Random Ramblings

Life

2011-05-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

“No matter how careful you are, there’s going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn’t experience it all. There’s that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should’ve been paying attention.
Well, get used to that feeling. That’s how your whole life will feel some day.
This is all practice.”

- Chuck Palahniuk (Invisible Monsters)

Two Tramps in Mud Time

2011-04-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you are two months back in the middle of March.

What an excellent description of the weather! Only Robert Frost can make talking about weather sound so poetic. This is an excerpt from the poem "Two Tramps in Mud Time" via the academic chic. It reminds me of my earlier post on weather

Things Shouldn't Be So Hard

2011-04-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

Things Shouldn't Be So hard

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn out place;
beneath her hand,
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space
—however small—
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.

by Kay Ryan, 2001

Stumbled via The Daily Dish

The Summer Day

2011-03-25T17:56:00.001-07:00

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

The poem says it all. Poignant.

Half way in March!

2011-03-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

Looks like this year is going to be a good year. It is only March and I've posted 6 times already! Counting this one as half a post, the total is already half of last year's postings. :) Ah... small pleasures in life.

Phenomenal!

2011-03-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

To all the women out there - you are phenomenal every single day not just on Women's Day!

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

New Year Resolutions

2011-01-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

1. Work out and lose the weight gained during the holidays

2. Learn to bake

3. Learn to knit

4. Travel all over and remember to buy fridge magnets and coffee mugs.

Yellowstone
Crater Lake
Europe
Revisit Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Point Reyes

5. Make good use of the Gutenberg project and read the following list of books for starters:

Blogs of poems

2011-01-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here and here and here are a few more interesting poems from the world wide web! Enjoy. :)

Edit: One more link to a good collection of poems!

How to be alone

2011-01-07T13:05:00.000-08:00

How to be alone by Tanya Davis

A poem and a video that is so poetic and uplifting!

"But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless

And lonely is healing if you make it

... were tokens for holding the lonely at bay

Because if you are happy in your head,

solitude is blessed and alone is okay."

A new beginning

2011-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Although the book, Sum Forty Tales from the Afterlives, is about the end, it is an extraordinary read to start the year with! Here is an excerpt from the book.

Sum

In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share a quality are grouped together.

You spend two months driving the street in front of your house, seven months having sex. You sleep for thirty years without opening your eyes. For five months straight you flip through magazines while sitting on a toilet.

You take all your pain at once, all twenty-seven intense hours of it. Bones break, cars crash, skin is cut, babies are born. Once you make it through, it’s agony-free for the rest of your afterlife.

But that doesn’t mean it’s always pleasant. You spend six days clipping your nails. Fifteen months looking for lost items. Eighteen months waiting in
line. Two years of boredom: staring out a bus window, sitting in an airport terminal. One year reading books. Your eyes hurt, and you itch, because you can’t take a shower until it’s your time to take your marathon two-hundred-day shower. Two weeks wondering what happens when you die. One minute realizing your body is falling. Seventy-seven hours of confusion. One hour realizing you’ve forgotten someone’s name. Three weeks realizing you are wrong. Two days lying. Six weeks waiting for a green light. Seven hours vomiting. Fourteen minutes experiencing pure joy. Three months doing laundry. Fifteen hours writing your signature. Two days tying shoelaces. Sixty-seven days of heartbreak. Five weeks driving lost. Three days calculating restaurant tips. Fifty-one days deciding what to wear. Nine days pretending you know what is being talked about. Two weeks counting money. Eighteen days staring into the refrigerator. Thirty-four days longing. Six months watching commercials. Four weeks sitting in thought, wondering if there is something better you could be doing with your time. Three years swallowing food. Five days working buttons and zippers. Four minutes wondering what your life would be like if you reshuffled the order of events. In this part of the afterlife, you imagine something analogous to your Earthly life, and the thought is blissful: a life where episodes are split into tiny swallowable pieces, where moments do not endure, where one experiences the joy of jumping from one event to the next like a child hopping from spot to spot on the burning sand.

