Where Can I Get My T-Shirt?

For some time now, i have not been able to add anything to the blog due to a lot of reasons, being busy definitely not among them. Just to break the lock, here is an interesting story that, for some reason, i find very interesting.

FROM: Google Blog by Trisha Weir

On Wednesday, April 30th, 2003, I was swimming towards the shore as fast as I could paddle my surfboard. I was in the ocean near Todos Santos, Mexico; a storm had come up, the waves were crashing huge, the wind was blowing like crazy, and I realized I'd gotten in rather over my head.

On Wednesday, May 7th, 2003, I was standing in a room filled floor-to-ceiling with more computers than I'd ever seen in my life. My fingers were shaking as I played surgeon to a webserver, pushing tiny jumpers onto pins on the motherboard, cold blasts of air conditioning whipping my hair into my face like some tense scene from an Arctic action movie, and once again it occurred to me that I had quite possibly gotten in over my head.

How I went from being a recent college grad on a travel kick to a Google datacenter technician in one week is a whirlwind (and windblown) story. I'd seen the job posting a few days before I left for Mexico, but I figured it was a long shot; I had the skills, but didn't have much work experience.

So I sent Google a love letter. I told them that yes, I could fix computers, and yes, I'd been running Linux at home for two years. And I told them the truth: they'd get a hundred job seekers with those skills, but I had something those applicants didn't: a Google T-shirt.

I talked about how I didn't normally wear the logos of companies I had no affiliation with, but that I wore my Google shirt with pride, because I admired Google so much -- they were smart, they treated people well (users and employees alike), and they made good products. But beyond that, I could tell Google was special, that all that innovation was going to lead to something extraordinary. And I wanted to be part of it. Also, I wanted another T-shirt.

I got both. After I staggered up onto the beach that first Wednesday, I went into town in search of Internet access and, in a net cafe with a thatched roof and a 56k modem connection, found waiting for me an email from a Google recruiter who had plucked my application from a pool of dozens because of my T-shirt-themed cover letter. On Thursday I flew back to the U.S. On Friday I had a phone screen. On Monday I endured three hours of onsite interviews. And on Tuesday, the recruiter called back and said, "Welcome to Google. Can you start tomorrow?"

I survived the surf at Todos Santos, and I managed to get through my first day in the Googleplex without crashing that datacenter. And the message I have for all my recent college grad peers is simple: Don't underestimate the power of your favorite T-shirt, and don't neglect your email while on vacation. Either one may hold the key to your future.

What does it take to be Manmohan Singh?

I have great dreams. Not the dreams that you have when you are asleep, but the one that you fabricate and aspire during the bright wakes of the day, you know day dreams. I do that a lot. So I have great dreams. A lot of them.
Some of them are practical like the one in which I land on a good job in a nice city, live in a small but perfect apartment with 52 inch plasma TV, HD DVD player, Xbox, home theater speakers and a supermodel neighbor who likes above said gadgets. Then there are some, which are just plain stupid, like me inventing some incredible gizmo which gets stolen by Mr. Evil trying to destroy the planet, only to be dramatically stopped by me in a climax of Stallone-Schwarzenegger -ical proportions. But between dreams that are ambitious and, some might say, pathetic, I have a dream in which I am a political leader. Since it’s just a dream, and more importantly my dream, I don’t hold anything back and hence I will assume nothing less than the most profitable one, the prime minister of India. I love my country and if there is any nation I shall ruin, it must be my own.
Yes, I said it, and I am not sure in which party I will be. Given my plagiaristic ideology, it wouldn’t be fair on the leaders who found them if I give any particular party the pleasure of having me as their solemnly pledged supremo. It is safe to assume that I will have my own party. I am still working on the name.
Now Dr. Manmohan Singh, the current prime minister, the economist responsible for 1991 reform which resulted in India as we see it today, is in every possible way, holds a better resume than me. As long as he was in the competition, I felt I did not have a realistic chance of being elected to the top. But a recent blog, by Ms. Sagarika Ghose, in CNNibn gave me hope. It had everything I like about blogs, simple topics, simple words and an air of ‘know-it-all-but-Its-not-my-job-to-spoon-feed-you’ entitlement’, but more importantly it had the conclusion that supports my goals. The crux of the blog is, as understood by “Manmohan Singh's greatest failure is that he could have opened a new era in the involvement of 'good people' in politics….. Instead all he has managed to show is just how distanced he and the entire educated middle class is from the netajis……if anyone can push economic reforms through in India, it will be… natural born leaders and charmers of crowds like Mayawati and Modi and to some extent Buddha, state level leaders of people …”, Dr. Singh is not a good politician. Although, since Dr. Singh himself has said it before, which makes the blog completely redundant, Ms. Ghose’s idea of who is better at leading the nation to the future is exceptionally brilliant.
Here I was thinking that I need a lot of political skills- ability to identify problems, capable of prioritizing the issues and implementation of their solution, skillfulness in foreign policy issues, ability to think about the nation’s future needs and challenges, unbiased clarity of thought and most importantly put one’s nation before any personal or related obligations, if I aspire to the PM of India. Turns out, as Ms. Ghose has so analytically pointed out, all I need is to be a shepherd of my herd (of lambs or buffalos, depending on the way you see yourself in the mass). Forget Gandhi, Nehru and ‘to an extent Buddha’; I’ve got my heroes in Modi and Mayawati.

