Granny in my dreams

Last night I got a very very wierd dream. Maybe its a culmination of this regret which I have deep down about not being there with granny when she breathed her last. I remembered the dream perfectly when I woke up in the morning. In fact, it was the dream that woke me up from my deep slumber. Now, I don't remember the dream all that well, but still I'll try my best to describe it here.

Just to give a background, my paternal grand-mother (click here for more details) died a year-and-a-half or so back. If I'm not wrong, I think the date was 18th April 2007. During that time, I was in the US and I really really REALLY felt bad about not being here to see her one last time.

Anyways, back to the dream...

Apparently, I was travelling from somewhere and coming back home and was sitting at my seat. I think it was a flight and I saw this lady looking exactly like my granny. Broad forehead, greyish black hair braided and neatly combed back with a middle parting. Wrinkles around the neck, but the face surprisingly devoid of any wrinkles. A couple of gold jewelery around her neck one having a couple of tiger nails. Wearing big round glasses. I also noticed that she was dressed EXACTLY like my granny. She was wearing a dark blue blouse and a blue floral night-gown with a round lacy neck.

At first I was completely flummoxed thinking how can it be. I was scared. Terrified to be precise. I kept looking at her and she kept looking back at me. Smiling almost exactly like the way my granny did. With each glance, my fear compounded. With each smile I started getting restless. It was as if she knew me always. It was as if she was beckoning me to come over towards her and talk to her. I was trembling.

I mustered some courage and then started to walk towards her. She was still smiling, looking at me with un-wavering gaze. Each step I took towards her, her smile grew wider and wider. I extended my hand to touch her and suddenly, I saw that the flight cracked open, exactly at the place where she was seated. I saw the lady clinging on to the edge of the crack, screaming and shouting loudly.

I bent down, outstretched my hand, shouted at the top of my voice and told her to make an effort to catch my hand. She tried to reach out and catch my hand. Suddenly in the process, she lost her grip and started to fall down. I screamed at the top of lungs, calling out to granny, but she just was looking at me and although she was falling, her smile never stopped.

I turned around unable to see or comprehend what was happening, or why it was happening. I knelt down banged my head on the floor, covered my face with my hands and just could not stop crying. No...not crying...I was wailing. I was totally devastated. I was inconsolable.

And suddenly, I just woke up. I was sweating profusely. Slowly, I raised my hand and felt my eyes. I had expected them to be damp, but they were absolutely dry. I could hear my heart pounding like a bullet train. Slowly I woke up sat down at the edge of my bed, gathered my thoughts, took a deep breath and started walking towards the wash-basin to start off my daily chores.

My MBTI - ISFP

The other day my friend LIB was talking about his personality trait and about MBTI (Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator). It got me thinking and eventually lead me to google it. I wasnt able to remember it perfectly but proper searching eventually led me to it.

Its fascinating as to how a series of YES / NO questions can actually eventually determine your personality trait. So whats my personality trait? Before that, I'd like to say - if anyone would like to take the test please click here. Click on the "DO IT" button on the "Jung Typology Test" side of the page.

Here's the result of my test.




So there it is....I am a ISFP (Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Perceiving) person.

And my type analysis as given by typelogic.com is ...

ISFPs live in the here and now. Their impulses yearn to be free, and are often loosed when others least expect it. The ISFP who continually represses these impulses feels 'dead inside' and may eventually cut and run. (One ISFP friend has become nonambulatory within the past few years. He will still, on impulse, leave home in the middle of the night and go to Las Vegas or wherever, regardless of the difficulties of his physical condition.)
I can so easily identify myself with this

ISFPs may be quite charming and ingratiating on first acquaintance, flowing with compliments which may (or may not) be deserved. On other occasions, the same individual may be aloof and detached. Some ISFP males are fiercely competitive, especially in sport or table games, and may have great difficulty losing. This competitive nature, also seen in other SP types, sometimes fosters 'lucky,' 'gut' feelings and a willingness to take risks.
I rely on my gut feeling a lot

For more information, read here...

And finally my analysis is....



I perfectly agree with this analysis. This is what I am.

Lazy Intelligent Baldy

Reposting this...

This post of mine is dedicated to an awesome friend. Someone whom I'd like to call LIB (Lazy, Intelligent, Baldy)

Why I'm calling him LIB?? Because thats his personality. It defines him totally, completely. He is each of these words personified. And why am I posting about him today here?? Because he's recently got a job after a hiatus of 2 years. This guy dared to quit his job of 6 years for good, started studying for MBA. Gave CAT, got about 94 percentile. Got into a decent MBA college and then finally got placed. That too at a young age of 29 when people are already married and start having kids. Now that guts for you.

I first met him 11 and a half years ago in my engineering college. I still remember the first day I met him. He and I were in this classroom waiting for lectures to begin and the suddenly, the seniors barged in and started ragging. One of the things they told us to do was to do a catwalk. I did an awful impersonation of a ramp model and was booed by all seniors and this guy was shaking his butt like as if he'd always been a ramp model

The next stint of my interaction with him was when I had this crush (more on this later) on this gal in college. He used to gate-crash into us each time I was alone with this female. And he made me believe that he liked this gal and I kinda put a full stop to everything. I always get nervous when something like this happens. I feel extremely vulnerable and insecure when somebody reads my thoughts without me telling them and I feel that anyone can rip me apart leaving me helpless. Anyways, back to the post...

Despite all this we became good friends and I've always considered him as a very very special friend. Someone for whom I can do anything. I've borne quite a lot of his puns and been at the receiving end of many of his jokes, yet I value him more than anyone else. After his CAT, I accompanied him to each and every B-School interview call, except one (that was IIT). He couldnt tie a tie knot properly and I used to tie it for him.

For his last b-school interview, we (me and another friend) went to his place at night, slept there till 3:00 am and then drove all the way from Bombay to Pune, dropped him off at Symbi, spent 3 hours just waiting for him and then drove back all the way. Ultimately it so happened that, that was the only interview which he cleared and got selected. And we were able to attend my other friend's wedding in peace.

He's got unbelievable brain, amazing intellect. He's absolutely ruthless with words and his humor. At the same time he's incredibly lazy. He's so addicted to TV that the day of his IIT b-school interview he was supposed to prepare his SOP (statement-of-purpose) and he didnt because he was watching the Oscars on TV and asked our another friend to do it for him. If his favourite show's on TV, he doesnt even pick up our phone calls. On the other hand, he's always ready to meet us and spend some time with us.

He's a complete spend-thrift, a foodie. At the same time after our meets, when I offer to drop him home (he stays further beyond than I do), he refuses the offer and prefers to go in a rickshaw. He'd christened my car "CHINDI-Ca" (I have a TATA Indica) and I used to get really mad at him for this and now he openly admits to missing me and my car. He's got great philosophy about friendship and he says its completely give and take and it shouldnt be one-sided.

I am so very lucky to have him as a friend and I just cant express in words my admiration for him. I wrote him a testimonial in Orkut and he made a statement to one of our other friends, you cant express in words what someone actually means to you. And that is so very true.

Although I try my best, I just cant express in words what you mean to me. My dear baldy friend!

Not much Ado about Something

Today was a landmark day in the 30 year history of Mr. Ramalingam G a.k.a Vivek. Here's what happened.

I was in the midst of serious work. I was preparing for a client meeting involving very senior delegates and my mom calls me up. I answered the phone and she asked me if I had some time to talk. I said yes inspite of the fact that I was in the middle of something. I dunno why I said yes, because normally whenever I'm deep in work, I always tell mom or dad or anyone that I'll call back later. But today I said yes.

I could feel a tinge of elation in mom's tone. So here she goes about this marriage alliance which she found on some matrimony site and how the next month in the Tamil calender is not an auspicious month so she wanted to go and visit the family. I said, "Mom-I'm busy I dont think I can make it because of the client meeting coming up but nonetheless I'll give you call when I'm free to talk".

