title within the first seven months on Blogger. I have officially changed it now to something professional :) Lol, the real reason is that my blog got googled a few weeks back but my name was no where on the blog; so, changed the blog title to my name. Hehe. Looks lot more professional, creative and personal.

P.S. My title reflects something I have been working in for the past two months - Unix shells and shell scripts ....

Update: Paladin took over this blog now! muhahahahaaw

'B'ig Day

2004-09-11T18:55:00.000-04:00

Today was just another normal day for me until my friends, my family made me realise that I am getting old. Its my birthday today. Silver Jubilee! I know they are all concerned about me of what I should be doing after living off 25 years of my life. Should I be partying more or should I be more matured? More dynamic? More happy? More Studious (That is no way gonna happen!)? Or more healthier? Or settle down in life? Whatever they want from me, I'll give a try.

Let me walk you through my big day. I kept pretty much busy myself with job and phone calls today. My manager fired me a zillion times, "Vipul, Get off the phone! Get back to work!", she was just kidding. And my supervisor was puzzled while I was talking in my mother tongue with my brother. What shit is this kid talking? Of the 9 hours I worked today, I think I was on phone for 3 hours. I have a Clemson game to watch tonite and I might just relax off my day with some beer.

Vipul.B

FEAR me!!!

2004-09-09T16:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had been to a new Walmart which is very close to our home. The very reason we went there was to save time (and the gas money!) but little did I know that my credit card would become my own enemy.

A couple of days back, I received a new credit card from Bank of America (BoA) with some great perks (0% APR, mini keychain card etc). I activated that very night and kept it in my wallet as my primary card. I thought it would be great if I start using from day 1. I took it out at Walmart to pay my bill. Knight Rider theme was running in background. Cam and I were happy that we finished our grocery early and only the payment is left. That's when the trouble started. The Walmart cashier got a white slip. Said, "His identity needs to be checked, call us!" She immediately called her manager. The manager looked at me with some suspicion. She told me to wait with our cart at the cashier while she discusses about my card with BoA. I offered her my other credit card but I think that led to further suspicion cuz they thought I might have stolen the BoA card. Waited for 5 minutes. Then, BoA wanted to talk with me. They put me on with two departments, one of them was their security department. That female on the phone asked me everything from my SSN to phone number, address and even asked silly questions like are you shopping at walmart, how long do you have this card with you, is your bill $XXX.XX? They were actually doing security check more than what they do at the airport! LOL! It was actually funny but you know what I should have done. I should have doubted their identity. I should have told them why should I believe that they are BoA. They may be fraud. Anyways, if anyone else troubles me like this, they are going to face the consequences. I understand it was for my security but then, what the Walmart people did was way beyond my imagination.

I went to the cashier and signed on their digital pad. The cashier asked for my identity. Again? I mean didn't I just proved on phone that I am the person using this card? Then, after checking my identity, they asked me to sign on another receipt. I was out of my mind. Cam was getting frustrated. After that, she looked kind of satisfied. I wasn't. If this is for my protection, I don't need the protection. This is not protection; they were simply afraid of me. I remembered Bowling for Columbine. Thank god they didn't put guns on my face. Hehe. That would be interesting. I am just kidding but I think some measures are exaggerated and needs to be changed. Anyways, I am glad I came out innocent :)

Believe It or Not

2004-08-21T01:40:00.000-04:00

Generally I do not like bringing issue of having faith in God out in the public. It is a personal thing. Either one has faith in God or not. I am in the former group who believes in God but do not create lot of publicity about it. But today's incident strengthens my belief though it may still be considered luck by others.

I was working for my part-time job today with a supervisor and she did nothing but count her tip money at the bar. On the other hand, I was working my a** out to make sure the function runs smoothly. By the end of the function, I was thinking, "if she is gonna keep all that tip money for not doing anything while I worked so hard for this function, it would be a big injustice done to a person." I continued my work and just as the host was leaving, he left 100 bucks with my supervisor and made sure i got 50% out of it. I could not believe it. I mean, nobody generally does that. But he was happy the event went well. So, he left out 50 bucks for me :) I have a sense of satisfaction that I got what I deserved. Luck can't give you that; God can. Period.

How to waste 20 minutes with Sunil Dsouza ?

2004-06-23T22:04:00.000-04:00

This is a true incident and note that I took the decision to follow him. The rest - he has nicely taken care off :)
5:00pm: Martin Computer lab closes down. Followed SD.
5:05pm: Went to the Library but it was summer schedule and was already closed. So, headed to SD's department. Why? Silly! It's closer from out there! Actually, SD wanted to grab his Prof's camcorder.
5:10pm: Got into Rigg's Elevator. Takes about a minute to open/close the doors and 3 minutes to reach 3rd floor.
5:15pm: Reached his office. Suddenly, he gets a thought, "Why do we need a camcorder anyway?".
5:20pm: Left Riggs.

