Stories Untold from the U of I

Blog Moved

2008-10-28T23:06:00.002-05:00

Blog Moved......

http://onelifecarpediem.wordpress.com

22

2008-09-26T10:24:00.001-05:00

I am officially 22, graduate, broke and unemployed. A sober birthday after 4 years.

I guess Microsoft doesn't like Google Chrome that much

2008-09-10T13:48:00.003-05:00

Click on photo for a larger image.

The philosophy and science behind Anti Matter and CERN

2008-09-09T14:36:00.005-05:00

Before I start this discourse on the philosophy and science behind anti matter, I would like to mention that I am neither an philosopher or a particle physicist. This is very much a foray in uncharted territory for me as it is for the people at CERN reportedly attempting to re create the big bang.
Anti Matter/ God's particle/ Higgs Boson call it what you want. Newton's theory states that every action has an equal and opposite reactions. The world is filled with symmetrical opposites. Sunrise and Sunset, Good and Evil, Proton and Electron, Positron and Neutrino's, Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, Christian Cross, Hindu Swastika. The list goes on. Logic says Matter has a opposite - Anti Matter. The big deal with this regard is that, this anti matter is missing. Or gone missing at least by the time that Humans were capable of inhabiting the planet. Curiosity has and will also be the important characteristic of humans, a quest to known the unknown, to create the uncreatable. No wonder Tom Cruise still makes Mission Impossible movies. The quest for Anti Matter started a long time back, with the increase in study of particle physics. Stephen Hawkings "A brief History of Time" piqued the curiosity of the normal man to understand the origins of the human race. To understand time zero. The point of impact during which the Big Bang occurred exploding into a entire galaxy. All mathematical derivations are valid to an exact point but go haywire when time tends to zero. Since math couldn't help us anymore, CERN now quests to understand by practically trying to re enact the Big Bang. Anti Hydrogen was produced by CERN in 2005, but it still didn't explain why exactly time zero would occur or why only matter stayed while anti matter disappeared. Hence the LHC project and D-day tomorrow in the depths of the Franco Swiss border. I am not capable of understanding or explaining the exact science behind the process, but the basic concept is to collide high speed neutrons beam and cause high impact collision and analyze the matter left behind after the collision. The hope is to find particles created at the point immediately after time zero, thus hoping for an explanation of the missing anti matter(With Dark Mater, the two unknown's cover most of the matter in the galaxy, The known reportedly cover 4%). Thats the science. The results will be known as the week, month and years go on. Now to the philosophy.
Religion explains Big Bang as an act of god. This is supported by the fact that, we cannot as of yet explain why time zero occurred. Why that specific time. Religion says, god made it happen. Science has no answer to this. With the creating of anti matter, science created something which were the first steps to shows that we could re create something believed extensively to have been made only by god. Hence the further attempts being made to show that, time zero occurred for a reason. An explanation other than "An act of god". Whether the occurrences of this week would, solve the question is a issue even the die hard gambler would have poor odds to bet on. It is a foray into the unknown. Whatever the results may be, the fact remains that religion is a creature of faith, not of reason. Explanation of the creation of galaxy could be explained by particle physics, but how much will it stick to the general masses. The version "God created Adam and Eve" has no proof. No reason for us to believe. But people do. Will particle physics be able to change this unquestionable faith. Even if it does, will it be capable of inspiring the masses, as religion does. A common man seeks god for faith. For inspiration. For a silent prayer. God is an belief or an idea. A idea that there is someone looking out for you. A atheist, a particle physicist, a agnostist, a person like me with eclectic views and contradicting ideas, all in this sub set sometime or the other hope that some one is helping them. In a similar way why can't the person who believes in god see the idea of god as very simply someone who looks out for him. Will the God of Particle Physics provide these for the people.
Part 2 of this discourse will follow after the test is conducted....But of course true results of the test will take years to unravel

Abuse 101 and the solutions to man's conundrum

2008-08-28T19:28:00.005-05:00

Walking through another of New Jersey's quite unnecessarily grown forest lands in between residential complexes, malls, office buildings and any other sort of structure that man has learnt to build I had the privilege of once again teaching non Tamil speaking people the wonders of the Tamil abuses. Hence the idea of Abuse 101. A introductory class exploring the intricate connection between abuses in multiple language. Being a multi linguist with regard to abuses, in this introductory class I plan to cover the languages of Tamil, Hindi and English. Let us begin.
To start of with, all languages in general have an unnatural liking to associate their abusive(A) words with male and female genitalia(Latin). The love seems to be mutual taking into account that when the genitalia is its use to preserve our growth rate, the A words flow out spontaneously. Let us take an example.
English - Dick, Pussy, Asshole(The last term may not be essential in exchanging body fluids to contribute to the preservation of lineage but tell that to the people into it(Pun intended)
Hindi- Chut, Gand, Lund
Tamil- Mairu(Again this is not a exact part of the genitalia but then Abuse 101 is an art and not an exact science)
There are a few more terms especially in Tamil, but I could not classify them as abuses. Those are just used by people without Abuse ethics while using Abusive language. A status must also be maintained when the terms are used.
Common Prefixes used: Both English and Tamil have a word which can be prefixed before any Abusive word. Here again the similarity is uncanny. Tamil has Otha and English has Fuck. Both have a literal translation of indulging in the act of intercourse, but the list of applications that it can be used for is beyond the scope of this introductory class. They can be used before any future Abusive word you can learn and it will still sound hip.
Darwin's theory of evolution(I am totally in love with it) says that the needs of our future generation will always come before us. That may be the reason by, Abusive words have also been framed in such a manner that, most common abuses indulge in degrading out lineage, hence inducing a guilt on the abusee by the abuser. Examples range from the commonly used Bastard, Son of a Bitch in the language of English, Thevudia Pulla and Lavadikabal in Tamil which are exact translation of the fore mentioned English words. Hindi uses a more subtle way of abusing our lineage by inducing the topic of female's of the family with the use of the words Maa Ki Chut, Behenchod and numerous other combination.
The language of Abuses is a topic of very little study, but contains essential points which illuminates man's needs and weakness. More importantly it may also contain hidden nuggets of knowledge which will require further study. For example, a common joke/quote/proverb(call it what you want) say "Men have blood to fill their brain and their penis but never at the same time". A common abuse in English is "Dick Head". Were our fore fathers and pioneers of the language pointing to god that he made a crucial error with the anatomy of the male body. Shouldn't the Dick and the head been close to each other so that blood can flow to both at the same time. Were the pioneers of the abusive words suggesting solution to man's conundrum.
PS: This post is probably not suitable for kids. I should have probably posted this at the top, but then I am an exception to Darwin's Theory.

A little family history before A little bit of religion after

2008-08-14T12:19:00.003-05:00

I wished to name this post as "Why am I not religious". But then I realised I had a give an account of religion in my family history before I go onto myself.
It has been said "Friends are the family we get to choose". Many things we are just born into. One of them is religion. In most cases, the decision of our religion is choosen is the distant past maybe even at the peak of our long forgotten family tree. My family tree is also one such tree. The only knowledge I have is little snippets that I have heard from random evaesdropping of conversation when I was a kid.
I came from a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family coming from a distant village of Angadipuram/Govindarajapuram near the Pallakad district in present day Kerala. Now comes a little family history which my esteemed 5 readers have never heard. BTW is someone else is reading my blog, please leave a note. Currently my readership is 5 but I probably would like that to increase. Back to the topic of family history. My great grand father and great grand mother were rich. Not in the current sense by holding stocks, funds and bank accoutns in the Cayman Islands. They reportedly owned most of the village during the british era. Then came the catastrophic event of the patriach of the family losing his way and being duped by a fake religious man ( I cannot remeber his name but apparently his little act was caught later on when we got out independence) The patriach of the family being a religious zealot donated all the land and the money to the con man, left normal life....That is all I know about the Patriach. This was in the early 1930's when my grand mom was just born and few years old. The only assest left was the house which now had a Matriach and 7 children one of them my grandmother. Then comes the depletion of the assest as parts of it was sold each time for different marriages of the children and for base survival. Comes 1950, my dad was born in Govindarajapuram again near the pallakad district. Again born with in a religious Iyer family with a pious mother ( my grand mother) and a pious grandfather who i never knew. Come 1986, I am born in Madras. Descendant of a religious zealot, pious grand parents and religious parents. A dad who does "Tharpanam" on every "Amavasai", a mom who fast on some day of week, I am not sure which one and a grand mom who prays for atleast a hour every morning at 6AM. My sister's religious beliefs I am not very sure of, but she does go to the occasional temple. So I should have been religious right. Maybe not right now, but atleast when I was a kid. When I was four or five or nine or ten. If my memory serves me right, I have never prayed with actual belief ever. Not when was a little kid who height was around the knee height of a normal person. As a kid, I used to keep my eyes open when everyone closed there eyes. No one would even know I had my eyes open. The prayers in school were more about shouting that seeking solace from the god. All my preliminary teachings as kid should have made me beleive because there was nothing to contradict them. I had no reason to dis beleive at that point of time. But I did. With no previous knowledge, I still refused to beleive. Was always a skeptic. Everyone I know well and good, skeptics and non beleivers, Beleivers and zealots. Everyone had the belief as a kid. Atheist or Agnostic, everyone seemed to have been beleivers before changing their stance. I seemed to have never been capable of that belief. Of that faith. Maybe the whole concept of praying and waiting for the prayer to be answered was never my style. Patience is not one of my virtues.
P.S: I am not religious but I do not by any means condemn religion or faith in god

Being South Indian Isnt easy...

2008-07-23T18:50:00.001-05:00

A hilarious copied article courtesy Koshal
"My friend forwarded a great piece on how hard it is to be a south indian male at this time, in this world. This seems to be an article written by south indian living in Mumbai (Bombay). There are some exaggerations but it is a great read and I definitely can relate to some of the situations.

The Travails of Single South Indian men of conservative upbringing” or
“Why we don’t get any…”

Yet another action packed weekend in Mumbai, full of fun, frolic and
introspection. I have learnt many things. For example having money
when none of your friends have any is as good as not having any. And
after spending much time in movie theatres, cafes and restaurants I
have gathered many insights into the endless monotony that is the love
life of south Indian men. What I have unearthed is most disheartening.
Disheartening because comprehension of these truths will not change
our status anytime soon. However there is also cause for joy. We never
stood a chance anyway. What loads the dice against virile, gallant,
well educated, good looking, sincere mallus and tams? (Kandus were
once among us, but Bangalore has changed all that.)

Our futures are shot to hell as soon as our parents bestow upon us
names that are anything but alluring. I cannot imagine a more
foolproof way of making sure the child remains single till classified
advertisements or that maternal uncle in San Francisco thinks
otherwise. Name him “Parthasarathy Venkatachalapthy” and his inherent
capability to combat celibacy is obliterated before he could even
talk. He will grow to be known as Partha. Before he knows, his smart,
seductively named northy classmates start calling him Paratha. No
woman in their right minds will go anyway near poor Parthasarathy. His
investment banking job doesn’t help either. His employer loves him
though. He has no personal life you see. By this time the Sanjay
Singhs and Bobby Khans from his class have small businesses of their
own and spend 60% of their lives in discos and pubs. The remaining 40%
is spent coochicooing with leather and denim clad muses in their
penthouse flats on Nepean Sea Road. Business is safely in the hands of
the Mallu manager. After all with a name like Blossom Babykutty he
cant use his 30000 salary anywhere. Blossom gave up on society when in
school they automatically enrolled him for Cookery Classes. Along with
all the girls.

Yes my dear reader, nomenclature is the first nail in a coffin of
neglect and hormonal pandemonium. In a kinder world they would just
name the poor southern male child and throw him off the balcony. “Yes
appa we have named him Goundamani…” THUD. Life would have been less
kinder to him anyway.