Now, fortunately or unfortunately, my work today got over early and I was free by 07:00 PM. So, being the dutiful son that I am, :-)) I called up mom and asked her where she is. She said she's on her way to meet this family and dad's also coming. She started trying to convince me also to come and tells me about how the bloody "HORRORSCOPE" has matched very well and of all the different "Yog" and blah blah blah.

I always literally close my ears whenever mom starts yapping away to oblivion about damn "HORRORSCOPES" and planets influencing peoples' behaviour and life and most irritatingly about future. I just dont believe in them. I just cannot believe how a planet billions of miles away can influence an abstract entity like the future of ones' life. Anyways I'm digressing from my post.

So she's trying to convince me and out of sheer frustration from listening to her rant, I relented to her emotional blackmail. I agreed to go and visit the family. All through my drive I was thinking about my decision. Brooding about how to conduct myself in front of a family who would be watching or probably scrutinizing each and every one of my move, every action, every response, every statement that I make. I will be "evaluated" carefully at every step to see whether I am "suitable" or not.

And frankly, I can now perfectly understand what goes through the mind of nearly every "eligible" girl in India when she is subject to such an ordeal.

I decided to approach this as a visit to a family friend. I decided to NOT think about the "real" nature of visit. Not that the visit was meant to be that, it was just a friendly casual meet between two families, but I couldnt help but think about the underlying motive which was only subtly expressed. Anyways, I decided to conduct myself in a very casual and friendly way.

Something all the more surprising is the near total lack of traffic that day and believe it or not, I completed the journey between Powai and Andheri in a span of 35 minutes. Which considering peak hour traffic and bad east-west connection roads is a phenomenal achievement.

SO I met mom and dad and then together we proceeded to meet this family. We entered their house and they were extremely friendly and completely contrary to my thinking of me being "evaluated". I soon relaxed and got introduced to the family members. The whole talk proceeded in a very casual manner.

To be very honest, there were a couple of instances when the "elders" started to talk among themselves and I felt left out, but during some of those times, the girl's mom came to the "rescue" of my silence. And I found that quite interesting. The girl's mom showed me the girls' pictures and I must admit she's definitely pretty.

Mom and dad were talking about how the HORRORSCOPES matched and times when they lived in Matunga and all typical "elders" talk, while I was talking about my educational background, my work, my career focus change from deliveries to business development, about my movie interests, about my new flat in Powai, all these things.

Anyways, at the end of it all, I guess this was an ice-breaker for me of sorts. Until now, I was pretty closed about "settling down" and I even told this other girl I met - that I'm not ready for taking the plunge yet. But somehow this visit opened me up to atleast acknowledging the idea that I might have to "settle down" eventually.

UPDATE (11/07): If anyone else is reading this please understand that whatever is mentioned here are just my thoughts and views and perceptions and mine alone and what went through my mind. Please donot misunderstand the post because it does NOT have a bearing on anyone else.

Narrow Domestic Walls...

Today, I was just browsing through my blogger friends' blogs and I came across a wonderful poem posted here about yin and yang which set my mind whirring. One thing led to another and yet another until I remembered Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali. I'm quoting it here.


Mind Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.


This used to be my Assembly Prayer in school. Everyday in the afternoon, as soon as we reached school, we were made to stand in the school assembly grounds and "sing" a Hindi Prayer, followed by the above poem from Gitanjali and then made to recite the pledge. I used to think it was an ordeal undergoing all this every single day of school and I used to recite it without ever trying to understand the meaning of it.

And then sometime last year, when I was in the US, I visited my friends in Milwaukee. My friend is a bengali married to a UP-ite. Of course the UP-ite is also my dear friend - all of us studied in the same engineering college. During the course of a conversation, my bengali friend's parents talked about Rabindranath Tagore and his poem collection Gitanjali and in particular this poem.

Impromptu, I told them that I used to recite this poem everyday when I was in school. My friend's father then immediately recited the Bengali version of the same poem. Later, after coming back from Milwaukee, I decided to google it because I wasnt able to recollect the complete poem. I found it at the link here

I read each and every line and then read it again and then re-read it again and again and yet again, each time reading it slower than the previous time. Trying to understand the meaning comprehend Tagore's logic behind the composition. It made sense.

It made sense THEN.
It makes sense NOW.

The poem is so relevant even in today's scenario although it was written as far back as 1912.

I have nothing further to say dear Mr. Tagore. I rest my case.

30 days to 30...

Yes...you read it right...in 30 days time, I'll no longer be in the 20s. I'll "graduate" into the 30s. Oh My God!!!!! 30 YEARS. Nearly 40% of my life over and done with. I will no longer be known as a young man. I will be now known as middle-aged man. WOW!!!! Its scary. Really very scary.

A look back at my 20s and its been a wonderful joy-ride. Passed out of college after a great struggle, taking a 3-4 month break to study for the CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) entrance exam, staying up at night to complete assignments at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishtan - the C-DAC centre. And then came a string of my-firsts.

My first job offer,
my first job,
my first pay cheque,
my first resignation letter,
my first lay-off,
my first foreign language course,
my first domestic flight,
my first international flight experience,
my first overseas trip,
my first tryst staying away from home in Vienna,
my first cooking lesson,
my first trip to Rome and Pisa,
my first drive on the German Autobahn,
my first trip to Munich,
my first SLR camera,
my first important work project,
my first long term overseas assignment,
my first trip to a Formula 1 grand prix,
my first trip to London,
my first drunk makeout,
my first "fling" with a german woman,
my first trip to Amsterdam,
my first visit to a strip club,
my first Lap-Dance,
my first trip to Salzburg with my dearest engineering friend,
my first date with a CDAC friend for new year
my first love....my dear lovely car....my Indica,
my first project in Bangalore,
my first night out in a Bangalore pub,
my first trip to wonderful Paris, the visit to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre,
my first "ditch" of a friend whom I promised to meet in Paris,
my first Oktoberfest,
my first sleep-over at my German friend's place,
my first official trip to Alsace on behalf of my client,
my first "bold" decision to return home instead of opting for a Japanese assignment,
my first start-to-end project commitment,
my first car break-down at the end of the Mumbai-Pune expressway whilst on my way to celebrate New Year with very close engineering friends,
my first official trip to Manchester,
my first crush on an office colleague,
my first upgrade to Business Class with Air France,
my first exposure to product management,
my first motivation to do MBA and get into a B-school,
my first negotiation about my salary,
my first trip to USA,
my first gajar halwa,
my first discussion with my bosses about moving into business development,
my first GMAT score,
my first BLOG post,
my first paper presentation on messaging technologies,
my first paper presentation award,
my first long term US assignment,
my first B-school interview call which I did not attend,
my first house in Mumbai (which was always my dream to own one),
my first trip to New York,
my first New Year Celebration outside India,
my first car rental in the US,
my first car driving on a US freeway,
my first solo client-presentation,
my first Starbucks cappuccino (it was to become an addiction later - the triple venti wet cappuccino)
my first DP in the US with all my dearest engineering friends,
my first visit to Disneyland,
my first visit to Las Vegas,
my first 7 hour overnight drive from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa and back,
my first visit to San Diego,
my first lay and that too in a car parking lot,
my first trip to Miami to watch a basketball game between Miami Heat and Cleaveland Cavaliers,
my first visit to watch a tennis match - SonyEricsson open in Miami,
my first drive to Key West,
my first manager promotion,
my first date with an american woman,
my first Linkin park concert,
my first 10 hour solo-drive from Kansas City to Milwaukee covering 10 states,
my first hindi movie in an american movie hall,
my first visit to Universal Studios,
my first visit to Grand Canyon,
my first manual transmision (stick-shift) car drive experience in the US,
my first trip to Gatlynberg, Tennessee,
my first 2-day stay in an old 19th century log-cabin which seemed nearly like a ghost house,
my first visit to Singapore to spend some time with my dear engineering college friend,
and finally.....
my first ever "ice-breaking" conversation and meeting with someone whom my parents had chosen as my "the-one" but me being myself...getting cold feet and not wanting to go ahead with the "alliance".

The whole of my 20s has been very exciting, wonderful, amazing. I couldn't have asked for anything better than what I got. I will always fondly look back on these firsts and cherish them forever.