Egalitaire

In the afterlife you discover that God understands the complexities of life. She had originally submitted to peer pressure when She structured Her universe like all the other gods had, with a binary categorization of people into good and evil. But it didn’t take long for Her to realize that humans could be good in many ways and simultaneously corrupt and meanspirited in other ways. How was She to arbitrate who goes to Heaven and who to Hell? Might not it be possible, She considered, that a man could be an embezzler and still give to charitable causes? Might not a woman be an adulteress but bring pleasure and security to two men’s lives? Might not a child unwittingly divulge secrets that splinter a family? Dividing the population into two categories—good and bad—seemed like a more reasonable task when She was younger, but with experience these decisions became more difficult. She composed complex formulas to weigh hundreds of factors, and ran computer programs that rolled out long strips of paper with eternal decisions. But Her sensitivities revolted at this automation—and when the computer generated a decision She disagreed with, She took the opportunity to kick out the plug in rage. That afternoon She listened to the grievances of the dead from two warring nations. Both sides had suffered, both sides had legitimate grievances, both pled their cases earnestly. She covered Her ears and moaned in misery. She knew Her humans were multidimensional, and She could no longer live under the rigid architecture of Her youthful choices.

Not all gods suffer over this; we can consider ourselves lucky that in death we answer to a God with deep sensitivity to the byzantine hearts of Her creations. For months She moped around Her living room in Heaven, head drooped like a bulrush, while the lines piled up. Her advisors advised Her to delegate the decision making, but She loved Her humans too much to leave them to the care of anyone else.

In a moment of desperation the thought crossed Her mind to let everyone wait on line indefinitely, letting them work it out on their own. But then a better idea struck Her generous spirit. She could afford it: She would grant everyone, every last human, a place in Heaven. After all, everyone had something good inside; it was part of the design specifications. Her new plan brought back the bounce to Her gait, returned the color to Her cheeks. She shut down the operations in Hell, fired the Devil, and brought every last human to be by Her side in Heaven. Newcomers or old-timers, nefarious or righteous: under the new system, everyone gets equal time to speak with Her. Most people find Her a little garrulous and oversolicitous, but She cannot be accused of not caring.

The most important aspect of Her new system is that everyone is treated equally. There is no longer fire for some and harp music for others. The afterlife is no longer defined by cots versus waterbeds, raw potatoes versus sushi, hot water versus champagne. Everyone is a brother to all, and for the first time an idea has been realized that never came to fruition on Earth: true equality.

The Communists are baffled and irritated, because they have finally achieved their perfect society, but only by the help of a God in whom they don’t want to believe. The meritocrats are abashed that they’re stuck for eternity in an incentiveless system with a bunch of pinkos. The conservatives have no penniless to disparage; the liberals have no downtrodden to promote.

So God sits on the edge of Her bed and weeps at night, because the only thing everyone can agree upon is that they’re all in Hell.

Circle of Friends

When you die, you feel as though there were some subtle change, but everything looks approximately the same. You get up and brush your teeth. You kiss your spouse and kids and leave for the office. There is less traffic than normal. The rest of your building seems less full, as though it’s a holiday. But everyone in your office is here, and they greet you kindly. You feel strangely popular. Everyone you run into is someone you know. At some point, it dawns on you that this is the afterlife: the world is only made up of people you’ve met before.

It’s a small fraction of the world population—about 0.00002 percent—but it seems like plenty to you.

It turns out that only the people you remember are here. So the woman with whom you shared a glance in the elevator may or may not be included. Your second-grade teacher is here, with most of the class. Your parents, your cousins, and your spectrum of friends through the years. All your old lovers. Your boss, your grandmothers, and the waitress who served your food each day at lunch. Those you dated, those you almost dated, those you longed for. It is a blissful opportunity to spend quality time with your one thousand connections, to renew fading ties, to catch up with those you let slip away.

It is only after several weeks of this that you begin to feel forlorn. You wonder what’s different as you saunter through the vast quiet parks with a friend or two. No strangers grace the empty park benches. No family unknown to you throws bread crumbs for the ducks and makes you smile because of their laughter.

As you step into the street, you note there are no crowds, no buildings teeming with workers, no distant cities bustling, no hospitals running 24/7 with patients dying and staff rushing, no trains howling into the night with sardined passengers on their way home. Very few foreigners. You begin to consider all the things unfamiliar to you. You’ve never known, you realize, how to vulcanize rubber to make a tire. And now those factories stand empty. You’ve never known how to fashion a silicon chip from beach sand, how to launch rockets out of the atmosphere, how to pit olives or lay railroad tracks. And now those industries are shut down.