If all the women the Upadhyays, Kumars, Pintos and, god forbid, the
Sens and Roys in the world have met were distributed amongst the
Arunkumars, Vadukuts and Chandramogans we would all be merry casanovas
with 3 to 4 pretty things at each arm. But alas it is not to be. Of
course the south Indian women have no such issues. They have names
which are like sweet poetry to the ravenous northie hormone tanks.
Picture this: “Welcome, and this is my family. This is my daughter
Poorni (what a sweet name!!) and my son Ponnalagusamy (er..
hello..)..” Cyanide would not be fast enough for poor Samy. Nothing
Samy does will help him. He can pump iron, drive fast cars and wear
snazzy clothes, but against a braindead dude called Arjun Singhania he
has as much chance of getting any as a Benedictine Monk in a Saharan
Seminary.

Couple this with the other failures that have plagued our existence.
Any attempt at spiking hair with gel fails miserably. In an hour I
have a crown of greasy, smelly fibrous mush. My night ends there.
However the northy just has to scream “Wakaw!!!” and you have to peel
the women off him to let him breathe. In a disco while we can manage
the medium hip shake with neck curls, once the Bhangra starts pumping
we are as fluid as cement and gravel in a mixer. Karan Kapoor or Jatin
Thapar in the low cut jeans with jockey strap showing and see through
shirt throws his elbows perfectly, the cynosure of all attention. The
women love a man who digs pasta and fondue. But why do they not see
the simple pleasures of curd rice and coconut chutney? When poor
Senthilnathan opens his tiffin box in the office lunch room his female
coworkers just dissappear when they see the tamarind rice and
poppadums. The have all rematerialised around Bobby Singh who has
ordered in Pizza and Garlic bread. (And they have the gall to talk of
foreign origin.)

How can a man like me brought up in roomy lungis and oversized
polyester shirts ever walk the walk in painted on jeans (that makes a
big impression) and neon yellow rib hugging t shirts? All I can do is
don my worn “comfort fit” jeans and floral shirt. Which is pretty low
on the “Look at me lady” scale, just above fig leaf skirt and feather
headgear a la caveman, and a mite below Khakhi Shirt over a red t
shirt and baggy khakhi pants and white trainers a la Rajni in
“Badsha”.

Sociologically too the tam or mallu man is severely sidelined. An
average tam stud stays in a house with, on average, three
grandparents, three sets of uncles and aunts, and over 10 children.
Not the ideal atmosphere for some intimacy and some full throated
“WHOSE YOUR DADDY!!!” at the 3 in the morning. The mallu guy of course
is almost always in the gulf working alone on some onshore oil rig in
the desert. Rheumatic elbows me thinks.

Alas dear friends we are not just meant to set the nights on fire. We
are just not built to be “The Ladies Man”. The black man has hip hop,
the white man has rock, the southie guy only has idlis and tomato
rasam or an NRI account in South Indian Bank Ernakulam Branch. Alas as
our destiny was determined in one fell swoop by our nomenclature, so
will our future be. A nice arranged little love story. But the agony
of course does not end there. On the first night, as the stud sits on
his bed finally within touching distance and whispers his sweet
desires into her delectable ear, she blushes, turns around and
whispers back “But amma has said only on second saturdays…”

In one last effort here we attractive young men have taken on alter
egos which may interest some of you women:

1. Gautam Kumar Raja, will now be known as Joshua Perreira

2. Sidin Sunny Vadukut, henceforth will be known as Dev Chopra

3. Ashwath Venkataraman is now Vijay Desai

4. Sudarshan Ramakrishnan no more, from now he is Barath Sharma

5. Gautam Chandrasekharan will now respond to Alyque Shah

Do mail me any time for a meeting with one of the above. One week
notice if Italian or Chinese food is involved, or if the individual is
expected to dance."

Rahman: The repititive Mozart of Madras??

2008-07-23T15:47:00.004-05:00

A quote was Entourage, the famously slick HBO show was " Quentine Tarantino always steals from the best". I don't know about whether Tarantino steals from the best or not,or whether he even steals or not, but Tarantino movies are still good to watch.
A.R.Rahman, a reported alumni of my school, quoted repeatedly as the Mozart of Madras has also been suspect of stealing his music from others. This is not from just any source but from the great cynic of my time, the mercurial royalty with whom I had was honored to have contact with, henceforth heralded as the "Prince of Calicut" or simply to those who loved him as "That cali bastard". I don't even know if this allegation was true also, but then this allegation was from the person who said he could get the CBSE board exam papers from Arunachal Pradesh. But recently I have noticed, Rahman songs are repetitive. His two latest movies Jaane Tu Na Jaane Na(Hindi) and Sakkarakati(Tamil) both had songs which seemed to me to be mere or part repetition from his earlier compositions. The Hindi songs were similar to songs that had been earlier composed in Tamil movies and vice versa.
1)Pappu Can't Dance: Apparently its inspired or similar in some way to Girlfriend from Boys. I didn't quite get that, but it was quoted from one of the music reviews from indiaglitz.com
2)Nazerein Milana: This one I am sure has a strong inspiration from a Tamil song. Which that song is I haven;t quite reached a conclusion for. It have a fleeting remembrance of the actress who was in the tamil counterpart song. I have an intuition that it is "Athan Varuvaga" from Dum Dum Dum but couldn't find the exact connection. Also Dum Dum Dum has a different music director.
3) Naan Epodhu: A exact copy out of " Yeh Rishta Kya" from Meenaxi
4) Chinname: Again exact copy from Meenaxi(I don't think the Tamil movie is a remake of Meenaxi)
5) Elay Ulagam: A take off RooBaroo from Rang De Basanthi according to indiaglitz. I am not quite sure about this either and also indiaglitz is not really good review site.
On the contrary the jazz song in Jaane Tu "Tu bole Mein Bolo"was very impressive. I thought it would be very similar to the one in Jillunu Oru Kadhal was it sounded original to this limited music critic. Apart from being Jazzy, their ended the similarity. "Tu Bole" sung by Rahman(I think) has a more traditional jazz song outlook with stops and lyrics which are just string up together, while "JOK" was a mix of Jazz and the more traditional type of instruments that you might expect in Indian music.
Just so that you know, even though the songs were similar, inspired or repeated they all sounded pretty good. The "Paapu cant Dance" being a classic especially with the song having pretty much the resume of the person strung up to music.
P.S. I may quite be making up all these similarities because of the fact that I am quite jobless which seems to have heightened my other senses.Damn

Why everyone needs a hero

2008-07-01T19:03:00.004-05:00

From the earliest stories written, from Homer's Illiad and Odyssey to the latest techno thrillers of Tom Clancy and Dan Brown , from romantic tragedies of the Shakespeare to the horror stories of Frankenstein, from the romantic comedies of Mid Summer Nights dream to the sleazy college flicks of National Lampoon a common aspect that's been transported from generation to generation has been the aspect of having a person, male or female, hero or heroine having a larger than life nature, quenching our genetic thirst for a hero figure in any tale that we listen to or even participate in(Here I am metaphorically implying this second tale to be life).
I recently read the "The Fountainhead" which is regarded as one the all time classic fiction novels written by Ayn Rand. The book talks more about abstruse concept of objectivism which according to me is a very flawed concept which exists only in extremes and doesn't apply to the major part of the population. Parts of objectivism can be found in me, other parts in others, but a person who exhibits all his aspect is well, lets just put that it can only be part of fiction. Moving away from that slight digression, the book brought to light to me the need for a hero. I am not talking about the typical "do gooding" hero. Just simply a larger than life person. The protagonist in the book is by no means a lovable character. He is neither a do gooder or an evil person. He just is a larger than life character. Going beyond just pronouncing judgment on the actions of the character, the very actions when emotionally detached produce a larger than life image of the hero. You can hate the hero or love the hero, the character may be an anti hero or the most benevolent person but there is simply a need for him. It is difficult to move away from the character even if you detest the characters actions or find yourself inundated by his altruistic nature. This is what I felt with Fountainhead. I hated every moment I was reading the book but the characters had too much of an allure for me to stop reading the book. I am not sure if the book was written to portray such an image of the characters or whether it was a direct example of why we need hero's. But I would have to concede that I am a self confessed hero worshiper.(Stolen from its namesake book"Confessions of a hero Worshiper" by S.J. Dubner though I have no idea whether the book has anything to do with the title)Without an hero, a concept let it be a movie, book or play has no place to go, to inherent direction. The hero is the one who gives the direction. Call him the protagonist, champion of a cause, the crux of the story. The hero forms the heart and soul of the characters of the story that is being told. It is against him that they line up. In a simple concept, he acts a boundary line between those who support the character and those who are against him. That is a over simplified example of a far more complex concept which changes with each story told. And this very simple fact that, the hero forms the boundaries of the any story told helps in understanding my concept of the requirement of a hero in real life. This hero can be fictional or an actual person, but that is the person from whom you draw inspiration, a sort of meaning for your meandering life.
P.S. The book is a must read-"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

A new title is required

2008-06-06T14:17:00.005-05:00

I need a new title for my blog, considering I am a new graduate and bound to move from the U of I sooner or later, hopefully the former. The sands of time has come to its final stretch and a new hour glass has to begin.....

Himesh in Tamil

2008-05-02T17:11:00.009-05:00

Himesh just sang a song in Dasavatharam. I don't have the time now to deeply dwell in the beauty of the song and his great pronunciation of the tamil words, but I couldn't help but post it here. Stay tuned for a greater analysis of the song in the up coming future. The best part of the song is where he says "Tum Tum Tum Tum" multiple times in customary enigmatic fashion.
P.S:Please note the Label of the entry

Rants on Theology by a skeptic

2008-04-27T18:04:00.009-05:00

Genesis
1:1 - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
1:2 - And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
1:3 - And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
1:4 - And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
The truth behind the presence of the higher power has long been discussed and fought over many centuries. With the presence of countless religions, the soul of god has been ripped apart into so many parts you can draw analogies to the horcruxes from the now legendary Harry Potter series. Even though i might not exactly believe the entire truth behind the let there be light concept, the big bang theory explaining the theory behind the creation of the universe still doesn't give the answer but why it happened. The scientific explanation is perfect of how, but it still doesn't explain the question of why then and also why at all. Thats were the concept of god come in, which has split and ripped apart the god into so many different entities, its quite understandable why faith is such a hard thing to maintain these days. Religion of course induces extremes of atheism to religious zealots and fanaticism. Atheists are as foolish religious zealots in the fact that they disregard something that can actually act as one of the most effective means of inspiration-Faith. This faith doesn't necessarily have to be in a god person per say but more like a higher power.
A little background on some of the world religions. Three major religions in the world, namely Christianity , Judaism and Islam all come out from the same god. That would at least be what the family tree of Abraham would say. Christianity was a spin off of Judaism, Moses was the main prophet of Judaism who came from the family line of Abraham and his son Issac and Muhammad was also the prophet of Islam who also ironically comes from the same lineage of Abraham other son Ishmael. Hence literally speaking the three major religions of this world has the same god. So my venomous question is of course, considering that they pray to the same god, maybe in different languages, then how is it that god sets out different rules, different commandments to different people. Its like god choose to say that Jews and Christians can drink while Muslims can't or that they cant eat Pork while the other can. That is where my unique and weird point of views comes in that Religion is nothing other than a aberration caused due to human error. I do not believe that when us lower forms of spiritual existence have understood that it is bad to discriminate, but that god choose to discriminate and choose who has the right to do something while some one else doesn't. After all Jesus Christ, Moses and Muhammad were humans like us after all. They might have attained a higher level of spirituality than us, but then they were susceptible to the same errors as we are. The Torah, Bible, the Koran,the Bhagavad Gita and countless other religious texts are all written by basic humans of the yesteryear. The are the view and interpretation of humans of gods message. I am not sure whether Moses or Jesus or Muhammad or the various Hindu authors suffered Divine Intervention while they wrote the texts or whether they were just brilliant and talented men who wrote codes which they wished their people to follow, it still means that they were just interpreting the previously written messages of god in the way in which they saw fit. Hence the human differences arise dividing people and god into factions. Factions that come from one and have essentially the same higher power. Even in the Hindu religion the different gods are just mentioned as avatars of the same supreme power of Brahma the creator. A little thing i picked up from the fiction Angels and Demons. The protagonist of the book who is a religious symbologist says that the picture of god is represented as a bearded old man. Even in Hindu religion this is similar by the fact that even though the different avatars have different looks Brahma, the unison of all the avatars is represented as a old bearded man. God in western religion has always been represented by the old bearded man. I couldn't find any reliable pictures of Prophet Muhammad, with Google images search showing up terrorist cartoons. Fucking Pathetic. Moses has the popular image of the old man on the mountain and Jesus never lived long enough to grow old i guess but then he is also shown as a man with a beard.