Blame it ALL on the IPL...

Here I am....Back again....after a longish hiatus. Why the break? Blame it on The Indian Premier League - IPL. Its become a regular feature of my evenings and weekends. So much so that I make it a point to leave from office bang at 05:30 PM(occasionally as early as 05:00) to rush home before 07:00 so that I can catch the evening IPL extravaganza. The are a number of posts I want to write about, but this IPL just takes so much of my time.

The other day, I was just discussing with my brother about how the TRP ratings of other shows on TV have gone down because of this IPL. At that time, I started to wonder, how will I kill time in the evenings when the whole IPL thingy gets over. I'll definitely get a lot of time for myself and maybe I'll utilize it to update my blog. That would be a good way to kill excess time. :-))

Coming back to the IPL, its such a fantastic idea. Great concept. It has the makings of becoming a-la English Premier League. It brings together talents from all the cricket playing nations of the world. It provides a great opportunity to budding young Indian cricketers to showcase their talent in front of the world. Before this tournament began, who knew of Siddharth Trivedi, Shaun Marsh, Swapnil Asnodkar, Shikar Dhawan and lots of more young talent. If I mention all of them here, I'll run out of blogging space. HEHEHE. :-)

Until now, 40 matches have been played and except for a couple of matches during the early part of the tournament and some matches during my friend's wedding, I've watched almost all the other matches. My loyalties rest solely with Mumbai Indians. It is owned by Mukesh Ambani, the richest (or the second richest - depending on whether his stock does well or not) Indian. He has shelled out a WHOPPING 111.9 million USD. They started off very badly when the tournament began but are now starting to make ground with last 5 consecutive wins. They're playing the Deccan Chargers today but they're up against the Law of Averages since they've won the last 5 of their matches.

The other team that I like after of course the Mumbai Indians is the Rajasthan Royals. They were unfancied underdogs at the start of the tournament with only the great Ozzie Leggie Shane Warne as their star player. They're also the cheapest team in the IPL with only 67 million USD. I guess not having big stars helped the team because, Shane Warne as captain and coach has brought about great camaraderie in the team. He has given each player well defined roles and an execution plan which the players do with great elan. Afterall, cricket is a team game.

The teams languishing at the bottom of the table right now are the Bangalore-Royal Challengers owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya and the Deccan-Chargers owned by the print media Deccan Chronicle. The Royal Challengers have a few "big" players but most of the players are dare-I-say inexperienced in the shortest version (Twenty20) of the game. Rahul Dravid, Jaques Kallis are great players in their own right, but are not suited best for Twenty20. The other team, Deccan-Chargers, have BIG HITTERS (Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, etc) but they don't fire well as a team.

Another new aspect in the IPL is the teams having cheer-leaders. I think its fantastic. The evening is given the dimension of wholesome entertainment rather than just come-watch-the-game-and-go-home kind of a feeling. Afterall the spectators have to get their money's worth. One thing that I don't like about the cheerleader concept is to call girls from western countries. Yes, Indians have always lusted for white skinned, big boobed, skimpily clothed girls gyrating lasciviously to groovy music, but I do feel that the organizers would be better suited to use Indian girls.

Why do I feel so? Because, off-late there have been lots of reports of foreign tourists being molested. The possibility of molestation will decrease when Indian girls are used, because I feel that as yet, we as a society have not become mature enough to handle exposed skin. Indians have always been sex-starved people. Actually, its a hypocritical statement - country with the largest population growth being called sex-starved. Nonetheless, its true. Anyways, I guess I'll leave that thought there, maybe I'll post about it later.

Today's a big game for two teams vying for a semi-final spot - firstly The Kolkata-Knight Riders (currently in 6th place), (owned by Shah Rukh Khan) who are playing The Chennai - Super Kings (currently in 3rd place) and secondly of course the Mumbai Indians. Given the current standngs it looks like its going to be a three-way battle between Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi-Daredevils.

Lets hope for Shahrukh's sake and for Sachin's sake both Kolkata and Mumbai win their respective matches.

On that note, I'll sign off from here. Mom's been pestering me for the last half-an-hour to come and have lunch, but I wanted to finish off this post before I indulge myself in some sumptuous lunch and some great T20 cricket.

Happiness...

Okay...this is a post inspired from here, which in turn is borrowed from here

Happiness is...
....Meeting up with close friends after a long gap.
....Memory of the time spent with late grand-mother and great-grand-mother
....The smell of the mud during and just after the first rains.
....Realizing that dearest darling sister has become big and mature enough to be a mommy.
....Seeing the excitement on mom's and dad's faces when they search for their daughter-in-law for their eldest son.
....Eating pav-bhaji laden with lots of cheese and butter.
....Achieving something close to impossible, something which everyone has said is a foolish thing to do.
....Not committing a mistake which was already made under similar circumstances.
....Passionately describing the story of a favourite movie to other friends who havent seen it.
....Venti-Wet-Capuccino-with-extra-shot from Starbucks.
....Feeling proud about the phenomenal improvement shown by a dearest brother in academics.
....Talking to Nana-nani (maternal grand parents) about their younger days on a Saturday afternoon.
....Stepping into your own house which you bought with your own hard earned money.
....Distributing laptops, T-shirts, perfumes bought from the US for your dearest loved ones.
....The thought of owning a house on the beach.
....Visiting siddhi-vinayak mandir.
....Listening to your favourite RJs on the Radio.
....Seeing an empty road on a strech which always has a traffic jam almost everyday.
....Driving a BMW or a Mercedes.
....Seeing old photos of when you were a baby.
....Watching the Indian cricket team defeat Australia in Australia.
....Falling off to sleep knowing that there's no work tomorrow.
....Hugging a near and dear one tightly.
....Removing shoes and socks after having come from work and feeling the coldness of the floor hitting your leg.
....Getting a compliment.
....Blogging trying to remember nearly every happy moment. :-))

Alas! Happiness cannot be described in a single blog post.

So comes a Tag my way...NO its not a Tag Heuer watch

There I was in San Diego, USA, counting my last days in the US, when suddenly I checked my mail and found this comment by a certain Jammin Dudleybouy...a-k-a Vikirum

I had been TAGGED!!! I'd like to christen this tag THE GREAT EIGHT .

Anyways...so here are my answers....

Eight Songs I Could Listen To Over And Over
Oh my god...there are so many....and they keep changing....but here's a list of my ALL time favourites...(in random order)

1. Shine on you crazy diamond - Pink Floyd

2. Creep - Stone Temple Pilots (the acoustic version)

3. Mocking Bird - Eminem

4. Kholo Kholo - Taare Zameen Par (Shankan-Ehsaan-Loy)

5. Almost all songs from Nirvana unplugged in New York. (Kurt Cobain ROCKS!!!)

6. One - Metallica

7. Time to say goodbye - Andrea Boccelli and Sarah Brightman

8. Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin


Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1. Watch India play Australia in a test-match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

2. Go on the Kailash - Manasarovar Yatra.

3. Make a difference to somebody's life so that THAT SOMEONE remembers me all his/her life even after I am gone. Something worth dying for.

4. Visit the Rio Carnival.

5. Take mom-and-dad on an around the world tour.

6. Fly an airplane.

7. Have sex in an elevator. (hahahahahahaha)

8. Buy a Mercedes Benz.


Eight Things I Say Often

1. Fuck/Freak/WTF!!??!!

2. Oh My God

3. Chirkut

4. Bhendi/Bhenchod

5. Dude

6. Yeh Kya Chutiyagiri Hai!!??!!

7. Holy Mother Of God!

8. Paplu


Eight Books I Have Read Recently

Not much of an avid reader but, I've read these books over a span of about 4 or so years. :-))

1. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard.P.Feynmann

2. Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

3. Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden

4. Its Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong

5. Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

6. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown

7. Almighty - Irving Wallace

8. Michael Schumacher: The Edge Of Greatness - James Allen


Eight Things That Attract Me To My Friends

1. My Openness

2. Helpful Nature

3. My Quirks

4. Willingness to accept my mistake and learn

5. Dependability

6. Willingness to spend money

7. Always trying to keep everyone connected

8. My Car (hehehehe)


Eight Things I'm Passionate About

1. Friends

2. Car

3. Driving

4. Rock Music

5. Blogging

6. Cooking

7. Photography

8. Travelling



Eight People That Should Do This Tag

Honestly, since a lot of blogger mates are common between Vik and me, I dont have 8 people to whom I can pass on this tag. So, I'll just say....Anyone who's interested can pick up this tag.