The missing crowds make you lonely.You begin to complain about all the people you could be meeting. But no one listens or sympathizes with you, because this is precisely what you chose when you were alive.

Descent of Species

In the afterlife, you are treated to a generous opportunity: you can choose whatever you would like to be in the next life. Would you like to be a member of the opposite sex? Born into royalty? A philosopher with bottomless profundity? A soldier facing triumphant battles?

But perhaps you’ve just returned here from a hard life. Perhaps you were tortured by the enormity of the decisions and responsibilities that surrounded you, and now there’s only one thing you yearn for: simplicity. That’s permissible. So for the next round, you choose to be a horse. You covet the bliss of that simple life: afternoons of grazing in grassy fields, the handsome angles of your skeleton and the prominence of your muscles, the peace of the slow-flicking tail or the steam rifling through your nostrils as you lope across snow-blanketed plains.

You announce your decision. Incantations are muttered, a wand is waved, and your body begins to metamorphose into a horse. Your muscles start to bulge; a mat of strong hair erupts to cover you like a comfortable blanket in winter. The thickening and lengthening of your neck immediately feels normal as it comes about. Your carotid arteries grow in diameter, your fingers blend hoofward, your knees stiffen, your hips strengthen, and meanwhile, as your skull lengthens into its new shape, your brain races in its changes: your cortex retreats as your cerebellum grows, the homunculus melts man to horse, neurons redirect, synapses unplug and replug on their way to equestrian patterns, and your dream of understanding what it is like to be a horse gallops toward you from the distance. Your concern about human affairs begins to slip away, your cynicism about human behavior melts, and even your human way of thinking begins to drift away from you.

Suddenly, for just a moment, you are aware of the problem you overlooked. The more you become a horse, the more you forget the original wish. You forget what it was like to be a human wondering what it was like to be a horse.

This moment of lucidity does not last long. But it serves as the punishment for your sins, a Promethean entrails-pecking moment, crouching half-horse halfman, with the knowledge that you cannot appreciate the destination without knowing the starting point; you cannot revel in the simplicity unless you remember the alternatives. And that’s not the worst of your revelation. You realize that the next time you return here, with your thick horse brain, you won’t have the capacity to ask to become a human again. You won’t understand what a human is. Your choice to slide down the intelligence ladder is irreversible. And just before you lose your final human faculties, you painfully ponder what magnificent extraterrestrial creature, enthralled with the idea of finding a simpler life, chose in the last round to become a human.

Poetry Fence

2011-01-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

The leaning wooden fence holds poetry

chosen inside the nearby house from

many volumes, typed up, tacked up,

a way station to entice the passersby to stop and read.

Their dogs appreciate the time to sniff

the other dogs who've wended by, to question

who has been that way before,

their form of meditation while their humans stop.

It's not the wall of Facebook,

not communication on a cell phone,

digital waves allowing instant feedback,

sound bytes to speak the superficial as mundane.

This analog chautauqua doesn't snark and bark

them to agreement with pronouncements

like a cable station. It does what all good

poetry does: asks them, in their solitude,

to pause, to read, to think, to question, and to feel.

By Renee Adams

The cool idea of this poetry fence is from here. Happy new year!

The most beautiful words

2010-08-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

The most beautiful words. What would yours be?

The best thing in the world

2010-07-23T12:45:00.001-07:00

The best thing in the world

What's the best thing in the world?

June-rose, by May-dew impearled;

Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;

Truth, not cruel to a friend;

Pleasure, not in haste to end;

Beauty, not self-decked and curled

Till its pride is over-plain;

Love, when, so, you're loved again.

What's the best thing in the world?

--Something out of it, I think.

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

2010-07-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

There was an Old Man with a beard

2010-07-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

There was an Old Man with a beard

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, 'It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!'

By Edward Lear

The Land of Counterpane

2010-07-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay

To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

By Robert Louis Stevenson

Miss T.

2010-07-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Miss T.

It's a very odd thing—

….As odd as can be—

That whatever Miss T. eats

….Turns into Miss T.;

Porridge and apples,

….Mince, muffins, and mutton,

Jam, junket, jumbles—

….Not a rap, not a button

It matters; the moment

….They're out of her plate,

Though shared by Miss Butcher

….And sour Mr. Bate,

Tiny and cheerful,

….And neat as can be,

Whatever Miss T. eats

….Turns into Miss T.