I am not sure about the East Asian religions of Zoroastrianism but it is reported to have some similarities to the Hindu religions and most other religion in south east Asia are derivatives of Zoroastrianism. You can of course battle that its probably more of a fashion in those days to grow a flaying beard in those days, but then I am going to just ignore that mostly because I don't really have a explanation for that argument. It seems like a common figure as always been in the minds of the people, let it be from any religion. And that is why the most powerful people in all religions seem to be represented in the same way. By the way i picked this argument up from Angels and Demons where he compares the old man image to Zeus. That seems fair enough. Either ways that my two cents worth on a topic which I can probably keep writing on and on with no apparent conclusive answer. So I am ending it here. Amen
Khuda Hafiz
P.S: If you notice I have tried to incorporating religious traditions in the passage from four different conflicting religions. It was a lame attempt to prove unity.

Television Ads

2008-04-24T14:33:00.004-05:00

Its always nice to see a good natured and funny ad. Being in the Americas, the quality of ads is as good as....well i cant think of a funny analogy now. Anyway here is an video that i saw on you tube. Not sure when it came out(I saw it at least a year back for the first time), but I assume its been telecast in Malaysia considering its a Petronas Ad.

Sound and Sights of Cricket

2008-04-21T08:59:00.011-05:00

The IPL is here. Being a cricket fanatic of yesteryear(yesteryear equals 4 years in this case)my ability to watch cricket had dwindled in the past years mainly due to the untimely telecast of the matches usually in the early mornings according to Central Time. All that has changed with the IPL with me jumping through hoops so that i've watched all the seven matches at ungodly times such as 6:30 in the morning to a slightly more godly but still devilish 9:30. The IPL is to put in mild terms short and sweet. Three hours. Its like maybe watching a slightly long movie. It even has the music in it. You can even say it has the film stars in it. But then I have seen this mentioned in every single article I have read about it, so I will stay away but that cliche. People have even also called it a "decadent, dumbed-down, third-rate formula for sub-prime cricket". I am not going to pass judgment on that considering that I am a millionth rate cricketer who plays worse than sub prime cricket. But it has it entertainment element in it. Here are some funny, memorable things that i have seen in the choppy sopcast broadcast which I am indebted to. Latit Modi must be pissed if he knew what sopcast is. I have tried to add pictures wherever possibly, but then if they say the cricket is sub prime, I have no words for the camera work in the broadcast. The moment the batsmen swing his bat through cover or midwicket, the camera traditionally goes up in the air and probability takes over in governing whether the camera follows the ball or not. But then being 20-20, it usually works out good, but sometimes the camera swings quite dumbly trying to trace a ball in the crowds when its actually fielded by short mid wicket.
A little known player called Palani Amaranth from the TN ranji team, shouting the stump microphone "Mathew" which his beautiful madras English accent. I couldn't catch the rest of the convo but Hayden moved to a different fielding position but it was still funny to hear it coming from Madras and all.

Ricky Ponting going and talking and patting on the back of Ishant Sharma after all the great good will the pair had spread in the past series in Australia. I couldn't get a picture of that specific event, but then its pretty cool to see Ponting celebrating with a little known play called Ashok Dinda. Mind you he bowls well and maybe hes a big player in the Ranji trophy but then I dont really follow it.
Mark Boucher veteran of 114 test and 250 odd ODI's egging on little known Balachandra
Akhil who looking at his records seem to have been languishing in the Bangalore Ranji Team for a few years now. Must have been motivating for him, either ways its seems interesting for me.
I have never heard anyone speak tamil on international cricket field before. Surprising but even with Sri Lanka and Murali, I don't think I have heard Tamil being spoken. But then yesterday in the match with Delhi DareDevils here was a bowler YoMahesh shouting to Dinesh Karthik his keeper "enna da pannera". For the Tamil illiterate that means "what are you doing". The context was that Karthik through done the stumps when there was no chance of a run out and a risk of a over throw. It was funny to see the first words of Tamil on an international cricket broadcast was spoken from team from Delhi. This is understandable considering TN has the highest ration of cricket fans to players actually representing the team in international level.

Hearing Sunil Gavakar call Shahid Afridi a "Hunk". That was just plain hilarious. His whole statement was of course " From the Beauties to, to the Hunk". There was no real reason for me to put up the picture of the cheer leaders but then I thought the RedSkins should be mentioned considering they play a big part in this heterosexual tournament.
Hearing Mike Hussey come to a huge roar from the Madras crowd as i currently write this post.
The one thing missing is the commentary team that is present. Apart from the Ravi Shatri and Tony Cozier and to some extent Gavaskar(he gets boring and luckily for me Sachin is not playing so I don't have to hear him drone on about him), Ian Bishop and surprisingly Pommie Mbangwa(His voice sounds a tad like Henry Blofeld) the commentators are pathetic.
The spirit less voice of Greg Chappel, the highly and unduly shrill and over excited voice of Arun Lal who keeps reiterating the same thing in the first and last over, the blandness of SRK(as called by Rameez Raja, SRK being Laxman Sivaramakrishnan)the idiosyncrasy of Aamir Sohail stressing on every syllable that he speaks and just the fact that Rameez Raja kept pronouncing Delhi DareDevils as "Daily" DareDevils.
Other disappointing things. I cannot believe they are playing Hindi music in Madras. That's just plain silly, if you are looking to pump up the crowd. You would be better of playing English than Hindi. Also the cheerleaders .Well they do seem to be their.I am sure the Homo sexual prehistoric politicians of the city had something to do with it. Also the irritating logic of Arun Lal saying that CSK must be feeling the pressure to get a move on when they are going at 8.25 RPO at 10 overs with just two wickets lost. I am sure he must have heard of building a innings even in 20-20
P.S: They just played Tamil Music. I am pumped now.
P.S2: They have a live band playing. Now that would pump anybody up.
P.S3: There are Cheer Leaders. Home grown apparently. Not from the Red Skins. Well i guess thats more innovative than the other teams.

OPT

2008-04-09T20:49:00.005-05:00

http://www.nafsa.org/regulatory_information.sec/29_month_opt_rule_updates
There has been a new rule which extends your OPT period to 29 months if you don't get an H1B visa during the first twelve months. I am still undecided on whether I should be happy or not about it.

A crisis waiting to happen

2008-03-12T21:31:00.004-05:00

One Admiral Fallon of the United States Navy who was the senior most officer in the middle east resigned. I am no expert in the US foreign affairs, but if reports are partial true at least we can assume that the problem would be Bush's stupid approach towards Iran. A senior officer at the pinnacle of his career is not going to just resign because the press said a few things. Which brings us to a crisis. Is Bush stupid enough to start a war against Iran??
Why it would mean Doomsday to the US:
Being in the US i know how bad the economic situation is here. True my only source of information is the trickling economic figures and data through the internet. If those figures are anything to go by, Bush great statements of US not being in recession is as stupid as saying that Americans will ever be good in cricket. I do not understand how a MBA graduate can be as idiotic and naive as the current president of the US. With this economic data, a plan to attack Iran will very simply cripple the country probably even pushing the world ever so close to World War 3. Also strategically the US have no chance of even remotely achieving victory. A war against Iran would mean a war against middle eastern countries of Syria and Lebanon. It will also completely alienate the US from every single country in the world. There is no way Gordon Brown is going to support Bush as Blair did. The Germans, French, Russians and the Chinese will obviously say fuck off. India will remain non committal in any war and say the invasion is not right but we are going to do nothing to oppose it. If they but any stupid chance try attempting nuclear warfare, we will be edging closer to the doomsday phenomenon than ever before.
Why Bush and his lackies are less conservative than even Democrats:
The whole concept of conservatism has been so badly crushed and destroyed that this generation of people have been led to believe that republicans is what Bush stands by. What he stands by is a dictatorship than a democracy and by no means is it conservatism as they so proudly announce themselves. The whole concept of conservatism was built on the principle on which this country was initial built. The conservatives were the biggest supporters of the country minding it own business. The US army was supposed to be built only for it own protection. The true conservatives believed the country should have a minimal foreign policy one purely of trade and have nothing to do with military. The reason the US became so powerful was because they mind their own business. They were the last country to enter WW1. They were the last to enter WW2. That was how this country was built. Non interference in the affairs for other countries. To state a fact, they believed that the American government was supposed to have minimal involvement in the lives of their own people. That is why republican usually supports lower taxes. That pretty much the only concept they seem to have held on. Abortion rights were initiated and supported in the 1950's by conservative politicians in the country. Conservatives had nothing to do with evangelicals or catholics or protestants. They were based on the fact that the American people should be left to do what they wished as long as law and order was maintained and the basic freedom of no one was affected by the actions of any other American. All these concepts have been lost in the present scenario. The present politicians especially the republicans and most democrats are a disgrace to the political system that this country was found in. I pray(ironic) that Barack Obama wins the elections. He seems to be the only one who actually understands that the best way to save this country from plummeting into a economic and social crisis is to just stop the freaking wars that the country cant afford. The FED might be pumping money that doesn't exist into the markets and to the people but all Bernake is doing is keeping his legacy of taking actions immediately going. All he is doing is saving his legacy and making sure there is not a full fledged economic depression under his watch. All that is being done is they are pushing this economic crisis to a future year.
P.S: What made me write all this. I read the most idiotic book(Barracuda 945) I have read in many years. Written by a worthless author by the name of Patrick Robinson, who felt the need to abuse every single fictional action that was done in the book which were done on the basis on which this country was made. I do not know whether he is ignorant or whether he did it for fictional purposes, but the book was so stupidly offensive that it was laughable. Laughable that some one can have such narrow perspective on people.

Rating: -5 out of 5

A wikipedia note on tamil

2008-03-10T01:22:00.005-05:00

I saw this huge article in wikipedia on how Tamil is spoken in Madras. Very funny. It might not all be comprehensively true i.e. not all of us speak all of the lingo but i think it cover a major part of conversational Tamil in Madras. And its quite funny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanglish

My own Top of the Top lists

2008-03-06T21:39:00.009-06:00

A common news item on the home page of yahoo usually of Top ten of "Some Crap". Today on IBN live, i actually found a link that rates the top and the worst nude scenes in Hollywood. So i have taken upon myself the honorable task of making up my own Top "X" of " The crap that nobody cares about".
Top 5 best facial hair in movies:
5) Tom Hanks from Castaway- Man that gorgeous red beard in the beautiful blue ocean
4) Gimli from Lord of the Rings- Dwarf may not be a species but this world hasn't seen anything as good as that piece of facial hair
5) The whole cast of Battlefield Earth: A saga of Year 3000- The movie was crappy, story was crappy, actors crappy but i think everyone had facial hair in the movie, including the women
2) Chewbacca from Star Wars- This character will need no intro for all star wars watchers. Ofcourse in this case, its more all hair than just facial hair but i guess we can manage
1) This i picked up from the web. The picture says it all.

FYI i have no idea who this is. More top X of things that no one gives crap will be updated on a hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis.
P.S: A new update. Please visit www.ibnlive.com if you wish to see the top 10 "Yummiest Dimples of Bollywood". Now why didn't i think of that crucial and important statistic.
P.S(2): My next Top Ten list is going to be cheesiest Movie Lines. This might take some work.

Homelessness and Hopelessness

2008-03-02T13:06:00.005-06:00

Warning Notice: My blog has been quite often reported to have been extremely depressing. As a word of caution this might be my most depressing post as of date. Do not read if you wish to learn no further.
I am not entirely sure if those words exist in the English dictionary. But i guess mine is the most "correct" blog in the literary sense. So here morning of the 2nd of March, at 1:00 PM i go to subway to have lunch. After lunch the usual smoke. The usual homeless guy from Green Street comes up to me to ask for a smoke. This routine has gone on from almost a year and a half now and is nothing new. Each time I usually lie about not having a extra one. This time i gave it to him and walked away. I have seen my share of homeless people in the years on the streets of Madras and here. I have been for my part apathetic to their existence. This is probably the first time I have given anything. Sensing weakness i would say, the guy came up and started to rant about how hes not eaten in 4 days. To Call what he said a rant would be an exaggeration. Before he even began his rant, I gave him the food I had in my hand, lit up and left. I seem to have lost my appetite. Couldn't even finish a foot long sub. What changed i wonder. I felt no different about him than I had felt four years back. It still think it is pathetic to land up in the streets and beg. Is the land of hopelessness any better than being homeless. Am I in any different state than him.