Beeshness

2004-06-16T13:52:00.000-04:00

One of my childhood hobbies was running fake business. I would have a company with different divisions and each would handle a part of the activities I was involved in. Since, as a child, I was mostly involved with sports and games, most of my company's division was in sports. The best part about the business I liked was giving names to the company's divisions. For cricket, it was ViCri and for music it was Vi Music. I used to get sponsors for these too. They were nothing but the pens, stationary, electronics and commercials I got influenced from.

I guess sometime in my life, I'll be running a business for real. Willing to be partners with friends. Like Ankur. He can be a good business partner as he defeated the Mysore-Shetty in Monopoly :) or I could take the Mysore-Shetty as my partner. Shettys are a lucky lot. Or I have the power-hungry DSouza, the great politician Pamya or Rutvij the gujjubhai.

Am just wondering of a company with all these great people =))

The Trip - Part 3

2004-05-25T17:38:00.000-04:00

All good things come to end and so did my trip. The return trip felt longer, the food was pathetic in the flight, the neighbors too and on top of all this, both my bags were opened on Mumbai Airport and Detroit Airport. I guess there were some security threats that day which led them to search people's bags randomly. One advice - don't wear a tshirt with a bacardi bottle printed right in the middle. That's provoking!

The Trip - Part 2

2004-05-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

All went well so far and am enjoying my short 3-week trip in mumbai. I look back at my preparations and find that even with a few hiccups, like the Findley phenomenon or the Newegg mixup, the trip planning was total success. The feeling after I landed in Mumbai - A Complete Desi Experience!

- the plane did not get the right terminal to park. So, it took a round and finally parked at the right terminal(I guess!).
- once on the airport, I did not feel as if the Airport A/C was even working
- I could not spot the "ugly" water fountain which pal n dsouza told me about. Probably, I'd look for it during my return trip.
- a junior officer was helping a "madam" find her luggage. I figured out she must be so-and-so's wife getting a v.i.p. treatment.
- my family got a nice (and shocking) surprise as I showed up without letting them know that I was coming.

[Posted in IST]

The Trip - Part 1

2004-04-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

I am actually writing this on the 16th. I finished my job early today and am sitting in Lee Hall making plans for my big trip to aamchi mumbai. Before I even make plans of what I'd do in mumbai, I have a few things on mind currently.
I have yet to get the tickets in my hand;
I have to do my shopping;
I am waiting for my digicam I ordered online;
I have complete 2 projects before next Friday;
I have to prepare for my exams after the projects are done;
I need to show my final research work to my prof;
I need to pack stuff;
I need to get all the official paperwork ready for the trip;
I need to make sure my parents do not know anything about this trip - its a surprise for them;
I have to make sure my brother comes to pick me up at the right time;
And I have to make sure I reach the airport on time and don't miss the flight :)

All this in 2 weeks - makes it even more exciting!

Spring Break

2004-03-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

...

It was around 3000 ft. above sea-level. I could see the lake from the top. I knew we were quite high in the mountains. We were catching our breath after a long run downhill. We waited and waited. Our fifth member was nowhere in sight. I thought we lost him. Deep in the forest. Forests of the Slaughter Mountains. We shouted out "Vishal ! Vishal !" for 30 long secs but no response.

At the spot where we stopped, Sunil noticed an old, burnt camping fireground. No one was around. Not even the bears. Ankur was looking at an old, wooden board that was showing directions. I was looking at the map to help Ankur out. Suddenly, Ashwin calls us. He thought he saw something. He spotted Patil.

On a cold and sunny afternoon, we had gone out to trek a 12 mile Coosa Backcountry trail in the Vogel State Park. The park was beautiful with a lake and some activity spots. There was a minigolf course, a volleyball sand pit and some camping sites. We had camped at the base the previous day. We covered around 8miles of the trail from the wolfpen point to slaughter mountain area.

At around 2pm, we had reached a camping area on top of slaughter mountain. Patil had been walking behind and was a little late coming down to that point. Ankur and I were checking the map and the directions. After Ashwin saw Patil, we started unpacking and had a cold canned lunch.

The camping trip was amazing. Especially, the night we camped. It was fun and adventurous but I was hoping for some more excitement like coming across a bear, or a snake. Overall, a good spring break.

Worst than being drunk !