Have fun doing it. :-))

Here I am....

Take a deep breath.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmph......(hold)....(hold)....(hold)....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah......the air feels strange. I can smell a slight tinge of pollution, a little bit of humidity. The sky seems hazy. I can see people everywhere. Walking on the road...tens of millions. Travelling in overcrowded buses...millions. Sitting inside a dingy little 3-wheeled motor like creatures (auto-rickshaws)...tens of thousands. Driving swanky and not so swanky cars...thousands. Welcome to my home country, India. My home town, Mumbai.

I have been here close to about 3 whole weeks and boy it hasn't changed one little bit. What am I saying?? Of course it has changed, there are new malls, new restaurants, new night clubs, new road construction, new residential complexes, new commercial properties, new multiplexes. But, the problems compounding the city are the same. Lots of traffic, very few parking spots, lack of road discipline, people driving expensive vehicles but still stopping to spit their pan-masala, corrupt politicians targetting innocent bread-earners under the pretext that they are not locals. At times, I do tend to think whether I did the right thing in deciding to come back from the US.

And then I see my mom, my dad, my dear (maternal) grandfather and grandmother, my sister, her husband, my dearest younger brother, my mom's home cooked wonderful food, the innumerable options for vegetarian food available the moment you step out of the house, cheap but excellent medical treatment available nearly at my beck-and-call, not having to rely solely on cars to get grocery, negotiating with the vegetable vendor to get the best available bargain. And most of all my new house which will be under my possession in the next month or so. And I think, it was worth it coming back from the US.

Yes, it has been completely, totally, absolutely, positively, one-hundred-percent worth it. I have lots of things to blog about, including the "ice-breaking" conversation I had with someone whom mom-and-dad would call "prospective marriage alliance", until then keep reading and keep smiling.

Blogging from SFO Airport

Wow...The power of internet. Here I am with the first leg of my journey back home is done. I've come to San Francisco from San Diego. The flight just one and a half hours. And thats what I'm doing. HEHEHEHEHE.




Nows the big one...San Francisco to Singapore via Hong Kong. A humongous 14 hour ordeal. I dont know how I will spend time, knowing that I sleep really bad in flights. And unfortunately my DELL XPS can at best work for 4.5 hours only.

Had huge trouble with my check-in bags. Apparently, it was 18 lbs over weight. Dunno how much that translates into in terms of kilograms, but the maximum allowed in a United flight is a lousy lowly 60 lbs. Compare that with a maximum of 75 lbs allowed in Singapore airlines, United sucks big time.

I simply cannot understand their process. Here I am flying out of the US, on a major carrier (read Singapore airlines) but connecting through United's flight from San Diego to San Francisco. This is written perfectly clearly in my ticket. There's no way in the world that I'll forego my journey and yet United will not allow me to check-in bags with the same weight as Singapore airlines. One thing which is all the more surprising is that they're both affiliated to the same group - Star Alliance.

So, here I am arguing at the counter about whats right and whats wrong and the way it should work but to no avail. The check-in counter lady did not budge. Tired of the argument, I relented and asked her how much would it cost me. She said since my bag's 78 lbs, it would cost huge. I was shell-shocked to hear the amount.

It would have cost me a phenomenal, earth-shattering, 3-hundred-frikkin-odd dollars for that weight. I told her that no ways I'm gonna pay that much. Then she gave me an alternative. She said if I were to remove 8 lbs then I would have to just pay USD 50. So there I had it. Pay 50 or chuck everything to bring down to 60. I removed out some of the unwanted stuff and some more stuff I moved to my hand luggage and finally I was down to 68 lbs.

I thought I went rather early to the airport, but with all the time I spent first arguing and then later re-arranging, I was left with just 30-odd minutes before my departure. Having taken all my stuff, I hurried to the security check. It was starting to sink in. I was heading HOME. YIPEEEEE.

Flying in an airlines in the US is a pain in the frikkin ass. The security check is so severe that you're bound to forget something or the other at the scanning machine. And thats the exact thing that happened to me. With all the adrenalin pumping because of the baggage ordeal coupled with the thought of heading homeward, made me forget my digital SLR camera at the scannin machine.

Luckily, when I was sitting down at a chair bang opposite to the scanning machine, I saw a security attendant open my camera bag remove all my stuff and pass it through the scanning machine AGAIN!! They were probably suspecting that it contained some sort of explosive. And then I shouted, its mine....its mine. Thus I was finally united with my camera.

PHEW!! All this and I've just finished the first leg of the journey. Wonder what else is in store for me. For all those who dont know, I'm gonna take a 3-day break in Singapore. Will be meeting my dear friend JK. I'll be meeting him after nearly 3 long years. I'm sooo looking forward to it.

Snip...Snip...Snip...

As you all know, I'm entering the last 10 days of my stay in the US and as a build up to my grand departure, I decided to get a hair cut. I had been "growing" my hair for nearly 3 long years before I decided to get it trimmed. Of course its still quite long but definitely shorter than what I was having couple of months back.

One reason was mom's constant bickering about my long hair and also about how I'm losing prospective brides in matrimonial sites because of long hair. Honestly, she did not know that I was growing it just avoid the very reason why she wanted me to trim it off. HeHeHeHe :-))

So, without further ado lets get to the before the haircut and after the haircut looks.

Here's how I used to look...



And this is what I look like now....



What do you guys think?

Anyways, now the damage is done. I can't undo it. All I can do is wait until it grows back. Actually, as a matter of fact, I'm beginning to like this new look. Every once in a while its good to change your look. It seems different. It feels different. Its refreshing. And one more thing....my head sure feels light.

My First Marriage Proposal

Alright....Alright....Keshi and Vik, your persistence pays and I have no choice but to relent. The full story on the alliance goes like this...

One fine day somewhere in and around end of October during my regular weekly home phone call, my mom tells me about this girl they found as a match for me. I'm sure Vik and all other South-Indians especially Iyers would know the process. For everyone else here's how it goes.

Basically, whenever a child is born the family consults the family-astrologer (yes! almost akin to family-doctor). The astrologer, based on the date, time and (maybe even) location of birth, prepares a diagram which symbolically represents the position of the entities of the solar system. Thats what everyone calls the horoscope. I like to call it HORROR-SCOPE!! LOL. Also, based on the position of the sun, the child's birth star and birth constellation is decided. The part I like about all this is that the ancients - at a time when there were no telescopes and spacecrafts - were also able to "calculate" the position of earth/sun with respect to the star formations known during that time. Thats so fascinating.

Anyways, this HORROR-SCOPE is mainly used for two things, predicting the future and finding a match for marriage. My mom and dad also made one such HORROR-SCOPE for me and now its performing its duty. :-)))

Sorry for the digression, so coming back to what I was saying earlier, mom and dad had registered my profile with a couple of matrimony sites and this match came through one of those sites. Apparently, my folks had uploaded a couple of my pictures and also my HORROR-SCOPE in the site. The girl's parents had looked up my pictures and my profile and downloaded the HORROR-SCOPE for a match. They consulted with their astrologer and then contacted my parents.

Then my parents got her HORROR-SCOPE and consulted our astrologer. Mom told me that this "match" is an 80% HORROR-SCOPE match which - in astrological terms - is considered exceptional. She also said that the girl fulfilled criteria which I had put down. When my mom and dad started to look for a match, I had told them that I did not want anyone from my field of work, I wanted someone who is very educated, who is not more than 4 years younger than me and who has been brought up in a city environment. This girl is a doctor and she is from a town called Vapi just north of Mumbai and has studied in Mangalore.