Who better to learn politics from than Mr. Modi, a person explained by Rajdeep Sardesai, editor in chief – CNNibn as a man “symbolic of the Hindu-Muslim fault-lines that exist in our society, a symbol of the darkness within”. When you are aspiring to be a leader, take a page from a man who was allegedly responsible, keyword-allegedly, for Gujarat riots of 2002, which resulted in death of about 2000 people and in which around 600 children were made orphans. The event as explained by, again, Rajdeep Sardesai, (but this time) husband of Ms. Ghose (‘Mrs’ rather), as a “sustained campaign of hate, prejudice and violence between Hindus and Muslims, one which tapped into a wider constituency in Gujarat and beyond.” Aah yes, how I vividly remember the video clips of burning properties as Indians went on a happy killing spree of , well, Indians as the cries of an infant, whose nearby is a recently mutilated carcass, likely his/her care taker, were muffled by the chants (Anti-Hindu/ Anti-Muslim depending on the clip) made by the killing Indians. Yes, he is a natural born leader and indeed a crowd charmer.
I am not sure about Mayawati, though. She reminds me of my ‘school aaya’- the lady who cleans up the verandahs after students had their lunch, except that the politician version uses goons instead of a broom. While one cleans up the mess, the other is a source of it.
So there it is, the day dreaming has reached its climax. The blog by Mrs. Ghose (I guess she kept her maiden name) was an eye opener and I am truly happy that today I found my political guru, whose steps I can follow to make sure my nation becomes a global power. And I have decided that my new party shall be christened as FMCV - F@#k Morals. Count the Votes Party.

And thank god, most of my day dreams are not real.

Is The Writing On The Wall Clear?

These are busy days for Indian cricket. After the lame loss in the Nat-west final against England, the Indian team traveled, for the first time, without its terrific trio to a major world cricket tournament, The ICC Twenty20 Championship. India does not have a national team coach, but two specialists, one each for bowling and fielding. This makes the experienced players’ responsibilities higher, as they should teach and lead the younger ones through the nuances of modern day cricket. Now, the team that was sent to South Africa had anything but experienced hands. Although twenty20 is famous around cricket circles outside the Indian subcontinent, this new avatar of the game is yet to make impact in the land that sees the sport as an all uniting religion. . In fact, the highest number of twenty20 matches played by anyone in the team was either one or zero up until the tournament. To make the situation more entertaining (?!?) Rahul Dravid, the captain, a premier batsman and respected personality in and outside the field, has resigned his post citing his ‘need to concentrate more on his batting’.
As always, the decision has created much controversy due to the limited words of Dravid and lack thereof from the BCCI. Too many ‘officials’ have come out questioning Dravid’s captaincy skills and his dedication towards the team he has given so much over these years. Especially chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, has openly criticized the former captain’s decision. Vengsarkar, himself being in the ‘system’ for so long, should know better than to mouth off every time he sees a reporter and a camera. What should have been transpired within the confines of BCCI meetings, thanks to Vengsarkar, gets printed in the media even before those meetings are scheduled. Given this kind of ‘the love for the spotlight’ by the officials, one sees no surprises when important confidential messages passed between ranks of the system find their way in morning news. These boom boxes are as much culpable to what broke out between Sourav Ganguly, the captain before Dravid, and Greg Chappell, the last coach as the duo’s ego. The BCCI must curb this habit, if it wants to avoid small team problems being blown out of proportion, by the media and public alike.
Coming back Dravid’s decision, one can always be sure that ‘the Wall’ should have taken this step only after having deeply though about it. Given the amount of mental preparation he undergoes before a match and the methodical way in which he builds his innings during a match, one can be certain that he would have pondered his options clearly before this unexpected (for everybody else) announcement.
Having watched and followed the career of Dravid’s cricket, one gets the feeling that he has accepted his failure as a leader that he wants to be. Rahul Sharad Dravid started out as slow, technically good but no one-day caliber batsman, but soon he transformed himself, through hard work and perseverance, into one of the most indispensable player of Indian cricket.
Mr. Dependable, as he is known in the Indian contingent, took the mantle of leading Indian cricket team after the controversial end of a stormy tenure from Ganguly. Given his approach to the game, it is easy to connect the dots and see that he would have wanted to bring the much needed change in the ‘system’. When Greg Chappell, respected for his technical acumen and game strategy, joined the Indian team as national coach Dravid should have thought that he can really take the essential, but sometimes harsh, steps that were required to improve the team he so dedicated himself to.
After the disastrous world-cup campaign and the fall of his most reliable partner things were definitely tough for the skipper. One can vividly recover the dejected look on his face after the world cup exit as he answered all the probing, and sometimes annoying, questions from the press.
May be he has come to conclusion that he does not have a realistic chance of bringing the change that he so wanted. May be he found out that the system only consists of people who don’t want to change and who wish there was a change but do not act. May be he is just tired after shouting into deaf ears for two years. May be he does want to concentrate on his batting. May be he is just had enough of the spotlight and issues, unwarranted and completely outside that of his control, that he, as a skipper of Indian cricket, must handle. As a shrewd cricketer turned commentator observed – ‘…leading any team in the world is not half as tough as leading the Indian team for the variety in pressures are just too much to handle’.
May be the wall has decided to stand firm than to crack. One gets the feeling that we might never know the real reason behind the decision of the nation most respected sport star to step down from the position he so respected and cherished.
Rahul Dravid has done so much for the Indian cricket during his time, and one could arguably say, in all forms of the game and it will be wrong of us, cricketing fans, if we doubted his respect and dedication towards the team. As the quest for the new skipper has taken lead role in BCCI’s agenda, pushing back the hunt for national coach, one has to wait and see if the richest cricket association sticks to its post-world cup promise of progress by selecting a young blood or goes back to its dark doldrums by picking a old war horse.
Rest assured, one can be certain that Mr.Dependable will continue to remain as Mr.Indespensable as long as he wears the blue jersey.

Why are they shouting?