For the Funny Bone

2008-02-26T21:48:00.003-06:00

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles Schultz
I must say thats one of the most funniest lines i have read till now.

South Indian Stereotypes

2008-02-21T04:42:00.005-06:00

As all of you know, in India i have never lived in any other city other than madras. At least that i can remember of. So i might not know all the different stereotyping that is done on south Indian from people not from South India. They will hence in this post be referred to as North Indian(Doesn't matter whether they are from the West or the East, North of us is always North of India )I of course have only North Indian friends. Here are some or all the stereotypes i have seen and observed and to a some extent even participated in.
Madrasi Stereotype:
This is kind of old and losing in fashion these days. I have been called Madrasi but of course coming from Madras and everything, it turned out to be true. But it has been common to classify south Indians are Madrasi. This is of course fading because Madras is no more the hub of south india, thanks to yellow shawl boy and football on a golf ball girl. But thats going into an entirely different subject
Common Language Stereotype:
South India is made of 4 states. Each has four different languages. But of course we south indians are great people that we infact know all the languages. This is one way to look at it. Actually the stereotype is that all the languages are the same. People get with the picture. There is no way Tamil and Telugu is the same and its an offense to think I'm "*****"(refers to Telugu people in madras).
Rajnikanth Stereotype:
Being south Indian, you obviously have to be a fan of Rajni. Actually a fan of Rajni would be an understatement. You are excepted to worship him(This is more of a obligation, even if you don't, people just don't believe you). A common question i have also been faced with is of course whether there is a temple for him. I am not quite sure of the fact but i don't think so.
Fat Actresses Stereotype:
This one is quite hilarious and maybe even true in the yesteryear. We get it. I am sure there are a few actresses who are over weight to flaunt so much skin. But then thats probably there is any film industry in India. Times have changed. The film industry at least in Tamil is phenomenal. Get with the picture again people. Aishwarya Rai made her debut in Indian cinema in a Tamil Movie. So did Priyanka Chopra. And i think most of the popular actresses of the 1970s and 1980s might be of Tamil origin. Just because some actresses are fat doesn't mean we have a fetish for fat people.
Nariyel Pani Wala and Lungi stereotype:
This one is again widespread and ever popular. Questions of whether you were a lungi or not and also that all south Indian live on coconut water. I mean commmon. The coconut tree grows on pretty much any coastal places. Does that mean we go a Jamaicans and ask him whether he lives on coconut water. And the Lungi. Well its just another garment like the dhothi. Of course thats more sacred because well its religious. Lets just say the lungi is a more comfortably cousin of the dhothi.
Three lines across the forward syndrome stereotype:
Since your from South India, you have to have this. Quite funny considering that, it is quite alright and no so funny when everyone wears the Red tikka in North India. Its more based on ignorance of the fact that it a religious symbol of Brahmins just like the Red Tikka. Of course you cant make fun of that. Its religious.
There are of course a few more that could be prevalent but that i have no clue about. But then among us Indians, we have always chosen to make fun than to understand. I mean come on, I know that all North Indian have long, sticky red hair, speak really bad English combined with nonsensical Hindi, flock this one theater in Madras whose name i have managed to forget for a single Hindi movie release. Of course they are always from Sowcarpet and all are "seths". Saroja Samman Nikalo.
P.S: Completely forgot the Idly Sambar Dosa stereotype. That is pretty much the whole cuisine that will come to anyone mind if they think of south Indian food. I of course have no regrets about that. They are quite delicious.

My fortune

2008-02-13T08:27:00.003-06:00

So here is my fortune today according to the great fortune teller ORKUT
Your luck has been completely changed today
Well the days just started. Lets see how it goes. Got a career fair and a few other things going on today.LOLZ

Appendix

2008-02-13T04:07:00.005-06:00

Here is an interesting appendix to my previous entry. A little quote for the movie Little Miss Sunshine, stolen from IMDB.
Marcel Proust. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh... he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you're 18... Ah, think of the suffering you're gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that.
Steve Carell- Little Miss Sunshine
Well the High school and the gay part's not relevant what i meant to get to was the gist of the lines.

Pursuit of Happiness

2008-02-13T03:06:00.006-06:00

All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Thomas Jefferson-1776
These were the famous words that i had heard before the movie came out. So what is this pursuit of "happiness" or is it happyness like in the movie. In a recently conducted, study at the U of I, it has been said that the most happy people aren't those who are at the peak or highest in their career and in their relationships with other people. The study showed that apparently people who are below that are generally more happy than those at the peak of success. I'm not gonna talk more about it but if your interested the link is here.
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0124happiness.html
So is happiness everything. As i say this statement at this very second, I hear someone at 3:40 Am in a empty library ask someone "Are you Happy". Now thats is a big coincidence, but it kind of gets to the point I'm talking about here. At every point, every stage or every phase of our life, we seem to have the same self doubt. Are you happy?
Happiness corresponds to as far as I have gathered in this comparatively short life time to be money, emotional well being and most of all doing what you want to do and also getting this that you want. For the most part I haven't had a pursuit of happiness. Happiness has always been their with me going in short stints but there doesn't seem to have been a need for its pursuit. Not till this point at least. When the need for pursuing the H word come about, you need to have the mind, body, soul and the heart to be in coherence. Like the three edges of a prism with a core. Without the core, refracting those lights to produce the wonderfully recreated rainbow, the prism is all but a translucent glass body. Without the heart, the mind, body and soul can try to do all that is there to do which is good for you but ultimately, the pursuit stage of your life turns more into a struggle. Its time to get that heart to listen to Thomas Jefferson's words. They seem to be more important that ever before.

A scathing attack on some BS

2008-02-06T20:04:00.002-06:00

So i get this email on my hotmail. I never use my hotmail, so i wouldn't have seen if it wasn't for my good friend to mention there would be a hilarious email in my inbox. I assume that it would be some stupid forward that i could laugh at. Well it turned out to be something else.

A wedding invitation from some X. Of course the names been blocked for well precautionary reasons. In case the people decide to sue me or something. I wouldn't go well with me especially financially, considering I'm as close to eviction as the US being in recession, whatever Mr.W and the FED might say. After that slight deviation lets get back to the invitation. This one single invitation has more cliches in its few lines than what you might expect from a Vijay masala movie. No offense to the people involved here(even though I'm sure they would be offended) to be honest i still cannot place a face to the name that is host to this marriage. Here is my translation of what the invitation might have meant.
Disclaimers notice: The following lines are in bad taste and the views of a narcissistic person, going through a terrible phase and the outlook of the writer is highly pessimistic. The views are not a personal attack but merely a take on the invitation. The cliched lines presented may be entirely truthful and honest but i couldn't give a crap.
Preparing the Soil: So we started making out at first
Choosing a Plant: and one led to another and we choose a condom
Nurturing values of Life: Finally we realized what sex was all about
With tenderness and love: Yeah 20-21(or whatever your age is) year olds thrashing around
For generation to enjoy: So this one time we did it for the first time doggy style-Story told 25 years later to daughter and maybe 50 years later to grand daughter- Indeed a story for future generation
The aroma of Life: Man sex smells
Love defines what life is all about: Oh I'm not even gonna start on this. This is a line so cliched, even the most optimistic wouldn't fall for this one, I don't think i need to say anything about this
And one fine day: Yeah thats one truthful line in here
Jab we Met: I got knocked up
Can we call it love at first sight:): More like lust at first sight and a growing stomach the next
Surprisingly both felt the same:):): Yeah i don't think so.....I don't think a guy can get pregnant at least not as of now.
...And we are getting married: Well that the second truthful line in this i guess
Reading that, i find the take to be in quite nasty taste really. I hope people who know X and Y or worse of all X or Y never read this. But all this crap about Jab we met doesn't happen and all this love at first sight is more cliched that American president saying he needs more money for the war. I am not gonna be the one to talk any further about love as such. Not my essential strong point. Lets leave this tasteless discussion as what it is. A explanation hinging on extreme sarcasm and being just plain rude.
P.S: My real outlook on love or sex is not so crude and narcissistic. I've have essential used sex to make fun of the invitation but i most definitely don't judge it to be something so simplistic and trivial(I'm just trying to put myself in better light after that lolz). Maybe one day with a more optimistic attitude, i might have a different take on this invitation. But i doubt if i would ever accept lines of love at first sight and both felt the same. Humans aren't telepathic for goodness sakes. I would probably say life is more like this song. Good Life by Francis Dunnery
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/scrubs/goodlife.htm

How gene's can be so different

2008-02-04T01:54:00.001-06:00

So here I am sitting doing a google search on my sister and this turns up.
Pub. No / Pub. Date: 20060200047 / 7-Sep-2006
Inventor(s): Jason A. Galdonik (US)
Matthew F. Ogle (US)
James Pokorney (US)
Kavitha Ganesan (US)
Grace Wlodarski (US)
Correspondence Address: PATTERSON, THUENTE, SKAAR & CHRISTENSEN, P.A.
4800 IDS CENTER
80 SOUTH 8TH STREET
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55402-2100 (US)
Serial No. / Filed Date: 11072001 / 4-Mar-2005
U.S. class: 600/585; 606/200; 604/95
International class: A61M 29/00; A61M 25/00
Abstract:An integrated guiding device has a tube and a corewire within the tube and a torque coupler. The torque coupler can couple the rotational motion of the tube with the rotational motion of the corewire. The wire can be moved longitudinally at least some amount relative to the tube. The device can further comprise a functional medical structure, such as an embolism protection structure. The device can be used in medical procedures, such as less invasive procedures within the cardiovascular system. Improved fiber based embolism protection devices comprise fiber bundles that are twisted prior to delivery.
Apparently my sister has a invention under her name. Yes that gives me a whole new perspective on life. Sad that the brains seemed to have unfortunately missed me altogether. I guess KG(refer to earlier post)been plotting against me ever since i was born.