During the call mom and dad told me that they intended to go ahead with the "proposal" of course subject to my approval. I told them I needed some time to think over it. A couple of days later, mom and dad sent me three pictures of the girl. The girl was quite good-looking. She was doing her post-doctoral internship and she had (allegedly) liked my pictures in the matrimonial site. My parents told me that if you give the go-ahead, we can go and have a look at the girl and then if everything goes fine we can have the marriage by May-2008.

Whoa! now things were moving too fast. Way too fast. I told my folks that I can take a decision only and only after I come back to India and this will not happen before February-2008. My mom is the greatest person in the world and I admire her the most. I am very open with her. I explained to her that its very important for me to meet the girl face to face and talk to her and only then I can come to a conclusion. She understood my predicament perfectly and told me that she completely supported me.

With mom by my side, I talked to my dad and told him about my decision. I told him to tell the girl's parents that they would have to wait until my return to India. Meanwhile, my mom and dad gave me the girl's email address and asked me to send an introductory email to her.

Honestly, I am very shy at these things. I told my mom that I'll do it. Weeks passed and I didnt send the email. The girl's parents started to ask my parents nearly every week whether I had sent the email. My parents would in turn ask me and I would tell them that I'm busy with work and hence I didnt get the time. After about 2-3 weeks I could not avoid it anymore and I sent an email. I just apologized to the girl for the delay in sending the mail and I just re-iterated to her that any decision on the proposal would be taken only after me meeting her.

I told my folks that I sent the email and asked them to confirm with the girl and her parents. A couple of days later, I got the message that the girl had not received my email yet. I told my parents to check with the girl to see if my mail accidentally went to the spam folder or something like that. They confirmed and said that she had never received my mail. I then re-read my email and thought that my first email sort of indicated my negativity in the proposal more then I intended it to. I felt that the tone of the email sounded more professional than personal.

So, I recomposed it. This time making it a more personal email than the first one, but still conveying the same intention as the first (i.e. to meet her face to face and then arrive at a decision). My parents had given me another one of her email addresses so this time I sent the mail to both her email addresses. About a week later when I asked my parents to check with her once again, I got the same response. She hadnt received the mail.

So now things had come to a complete standstill. I had sent her a couple of emails but she claimed that she had not received any of them and I sensed that this "proposal" is on its way down. Its not going to go through. And it happened just the way I thought. A couple of weeks later my Mom told me that the girl's parents have finalized her marriage with somebody else.

So thats the story on that "alliance". And I'm still here. Still single. My parents still looking. And more importantly - STILL HAPPY. Hehehehehe.

Mindblowing....

Dudes and dudettes,

Check out this video. This amazing kid sells peacock fans and its fascinating to see that he has picked up many different languages just by interacting with tourists that come to visit the Hanging gardens in Mumbai.

The kids language learning skills are simply superb.

Enjoy this wonderful video.

Now you see him....Now you don't...

I'm back. After a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong break. Why the break?

Honestly, I've been feeling a little bit low on confidence. One reason being, I've been away from home for nearly 2 years and 3 months and am feeling very very homesick. There are other reasons too but sorry, I cant explain them here. Still feeling a bit low but not as down as some weeks back.

Anyways, the big news from my side is that I'll be leaving the shores of uncle Sam soon. Yes, I'm going home. Home to Mumbai, home to my motherland, home to my family. I'm so so excited about it. At last something to look forward to. I will be flying out on the 6th of March via Singapore. I'll be spending a couple of days in Singapore at my friend's place and then heading home.

So my shopping spree has started. I've already spent nearly 500 dollars in buying lots of stuff - mainly clothes and electronics. Bought a lot of T-shirts, jackets, track-pants, shirt and tie for my sister's husband, a DVD set of "I Love Lucy" the 1950s sitcom starring Lucille Ball for mom, wireless routers, rechargeable batteries and charger. Of course, this is discounting the fact that I had already bought a laptop for my sister. This is not all, there's lot of stuff more for me to buy and by the looks of it, I might end up spending all of my last month's salary on Shopping.

But all this is great fun. I'm starting to get more and more excited about my trip with the passing of each day.

This....And....That

Okay folks. Excuse me for the longish hiatus. I've been busy and also lazy. Honestly I dont know what had come over me for the last 3-4 weeks. Of course there was work and I worked (or rather slogged) like crazy for a week. Then came thanksgiving when I went to visit my dear friends AGAIN!!!! And then a bout of laziness, just a feeling to NOT do anything. No emails, no phone calls, no watching movies, just office, work, home, lunch, dinner and sleep in an unending möbius strip.

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The thanksgiving trip was awesome. Honestly all my trips to visit friends have always turned out awesome. The feeling that overwhelms me when I'm with my friends is nearly indescribable. I feel completely relaxed and at ease. We talk about the old times and discuss about the state of our lives, take advice and even argue on silly topics. Most of the time I'm at the receiving end of their puns and comments and I do get upset but then its just at the spur of that moment. A few minutes later everything's gone and everyone's back again pulling my leg. :-)

I flew in from San Diego to Charlotte...reached there Thursday morning, we drove from Charlotte to Baltimore, spent the night at TK's appartment. From there we drove to New Jersey, spent Friday night at Chabru's house. On Saturday took a train to Manhattan and kept walking and walking and walking in and around Times Square, 5th, 6th and 7th streets, shopping, searching for Indian restaurants. I brought a brown jeans jacket and slip-on semi-formal shoes for myself. Saturday night we drove back to Baltimore and after spending just about an hour or so in Baltimore, started to drive back to Charlotte. It was great fun. And I'll be re-living it, because I'm gonna be meeting them again for the long weekend during christmas. Yipeee!!

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For the last month and half or so, mom and dad have redoubled and intensified their search for a daughter-in-law. Why?? Firstly because I'll soon be 30 (WOW, I cant believe it myself) and secondly, I'm one of those guys who fall into the - Oh My God, you STILL havent found someone for yourself. You're such a loser!! - category. To be very honest, I am petrified at the whole scenario.

Sometimes, I feel it would be a great challenge to be single and to live life at your own terms and maybe even adopt a child and raise it as your own. The thought is very rebellious and just thinking about it, gives me a great high. Maybe such a thought has crept into me because I've lost hope of finding someone for myself. Some other times I feel living such a life would be so lonely - something which my mom told me when I told her of my idea of being single. In fact couple of weeks back, she brought up the topic of my marriage and told her - "I'm gay" and she just burst out laughing and said you're saying this just because you dont want to get married.

Mom and dad forwarded the picture of a prospective alliance some weeks back and I deleted the email as soon as I got it. Each time I called up home, mom & dad would ask just one thing - "What do you think about the alliance?". Tired of them asking, I stopped calling. I didnt talk to anyone at home for a week. To break the deadlock, they started calling me from India. They somehow convinced me to atleast look at the picture. With great resentment, I saw the picture. Mom & dad kept pestering me for my opinion and I told them that without meeting her personally, I cannot take any decision. For me the most difficult thing to do is to reject her (or for that matter any alliance). I feel it would be prejudiced and judgemental on my part to reject her. Who am I to reject anyone?

Anyways, a temporary status quo has been attained now. But this wont last long. It will be broken the moment I reach Mumbai, because then I will have to meet the lady.

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On a not-so-personal note, I'm going strength to strength with respect to my cooking. My repertoire now includes, Dal (Tur, masoor, moong, chowli) , Sambar, Rasam, Pulav, Biryani, Dahi kadi, rajma, choley, different combinations of dry and wet subzi involving aalu, mutter, paneer, flower, gobi, bhendi, capsicum and recently gobi-manchurian in corn gravy. I can also make green chutney, tamarind-date chutney, batata-wada, potato/onion/cabbage/bread bhajji. WOW!!! Thats quite a lot of variety eh?? :-)))) No wonder I've been gaining weight instead of losing it. hahahahaha.