The brouhaha over the nuclear deal has created a great more noise than light. Most people don't really know what is happening, and it does not help that our esteemed MPs are choosing to exaggerate and shout rather than debate the merits or demerits of the deal. In a few short paragraphs, here are the bare bones of the deal:

What is India's nuclear position?
India's nuclear energy program began in the 1950s with a great deal of involvement of the United States through the Atoms for Peace program, including helping build and providing nuclear fuel for the nuclear reactor in Tarapur, as well as through scientific cooperation. Differences arose in 1968 with India's opposition to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT recognises five states (US, USSR/Russia, UK, France and China) as Nuclear Weapons States on the basis that they tested nuclear weapons before 1967. India considers this discriminatory. [i] Signatories to the NPT are allowed access to each other's civilian nuclear facilities. After 1974, when India tested its first nuclear device, the US formed the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), to oversee sales of nuclear material. In 1978 the US Congress passed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act but the US continued to provide some nuclear fuel to India under a 1963 treaty with India until 1980, when it passed on those responsibilities to France.
In 1992 the NSG limited sales of nuclear technology and materials to non-Nuclear Weapons States only if their nuclear reactors were under full scale safeguards implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). France continued to provide nuclear fuel to India until it too adhered to this provision in 1996. China and Russia have supplied India with nuclear fuel after this period. Nuclear energy in 2006 accounted for 3 GigaWatts of electricity, or 2.6 per cent of India's electricity generation. [ii]
India plans on expanding the amount of electricity generated by nuclear energy to 20 GWe by 2020 (this is from nuclear plants already under construction). Except that we have a lack of Uranium. Most of our Uranium is low quality, except some newly discovered deposits that have as yet to be mined. Our plants are running at under 40% capacity when they could be running at above 90%. In another words we are paying more than twice the costs of electricity generated by nuclear energy because we are stopped from buying nuclear fuel because of NPT and NSG guidelines.

What does the nuclear deal do?
The nuclear deal will allow us to buy some (though not all) nuclear fuel and technology from the US, and it commits the US (which is the most important member of the NSG) to convince other members of the NSG to change their guidelines so that India can also buy fuel from them.

What do we pay for this deal?
Money. The deal allows them to sell us nuclear fuel and technology and it allows us to buy it from them. That is the bare bones. The complications are that we will have to put 14 out of our 22 nuclear plants under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and promise to use those reactors only for civilian purposes. This will apply to most of the new reactors that will be built.

Does this mean we cannot build, or test, nuclear weapons?
We can build as many nuclear weapons as we want, as long as the fuel is from the military nuclear facilities. If we test nuclear weapons we have a problem, with the US at the least. The US is bound by its Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Hyde Act, 2006, that will mean it cannot sell us fuel if we test nuclear weapons. The Agreed Text of the nuclear deal does not talk about nuclear testing, but simply says that national laws will apply. This is what happened in the earlier Tarapur case. The US had to stop supplying fuel under its own laws, and passed the responsibilities on to others. In reality we don't know when, or if, we will have to test nuclear weapons, and if and when it happens, we can try and negotiate a position then. As things stand now, if we test, the US will have to stop supplying us with nuclear fuel & equipment. The only way to beat that is to convince the US to change its laws.

Why do people dislike the deal?
Critics of the deal feel that we are losing the independence of our policy options by signing up to this deal. We will have to put a large part of our nuclear infrastructure under international supervision, and if things go wrong we will have bought large expensive nuclear energy plants and not be able to buy fuel for them. They insist that we should concentrate on clean coal and other alternative sources of energy. The reality is that we don't have clean coal technology and the coal we use for electricity production is immensely polluting. Solar, and hydrothermal power is unreliable, expensive and just not enough.

The other main reason that people dislike the deal is that they feel it is an excuse by which the US will try and control India. In reality the deal is just a civilian nuclear deal, not a military compact. India is bound by its own laws, nobody else's, this does not change that. the deal also allows us to buy nuclear fuel and technology from anybody and also to buy enough fuel for the lifetime of the nuclear reactors. If the US, for any reason, terminates the deal, it has to pay compensation.

Bottom line
We are a growing power, with a hungry economy. We need energy, and we also need to make new relationships. This is part of that process. It could be a better deal, but you don't negotiate with a superpower and get everything we want. In the real world life is about compromises, to quote a former US Ambassador who I know well, "What people need to remember is that both sides were negotiating as much by what they left out as by what they put in. Their objectives were largely, but not entirely, compatible. India can demonstrate that it is not bound by unilateral US requirements. The US can demonstrate, albeit with a little more difficulty, that it can fully abide by US law under the 123 agreement. Neither side can get the comfort involved in having its maximum desires spelled out."

[i]. Indian government position on NPT and other treaties dealing with non-proliferation: http://www.indianembassy.org/policy/CTBT/embassy_non_proliferation.htm .
[ii]. "Nuclear Power in India" Briefing Paper 45, Uranium Information Centre, http://www.uic.com.au/nip45.htm.

From the Blog: The Indian Shitizen
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How much democracy do we have?

As someone with good appetite for entertainment, the buildup to the 60^th anniversary of my nation’s freedom has been quite extraordinary. I have always felt that we Indians do not have a healthy positive attitude, a feeling of happiness of what we have achieved even though there are some failures. One of the main culprits, in my view, is the Indian media. With most of the country’s news media in the hands of political parties, an unbiased joyful celebration from all quarters never seemed possible. But for this glorious Wednesday, most of the news media came around from their usual doldrums to bring forth the various achievements India has made. Especially CNNibn has provided one of the best tribute and analysis package for the Indian history. From ‘the 10 most defining moments’ to ‘special state of the nation’ from “sportsperson of the country’ to ‘path to future’, the news channel has certainly topped my expectations.

One question that has been put in the fore, in all the forums, is ‘whether India is free?’ or ‘Does democracy in India actually exists?’. Most of the political experts and historians seem to agree that India has achieved laudable democracy and freedom but there is lot of grounds yet to be covered. And for once I take their word. But to my disappointment, and great surprise, a majority of the participants (mostly young audience) do not seem to agree. They all seem to converge that India is not free, not even for a coupon.