More articles seem have written by here which are published in well known engineering journals. Yes indeed, put me in high steed indeed. LOL

Karma's a B***H

2008-02-04T00:01:00.002-06:00

Lets say that there is only one god that i truly and honestly believe in. Don't get me wrong. I am no self proclaimed atheist. I have no such claims since they are too many things that cannot be explained by atheists. But then again I am not a true believer either. But if there is one god that i truly fear,(this term fear is of course used to bring the cliche term of "god fearing"), a god that i truly believe in then it has to be the Karma god. Of course the karma god is more a philosophical term than a religious one and this god has no religion following it and has no stone idols to represent. I would probably imagine the karma god henceforth referred to as KG as a smiling person, probably genderless(not implying a trans gender)with a smirk on the face watching over me, keeping track of all the Karma points that i have collected over numerous years. By Karma points i am referring to the different causes that have been incurred for which i am feeling the effects. In the eternal words of Morpheus, there are indeed only two things in this world. Cause and Effect. Yeah I am not a crazy fan of Matrix or anything, but the dialogue seemed to suit the moment quite well. Lets hope the almighty KG loses track of all the causes(In retrospect there seem to be too many for even me to count and who else is better to keep track of my life than your truly), hence forgetting to give me the effects because anymore of these Karma effect is going to push me over the edge of maniacal. KG my genderless friend, its time to cut me some slack. I hope you understand this mindless American slang but being stuck in between a cliff and a hard rock is not the most ideal place to be for anyone.....ESPECIALLY ME

Big Black Hole

2007-10-26T17:16:00.002-05:00

Just when you thought things could get no worse. So that thing they call the boxing ring base. Well it just vanished now. All thats left to happen is the spiraling fall into nothingness that awaits me. The big black hole is sucking. Inevitable

Blue and Orange

2007-10-24T13:36:00.001-05:00

The Illini football team were actually winning. That is before i started watching football for the first time in my life that is. They lost the last two games i saw which sucks. They will probably came a good comeback in the homecoming game even though they aren't playing a big ten opponent this week. Of course i hate the colors of blue and orange now because it the color of the career website www.careerbuilder.com. I have been hooked onto this website try to weed out jobs that i can apply to and all i see these days are these pathetic colors staring at my face. Grossly unfair that i should hate the colors of my school but oh well I have become more or less disillusioned lately and all the light at the end of the never ending tunnel that i can see is that of blue and orange coming out of the computer screen. Lot of good this has done for me. Got 3 different call backs for marketing jobs that i don't even want. All those hours of staring to get a job involving traveling to the riveting suburbia lifestyle of the United States to sell insurance and other financial stuff to the gloriously ancient retired people. The sarcasm might be a little exaggerated but then so is the crisis. FYI i got a couple of other fashion marketing position interviews. Now that would be ideal job for me for sure. Optimism is so over rated. My take is that what really happens is that you get punched over and over again, till your down and the countdown goes and that the only moment where you can take a breather because once your up all your gonna do is get punched again. There are no time outs and end of rounds and they is definitely no finishing bell. The punches stop only is you got something to give probably steroids but once the steroids get over well its time for the punching again and the inevitable low blow. See once the status quo is broken there is only two ways to go. You either get up and give a low blow of your own or your back down in the gap between the freaking marinas trench and the great wall of china. Geographical a impossible phenomenon to have the two place adjacent to each other , but then I've been comparing everything to a boxing bout so i guess this geographical fallacy is valid. This is no Rope a Dope strategy that I'm talking about her and I'm no character in the fucking "When we Were Kings" movie. The person getting tired is me and this ain't no bloody "Rumble in the Jungle". After all those punches what you got is spiteful sarcasm, disillusionment and clinical depression. Anyways enough of this cryptic nonsense for now. But then there is nothing pleasing to really say. 548 Days. More cryptic that ever before.

No one loves a bank but then everyone needs it

2007-09-20T16:38:00.001-05:00

No one loves a bank but then everyone needs it

Patterns

2007-08-12T22:21:00.001-05:00

Nostradamus supposedly made a number of predictions around 500 years ago. Maybe more. Of course no one can say for sure whether he made the predictions or was he just plain lucky in a few which made other look at his predictions and compare them to real happening. Of course predicting events now is much more to do with following patterns. Of course i am not talking about astrology or anything. I am talking about predicting occurrences in normal circumstances such as in politics, the stock market or any market for that case or in human behavior. Everyone follows patterns. Randomness is very difficult to establish and even with randomness everything eventually has an underlining pattern to it which if closely studied can be found and followed. Predicting patterns is a very useful trick that if used well can be useful in preventing surprising events. In stock markets of course patterns can be essential in study the way things go. Up or down. Patterns in these can be understood more statistically and with tedious studies this is extremely useful to make a successful investor. Studying statical patterns are very difficult to follow and proving these patterns will take a long period of study before they can be completely reliable. Patterns in human behavior is more easily understood in the initial part but of course, there is an inherent randomness that can throw patterns into the dumpster. But like all human behavior, people are more comfortable with doing the same things. Hence understanding human patterns can be used to make predictions on what going to happen, when its going to happen and in many useful cases why things are being done or why things happen. For example, I'm in Chicago on Sunday with nothing much to do. So I'm writing this blog entry. This in itself is a steady pattern. Such patterns can be observed in every single person. The more you know a person, the more these patterns are obvious and more predictable actions become. This is of course why countries have separate set of diplomats for each country, with each studying human behavior. Studying patterns in human behavior can be very useful in predicting patterns in which different people behave, hence helping people predict policy changes etc. Everything have patterns. People follow in patterns. These patterns can be predicted. Predicting patterns means you look into things which you normally don't. Predicting patterns means a unnecessary insightful look into simply things which leads to probably correct but either ways depressing conclusions which unfortunately seem to all turn out to be right. Studying patterns suck. But people turn out to be predictable. Unfortunately nothing ever changes. Patterns are similar, the same things happen. Nothing changes.

Blasphemous

2007-07-04T02:36:00.001-05:00

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/anuradhasengupta/164/2061/sivaji-the-boss-of-crap.html
Excerpts
"The plot, the story telling, the antics, are so camp and ludicrous that you can only wonder that anyone can be so brave. And so narcissistic (Note potshots at other Tamil stars). And self indulgent (over three hours and self mythifying comments). And crass (see innumerable scenes wooing heroine in the first half)"
"The dialogues which I couldn't understand, the only Tamil I know is - Chaddi pota ko - and with no subtitles for help - I missed the nuances, and there seemed to be some. Of course one way of looking at it is see the whole film as a joke. Some of my friends raved about how what I thought was Sivaji's absurdity was exactly what made it deserve outside its language market, a cult following. I am afraid I think we are desperate and clawing to find legends and myths"
"Except for some quirky graphics and some stylish sequences - one song in particular that I am going to refer to as the GORA song - which was crazy, funky and sarcy, Sivaji was the boss. Of crap. And I am the pig. Who followed the herd"
Blasphemy will be a preety apt title picked up by me just for the effect. Being the demi god as some say down in Madras, the title seems even more apt. Blasphemy for the naive is ofcourse "defamation of a god".I am no fanatic but the opinion in many senses was written out of pure ignorance than anything else. Firstly i dont understand the logic behind the watching of a movie even though you know you are not going to understand a single word out of it. Then if you do that, I am sure you cannot except to see the logic behind the movie since you will not be able to understand it. The author of the opinion, who did not understand tamil could not have possible hoped to have an enlightening experience watching the movie considering the well known fact to herself that she did not understand the language. It might be said, you can get a hang of the concept, which i can understan. But even that is quite impossible. Tamil has no reasonable connection with Hindi, hence is quite incomprehensible to the non speaker. Ofcourse similarly if i had gone to watch a Japanese movie I would have felt that the movie was crap. But then i would not be voicing my opinion saying it was crap, because of the very simple fact that my opinion will have to extremely judgemental, biased and completely baseless since i couldnt have understood the movie. Considering my extreme boredom at this point, i just wish i could find the author so that i can have nice little argument with her to sharpen my senses and my vocal chords a little. The author would have ofcourse towards the end of the argument heard some word's which might be considered blaphemous to many.

Book Spree

2007-06-30T14:54:00.001-05:00

This summer I seem to set on a literary spree. Currently running through the books of David Baldacci and Ken Follet, I should have completed around 25 novels in about a month and a half which in retrospect is quite amazing. Hopefully will be finshing the rest of the Follet collection by next week and movie onto Arthur Hailey, which incidently had been my dad favorite author if my memory serves right. I had tried reading a Hailey book long long back like almost 7 to 8 years back but had never got around completing the book as I was still in my Hardy Boys stage then. Then ofcourse I lost in touch with reading books and only now have resumed my interest in books. Most books i prefer deal with thriller setting so the reading is light in the literary sense. Reading through these books, I have realised most of these books have a insipirational setting to them and in some sense could even instill some sort of insipiration. Ofcourse i might have felt all this hidden insipiration in these books if only I hadn't become cynical. Apparently for a cynical person, a source of insipiration is usual a exageration of reality and mostly tends to creating a larger than life persona which usual doesn't seem to exist. On an another note, the books also follow a similar pattern and sooner or later if you have read a lot some of the thrill of the book becomes lost cause. But then an author I guess can only become good one particular style and genre of books, which implies he might become predictable for the avid and continous reader. Beyond all this cyinicism and criticism of the books I have read, they have become a good way to spend my excess time which in itself is too much of an excess. Also I have an exciting plan of completing the top 250 section of english movies on IMDB, which would be significant task if i even get around doing it. I already embarked on that task and going steadily at it. Lets hope for the best. Hahaha. Insignicant quests seem to please me more these days. On that dry note, I am ofcourse awaiting the new HP movie and book. Also i'm studying patterns. That should be a satisfactorily mystifying end to a entry about thriller books.

Metro and Leon

2007-06-25T05:47:00.001-05:00

Metro: A story of 8 or 9 different people with slightly interconnected storyline set in a metropolitan and contemporary setting. 6 songs in the movie. A preety big starcast. Thinks its a typical boolywood story with grandeur setting?? Well you would most cerainly be mistaken. This on is a very contemporary movie which you might say has preety good realistic overtones. The story preety well interconnected with no unbeleivable coincidences happening throughtout the movie expect towards the ending but that can definitely forgiven since this is seen in many of the best movie's I have seen. The music is nothing great in the movie, but the songs play a crucial part in moving the story along with a constant pace so that it doesn't seem to drag along at any point of time. The music group keeps coming up at all the songs which i dont quite understand but it does lend an irritating aspect to the movie. All in all a strong movie which is 2 hours long which means the movie is an excellent watch and doesn't bore you at all. The action's of the people in the movie dont nesscessarily seem to be larger than life which is great to see as most metropolitan setting movie's seem to have a larger than life feeling which removes the realistic setting to the movie. All in all quite a brilliant movie. I am no great analyst of acting but i guess the acting was preety natural in all the character's and was quite relatable to normal people you see in everyday life.
This is a kind of movie that i would like to be taken in Tamil. The only aspect i think Tamil cinema is missing is the fact that, most movie's are based in mainly non metro style enivorments even though they are set in the city. The tamil cinema still hasn't got out of it rustic setting, which means most really good movies never seem to appeal to the eye as such as other movie's.
Leon: An interesting movie about a Hitman and a girl who he takes up to teach her his trade of "cleaning". The movie is weird, interesting and is a watch if you like serious cinema. It is not a lite watching movie like the one above, but still has a great deal of positive aspects to it. The movie deals with a professional hitman who kind of adopts of 13 yr old girl who family is murdered and she wishes to learn this skills so that she can take revenge. As the movie progresses, she falls in love with the Hitman which is feel is far fetched but i guess anything is possible. A decent movie and a definite watch.
Song of the day: Whiskey Lullaby(Courtesy of Shaival changing my music on my ipod lolz)

Funny changes

2007-06-21T02:55:00.001-05:00

So life changes.Haha this has nothing to do with me. I have just heard a lot of very interesting news from india. Unfortunately i coudn't go back home this time also. Sucks. Anyways people have started working apparently. One of my best friends started working this week. Knowing him, I can see him gettin married in the next 2 years. God i dont even know if I will have a job in that time. One of my friends who used to be so fat is now thin and tall. We had a general consensus that he would be the first to get married and die among us. Now that seems to have gone in ashes also.Interesting. People in India have been rejecting jobs at Goldmann Sachs so do something. What i wouldn't give even to get a interview with GS. From sources I have learnt that 3 people who I know of varying degrees are apparently also discussing marriage. These are people i knew 3 years back. Fuck ive missed a lotta stuff out there.Haha. On a comforting note there are still people who haven't changed a fuking bit. That ofcourse includes me.Hehe