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Throughout my stay here, I've brought a lot of gifts for my sister and brother. I brought a 14" DELL laptop for my sister. Got a pretty good deal for it. It has 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 160GB hard drive, 2GB RAM, integrated webcam, CD-DVD writer, extended battery and it cost me just about 700 USD. I also bought a jumbo 650 GB hard drive for my desktop at home. Brought a WWE-JohnCena T-shirt and a LAGalaxy-DavidBeckham T-shirt for my brother. Also brought a couple of T-shirts for my sister and a Chanel No 5 perfume too for her.

My wishlist is still NOT completely done. I still need to buy a wireless keyboard-mouse combo, an unlocked iPhone whenever its available (if not then maybe an iPodTouch), a hooded T-shirt for my sister and brother, a DVD pack of "I Love Lucy" for mom & dad and need to buy some stuff for my sister's husband as well. I wonder whether I'll be able to save any money after all this. :-)))

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Off late, I've been promoted to a car-owner from a pedestrian. Thanks to this great colleague of mine. He's perhaps the only colleague whom I can call my friend. Somehow, I am just not comfortable in making friends with my work-mates. I always tend to maintain a professional relationship with them. With this guy too it started off the same way but progressively we became very good friends. He's also on a project here in San Diego, but right now he's gone back to India for a month long vacation. Before he left, he told me to pick up his car from outside his apartment. So I got the keys from another colleague who stays in the vicinity of my friend and took the car. Thanks to this, I go home everyday for lunch. :-))) Thats the only thing which I'll miss once my friend comes back here to "reclaim" his car. I intend to get a car-wash done before I give it to him.

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And Finally, its amazing to find a lot of internet sites providing live streaming feed of the cricket matches going on between India and Pakistan. Recently, a colleague of mine just gave away his TV to me because he was getting one from his friend. The immediate next thing I did is to rush to Fry's Electronics and buy a S-Video cable and an AUX audio cable. So now, I connect my laptop to the TV through S-Video, connect the audio to the TV's audio jack and put on the streaming TV channel. Hey Presto! I can watch cricket matches on TV. Yippeee!!!! Today's the 5th day of the final test and I hope it does not turn out to be a damp squib.

Been as Busy as a Bee

Since the last post, I have been

1. Regularly doing a lot of laundry, folding the washed clothes properly and also ironing and all of these take up atleast 3 to 3.5 hours of my weekend time.

2. Talking very very very regularly (almost every other day) to my mom, dad, brother, sister. Wishing them for Diwali and digesting all the latest family gossip. hehehehe.

3. Travelling between San Diego and Dallas in lousy flights and spending 2 (sometimes as much as 3) hours between connecting flights in Denver, doing nothing but ogle at pretty women and observe playful kids at the aircraft boarding gates. (Almost forgot to mention 5 of shots of Cognac on the rocks to get a little tipsy high)

4. Going around in Dallas from one lab in the west to another in the east for the purpose of testing the new Motorola phones to see if they work properly with other equipment manufacturers. The result - astounding as it seems is true - Motorola phones do work. :-))))

5. Driving on the accident prone and notoriously infamous highway I-635 and trying to drive safe amongst the whacky drivers with no driving sense and no lane discipline and at the same time trying to avoid debris strewn in the middle of the highway from a recently happened accident.

6. Trying to avoid tail-gating drivers and in the process missing the Freeway exit which resulted in me having to take a 35 mile detour and drive at a lousy 20 mile per hour speed through downtown Dallas on the crazy I-35 E going North when I was already running late for the lab appointment.

7. Doing a lot of perfume shopping for my friends and also for myself. Its unbelivable the price you pay for authentic (or atleast seemingly authentic) perfumes in the Mexican market at Harry Hines Blvd. More astonishing than that is to find an Indian owning the perfume shop and employing Mexicans in his shop to sell perfumes in a Mexican market. WOW!! BTW...FYI...I got a Carolina Herrera and it smells fantastic.

8. Finishing off my work in Dallas one day earlier and taking a one day break, meeting up with friends, but the folks at work thinking that I'm working. Wow! that was fun.

9. Waking up at 01:00 pm in the noon on a working day and meeting friends, doing shopping for friend's wife on her birthday, celebrating the birthday at night and eating lumps of chocolate cake.

10. Meeting up with loooooooooooong lost friends. Friends with whom I haven't been in touch with nearly 6-8 years, whom I last saw on the last day of engineering, who were dating each other during those years and who've now married and settled here in the US.

11. Sleeping flat on the two adjacent seats on the flight from Denver to Colorado when all the other seats in the plane were occupied. The only two that were not occupied were the ones next to me. Gosh! Even I can be lucky at times. :-)))

12. Cooking the most awesome, mind-blowing fantastic Dal, made completely in ghee, with just the perfect amount of spices, the closest I've gotten to Mom's out of this world Dal experience.

13. Keeping track of all deals available, in the lead upto and during thanksgiving and literally browsing sites like deals2buy.com, dealnews.com, techbargains.com and gottadeal.com once every 2 hours to check out the available offers. Wow, this is Internet Window Shopping. :-)))))

14. Talking to my dear friends in Charlotte and Baltimore and making an impromptu plan to go and see them for the Thanksgiving weekend. The one whom you know as TK, is in Baltimore and he's gonna do some shopping before his marriage in April. Who knows maybe he might throw us friends a bachelor's party. :-))

AND FINALLY....

15. Very very very very lazy in updating this blog. This post contrived over a very very long span of nearly 14 days and each point written on a different day. (Hey I should try it this out once.) Naah...I'm just kidding, I wrote this post in two days albeit the gap between the two days was more close to 10.

Rants About Roomies

A couple of weeks back, I shifted apartments. I had to. Because the lease in my earlier apartment was getting over. I had 3 other roomies in that apartment. Lets call them Lazy-Good-For-Nothing-Gult (LGFNG), Confused-Secretive-Faithless-Mind (CSFM) and Style-Guy-Chicken-Cook (SGCK).

It all started back in April when I shifted from Hot-and-Humid Florida to Sunny-and-Pleasant California. I hunted and found a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment and which was also within 15 minute walking distance from my workplace. I knew CSFM and SGCK from much before - they had come to Florida at different times during my year and a half stay there. Of course CSFM was not so confused, not so secretive and not so faithless at that time. He seemed a decent enough guy. SGCK used to work in my project and I came to know him during his stay in Florida and we became good friends. The 3rd guy LGFNG, I had never known before.

So when our assignment here started, I knew that CSFM and SGCK would be staying with me and SGCK suggested that LGFNG stay with us. I agreed to it since the apartment would be rather expensive for just 3 people. As soon as I got the "possession" of the apartment, I bought all the necessary stuff. The basic necessities in the kitchen namely - toaster, microwave, blender, plates, glasses, bowls, spoons, a kitchen utensil set. Lights for each room, iron-board and iron, hangers to hang clothes, waste bin for kitchen and both washrooms, internet connection, rental washer and dryer. Just about everything was setup even before the other guys moved in. (On a completely different note - now I got a first hand experience of how to setup a new home and its gonna prove extremely helpful in setting up my new house in Mumbai).

During the first week it was just SGCK and I and between the two of us, we did cooking, cleaning, preparing lunch boxes, etc very smoothly. Soon CSFM and LGFNG joined us. And it turned out that I was the only vegetarian in the house. Fortunately or unfortunately, I've always got non-vegetarians as my roomies and I've had no problems in adjusting with them. But I always make one thing clear, I wouldn't be cleaning any dishes in which any non-veg stuff was cooked. And I think its a reasonable expectation from my side since I'm a complete veggie.

I love cooking and so does SGCK and we used to literally do everything between us, chopping, cooking and cleaning. We used to never expect that anyone would help us. So when we started to stay together, I had made it clear that SGCK and I would be doing the cooking and LGFNG himself said that he would voluntarily do the dishes, but he never ever lived up to his word. Sometimes CSFM would help in cutting and cleaning without us having to tell him, but LGFNG would NEVER EVER come to help us in our cooking or cleaning on his own. Each time we come home from work late, the dishes would lie in the kitchen sink and although LGFNG would have come home much earlier than us, he wouldn't have cleaned the dishes at all. Many-a-times SGCK would just clean the dishes and still do the cooking but I CANNOT STAND irresponsible people. So I always used to make it a point to MAKE LGFNG DO the dishes.