As I spend the next few hours in reading all their statements and definitions on democracy, freedom, free will and free society, the only emotion I can sense is depression and to an extent anger and nothing remotely close to happy. There were titles like ‘…democracy-the great farce or … freedom, are you joking?’. I furiously wrote some comments but still I cannot assuage myself. Even my brother sitting in his own bedroom chatting through his pc claims he does not have freedom (the one word answer he gave was “NO”, both caps). They all seem to have found the social ills that they think have somehow slipped everybody else’s radars. In their haste to stand unique, they have all bought the same shirt.

The issues that our society faces today are more visible than what any of these i-see-bad-things citizens think. Problems such as gaping rich-poor division, struggling rural development and of course the ever-present religious conflicts, to name a few, are pretty visible for a casual eye. Most of the population understands these problems and they acknowledge it too. But whining about the symptoms never helped a doctor.

Very rarely did someone take time to actually see the complexities and uniqueness in the issues facing our nation. It is pointless to compare our country with another for hardly few nations have so much diversity in just about everything as ours. Linguistic divisions with deep roots, religious conflicts fueled by often misdirected but strong sentiments and of course the mostly crippling minority appeasements. These issues did not just come out of the blues, but have strong hold in our history and they just cannot be expected to wither way in a wink. With 3 times the population as the United States and only a third of its land size, it requires more than our old, rusty and semi-working government mill.

But look at the brighter side, the side these educated citizens will only acknowledge and not appreciate. Although it is our democratic responsibility to point the wrongs in the system, we also owe to the nation to appreciate her accomplishments. The success record of ISRO, global gallop of IT industries, steadfast progress in nuclear sector and few more are certainly something we should be proud of. In everyday aspects, the improved life style and associated luxuries of the general public is very much visible and that is something that even someone like me who came from a simple township can attest to.
I surfed through the internet and found some interesting predictions.

John Strachey had said "there was no Indian nation or country in the past: nor would there be one in the future".

Winston Churchill had decried India's ability for self-governance and Robert Dahl among the doomsayers had said "that India can sustain democratic institutions seems on the face of it highly improbable".

Writing in the 1970's, journalist and old-India hand James Cameron had claimed "prominent women in Indian public life all came from the upper class, English-speaking backgrounds... there was not and never will be a working-class woman with a function in Indian politics".

Sixty years into self-governance, seems like Mother India prevailed after all.

Yes there are many problems that leech our nation, but they all fade away to nothing when she basks in her glorious 6oth birthday and everyone is invited.

And yes, She is free, whether you appreciate it or not.

What is life without some magic?

I noticed that I haven’t typed anything for little over a month now, and therefore it is my responsibility towards the one person who constantly comes back to the blog site to read and re-read my articles; the one person who never fails to see the logic behind my actions and has always understood and appreciated my sense of humor. It is for that person, me, and his sanity, here goes.

Summer is almost over now and things have started to gain speed.

After my newly developed interest in the Mr. Potter’s adventures, I was looking forward to the last book. Of course, I wasn’t going to buy the book, (As a policy, I never buy a book that costs more than 5$!!) so I eagerly waited for the day when it arrives at the college library. By the time I laid my hands on it, the urge to know had already eclipsed my will to wait and therefore I had already made sneak at the story’s climax on the internet. But that did not lessen a drop of pleasure that J.K. Rowling had delivered in her last 6 books and in fact managed exceed herself in bringing the engaging story before our eyes, with mere words. The book, as the potter fans have come to expect from the author, takes its readers in a magical ride that involves all the human feelings that form the integral part of our lives with the right proportion of, well, magic. Like we wanted, Voldemort dies, Ron and Hermione get together and everyone lives happily ever after, except the death eaters who are sent to Azkaban. But as the curtains were drawn, the inescapable feeling of stillness occupies the mind, where previously the numerous possible options of Harry’s destiny resided. Suddenly, it is clear. Never again will quidditch be played with Harry chasing the snitch; never again will the silver petronases chase off dementors and for certainty, no more Voldemort and his killing curses. Since Rowling hasn’t given any indications on whether the magical trio of Harry-Ron-Hermione will return, we can assume that they are done for good. Well, at least there are still 2 movies left.

As I type this blog I am really happy due to the ecstatic victory of Indian cricket team over England couple of days ago. This is only the fifth time this has happened in the English soil since India started playing test cricket and this comes as a huge boost to the team’s world-cup-failure recovery program. The bowling was superb, the middle order performed well and for once Rahul Dravid did not have to rescue the team from another collapse. Sachin Tendulkar once again provided a good knock in demanding conditions and was denied three figure mark due to poor umpire decision, and once again cricket gurus complain that he took too much time to score those runs and that it shows he is old. Of course he is old. But, hey, we, the fans, don’t care if he is 50, as long as he is making scores. The important thing about the match, though, was the performance of various younger players who came to the fore. One guy, Dinesh Karthik, certainly proved the logic behind his selection to the team by consistently producing some good action both with the bat and in the field. His attitude towards the game and well handling of pressure, a trait rare among Indian cricketers, has certainly proved to be a valuable asset to the team. The job is not yet done though. Although the team has been performing with certain consistency overseas lately, the Series victory in foreign soil remains an illusion. The English team seems to have picked sledging as their additional skill along side batting and bowling. All the more reasons to shut them up at the Oval for good and bring that overseas test series home.

I think roaches are actual alien creatures. They may seem like small creepy looking bugs with long whiskers, but they appear to have extra- sensory capabilities. The house we lived in until last week had a huge roach problem. A few months ago one of my roommate said that he spotted a single alien creature staring at him from under the kitchen sink, but he decided not to kill it due karma related reasons. Just after a few weeks, karma was kicking our rears. They were in huge armies now trying to capture any area with supplies. We did everything to exterminate them but simply failed. It seems like they steal food all night and then reproduce all day. We wondered if they were in any way related to President Bush, due to their affinity towards non-renewable resources (in alien world). If you analyze closely, you can see the resemblances between them minus some whiskers. Well, we could not live there anymore so we decided to move. As if they had sensed our final strategy, they staged one final stand. By the time it all ended, there were dead aliens strewn all over the field ( the living room) and we escaped with minor losses (cookies, chips and some yucky stains on the walls). Since it was upto the duo of me and my roommate to move all the stuff, it took almost 2 days to move all our belongings and clean the apartment. By the time we finished the work, we realized that we had done more work in those 2 days than the entire summer.