The Phenomenon that is Harry Potter

2007-06-20T18:14:00.001-05:00

30 Days 5 Hrs 42 mins 42 sec. That's the time left for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to release. So i thought i'll put down some of my thoughts and prediction for what will be in the book. I'm mostly doing this because, for the Goblet of Fire I had thought Sirius would die. He did. But when i said I had predicted this, no one beleived me. So this will be a copyrighted edition of all my predictions for the book. Haha.
Firstly a gathering of obvious facts. The name of the book is Deathly Hallows. Obviously the title will be in relation to Godric Hallow and Harry birth place. So my first prediction would be the one fight with Voldermont might be at Godric Hallow. Even though the cover of the US version of the book shows Voldy and Harry at a place that seems to have a veil, which seems to be the veil through which Sirius feel through in the 4 th book. So a visit to the ministry might be a good prediction again. Rumors have always pointed that there is going to be new teacher at Hofwarts from Harry's Year. Well the open spots seems to be Defense against Dark Arts, maybe potion because slughorn might just stay for a year and possibly mcgonagal for Transfiguration because she will be Headmistress. The obvious choice might be Hermione because she's the best. But that again seems too obvious and she obviouosly seems to be more interested in other books at this time. Looking at Rowlings style i would assume she will put someone as Teacher who Ron and Harry might not be exactly congenial with. Looking at the students in Harry's year no one seems to stand out as a possible choice. Michear Corner, Anothony Goldstein blah blah blah all have equal weightage but no one looks a possble candiadate. One option might be Viktor Krum. That would be my guess but then he was not Harry's classmate. Well thats that. Now to the important subject of Horcruxes. There are 7. 2 destroyed. The book and the ring of Slytherin. The horcrux in the locket might be destroyed by "RAB". The remaning are the Ravenclaw heirloom, Hufflepuff cup, Nagini the snake and a possible heirloom of Gryffindor. The possiblity is that Voldy went to Godric Hallow not only to kill Harry but also to create a Horcrux in a Gryffindor heirloom. So we might find a Gryffindor heirloom somewhere in Godric Hallow. So we might be reading about Harry being a descendant of the line of Gryffindor and a possible fight between the Heir of Slytherin and the Heir of Gryffindor. Ravenclaw's heirloom might be anything but assuming that Harry finds it, we might be seeing a new descendant of Ravenclaw showing himself helping Harry track the hiding place of the Heirloom. Now for RAB. Well Regulus Black matches the intials but it just doesn't seem to fit. Maybe RAB is not the actual name of the person. Eitherways i haven's been able to fathom out a good guess for this one utleast. But it has to be someone who was well known to Voldy , so I would guess it must someone of importance in the Voldermont period, maybe even someone that Harry's parents knew. But still it could just be Regulus Black. Also the cover of the UK child edition(btw The uk edition of the locket is far more artistic and alluring and beats the US edition cover which sucks) has Harry, Hermione and Ron falling with a pool of gold and jewels into what might be roung well. This seems to a gringots bank vault or it could mean anything else. Also someone is holding a sword behind harry, possibly Dobby or Kreacher because i dont see anyone else fitting that size. So i they are in Gringots doesnt make sense why they would have a sword in them, so my guess is it might be somewhere else other than gringots possible something happening in their quest to find a horcrux. Another interesting point. In the US cover edition with the fight behind the veil, Harry is wearing a locket. Whether it is slytherin Locket is a very interesting thing to think about.

Indian Cinema

2007-06-18T20:34:00.002-05:00

Sivaji has released. I havent seen it yet.Because unbeleivable i couldn't get tickets in "Chicago" one week before. Yes one week before. The movie undoubtable is the biggest movie ever in Indian cinema in any language. The level of publicity for this movie has never been seen before. I am no self confessed fan of Rajnikanth before this. He was a decent actor and his movies were always fun to watch.No doubt. But i was nothing like a fan of him. Now also I am no fan of him. He is purely unbeleivable. I admire him as the most succesful actor I have ever seen in this country. This movie has been released in countries where i didnt even think they were a significant Indians living. Confirmed hits in over 6 countries namely US, UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bahrain. A houseful opening in literally even single theatre that it has been opened in. The movie has literally run over Jhoom Bara...something starring the 2 B's and Preity Zinta in bollwoods own land of the West and North. Well that's saying something. Eitherways this movie will most definetely yet again start a new slew of funny stuff on MTV. Haha that I find very funny. Because preety much the same scences made fun of in these brilliantly stupid and lame spoof shows that show up will mostly been making over 150 crores in the box office and that i would call as a conservative number. Rajnikanth has been for years now the butt of jokes in what I would call "North" India.The term is funny. "North" preety much means anything above The south. Eiterways this man who has been the stuff of many spoof shows on MTV, has preety much shown what charisma and screen presence is. However good a actor you may be, no one in India(I have to accept I watch only Hindi and Tamil Movies which are financially the 2 biggest movie industries in India)has even anything close the charisma that he has on screen. The very fact is that he can make people sway to his random stuff and this is no longer only in the madras but in preety much other countries as well. The jokes might have been funny to Bollywood film watchers, but the fact remains that there is no single actor in the bollywood film industry who can even romotely so what Rajni has done with this movie.Respect.

Cricket World Cup

2007-02-28T15:00:00.001-06:00

2 weeks to go. Im feeling cricket again after a long time. Its been sometime since i watched a full cricket match. Almost 2 yrs now i think its been. Oh well.
The world cup pretty much unpredictable this time around. There are no clear favorites as far as im concerned. Australia can be between. I always felt that they could be and they have been. 6 out of the last 7 times. Between 3 times by a weakend England side. Australia was also weakened but then, i think england missed there players far more than australia did. New Zealand ofcourse did the unbeleiveable. Chase 330 once, give it to the batsmen. Chase 340 the next time around, i would blame it on the bowlers this time around. Without Lee, they have only one bowler who can take wickets and keep the runs down. Glenn Mcgrath. Shaun Tait, Nathan Bracken, Brad Hogg, Adam Voges, Clarke and everyone else can be hit. They can be winners on their day but they are never goin to consistent enough. Atleast not during this world cup i feel. Australia's batting is still quitq brilliant. Hayden, Gilchrist, Hussy and Ponting. These four are enough to score 280 every single game. The onus is pretty much on the bowlers to perform in this world cup for australia. Still australia comfortable bets for the semi finals
India. Based on Current performance they should be comfortable bet for the semis. Btating of Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvaraj....Yes they have enough in them to also score 280 in each game. This is where i think for the first time after a long time india have an edge over australia. For the gratest time australian bowling has been far better than any teams. But the era of warne and mcgrath is coming to an end. Indian bowling it strong. Zaheer is the bst of the lot. Munaf, Sreesanth, Agarkar and posibly Pathan make up 5 fast bowlers. I dont think India has ever had 5 fast bowlers who could make the team. Spinners of Kumble and Harbhajan. One will play. Really depends on the mood of the captain i guess. The probelm here with india is that there bowlers are capable of giving 250 easily to any team. The bowlers are wickets taking but expensive. Sreesanth, Agarkar and Pathan. Pathan ofcourse now seems a better batsman than a bowler. But then i guess with indias batting line up they can afford some real quick attacking bowling. Hopefully we see a 400 plus total against Bermuda in the first round.
New Zealand. Im thinking they will pip south Africa for this spot in the semis. The black caps are always brilliant in the world cup. They batting line up cannot even be compared to india or australia. I feel on the books, South Africa and Pakistan also have better batting line ups. There bowling line up is average at the max, apart from Shane Bond who is pretty mcuch unplayable and doesnt go more than 4 an over in most mathches. Even in the 300+ scores of australia he had economy rates of 4.0 and below. So what makes this teams of average players into a semi final squad. Preety much than they will win it when its nesscessary. They will probably qualify last in to the semi scrap through in the last game, pulling of something quite dramatically but no one would even realise it. Actually this time around i think they have a better batting line up than usual. Lou vincent is in great form. Fleming is always there. Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, Oram, Mcmillan, Mcullum, Vettori. A side than can conjure up 250. Basically they will give a couple of matches, get into the super 8 win and lose here and there and will have a last shot at entering the semis if the win the last match. And i would bet than they would win that match. Another semis appearance for them. I feel they will lose again in the semis, even though i would like to see them go further.
West Indies. Home country. Possible an semis performance. Depends a lot on Gayle, Lara and Chanderpaul. I dont know much about there bowling attack, meaning i havent really heard and seen any of there bowlers bowl. But i think they will come in 3rd place into the semis.
South Africa. The perenial chokers. They might make it but i dont see a spot for them. Unless its at the loss of the hosts. On paper, south africa should be an easy bet to the semis. But somehow they dont show the confidence that should be expected when it comes to the world cup. Plus i dont really like the team that much. Expect for Gibbs and Pollock i dont find any of the other players attractive to watch.
England. I love this team. But they dont stand a chance. Unless Mr.Collingwood continues his quite unbeleivable form and add with a good dose of Flintoff and Pieterson with an occasional Strauss and Bell. Unfortuately all these players are very unpredictable. Bowling wise they are not strong at all in the one day version of the game. Anderson is good. But im not sure if hes injured or not. I havent seen there new bowlers bowl so i dont have much of a clue about the Lewis and the Dalrym... something.Not sure about that guys name. Hes was the only one who played in all the CB series mathches and his performance was not decent in even one match. Dont know why exactly he played in all the matches. Monty Panesar. Lets see how he performs. I feel he might be a little over hyped. But maybe he do something that England will need if they have a chance for the Semis.
Pakistan. Too injury prone. Will reach super eight. Lot depends on fate them. Not exceptional in them. Bowling is a little too weak i feel. Sri Lanka. Same as above. Expect batting is a little weak and bowling can be beaten black and blue apart from vaas and Murali. And yeah Maling chucks and can be hit really badly.
All other teams make up numebers.They dont stand a chance.
The world cup should be fun.

Complaining

2007-02-28T00:50:00.001-06:00

Mechanics sucks ass. Thats all i have to say right now

Club La Vela

2007-02-08T18:35:00.001-06:00

http://www.clublavela.com/
Panama City Beach.Here I come.That whats keeping me going at this moment

Its hurting

2007-02-08T18:22:00.001-06:00

School is hurting. Hurting really really badly. 5 homeworks, 2 lab reports and 2 quizzes per week. Thats pretty much the best it gets i guess. I could possibly at a maximum have 5 homeworks, 2 lab reports, 3 quizzes and a couple of exams in two weeks from now.Yups.That week should be interesting. Otherwise its pretty much same old same old. Career stuff is going on. No real improvements on the getting the job part. But i have reached a record number of application to companies utleast. But then i would have to say i am interested in only 2 position, one at Motorola and the other at LAM research. More importantly i unfortunately cant even attempt to get the job that i really want to do. Investment banking. Well who can blame em. Why would they think about hiring a person with my GPA when they can get 3.9 people in their ranks. Oh well. I guess it sucks ass. But then thats how it is. Maybe ill get lucky. On a more angry note, info from India have reached that people have been rejecting Goldmann & Sachs jobs. Now that just plainly pisses the crap out of me. Absolutely nothing more to say that.

Random Thoughts

2006-12-26T22:14:00.001-06:00

Random thoughts are those that i get when im watching tv shows, just sittin ideally, day dreaming, studying, working or even sleeping. I get the most weirdest dreams ever. I guess everyone will say that. But generally you remember the people who you may encounter everyday. Yeah i do get them also in my dreams, but occasionally i get vivid situation which invovles people who i havent had interaction with for ages.Ages ofocurse means a few years like for example 5-7 years.They are people who i have closely interacted but then just lost touch and forget. Maybe i will get dreams of all the people who i will mostly lose in touch with after a few years from now.It would be interesting on how those dreams come out as.Losing touch.Yeah i have lost touch with most people over the years, people who may have even been quite close to me.Its just that i never tried to keep in contact, because i never felt the need for them, with new friends and everything developing.Come to think of it, i have contacts with just about 10 people even though i had many many more friends at that time.I guess you never realise the need for them until they preety much drift away and then its too hard to connect again. You never realise you like talking on the phone of random and mostly irrelevant stuff until the randomness completely disappears and it becomes so mundane that i can predict what i will be doing 7 days from now and i can be damn well sure it will be 99% right.You never realise you need the gossip and the lets say the emotional attachment, until the gossip is all gone and attachment is replaced by more of emotional detachment. You never realise that you miss at laughing head over heals that are just remotely funny until you start seeing the remotely funny as being stupidly immature(I dont think i have reached this point as of yet, so utleast that is good).All this said i still preety much dont take much efforts to keep in touch nor renew contacts.I guess that is just me.I guess i have lost lot of contacts, am losing contacts and will mostly probably lose even more.It is really how much you tend to miss them that will matter the most.In my case i miss it quite a lot, but then i cant really do anything about it.Situations occur when things arent in your hands unless you take the effort and even though i miss it, i just dont have it in me to renew it just to lose touch again in a few months time.I guess things come and go. Whether its watching cricket and football, eating at hot chips,losing touch with your best friend,sitting upside down on your bed at stairing at the lime green paint in your room.....things just come and go in course of time.Stuff happens which will make it difficult to do the things you love all the time i guess.