2004-03-09T23:52:00.000-05:00

(edited)

Its 9:44 am now... and after a night-out, I really don't know how long I would take to finish this post ... its really tough to write when you are sleepy but after a night out, you really don't know what is being typed on screen. Subconsiously, I may be awake; the screen looks ok to me.... no spelling mistakes, no blurry images and no heavy stomach. but actually, there may be grammatical mistakes and I may feel they are right; I can see clearly though can't find silly mistakes and ... I am hungry! I feel high even without drinking. I did not even enjoy the night-out ... I was busy preparing a project document. Half the time, I slept. Other half I stared at the document. But still, it works! By morning, I am ready with my project. Now, I just need to add a para or so and am ready to submit. Only problem now is I have to sit for the 12:25pm class. That sucks!

P.S. Its an edited version. I am posting it a day late as I was short of a couple of lines for the blog.

Night-out: Its like a coin

2004-03-09T23:24:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went home at 1pm. Generally, thats the time I come to the University. It was because of a night-out. A night-out to study.

Last friday, I went to sleep at 5am. There was a party at my place till 3am. Another night-out. To party.

Both of these night-outs are like the two sides of a coin - they can never occur together but they are conceptually the same. You enjoy partying and have fun but you need to finish assignments and complete the coursework. Both are essential and is a part of life. However hard you try to avoid night-outs, you land up with at least one in either way.

MAD-RUN

2004-03-05T00:05:00.000-05:00

...

Madren Catering Center - There is a lovely bunch of people working out there. I happen to know each one of them very closely now (after sweating my a** for 8 months out there). Take for instance Christy. She is the manager out there. I am mostly scheduled with her and she is really sweet. As soon as I reach there, she'll put me to work. Isn't that wonderful ? And who can forget Sue ? Even if I am not working with her, she is always ready to give you work. I wonder whether she is going over my humble face or she thinks I am going to be one of her bakras. Whatever, I always avoid her even when I am with her.

Then there is the team of Michael and company. They only do two things. Eat and talk. Work? Oh ya, they do in between sometimes. Then there is Ginger the head manager; looks exactly like a piece of ginger. Anyways, when I tell her I can work for 20 hours she schedules me only for 10 hours and when I told her to officially reduce to 10 hours, she now schedules me for 5 hours. Isn't she cute ?

And finally is my dear Berna, the other manager. She thinks she is the smartest person in the world. Maybe. But she is a very good actor, especially when her function becomes a flop, the look on her face is a scene worth watching.

We have a few more - the desis, the better lot! They are helpful, do most of the work and keep things going on.

That's the lovely Madren. The place where I work part-time.

An Amazing Week

2004-02-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

...

Monday: Saw the movie Torque.
company: Sunil, Ankur.

Tuesday: Ate pizzas at Backstreet, Downtown and played pool.
company: Sunil, Vikram

Wednesday: Went to see movie Along Came Polly but reached late (... I told everyone to come at 9:30 instead of 9:00 :D); so rented a movie and watched at home.
Movie - Jodi No. 1.
company: Ankur, Vishal Patil, Pradeep, Abhijeet.

Thursday: Snowfall. I woke up at 8:30 (my earliest time to get up this semester) to see my frontyard covered with snow.
By 11, Shanbhag and I were taking pictures of snow covered university, making snowman and playing snowfight.
By 1, others joined in for a bigger snowfight.
By 2, playing pool at Peppinos.
At 4, drinking coffee and having hashbrowns for more than an hour or so.
At 6, watching Barbershop the movie.
At 9, we were dancing the night away at Ankur's place.
At 10, finished eating a delicious meal made by Pradeep and Patil watching the movie L.A. Confidential.
company: Ankur, Abhijeet, Sunil, Pradeep, Patil, Shanbhag.

Friday: Destination TigerTownTravern, Downtown (and later, Overtime). Met the whole gang out there.
company: Ankur, Abhijeet, Anup, Inder, Sunil, Pramod, PJ, Patil, Shanbhag, Rohit, Viky

Saturday: :( (No fun, just work !)

Sunday: Went for trekking at White Water Falls.
company: Ankur, Sunil, Sumera, Jitesh, Rohit, Pradeep

(5+5) is

2004-02-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

I have decided never to talk about my work, research or projects on my blog. I mean they are the stuff you want to take a break from and here you are discussing them too. I can talk about the incidents that may have happened during class/research/project but not ABOUT them.

Talking about academics, 5+5 is ............... Ten-is (- means negative ... hehe .... this was a sadela PJ, I know). Now, I love playing Tennis but I was brought down to reality when I realised I don't play good. I play worse. My serves are slow and mostly double faults and I don't have enough stamina. I could back down but HELL NO!!! I bought a tennis racket already and I am going to make sure that it gets its right to play. My racket will be my inspiration until I really break it down in utter frustration. I am in complete control over myself but unfortunately not on the tennis ball. I need a player who is worse than me to make sure I win at least one set and boost my confidence. Newbies, anyone for challenge ? :)

Chinku'd

2004-02-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

...