As I finish up arranging the stuff and go to bed in my new and clean apartment, tired, I only hope never to have another encounter with the third kind with whiskers, for, the only solution I can think of is to destroy them using Avada Kedavra with the Elder wand.

So much for the vacation huh?!?

Summer is really dragging. Tomorrow has nothing to look forward to and since yesterday was as uninteresting as it can get, I am pretty sure today is unlikely to be any thing different. We have stopped renting movies (since the free trial is over) and that leaves us with 3 more hours of time to kill, as if we couldn’t have enough of it. I tried sleeping early and getting up really late, but still between 11 am to 12 pm, in which I only have 4 hours of work, there is 9 hours left. Even though we get free cable in our apartment (thanks to the previous resident), it is really hard to keep watching it. There is no cricket to watch, and most movies are re-runs. Last summer was not like this. I was really occupied since I had to work close to 12 hrs a day. Not that I am complaining. I certainly made some good money out of the deal. The work was not that hard, considering, I did, honestly, about 4 hrs of work everyday and for the rest of 8 hrs, I read story books. I wasn’t a big fan of story books (any book for that matter) before. It all started in fall 2005. I started reading novels only after I came here to the US. I started my first, simply out of curiosity. For some reason everyone in my apartment were all praise for this book by Mario Puzo, and I had no idea what all the fuzz was about. I actually read a few chapters and then threw that book away. But as tough it was to remember all the Italian names in it, the urge to finish the story was huge and so I made a second attempt. After I finished the book I realized, as accepted widely, ‘The Godfather’ was one of the best mob-organized-crime books ever written. My second encounter with a story book was due to the reactions of Christian community reported in a news website despite its worldwide success. The second book was the ‘Da Vinci Code’ by Dan Brown and of course it is hard not to like that one. By the time closed out the other three of his books (to get one of which I had to make an Interlibrary loan from Ohio, about three states away), I was quite happy to have developed a habit, which I never thought I would, reading books regularly. When my first summer here came, they saved me from boredom at work. At the rate of a new book every four days, I was, clearly, doing a lot of reading. I was the Alonso of the reading books grand prix. Thanks to Sheldon, Cook, Green, Grisham and few others, summer pretty much flew by and when fall semester came, it was not that tough to open the books (text books this time, though) as it used to be. But this summer is not even close to those happy times. Even the weather is not same as last year. At 2:30 in the noon it’s a little gloomy outside now, while other days are just sunny and warmer at best (not that I am complaining). But last time, it was horribly hot and unbearably dry, even for someone like me from Chennai, India. Things got a little excited about the new ‘Rajni kanth’ movie, sivaji. The movie had all the right ingredients – The maximum guaranteed superstar in Tamil cinema, Rajni kanth, ace director Shankar, and the one and only A.R Rahman for music. All said and done, the trip to Dallas to watch the movie was not worth it. It was a high budget mediocre film, at best, and to our worries it made life little less excited.
On the brighter side, I did some good things, too. I did not miss any of the Hollywood sequels released this summer. I finished my long standing media project- a video tribute to Sachin Tendulkar, who is the Michael Schumacher of Cricket, the pride of Indian cricket team- and actually got some good responses from its viewers. I started it some 3 years ago, but after a minute or so of video making, I abandoned it. I restarted it last month and not to my surprise, it was pretty interesting. What started as an effort to pass time, culminated in a complete 5 minute Audio-Video tribute to the greatest cricket batsman the country ( and the cricketing world, for that matter) has ever seen. I surprised myself by reading Harry Potter 5 (The story never appealed to me). Since I had seen the HP 1-4 in movie format, I wasn’t expecting much. But in the end, I have to accept what more than 325 million other humans world wide have proclaimed, “Hogwarts rocks, Hermione is cool and Lord Voldemort sucks”. Thanks to the book I’ve not only passed a week in an enjoyable way, but am seriously thinking about taking quidditch lessons, if they are being taught somewhere. I read the 6th part as well, and eagerly waiting for climactic installment.
I still got about a month of summer left. But with some good movies, a nice cricket season, the deathly Hallows and some studying (yeah, really) coming up, I think I’ll cruise past the rest of summer without looking at the watch that very often.
Oh...and in case you are wondering about the video I made, here it is…
The Tendulkar Tribute.

Am I busy when I am 'doing' nothing?

It’s a long weekend for us. It means that we have 3 days holiday. The extra holiday is Monday, although the term long weekend technically includes Friday as well. For the sake of people who actually plan for these holidays ahead, here in US almost all the holidays are fixed on Mondays. That is, even if Memorial Day comes in between Monday and Friday, it will be moved to either of those days, most likely to Monday, so that the fun loving citizens can have three consecutive days off. This helps a lot if you plan to enjoy this long weekend, by traveling somewhere, say, the other side of the coast. You don’t have to worry about being at your work place physically on Monday, while your mind is still set in that wonderful pub you visited on the previous night, but had to leave in a hurry coz you had to start early the next day. With Monday being a holiday, you can arrive back to your house in the afternoon and you’ll have all a whole half-day at your disposal. You can do any thing you want. You can have a sweet-tired-sleep or you can have a great Chinese dinner or you can spend the entire night wondering, of all the jobs you could have picked, why in god’s green earth did you pick the one you never liked.