By Walter de le Mare

A poem in your pocket

2010-05-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

A little late for the "Poem in your pocket" day and month! But better a little late than never. :)

Keep A Poem In Your Pocket

Keep a poem in your pocket

And a picture in your head

And you'll never feel lonely

At night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you

The little picture bring to you

A dozen dreams to dance to you

At night when you're in bed.

So - -

Keep a picture in your pocket

And a poem in your head

And you'll never feel lonely

At night when you're in bed.

By Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Pit(h)y I say!

2010-04-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

Self-Pity

I never saw a wild thing

sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself.

-David Herbert Lawrence

Source: This

Sleeping in the forest

2010-04-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

Sleeping in the forest

I thought the earth remembered me,

she took me back so tenderly,

arranging her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,

nothing between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths

among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

breathing around me, the insects,

and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

All night I rose and fell, as if in water,

grappling with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

-Mary Oliver

Lovely! I'd like to do that sometime. :)

The joy in poems

2010-02-28T00:25:00.000-08:00

I am very pleasantly surprised to find a plethora of poems that I can actually appreciate. For a long time, I had assumed that poems were these mystical things that only people with depth and profoundness and insight could write and therefore appreciate. But no! Even a John Doe can appreciate them with some effort! It just takes some getting used to and am happy to be clocking some time with these mystical beings. Here are a few that I have read recently and loved.

Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World talks about the loss of a parent and how it may never sink in.
Another poem about loss and the sad realization that there is no one to share joy with. Suprised by Joy
A Red, Red Rose is a sweet poem expressing one's love to one's love!
Daffodils - I wish they would flash upon my inward eye specially when I am in a pensive mood!
I am Nobody. Who are you? is a short fun poem.
Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Just a beautiful piece of poetic magic. 'Tread softly because you tread on my dreams'. This poem gave me that 'awwww!' moment.
Hope is the thing with feathers This poem about hope lifted my spirits
Father ended with a twist in the 'tail' like it was an O'Henry's short story.

Numbers that scare you!

2010-02-26T14:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to worldometers - those constantly rising numbers scared me! I wished that I could put a stop to all the problems in the world and did my best by closing the browser-tab! I also put my finger into my ears and sang 'tra-la-la-la' and wished the problems away.

What did you do?

The sheepish apology

2010-02-20T00:44:00.000-08:00

In these apologetic times, I take a page from Tiger Woods' speech (not his personal life/story) and sincerely and sheepishly apologize for not apologizing earlier. And I'd like to keep this short - to whoever actually bothered to look at this blog over the last year, I'm sorry I've left it unkempt. I re-commit myself to the whole blogging thing now that twitter is slowing, buzz is still zzzing and FB is history! ;) Until the next unexplained hiatus!

Cheers!

Correction: I've not blogged in a year and half not just a year. Ooops!

Poems

2010-02-20T00:17:00.000-08:00

I've this new found interest in poems and to satisfy the itch I got a book from the library that is a collection of poems titled very aptly 'Committed to Memory'. It is a treasure trove of many poems - a few that I had read in school, a few that I had heard in bits and pieces and many more that I had only heard by name. I would love to have a few of these truly 'by-heart' and committed to my memory. I'm overwhelmed by the potential in poetry - the rhythm, the scale, the layers of meanings. What one poem can mean is limited only by one's ability to interpret and understand or feel and empathize. Will leave you with these lines from a poem called Snow-Flakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (one hellowa long name that is!)

This is the poem of the air,

Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

This is the secret of despair,

Long in its cloud bosom hoarded,

Now whispered and revealed

To wood and field.

Internet addiction

2008-09-17T00:49:00.001-07:00

This habit of alt+tabbing/ctrl+tabbing almost cripples me when I try to study from online material like slides/notes/pdfs or work. I am definitely old-fashioned when it comes to getting more done and studying effectively if its all on paper. I like the feel of pen/pencil on paper and like scribbling my own notes on the sides. It makes the material personalized, if you know what I mean! I know that relying on paper-copies of digital-material beats atleast one of the advantages and is bad for the environment. This puts me in a very difficult situation where I don't study well or I harm the environment. So in the dilemma, my grades suffer. :( Any advice on how to get over this problem?

PS: This post was the result of one such alt+tabbing while I was trying to study for my exams due in less than a week! :O I need help!

Click "Start" to shutdown...