Chinaman - Hangout place in Matunga
Crowd: Ruia College, Podar College and Vesit's Cell Group

Editied version of a review posted on a website www.mouthshut.com

Interiors: Less space, Congestion.
Well, good for people who come with chics. Why do you its such a popular hangout place?

Kitchen:(3 cooks) Kitchen area is very dirty. Chopped vegetables brought in dirty gunny bags. Half the tiles damaged vegetables and rice kept open.
Well, we do need some junk in our body. How else can you survive in Mumbai?

Service: Waiters attend customers only when they are called several times.
Cuz this place is always crowded ...

Water served only when asked.
Who drinks water anyways ?

Waiters dip their fingers while serving it.
Haha ... Serves you right !

Only 1 menu card given “per table” irrespective number of customers.
Menu card? Don't you have your favorites?

Order taken after 7 minutes.
Actually, its 16 minutes.

Cold drinks served without straw.
C'mon, you wanna be "happening", just wipe the mouth of the bottle and drink the cola.

Bang the dishes in the middle of the table instead of serving it to the person who has ordered it.
Thats right. Haven't you seen students eating? Share or get nothing :-)

No water in the wash basin. Drinking water glasses offered for hand wash.
Use your fork and spoon. No need of washing hands then.

Wrong order given and waiters refuse to take it back (in our case the owner got the order replaced after we pleaded).
Moral: Be in good terms with the owner. Patao him, yaar.

Boiled chicken directly put in to a vegetarian dish as a replacement order after complaint. Cockroaches on the walls next to tables.
Big deal !

They have frequent fights with there customers due to wrong orders and other reasons (incident of Rs. 50 and Rs. 100), as a result they have lost many customers.
Ya, with customers like you :P

Priceless

2004-02-20T15:36:00.000-05:00

... with a twist !

Attending classes in the week: 10 hours

Completing assignments, homework and projects in a week: 40 hours

Working on-campus for a part-time job: 10 hours

Travelling to the University using the local CAT bus: 5*4*20 mins/trip ..... 7 hours

Playing tennis, cricket or exercising: 10 hours

Spending the weekend at your friends' place having beer: Timeless !!!

Chinku Khayega (Eat Chinese) ?

2004-02-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

...

Eating chinese in US and in India is totally different; we use spoons or maybe, if you are lucky, forks in India but in US, its with the fork or chopsticks. Big food chains handle Chinese restaurants in the US but in India, the stalls (bakdewala) makes the best. Dirt cheap rates at the stall .... prices in cents but the quality was also same. Our motto - take in the regular doses of this junk; that saves you from getting infected though. And trust me, it works ! I haven't had proper Chinese meal for a long time now. There's a grocery store nearby who sells frozen chinese food. Tried there once but it doesn't even taste like the roadside junk. I hope to go to Anderson someday and try out Chinese at Grand China - heard they r good.

And why did I come up with this topic ? Because. Chinese is one of my favorite food; a chinese joint (Chinaman) used to be our favorite past-time during my undergraduate studies; and I used to get Free home delivery anytime from my neighborhood Punjabi Restaurant - and trust me, they were goooood with Chinese.

Aajkal ki taaza khabare

2004-02-13T20:01:00.000-05:00

...

aajkal aakaal ne apna dhyan kissi aur disha mein kar diya hai. Hamare khaas sutro ke anusaar aakaal ne apne ilake mein khaane ki har cheej ko saaf karke rakha hai. sutro ka yeh bhi maanana hai ki wo ab likhai ki samagri ko nishana banaya hai. Kal tak jab aakal dikhai deta tha to khaana gayab hota tha; abto pen, pencil bhi gayab hone lagi hai. aaj hamne pramod se interview liya tha to unhone bhi kaha ki unki pen gayab ho gayi hai. Hamare paas thos saboot nahi hai ki iske peeche aakaal ka haath ho. Lekin lagta hai aakaal ne yeh maha-attack shuru kia hai ...... aur abhi abhi hame khabar milli hai ki jardan ki kissi ek lab mein aakaal ne pen shodhan chalu ki hai ....... agar aisa hi chalte raha, to clemson ko aakalistan ka naam dena padega .....

Nothingology

2004-02-06T20:33:00.000-05:00

"Nothing! Absolutely Nothing!" "And you think it will work?" "Ofcourse, everybody makes on something, why not make on nothing?" "You know, maybe you are right. Lets make on nothing."
- From the hit comedy 'Seinfeld' (one of my favorites)

And thats what I feel my blogs are going to be. About Nothing.