This long weekend concept comes handy even if you don’t travel to the far coast. You can use this 72 hrs of do-nothing time to finish off various things that you’ve been putting off for a long time. You can clean your apartment, fix the bug problem in your kitchen, mow the lawn, or repair your cycle or your car if you have one. You can catch up on things you missed. Things like checking your account transactions for identity theft, finishing the learn-something-yourself-in-so-many-days book that you started during the previous long weekend, see if you have received all the rebates you had applied previously.

One of the most engaging activities would be to call up the credit card company and get into in a word-war with the lady on the other line. You can be pretty sure that she would never give in to your demand to reduce your APR to the lowest possible, but its fun to get into someone’s nerves, especially with a perfectly faked Chinese accent. Another refreshing activity could be to collect the money your friend owes you. This activity is a test to your HR skills as it is a test for your friend’s money management policy. The trick is to make your friend ‘want’ to give the money. By inference form historical data, the method the guarantees money but requires time. But, hello, it’s a long weekend right. If you have anything in abundance, it is time. The procedure is as follows. You go to your friend’s place, say hello or whatever the opening line is between you two, and then remind him about the money he owes you. Try not to be pushy about it. Then casually get something from the fridge, settle in a couch and watch TV. Engage with him as usual but do not let him enjoy your company and at the same time do not leave his company. The idea is to tire him out of his indignity. 4 out of 5 times this works. Now, not only have you spent your long weekend in a very satisfactory manner, but you have managed to get yourself some money too.

Of all the things that can be done during the glorious time frame of a long weekend, one thing stands as the key thing to do for a bunch of individuals. The activities include, pretty much in the same order, getting up at 11 am, eating breakfast/lunch, watching a movie, having dinner, watching a movie, going to sleep and getting up at 11 am, the cycle broken only by the occasional need to type a blog. It’s a very refreshing activity, better known as ‘being busy in doing nothing’.

God Bless the inventor of the long friggin weekend.

My Experience with a movie!!

I am watching too many movies. Almost everyday the night ends with a movie. Even scarier, sometimes they are repeats. Since I started to semi-self-sustain, the number of movies that I watch has increased drastically and I don’t see the end any time sooner. I tend to enjoy good movies and therefore its ok, I guess. The important thing is I stumbled on this inspiring movie, which I would probably never forget. Although I’ve seen this movie before, I don’t remember seeing it in the way that I am seeing it now. I am talking about the changed mindset, of course. I watched a Richard Attenborough (the white bearded owner of the island full of dinosaurs in Jurassic park) movie made in 1982. It was a spectacular movie and there were no special effects at all. It’s a great movie, considering the fact that the main character is a simple, vegetarian and non-alcoholic (for the most part), supporter of non-violence. Half-dressed in dhoti, he inspired a few simple humans to become Mandela, Suu Kyi, Biko and the likes. Best known for freeing a south east nation which went on to become the largest democracy in the world and to an extent, talk of the economic world today, he is, referred as the Mahatma, meaning 'the great soul', by his followers, pointed in our school textbooks as father of the nation, named Mohandas by birth, loved and respected (by most) throughout the world, simply known as Gandhiji.
For those Indians who have no idea what I am talking about, think pay day. That’s right. I am talking about the one who is in all our currency bills.
The movie is simply awesome, and as Mr. Attenborough’s wish, it was surprisingly entertaining. Some times, movies like this end up as documentaries. But this portrayal of the mahatma was wonderfully screen played and at the same time provoked thought in most of the minds that watched it. The movie won 8 Oscars including best picture, during the 1982 ceremony. I don’t think many would disagree with the way the picture was taken.
But what surprised me the most was the judgment passed by some of educated Indian brothers of my generation. When one of my roommates said, that Gandhi is being given too much credit, I thought he was being funny. It got a little bit serious when he proclaimed that Gandhi simply got lucky that the British gave up India not because of the civil resistance, but due to their financial problems after WWII. Just when I thought this nightmare would soon end, he hit me like a mad truck, by ruling out Gandhian philosophy as impractical and flawed. I felt like being stung by a Tranquilizer dart.
I always felt that we get a sense of superiority in us, when we degrade some one of great accomplishment. Its getting into pop culture, I think. I saw few social website groups against Gandhi and probably most of the leaders. There are a lot of articles that wouldn’t accept him simply because of “what if”s and “you know what he did”s. In pop culture people express “if Hitler had won...” and it’s a happy tone, and they are even happier when a hero is insulted. We don’t exactly favor the villains, but we are thrilled to know the hero is not that good himself, after all. One single scar and we trumpet, ‘you’re not that great. If I was there, I would’ve done it, even better’. I wonder why there are fewer leaders compared to the hhuuuuuggggeeee (supposed to be an exageration) followers and significant whiners.
Being a fan of most of our national leaders I won’t accept it and therefore on my defense I would simply deny all of it on a simple basis that no one is perfect, but not even one came close to being as perfect as Gandhi. The world has seen so many rulers, leaders and revolutionaries, but nonesoever proved more clearly that the strength of human heart can shatter even the hardest of metals, than Baapu. Men and women, who have risen to greatness, have repeated time and again that their inspiration came from all the methods and sufferings he took for his struggle towards freeing his nation.
Yes, he refused penicillin to his wife, he slept (just slept,literally) with naked women to prove his mastery over brahmacharya, but these were his own philosophies. He never forced anyone to do things his way. It was a request all the time. For one he never supported the Indo-Pak partition and he joyfully declared himself to be a Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Christian and what not.
I don’t think he will be surprised by our ignorance to see the real truth. The real truth, is not that non-violence was the key to end the strongest of suppression, not that through simple life one can strengthen his/her heart and inspire respect and devotion, not that doing what is right is simply doing to others what you want others (or yourself) to do to you, but the real truth, I believe, is simply staying true to your heart and believe in the natural goodness in fellow humans. Yes, I don’t think he will be surprised.
We should try to learn what is good from others and try to instill ours in them. That way, we can make a greater number of heroes and eventually lesser and lesser villains.
Of what has become of the nation he loved, or even the world where doing right is to go after oil and kill in the name of religion, today, he will probably be saddened. Just pick up a new paper and look at the world that we are living right now. Seems like Gandhism could be worth a try.
Unless we see ourselves in the perspective of the universe, we are never free of our prejudices. Therefore, this is my prejudiced view. Let’s take someone of better credit.
Nine out of ten times Einstein is right. Of all things he found, he found that

Mahatma Gandhi’s life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practiced it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces....We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.
Generation to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.