I had also mentioned very clearly - right at the beginning - that the cost of ALL food stuff would be divided equally between all the roomies and everyone agreed to it at that time. Nobody objected to my suggestion. Now, a month or so had passed from that day and I sat down to do the monthly expenses. Apart from the rent, water, electricity, gas and trash bills, I also included the cost for setting up the house in my calculations and thus initially, the per head liability came out to be slightly high. Suddenly, LGFNG had problem with the high liability. He started saying that we should now be careful in spending and should not buy any non-essential stuff because its a huge waste of money...etc.

I freaking HATE this attitude. As if whatever I did to setup the house was a WASTE. As if I would go on buying a new microwave each month until the lease of our apartment expires. Bloody ignorant asshole!! People like LGFNG DONOT APPRECIATE the value of things because they get everything in front of them served readymade on a Silver platter and then they go mud-slinging other people who've taken efforts to set-up everything properly. Anyways, I clarified that such expenses are just one-time expenses and the next month's liability would not be so much. I thought the differences would end at that, but I was SO VERY wrong.

Soon the complaints spread on to the grocery being brought for the house. LGFNG and CSFM started to argue that they do not eat a lot of stuff that we get for groceries and hence wanted to opt out of some of the grocery items. When in Florida I'd been living in an environment where the cost of ALL the house grocery items was shared between the roomies, irrespective of who ate what and who liked what.

So coming from that kind of an environment, this was nothing short of SHOCKING. The two niggardly roomies started to complain about food stuff being brought but not eaten by them. In fact one asshole (read - LGFNG) even went to the extent of saying that although he ate chips and cornflakes, the quantity consumed by him was far less than the quantity consumed by two of us (SGCK and I). This had me fuming. I completely lost it. The prick does not help even one bit when it comes to cleaning and cooking and washing the dishes and freaking complains about quantity of food being eaten by us. Dickhead!

Regular readers of this blog might know that I had been to Kansas City some months back. So, just before I left for Kansas City, I did some shopping for the house and since during that time, the pressure at work was quite high, I hadnt done the calculation. Now, 2 and a half months later when I came back, I did the calculation and when I asked the roomies to share, there was a HUGE uproar from LGFNG and CSFM. As if I've fabricated the bills and I'm out to steal their money. Freaking cheapos smellier than cow shit had no bloody faith in their roomie who pays off the rent, electricity, water and trash bills without even flinching an eyebrow and doesnt even ask them to pay until the end of the month.

Sometime last year I had bought an external DVD writer and since I had never even tested it, I opened it one day and burnt a DVD just to check if everything was alright. CSFM saw this and asked me whether he can use it for a day to copy some stuff. I willingly gave it to him and he returned it to me once his work was done. Then when I was in Kansas City, CSFM, without informing me took the DVD writer and was using it all the time. Even when I came back from Kansas City, CSFM didnt ever inform me that he was using the DVD writer. 3-4 weeks back a friend of mine was supposed to go back to Mumbai and I decided to give the DVD writer to her so that my brother (who has been pestering me for it for quite a while) can use the DVD writer.

I searched for it at the usual place where it was supposed to have been there, but it wasnt there. I was completely flummoxed. I asked SGCK and he didnt know where it was. Then suddenly I saw this writer in CSFM's room and instantly realized that it was mine. I called up CSFM and asked him about it and he grinned sheepishly and said that he was using it all the time. I cannot understand how people can do such childish crazy things. Where is the Maturity???

I have never ever used other people's stuff, be it their laptops, portable hard drives, DVD writers, books, pens, or any trivial or non-trivial thing. I might have used it just once or so and still I make it a point to ask their permission and I also make it a point to use it for the shortest possible time and return it in the exact same condition it was, when I'd borrowed it. If I ever think that I would be needing something more often than not, I'd immediately go and buy it instead of borrowing it. I cant understand why other people cannot behave in the same manner. Am I asking too much??? I honestly dont think so. Finally, I was able to send the DVD writer along with my friend to Mumbai and thank god nothing went wrong when it was being used by CSFM.

Of all the time that I have stayed with roomies, this time was the toughest. Honestly, I've never seen a more CHURLISH attitude from anyone. Both LGFNG and CSFM were very cheap and rude and had absolutely no regard for other two of us. Thank god a zillion times that the ordeal is now over and I have resolved now to NEVER EVER stay together with LGFNG and CSFM even if it means that I've to stay alone and spend a fortune. Atleast I'll have my peace of mind and wouldnt be tearing my hair off in trying to resolve silly petty issues and giving explanations for each of my actions.

The Week Gone By

The week's over. It took a while but its finally over. The first part of the week was a harrowing experience. Its over for some, but for some others, the ordeal continues. Mother nature went on a rampage all throughout Southern California (SoCal) and showered special consideration on San Diego.

In what way you ask? Well obviously, you haven't been tuning into international news lately. Wildfires have been feasting heavily on the parched, arid, dry, drought affected lands of SoCal - some of them still going strong even as I type this post.

Last Sunday was an exceptionally busy day for me. I accompanied my roomies for some grocery shopping and then went to a retail electronic store to get a pair of headphones. (I got a supra-aural Sony headphones for a pretty good deal and I'm loving it. Its amazing how good earphones makes even mediocre music sound awesome :D) Sorry for the digression, anyways, so on our way back, I just happened to look up at the sky and noticed that it was smoggy. Now that might be normal in Bombay (courtesy Mr.Pollution), but its unheard-of here. The sky is normally impeccable blue and I thought its strange for it to be having a grayish tinge.

Anyways, it was pretty soon forgotten and as soon as we got home we started cooking. We were done in a couple of hours and since it started to get a bit smoky in the house with all the frying and stuff, we opened the windows. Suddenly in a matter of minutes, the air started to smell strange. We quickly checked our hot-plates and oven to see if we had left something ON by mistake, but found that everything was switched off. We were trying to figure out the source of the "burning" smell in the air and then we get a call from one of our friends saying that there's a wild fire burning out of control about 50 miles north-east of our place and slowly moving westward.

We all quickly scourged the net and found out that indeed there was a wild fire. In fact there wasn't just one or two or three. There were 7 of them in and around San Diego. WOW UNBELIEVABLE!!! Also, we found some 3-4 fires in and around LA too. In fact there was one in Malibu county which forced many celebrities to evacuate their million-dollar houses.

By midnight on Sunday, (in a couple of hours) the fire was deemed to be about 40 miles away i.e. 10 miles closer to us. The fire department had begun mandatory evacuation of the communities which were about 10 miles away from the fire. We all were under the impression that everything would become normal by Monday morning and we all slept soundly. On Monday, my roomie went to work at around 08:00 (much earlier than usual). I woke up at my usual time of around 09:00 and started to get ready to go to work. Suddenly, I get a call from my roomie (who's at work) saying that the security is planning to shut down office because the fire situation is getting worse by the minute.

I quickly tuned into an internet radio station for San Diego and there they announced that there are two fires, one to the north-east and other south-east of San Diego, both moving westward towards San Diego. Holy Cow!!! What in God's name is happening here?? I was thinking. The fire closest to our location was the one in the north-west. It was now just 25 miles away from our location and all residents who were living in a 10-mile distance from the perimeter of the fire were asked to evacuate. In fact it so happened that one particular school was designated as the evacuation center but when the fire started coming close to that, the location was shifted to a much safer place. This new place was a high school located in our area. When that happened, it was a bit of a relief to us because it gave us the confidence that when there's a evacuation center in our area, then our area must definitely be safe.

The whole of Monday went in closely monitoring the progress of the two fires. In fact the news in the internet radio reported that the 7 different fires had merged and become 2 large fires, one to the north-east and other to the south-east. They also said that the fires were caused because of the strange weather condition, which (considering the terrain around SoCal) is very conducive for wild-fires. In fact although San Diego is on the Pacific Coast, the relative humidity for Sun-Mon-Tue was an avg or about 4-5%. Which makes the air abnormally dry. This coupled with high temperatures (around 30-35 deg centigrade), unusual westerly Santa-Ana winds and the dry vegetation (which is abundant in SoCal) gave rise to the fires. It was declared on Monday that the office would remain shut on Tuesday, because of the fires.