Cricket India and Cricket Australia

2006-12-23T22:25:00.001-06:00

Ive been watching cricket since the india-england series in 1992-93. Lately i havent really followed or watched cricket because ofcourse i am here and there is no cricket here.I probably havent watched a cricket match since last summer which was when i was back home. Its sad that i havent been able to watch cricket, because i used to enjoy getting up in the morning to watch the ashes or stay up late to watch day night one day matches or the test series from the west indies. Blasts from the past i guess. Anyways the situation in australia is quite interesting. There have lost 3 players due to retirement after this ashes series. There two best bowlers in Warne and Mcgrath and ofcourse the fading star Damien Martyn who was in the recent past their best batsman. Now what will the australian side do. Come to think of it they dont really have a young player in theie batting ranks. You might have thought there biggest probelm will be the bowling, but actually they dont have a batsmens below the 30's except for Stuart Clarke. Gilchrist, Langer and Hayden are all above 35 and by the next test series for australia in 9 months, they will be close to 36 and 37 in Langer's case.They are going to retire, that is half of the main team will be gone in possible a year and a half. Left with Ponting, Clarke and Hussey, they dont have a first team regular batsman that they have tried out. Watson and Symonds are both all rounders and mercurial players meant mostly for the one day game. So this is going to a interesting situation the team will find itself in a couple of years. We will probably see a star arise out of this, or australia is going to crash for sometime. It is depends on whether they can find a new star. Their bowling is much more stable with Brett Lee and Micheal Clarke who also hasnt played much but proved to be a good bowler in the ashes. There is Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson who are also inexperienced but have bowled well in matches that they have got a chance. Again here they dont have a reserve spin bowler at all. They had stuart macgill but then he never got a chance to prove anything with shane warne in the same team. Now macgill is old close to 36 and probably not good enough to play at the highest level and i have not heard of another spin bowler in their squad. They use Brad Hogg in the one day level , but surprise surprise the is also 35. Basically australia is an ailing side, who has survived everyone because of the stars who developed. Unfortunately they all developed at the same time and so are going at around the same time. Lets see if they can come out of this hole with guns blazing. Eitherways its sad that Shane Warne retiring.He was afterall my favorite cricket player.
India on the other hand won the first match with south africa.Was a good performance i guess. Didnt watch the match but did see some highlights.Sreesanth was quite brilliant, especially in his bowling and the dancing with Andre Nel. It was quite a brilliant comeback at Nel. Lets see how they perform in the other tests. India's bowling seems to be in wquite good hands and quite amazingly not one the fast bowler is over 28.Actually apart from Zaheer at 28, everyone is 23 or below.Utleast india doesnt have to fear there bowlers retiring any time soon.Batsmen on the other hand, it is quite possibly but the australia situation may occur but they still have around 3 years before it probably happens. Gives us enough time to find better batsmen i guess.And yeah one feeling.They need to remove Wasim Jaffer from the team.He is quite the worst opening batsman i have seen.Is quite incapable of playing fast bowling and his average reads 32 only beacause of one 218, which he scored in the dust bowls in India. He simply cannot play fast bowling in good pitches and i think hes shown enough that he cannot play at the highest level outside of India.

Music tracks and ratings

2006-11-23T03:19:00.001-06:00

I was looking in a book store and there was a book listing the top 500 tracks of "all time". Its funny because i looked at it and i havent heard no more than 100 tracks in that list. And that would be streaching it a little bit. In my defense most of the songs listed were well before my time. I mean except for U2 there were hardly any bands even from the 90's. Even songs from Oasis didnt make the list. I think "Wonderwall" was present somewhere but then it was more like a anamoly than anything else. U2 was like the token major rock band from the 90's that made it. Yes it is true that Rolling Stone's and Bob Dylan and Led Zepplin n co(Queen etc) made the rock n roll culture but the rating was quite biased to the 70's and 80's.The songs from this time is quite different from the rock songs that we hear from the nickelback's n other rock bands we hear now. Here again classification of what is a rock band is quite interesting. I would call a band like "The Fray" or "Hinder" or "Green Day" as rock even though they may be listed as "adult alternative". Bob Dylan's "Like a rolling stone" and Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven" and Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" were all brillant songs no doubt, but i feel i would rather hear to "Far away" by Nickelback or "How to save a life" by Hinder or "The saints are coming" by U2 and Green Day. One common factor, U2 seems to everyone favorite band. I guess it's time for "Beautiful Day" and "With or Without You" or maybe "Wonderwall" by Oasis.
P.S.I think i will come out with my own favorite 100 songs soon before end of thankxgivin.

I wish

2006-11-02T10:40:00.002-06:00

Me: Smiling
Somebody: Well that's the first time i've seen you smile in the last 5 day's
Work is really giving me a hell of a time. I wish i was back in school.
I wish i could go back to fighting with this girl, because she used to tell my U.K.G teacher that i didnt eat my lunch(I still dont remember her name). I wish i could get a kiss from my teacher and a chocolate. I wish i could go back to chatting with my 4th grade partner all the time( She lasted a whole 3 years as my partner). I wish i could go back to getting punished by a stupid english teacher(My partner's aunt, for the sake of irony) for trying to stop two people from fighting( This is the last time i remember crying). I wish i could go back to night camp( They lit a damn bon fire in summer). I wish i could go back to accident(So that i can fall on the other side and not get 16 stiches on the head). I wish i could go back to being "Silent Killer" as christened by my seventh grade teacher for god knows what reason. I wish i could go back to Montu's funny seventh grade theories(My actual intro to the actual Montu even though i had known him for over 4 years).I wish i could go back to being class leader during whose tenure, the whole class was taken twice to the prinicpal's office, once for noise making and the other for, hmmm i dont remember the reason,but i do remeber seven people cried during that time.I wish i could go back to the beginning of class fight's of eighth grade. I wish i could go back to class fight's in the ninth grade when they went over the top and to the principle's office. I wish i could go back to broken table's and chairs in tenth grade. I wish i could hang up broken wooden pieces in the back of the class in the English period. I wish i could sing "Shyam Shyam" in the Social studies class with Montu(The reasons is too big to explain and thinking about it now, it doesnt really make sense). I wish i could go back to standing outside every single class in chemistry in the whole year(That's something anyone would find hard to beat). I wish i could go back to making the Physics teacher cry by laughing in class. I wish i could go back to being pillars of the class in the English period. I wish i could back to coming close to hitting a computer science teacher(I just wish i had hit her and i probably would have never done it). I wish i could go back to eating at Dominoes for almost every single day for 2 years. I wish i could go back to hissing in class just because the social studies teacher does it and more importantly because it was parents day. I wish i could go back to the Social studies teacher who annouced how we all had turned into snakes. I wish i could go back to the madness of IIT classes of eleventh grade. I wish i could go back to Chemistry IIT class(Sundeep should know why). I wish i could go back to fail my Physics exam(My first and only failure in school).I wish i could laugh again at montu when he failed the next exam(He didnt pass a single physics exam after that till board exams in the twelveth). I wish i could go back to breaking school extinguisher's after IIT Physics with S.J and Vicky. I wish i could go back to trying to teach Nikky to abuse in tamil. I wish i could go back to more broken chairs and tables in the class then ever before. I wish i could back to putting these broken pieces in other class room's. I wish could go back to being called "Monalisa" by the eyeballing English teacher(Christened Monalisa apparently because i was always smiling, well that's changed i guess). I wish i could go back to madness of diwali of 2003 and the rocket's in the house right next to a huge bag of crackers. I wish i could walk out of Doctor's(Physics teacher/class teacher who had a Phd, hence christened doctor) class by saying it is time for lab. I wish i could get money from Dad for aptitude's tests but never pay Doctor and be thereatened that we would be taken to the prinicipal.This ofcourse never happened and me and vicky never paid. I wish i could again abuse loudly in class and Doctor could catch Sundeep for it. I wish i could go back to keep the book under the table and sleep in class. I wish i could go back to huge fight's with Rukmini for the whole year over a bunch of Xerox copies. I wish i could go back to make fun of Cali(Rahul Narayanan from Calicut hence christened Cali by either vicky or Koshal)on how he came to study in our esteemed company hoping to get into IIT. I wish i could go back to studying for board exams when everyone came my house because i had the first floor to myself and no one would come up and check on us doing combined studies(This is what we called doing timepass as).I wish i could go back to sleeping in my Bright green room. I wish i could go back to Doctor's shouting during Progress report when she used explain her theory of how they wouldnt let me out of the country if i didnt get good marks in school exams to my dad.Haha they did let me out of the country.Her theory was wrong after all.I'm very surprised. Well anyway's i dont really beleive in time travel.

School, work and sleep

2006-11-01T15:50:00.001-06:00

The title pretty much epitomises my life. That is all i have been doing for the last 7 days straight. Here is my daily schedule.
Morning:Morning to me is around 12 o clock.I wake up around that and get ready to leave by around 12:45.I leave and go to the union and do my morning browsing of the internet on the mac's. After my morning browsing, I go to my classs's and get done with them. Sometime's they run till 5 like on tuesday and other days get done earlier.
Afternoon and evenings: I go to my work place at MSEB. I generally begin my database complilation. I look at all the combination of compounds possible and then read on their papers to determine the researched value's for crystal structure's, thermal expansion, phase transformation etc.Then i try to experimentally determine those value's by studying graphs. This goes for the rest of the afternoon and the night.I do homework in the middle and also take breaks and walk to the union to get chips from the vending machine room.
Night: I walk back home and by this time, i'm harrowed and in a bad mood.I sit around till 4 or sometimes 5 in the morning till i finally get sleep.
Yeah that's been my exciting life and i predict this to be my schedule for the near future. I think i havent stared more at the computer screen for so long in a long long time. And there is nothing in the horizon, that can change the way my day's seem to be passing by. Winter's is also here. And with the brillant day light saving's, it's nght by 5 o clock. Doesnt't really make a difference because i dont really see the outside much anyways. Life sucks. Its sucks with a capital 'S'.

Complicated

2006-10-27T15:25:00.001-05:00

Its a song by Avril Lavinge released in 2002. This has nothing to do with my post but i thought it would be a nice intro for it. The song is decent. Nothing much to say on that. But life here is complicated. Not much for me now, but thats because i just walked away. Walking away seems to be a good idea always. It seems to be the easiest solution to everything. As the saying goes "When the going get's tough, the tough get's going". I just interpreted "going" as "walking away". As Dr.Cox says in the Brendon Fraser episode of scrubs" When things get tough, i just can't take it. So i just walk away". Well i guess a lot of people have a different way of responding to complicated situations. Some stick around. Sometimes things get better, sometimes they get worse. Some people enjoy the complication. Some people even love their time at the U of I because the massive complication surronding us. Whatever said and done, i would have to accept that, enjoying the complications or not, they are very interesting nevertheless. They are different examples of how long people hang around immersed in their complications. Some people lie in it for a year. Some for 6 years and still running ( I dont know this person personally). Some longer some shorter. Some people lie in it for a few days and then walk away. The probelm with complication's in most cases is that one person is not solely responsible. Its a collective bunch of small action's( right or wrong will depend on the interpretation) by a variety of sources which accumulate's into a big mess. They is never a clear defined solution to these kind of issue's. It is upto the person on how he takes the situation and handles it. A lot of people beleive that another complication is brewing here. My interpertation of that, I will obvisouly not mention. Maybe complication's is the thing that keep people going. Well anyway just to clear up something, Dr.Cox doesn't walk away in the epsisode and comes back to handle the situation. Maybe people wish they didn't walk away. But then time travel doesn't seem to be a viable option. Afterall if everyone's wish comes true why would there be any complication's. All said thursday night's indeed are very interesting night's indeed.
Disclaimer Notice: The people mentioned here are real people and any relation's to real life happenings is purely intentional.