And I could'nt agree more.

What is wrong with us?

My roommates and I have a habit of having a little chat after dinner everyday. The subject is usually sparked by a TV commercial, or a hot topic from website involving politics, technology, movies, even health care. One thing that I always notice is that we never end with a conclusion. When the decibel levels return to normal, we finish the debate with the same opening line we used, except the words are changed and may be this time in English( wonder why?!!).
Recently, the talk was about India (my most/least favorite) and her development. I, for one, always believed that whatever India has achieved must go to the record books, because each and every achievement is a result of some unknown’s hard work despite the stupidity that surrounds him/her. As someone who never made good scores in history, I think I have earned the right to say history is uninteresting and it only keeps track of champions and the beaten. Even worse, the winner gets to write the history books. When some of them get to walk on water (no offense), others are deemed to be savage fools. Human mind is polluted/enriched by personal prejudices (or preferences, if you like) and so an unbiased opinion, if anything, is mostly an illusion.
Now, back in our apartment, after discussing some important issues and even a master plan to propel India to world power, we went to bed. As I chewed some of the statements made by my roomies, I could not help but notice our affinity towards negativity and our lack of pride in being an Indian. When we discussed the successful PSLV launch, the history topper in the room proclaimed “this is too late. We should have done it earlier. Look at Russia/ China…..”. Even the supporters see the achievement as ISRO’s success, as though they are some kind of critique. It was achieved by India and, for God sake, be proud of it.

As the educated, we feel like we can make judgments about leaders whose era we never experienced. Hardly ever managed more than a group of 5, we think we can write off men who influenced a whole nation. My personal policy is not to depose the departed.
I think it’s a normal human tendency to enjoy when a hero fails. I loved Da-vinci code when it derided Christ (again, no offense). Similarly we love a piece of paper/article that says something bad about a past leader and we sentence the person to disparagement. I couldn’t believe my ears when someone accused Mother Theresa of converting her patients to Christianity (why did we ever come up with religion!?!) and fumed on Gandhiji getting more fame than what he deserved (!?!). How in the hell do you rate someone who gave his/her life for the betterment of others?
Praise your heroes, but think before despising others’. By language, race, color, and the worst of all religion, we are split in our emotions and add the Indian’s very own negativism; we have a bunch of intelligent ignorants. As I said, there never is any conclusion in our talks, but I think unless we get our minds clear of the prejudice, we can never hope for one. I should get started.
So to all the fellow educated citizens of my beloved nation, we may not be tech gurus as Russia, or mighty as china. But we are, in this life belong to India. So learn to appreciate or at least live with it. She gave everything she could for us, so don’t despise her.

That’s the least she expects from us.

What did i miss??

After a three week ordeal with a tough assignment, i feel like i have been released from a transparent box. There is nothing wrong with that tbox, except that one can only view things as it happens in front of them and there is no perspective involved. I was aware of the violent shoot-out at Vtech, Srilanka’s dominant progress in cricket world cup, the successful launch of PSLV by India, exclusion of sachin from ODI team and other things like Rai-Bachan wedding. None of them had anything to do with me, but still I felt I was not a part of the physical karma involved, you know, ‘everybody is linked to everyone else’ thing. So, I call it the transparent box (tbox), because it lets you watch (or know) events, but its similar to watching the idiot box (ibox?!) in your living room, there is no ‘perspective’ involved.
The assignment was to simulate a operating system architecture, with a specified a set of spec. I don’t want to say much about the complexity, but it is easily the toughest programming assignment that I have laid my hands on, since any time I can remember. This subject has a history of being notorious in putting students in the tbox, and I was pretty sure that I’ll be a permanent resident there. Fortunately I had a couple of friends who were also condemned to the tbox and we helped each other out.
I owe my release to the phrase “Dig the first hole, and eventually you will have the garden”. I cannot remember that last time when I came to know of a timely phrase that I’ll remember for life. This one is certainly a keeper. The beginning of the assignment was pretty rough but as I crossed the 4th hair pin bend, I was already practicing my lines of how I would explain the failure to my instructor. But the phrase pretty much held through and by the weekend I was pretty happy about way it turned out. As the D-day approached there is something called the ‘pressure’ that adds up. The assignment hit a wall and there is no way around it. I would love to know if there was any irony in this situation – feeling desperate for not being able finish the assignment, which I did not plan to finish in the first place. Then of course there is the Black box (bbox-I know, it is over kill, but I like it), the box where you were blinded by your inner tragedy (!?!) and don’t care about what happens around you. I went over the program repeatedly until I was convinced that the bug was a conspiracy by my brother and will Farrell. And then there was light and I found the “;” that I had missed in the code. Double back to the tbox and couple tens of hours later I am in the real world. And suddenly there are a lot of things that I want to know and there is lot of time, well, sort of. I got finals week next week, not really a week, I only have a single exam, but its a tough one. I know the next question from you…why is everything tough for you? Because I expect life to be fair to everyone and easy to me, that’s why!!!
Now that I am here, lets see. Yes, it is tragic that a troubled mind destroyed his soul along with 33 more. But this brings us back to the ‘everybody is linked to everyone else’ theory. Let Peace prevail on the departed souls. Yes, Srilanka’s run Is great, but the roos will be the champs. Yes, ISRO’s launch of PSLV is a great achievement and I am proud of it. And by the way, to hell with those who degrade this. Yes, it’s an unfortunate event that sachin misses an ODI series in 17 years (fully fit), lets hope for the best. As for as the marriage goes, I just don’t care.
Morale – tbox is great!!!

okay. we r out..now what?