By Tuesday, the situation had worsened. The fire in the N-W - named witch-creek fire (because it originated in the witch-creek canyon) which was about 8000 acres on Sunday evening had affected 15000 acres by Sunday night, 20000 acres by Monday and a humongous 145000 acres come Tuesday (because of merging of different fires). Similarly the fire in the S-W - named the Harris fire had grown from 6000 acres to 14000 acres to 25000 to some 40000 acres during the same timespan. By Tuesday afternoon, mandatory evacuation was in effect for communities which were just about 10 miles away from our locality and rumors were going around that our area too would soon be receiving an evacuation order.

It was Tuesday evening and no such order came. Still we all were tense and monitoring the "progress" of the fire very closely. Also we came to know that our office is closed indefinitely until further notice. The Harris fire was still just about 5% contained and the Witch fire was only about 1% contained. Situation was still dangerous. One look at the sky and the dangerousness was vindicated. The atmosphere was strewn with dust and debris and suspended particulate matter. There was so much soot in the air that the swimming pool in front of our house got very dirty with black dust falling from the sky. Although the fire was raging, thankfully it wasn't spreading towards our area and having come to know about that, our confidence - of not being evacuated - improved.

By Wednesday morning, the evacuation orders for the neighboring area got lifted and we started feeling much safer. In fact evacuation orders were also removed for areas which had been damaged by fire and people started to come back to see the state of their houses. The California fire department and the emergency services did a fantastic job of intimating people much before the fire broke out and by issuing mandatory evacuation orders. It is evident from the fact that - although a total of about 300000 acres were burning as a result of the various fires - there was only 1 casualty, but the damage to houses and property and land was huge. In fact my boss's house sustained substantial damage and the most common question on such people's mind was - "WHY ME??"

Thursday seemed like just another day. The office was open again, most of the shops were functioning like there was never anything wrong. Although office was open, attendance was low. The fires were still raging but far away from any nearby areas. By now the winds had changed direction, they were again flowing from west to east. The temperatures had dipped and the humidity increased. Buoyed by the weather, the firemen started to make fantastic progress in containing and in some places even extinguishing the fire.

By Friday everything was near normal. The air was clear - one could see the blue skies, it had become cooler again, the winds had died. In short a perfect California day.

Its amazing how - even after having made fantastic progress in science and technology and weather forecasting, etc - we are still at the mercy of mother nature's fury. Be it Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes or even Wild Forest Fires.

Obituaries

This post is dedicated all those with whom, I've interacted at some point or other but are now no more. I have been very close to some, I have been lucky to have seen and interacted with some, I have spent my formative years with some and I've played and/or studied with some.

The first dedication has to go to this wonderful lady. She's right in the middle of the picture, holding my little baby sister, while I'm grinning away to glory, sitting just next to her. My Great Grand Mother. Not many can boast about having seen and lived with their great grand mother. Apparently, my dad made a promise to my grand-dad (on his death bed) that he will take care of his (grand-dad's mother) - a last wish which my dad fulfilled completely. All throughout my great-grand-mom lived with us. When I was young, she used to narrate stories from "Ambuli-mama". It was the Tamil equivalent of Chandamama. My mom tells me that...This one day she (my great-grand-mom) was tired and didnt narrate me a story and I got so pissed at her that I hit her on her head with a stick. Poor great-grand-mom nursed a swelling for a couple of days. My dad used to tell me, she loved watching TV. Those days we had a B/W TV by a brand named Standard. She loved watching Shammi Kapoor movies and named him "naakku-poochi" (earthworm in Tamil) for he used to wriggle a lot when dancing. Hahaha...cute sense of humor! We took her to Juhu beach and she walked with us along the beach clinging onto my dad's hand. She died in 1986 at the grand old age of 92. May she rest in peace.

My next dedication goes to this lady with whom I was extremely-extremely close. My grand-mother. When I was young (about 2 years old), I used to accompany my granny for grocery shopping. Thats the earliest memory I have and I can still remember waiting outside our house in Matunga, playing under a Jamul tree, waiting for granny to come out. During my 1st-2nd-3rd standard, we used to get copy-writing books and were asked to write atleast 5 pages daily to improve our handwriting. I was too lazy and my granny (a convent educated lady) used to complete the homework, by holding my hand and writing. My granny used to adore me like anything. I accompanied her on many of her "tirth yatras". I went along with her to visit Pandharpur. After my 10th, I accompanied her on a month long trip to all the famous temples of TamilNadu. She is the first lady (the second being my sister) in our family to have gone out of the country. Sometime during the late 80s or early 90s, my youngest uncle (her youngest son) took her to visit Bahrain and Singapore. When I was young, I used to fight and argue with my cousins to take her from their house to bring her to our house and also vice-versa. The last time I met her, she was tremendously ill, bed-ridden and seeing my long hair, she commented - "Yenna ponnu maadri thalamudi valathundirukkai" (What, you've grown hair like a girl). Although I laughed out loud at that, I was crying from the inside seeing her in such a terrible state. She had undergone a hip replacement surgery and developed some post operational complications which resulted in short term memory loss. Slowly her health started fading and finally she left us on April 17th 2007. It is my greatest regret that I could not be with her at the time of her demise. May god give her soul peace.

I'll start of my next remembrance with the following sanskrit verse.

Nana Dharma Nigooda Tatva Nichita
Yat Sankskriti Rajate
Seyam Bharatabhoornitanta Ruchira
Mataiva Naha Sarvada
Tasya Unnati Hetavehi bhavataam
Gyanam tatha may balam
Sampanna balashalini Vijayatam
Me Matrubhuhu sarvada.

This was one of the most complicated sanskrit verses that I had ever learnt and known during my 3 years of learning Sanskrit in school. This was the 10th standard and it was the sanskrit oral exams. We had to byheart all the poems from the whole textbook and the teacher would ask us to recite any verse and explain the meaning. I distinctly remember I was asked to recite the above verses by our sanskrit teacher. She was one of the senior-most and most respected of all the teachers. She had an excellent command of sanskrit and spoke impeccable english too. Her knack of explaining the complex sanskrit grammar and simplifying the english translation was very unique. She used to encourage me a lot and I owe a lot to her. In 2003, I was in Germany and this one-day I read in the online version of the Times of India about a series of shocking deaths involving Indians in the US. I was a bit saddened. Some days later when I was talking to mom, she suddenly mentioned that teacher Pushpa Ramanathan and her family met with an accident in CA and she's no more. I was dumbfounded. I immediately looked up the article in Times Of India and re-read it. The article had mis-spellt her name. The demise of the family was a huge shock to my dad too. Thats because, Pushpa-teacher's husband and my dad used to work for the same company and they were very good friends. The only survivor in the car crash was Pushpa teacher's grand daughter. Mom told me that Pushpa teacher's daughter who is also in the States is now taking care of her. With a great deal of effort and thanks to Google, I was able to search the news snippets and I found two. One from The Union Democrat and the other, exact same article I had read some 4 years back from the online edition of The Times of India. Aum Shanti...Shanti...Shanti.

Sometimes I do think what it would feel to be dead! I mean would I still feel my body, feel pain, feel happiness, feel sorrow, feel drunk, feel vibrant, feel ecstatic?? Will it be a dark, cold, chasm where time stands still or will it feel like a free fall into a pit thats bottomless or will it be like entering into a star so bright that the light can be "seen" with eyes shut. I fear what would be the experience of death. I fear death. Yes I do. May god give peace to all dead people. AMEN!

P.S: I also wanted to post about my childhood friend Sameer Rane and my College mate Shrikant Pawar who died rather young (before they even reached 25), but I dont have much to say about them since they weren't very close to me. Nonetheless, I still pray for them and their families. God bless them. God bless all.