Do we all want the thing that we cant have the most

2006-10-23T12:48:00.001-05:00

The weekend was very interesting. One of the most entertaining this semester. It was like a long weekend starting from thursday and went on till early hours of sunday. That's intro enough.
We all know that somethings can just never happen. Why do we keep trying to do things hoping for it to happen. You just cant expect people to do some things or in some case's give up and let go of somethings which you may have done or which may have happened. We may have made a mistake. It seemed right at that time but now it's wrong. That's why we say sorry. What else can be done. This is a critical probelm with most people. Sometimes its the male or female ego and sometimes its just being plain adamant of things of the past. Can we ever expect them to let go of the past. Can we ever expect them to let it go so that things could back to how it could have been. Its basically all about the could have, would have and should have. There is no rational point post morteming over the different things we might have done or might not have done. Its all about whats happening now. Now thats the rational view. But we all do the post mortem and dream up different scenario's which might have happened if we had done things differently or if other people had reacted differently to your actions. We all build castles high in the air. We build then so high only a miracle can make us reach it. Basically we all crave for the things we cant have the most. People make mistakes. Some people learn to let go and forgive them. Some people dont. Apparently that's how it is. But then all of us have the fool's hope left in us. I would like to repeat a previous quotation i had mentioned. "The probablity of a miracle however small is still never zero". Maybe a miracle will occur. Maybe the high castle's can be reached. Maybe we all can have the things we want the most. Maybe people will let forgive for the stupid mistakes we may have done. You and me both know it's never going to happen. It's never going to be the same again. But then what is fool's hope for. As J.D says in Scrubs " Miracles happen. You just need to find them".
P.S:The post was obviosuly inspired by the weekend and by other stuff.So here's a disclaimer notice. The characters are all purely fictional and any relation to people in real life is purely coincidental and the author cannot be held responsible for any relation to real life happening's.

Latest Craze Part 2

2006-10-19T13:02:00.001-05:00

I seem to have made a fool of myself in my last post with my little knowledge of investing.My thoughts were based on the immediate change of the stock price. On long term note im sure, PepsiCo's 71% earnings would lead to a eventual increase in the stock price by the end of the year and i assume most of the stock price will move in a similar manner. My post was talking about the change only in a very short period like the next couple of trading days after the earnings conference. But yes the analysts at Goldmann, JP Morgan and Merill Lynch do play a important role in the market.
Currently Hooked on to:Lips of an Angel by Hinder

My latest craze and my temper

2006-10-18T15:42:00.001-05:00

My latest craze is investing.I have followed the stock market for a few years now, but never really tried my hand at trading. Now with a simulated stock market, ive been trying my hand at trading for a month. Its preety good fun and i seem to be learning something out of it also. Interesting thing i learnt. Its not really how profitable your company is, you just have to meet wall street's expectation. Otherwise, your stock will fall. Let's take an example. PepsiCo reported earnings that had a 71% increase from the last quarter. I had guessed and hoped they would show good number's and so had brought the share couple of days back, hoping for a surge in the stock price. But no apparently, 71% increase is not enough for wall street. Earnings fell just below expectations and the stock fell about 1.5$/share in a couple of days. It's looking up this week and has recovered somewhat of the 1.5$/share fall. Another example, Intel's earning fell by 35% from the last quarter.But wall street expected it to be worse. So shares went up for some period of time, before dropping but rose again by a 1%. But AMD has posted not so good results recently, so that might have played a important part. Otherwise in the virtual market this week has been quite bad. My return went down by 0.8% till date and its doesnt look that good for tomorrow also. Good that its only the virtual world. At my current temper, i would have probably blown up if it was real. My temper seems to be on short circuit recently. I usually dont get angry at all, unless it is fake angry for the comic effect. But recently implying like the last 2 days, ive have quite lost my ability to stay calm. At all points of time i seem to be on timer. Its quite funny thinking about it now, but i hope this temper probelm just is a short spell. Being angry is not something i really enjoy. Apparently.

Requiem for a dream

2006-10-16T15:57:00.002-05:00

Must see movie for everyone. Very disturbing. But a must see movie. Portrays a lot about drugs in maybe a slightly exagerrated and gruesome manner. But definetely a must see movie for both users and non users. The movie might be somewhat crude and gruesome on how they have portrayed the characters and their actions, but still a engrossing but not exactly entertaining movie. The movie is realistic to a good extent and shows the happenings in the minds of a drug addict. A good movie overall. Just make sure you dont have much to do after the movie, because you will be disturbed after the movie ends.

Brainwash

2006-10-16T15:39:00.001-05:00

My post has nothing to do with brainwash. Its a inside joke on why i put that as the title. Laugh if you know about it or just forget it and ignore. On the other hand do we ever escape from our mistakes. I am struggling here. Struggling doing engineering. I have no clue for what im doing it for. I dont seem to have a great interest in it except in some areas, which dont seem to have any real future prospects. My mistake was ofcourse choosing engineering. No one really pushed me into it. I choose it on my own free will and now its like i cant get out of it. Do we ever escape from our mistakes. Do people ever forgive you for your mistakes.Can it ever be made right? From what ive learnt in college, a mistake in one exam screws up your grade for the whole course. One mistake seems to be capable of ruining everything. In reality you dont have any real hope except maybe fool's hope. Well that's preety much what i have along with optimism and the hope for a miracle. Reminds me of my roomates principles.However small there is always a chance for a miracle occuring. My feelings exactly. Well i definitely need them. Lets see if i can escape out of my mistakes. Lets see if people can forgive mistakes. Lets see if miracles do occur.

Is there a point of doing it at all

2006-10-12T14:32:00.001-05:00

Its been a very long week.Couple of exams, lab reports, quizzes, homeworks and a interview. It preety much flew past without much of sleep. I tried to put in my all. Tried is again a very important word. You might say is there a point doing all this. Is there a point stuyding so hard and lossing out on sleep and breaking our heads over books and interviews. What is the point if you end up but a B in the class and get rejected in the interview. Is the "experience" as it is called really worth the trouble. Is it all really required when you might end up getting absolutely nothing out of it. Lets me now mention the different "is it worth it" questions that comes to my mind. Is it worth working out when you know you are never gonna have chiseled muscles. Cant we all just chill and grow fat. Is it worth studying(engineering) when all of us know we wil never use it in out lives. We even proudly say we wont use it. Is it worth drinking and smoking when we know its plainly not good to us. We all do it everyday. Is it worth being nice to people when in the end you realise they might just not give a damn. Is it worth it all?? Well yeah my answer is probably yes to most of it utleast.Maybe i will get a chiseled muscles. Maybe i will enjoy a engineering job. Maybe someone will end up being nice to me. Maybe. But the most pointless thing is growing your hair. I grew it for like 6 weeks, it was moderately long and i got it cut for my interview. Well the hair was there and then it wasnt. The butcher i mean "stylist" made it vanish. It took her a time of about 120 seconds to raze through my hair with a No.3 cutter. Well that was my inspiration for the post but then there were probably other inspirations too. Is it really worth it.

Who moved My cheese

2006-10-08T16:59:00.002-05:00

Who moved my cheese is a international best seller by Spencer Johnson, which is book on how things and people change and how that we must learn to predict and adjust to these changes and not remain dormant when these changes take place. This book is supposed have changed and influenced the lifes of many people who hadnt learnt to adapt to changes in their lives let it be in work place or in relationships or life in general. I read it recently and it was a preety decent book even though it really didnt seem to be relevant to me at the present moment. But then maybe not. Anyways yesterday turned out to be a very interesting and relevant day to this topic in particular. Two of my close friends, in unrelated incidents mentioned suddenly how things have changed at the U of I since summer and last spring. Coincidence maybe or maybe someone did move our cheese. Also someone asked me whether it would have been better to have stayed at the same apartment as i had stayed in last year. Very controversial question indeed. As usual being diplomatic, i refused to anwer the question. Eitherways is the answer going to make a difference. Havent we all moved on to the next avaiable cheese.The basic idea is that things and people are going to change. Things are not going to be in your hands always, even if they were in your hands before. We just have to move on with the flow. Maybe the book turned out to be relevant afterall. Maybe someone did move my cheese. What difference can i possibly make now. Things are afterall not going to be in your hand always.

Photographs

2006-10-03T17:57:00.001-05:00

Its been a long day today. Last night was even longer. Didnt get much sleep because god seemed to be taken photographs of me throughout the night. It was thunderstorming in champaign and the lighting seemed like flashes of a camera which made sure i could get sleep only at around 5 in the morning and i had to get up at 8. Its funny how i say it seemed like god was taking pictures of me considering i am not really a god beleiving kind of person. But then that is a very controversial topic and i generally prefer to take a diplomatic stand on it. On a different tone, i generally dont like photos.I cannot really explain this but i have never liked standing in photos since school.Maybe its because i think i dont look good in photos.Its quite possible but then my official reason will also be "thats just me dude". Also just recently someone had asked for my baby pictures.Thinking long and hard i realise it been ages since i saw my baby pictures.Probably years.I should try to get them.Maybe i can compare how i was then to how i am now. Its ironic i room with someone who is obessed with photography. Nothing seems to have rubbed of on me. Well i can say utleast i'm as stubborn as i always was.

Rock n roll, lady in red and dead squirrels

2006-10-02T14:11:00.001-05:00

I'm currently obessed with listening to the song Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh. It an preety old song released in 1986 but then its new to me utleast. I heard it in a car a couple of days ago, been obsessed with it since then. Another song which is really good is Rock n roll soniye from KANK. The movie ofcourse got a prefect -10 from me in my last post. But this is song is a different story all together. Its a fast dance beat song, completely different from Lady in red which is a slow melody type song. Eitherways ive been attached to both the songs for a couple of days now. On another note i was listening to rock n roll and walking along the path to the union from the mseb building. Usually i would walk on the concrete footpath but today i took a new route and walked on the grass. As i was walking on the song was entering into its last verse whcih is the fastest paced of all the verses. And then "plump". My foot landed straight in a the middle of a dead squirrel. I look down and the dead squirrel was staring right into my eye. I was rock n rolling for a second there. I wonder whether it was effect of the song or whether it was the soul of the dead squirrel that made be rock n roll.

KANK and other things

2006-10-01T18:54:00.002-05:00

Karan Johar magnum opus of grandeur and riches. It was yet another movie filled with stars, set in new york with millionaire indians and a story about their lifes. The movie tries to capture the emotional probelms behind marriages and tries to discuss about extramarital affairs. The movie was emotional touching. I hope everyone can notice the deep scarcasm in the sentence. It was more like painfully irritating, which most of the chracters suffering from what i can only call as PMS. Everyone seemed to be angry throught out the movie which become extremenly irritating to say the least. The movie lacked comedy and was way too long and had a very conventional ending. The only good things in the movie was the musiz, which was brillant with tracks like rock n roll soniye, mitwa and wheres the party tonite. Otherwise a waste of 200 minutes of airplay in theaters as far as im concerned. On another note i started trading in UISES which is a virtual stock exchange. It seems to be good fun, so spent some time doing that today.Maybe i shlould start real trading. Might make things more interesting.

Party, cops and monotony

2006-09-30T18:12:00.001-05:00

Bday party number 20 went down last nite.Well i dont remeber the first 5 and the rest have been awesome, but then this one is one of the most interesting ever. Firstly i was completely out of my mood and wasnt really feeling it. The party picked up, was fun the usual things again. I still didnt really feel it was it was fun an im guessing here that everyone who came had fun for sure. It was arnd 2 and the party was stopped with cops coming on the scence. Many mite think this was the interestin part but then not really. Cops come and gone all the time at our u of i parties and i guessed it was gonna be just another warning. Haha no not really, it was my bday so it has to be sometin special. We got a ticket for 195$(in my name), I had to sit in the cop car, never been done before(not here utleast) while he wrote his ticket. Well it was an experience, lets leave it at that. Otherwise it was a another usual day, monotony seems to rule evrythin now. I dropped ece 205 again this semester. Means i have lesser work for this week utleast. Couple of exams coming up but im hoping this semester will be my perfect semester. Dont we all hope that. Well time for another dull week that is coming up. Even here i seem to be repeating the same fact that everythin is being too monotonous. How ironic.

Lifes catching up

2006-09-29T14:09:00.001-05:00

Life seems to be catching up on me again. Having just turned 20 a week back, i have yet again started another blog. Seems every two years i have to start blogging after my birthday. Lets see how long this one lasts. School is becoming looping yet again. Same things keep repeating. Work is taking its toll on everyone i know and that would include me. I have probably studied more this fall than my whole of freshman year. Haha how things change. Maybe my mind is finnaly catching up with my age. Hmmmmm that would be something new, I always figured my mind to be of a five year old. Maybe its not.