After the disgraceful showdown in the carribean, the Indian cricket team is expecting a red hot welcome at home. Already the rituals of eiffigy burning and sandal garlanding of the players are over and when the team lands in the peninsula, improvement is unlikely. With a perfectly professional victory of Bangladesh over Bermuda, the next time the men in blue get to wear the world cup jersey is at least four years away. Among the fierce lash outs of people at various ‘levels’ there is the talk of replacing the captain and the coach. Some have gone far enough to call for the change of the whole team, spare few new ones. I personally know someone who demanded that the BCCI should send a bunch of first class cricketers, reasoning that we don’t have to have all the fuss about the results then. Out of frustration, most of ‘must do’s’ that have emerged are simply the knee-jerk reactions. As a captain, all dravid could do was watch, as his team mates, one after the other, walked in and walked out as he piled up some respectful runs on the fateful day against the islanders. And no coach can play for you, not even an Australian.

Not many seem to realize that the problem is in the foundation. Indian cricket in domestic level is one of the worst in comparison to any test playing nation. The national pool of talent is not the one that lacks skills, but the competition and motivation. Most domestic cricketers play part-time and the wages for the game they play are not even sufficient to get a BDM kit. Political corruption starts at the ground level and is a hanging garden at the BCCI headquarters. The grounds are simply dust beds and don’t really bring smiles to bowlers. Being the richest cricket association in the cricket world, BCCI is not even close to being a well managed bunch. To make things right, we have to fix our way up. State-wise and zone-wise games must be made more competitive and remunerations must match the local price levels. Overall fitness and performance levels of the players must be standardized and above all the one should not be picked for having ‘second cousin to the sister of selection committee member’ reasons. Youngsters must be given more opportunities to prove, while ones already there should be made to realize that being in the team is not a privilege but a chance to prove and constantly improve. Some may ask is it possible to do it India...well, we have four years to prove it is. And as far as the current team is concerned, leave them alone for sometime. They have had some bad times now. Let them get some sleep.

All in the game!!...but why always my team???

Today Indian cricket team lost to srilanka in a do-or-die match in the world cup tournament. Since they have already gone through the humiliation of losing to Bangladesh, which is comparable to any minnow of this season, the loss against the lankans pretty much puts the team I back, out of the next level. In a country filled with cricket fanatics, where loss of game resulting in rioting, burning effigies and other stuff that are commonly considered outside the realm of civilization this loss certainly would put a lot of fear in the players' minds. As a fan I am, undoubtedly, disappointed and to some extent frustrated by the team's performance in a pressure situation. It’s been a dream for the whole population of India to see in live TV, an Indian cricket captain holding the prestigious World cup trophy, which happened once in 1984. It was a long time ago and the range of generation that wants to relive it is growing impatient. As long as I can remember, I have been a cricket fan. I recall the days, when I was awake all night to watch the sachin destroying super fast bowlers, ganguly lofting spinners put of the park , dravid effortlessly piling up runs with absolute finesse, sehwag with his blistering knock, yuvraj stamping his authority and now they are just memories. India hasn’t been playing to the hype its being surrounded and the investment made that’s been made on it. I am not jealous about the money they make by playing cricket, but when I see the advertisement where sachin drinks his Pepsi, shown just after he is dismissed in the real game certainly make me sick to the stomach. The next batsman comes to the center gets himself out and the rest of the team pretty much does the same. Every team has bad days, bad season or bad luck but why my team does has them every time they had their back towards the wall. So much is in for debate, like the team picked, toss decision, or the whole squad for the tournament. I believe that the current squad is as good as any team that can ever be picked. Simply the class and experience that this team contains can be hardly matched. For the most part, India seems to carry the tag “best team on paper”. This is repeatedly proved by performances such as the one against the lankans or the one against Bangladesh. I wish I can see the little teenager from Mumbai who destroyed bowlers, when he had no obligation towards Pepsi. I wish I can enjoy the left hander from Bengal, who with his sweet timing pierced any field setting, before he ever signed up for coca cola. And how about the left arm medium pacer who took a hatrick against Pakistan in their home, well he is with servo ltd now. I guess they will all be just memories. As a fan, I have compromised and settled with my expectations. I don’t expect my team to win every match that they play, but when it comes to the games in level grounds, I at least expect a honorable fight, let alone winning them. Statistic gurus say mathematically, if Bermuda defeats Bangladesh, then India has a chance at the next stage. But personally I believe that we don’t belong there. We certainly don’t deserve to be in the next level. I should say that the Bangladeshis did a great a job and there is nothing wrong with them progressing. I sincerely hope that there is no violent repercussions back home and no body gets physically injured or insulted. I think the players feel humiliated about their performance. All said and done, it’s just a game and someone’s gotta loose. It’s just hard to digest that it’s my team….well as all losers say, ITS ALL IN THE GAME.

Apparently the concept of writing a diary to make sure your mind lets out what it cannot hold for long is too hard a task for me to keep it within the list of things i usually do. i tried a modified diary, one that holds ideas of my mind as i collect them, a simple word document, but simply there wasnt enough things that i can load into it in a single duration of time. Being in 200x and not being online is closely comaprable to not following the process of inhale-exhale cycle. So here it is, the slate that is universally available for viewing and commenting and yet, as long as you dont remove it, no force on earth, other than the immortal powers of the Server manager can destroy ur inscriptions. I am not sure how often i am going to load the scribblings of my mind here, but as often my mind wants a breather, it will be here. This should be fun considering the fact that a blog cannot be, in any humanly structured way, subject to violation of,well, anything. Comments are as welcome as they can be, irrespective of ur age, religion and what not.
So it starts......