2008-09-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Why do we have to click on the "Start" button to shutdown a Windows system? I've found that a very unusual thing and it has been one of those bizarre questions that have haunted me.
It is like turning the ignition key to shut off a car says a blogger on MSDN in this interesting post.
I liked the analogy and it makes sense. Do you think so?

Fantasies

2008-09-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Fantasy: Thinking of exercise == exercising
Fact: Mental activity actually increases your metabolic rate claims NYTimes! If that isn't good news... nothing else would qualify!

Fantasy: To daydream throughout the day
Fact: Daydreamers are creative according to this article in Boston Globe.

Myth: Work hard to earn well and enjoy a happy life.
Fact: Nope! Economics doesn't work that way at least not in the US of A according to this article.

Moral of the story is "Take a chill pill and day dream and think of exercising and maybe you'll get rich like the post-it guy". Great discoveries to make at the start of the week after a long weekend. :) Hope these articles boost your morale too!

RIP

2008-09-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Death is a very sobering certainty in everyone's life. But when a news agency prepares for someone's death, it seems almost like they were wishing the person dead which doesn't seem to be the right thing to do. There is something more disturbing about it if the article actually gets published when the person is alive. I was shocked to see this article on Steve Jobs' death.
On that sombre note, have you thought of what your obituary might read like?

Why do I blog?

2008-08-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

"The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure pure reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!" - Calvin.

This is why. :) In fact you can replace 'writing' with 'attending college', it still makes sense! This guy is awesome. And I like the idea of being intimidating.

Noise for noise

2008-08-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

Do you up the volume of your music player to drown out noises from your surroundings even if the music is almost deafening you? I do that often. And that sounds more like the out-dated "eye-for-an-eye" approach and noise is additive so you'll just increase your distractions than reduce it.

I really wish there were affordable Bose-quality noise-cancellation headphones! I definitely can do with one while I try to study when the TV is on. :) There is also the additional problem that the volume of advertisements is in general more than the volume of any program as apparently there are no guidelines that limit the volume levels of an advertisement much to the glee of din-loving advertisers(Courtesy: Reader's Digest article). I hope the Federal government does something about that! ;)

Fruits

2008-08-15T11:03:00.001-07:00

My knowledge of fruit taxonomy, even the non-scientific one, is very weak. So I decided to look up what fruits I've been eating in the land of opportunity! But after "wikipediaing " my way through the names I'm no more knowledgeable. There are plumcots, apriums and what-nots! I've given up on being able to distinguish these fruits. Nevertheless the photos looked very interesting. So here they are!

Peach

Nectarines - a cousin of the peach but with smoother skin

Plum - dried plums are called prunes

Apricot

Pear

Pluot - 3/4th plum and 1/4th apricot.

Tangerines - small oranges

"Broken" English

2008-08-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some funny phrases that non-native speakers of English use and what I think they mean!

female accommodation -> accommodation for a female
inspiring candidate -> aspiring candidate
pros and corns -> pros and cons
lay-offing -> laying-off

Being a non-native speaker myself, I wouldn't want to be judged solely by the way I use my second language. And if someone noticed a mistake, I would like it if they didn't make fun of it publicly instead brought it to my notice. So going by the principle of "Do onto others as you would wish them do onto you", I tend to ignore it at best or laugh in my head at worst! :)

Have you come across any other such phrases? What do you do when you hear such usage - laugh out loud, laugh inside your head, correct them, ignore the wrong usage?

Do you own things or do things own you?

2008-08-14T00:20:00.001-07:00

Just as I started moving out of student-life and dreaming of a more "materialistic" life where I can buy books that I like and collect all those classic movies that I've always wanted to own and buy a few more clothes... I read this blog-post.

It set me thinking. What I really want is the "ability" to buy the things that I want and also the experience of reading/watching/wearing/using the things I want. But do these two things have to imply that I solely have to own it? May be not. I wouldn't mind renting DVDs nor would I mind borrowing books from the library. Although this argument cannot be extended to things like clothes, we can cut down on our impulse to keep buying stuff to make us feel better.

More on the buying habits of our generation in the next posts... :)

Trivia

2008-07-31T15:03:00.001-07:00

Did you know that touch typing is typing without looking at the keyboard? I'm yet to master that one! :D
Did you know that to help typists recognize the home-row (the row which you return your fingers to) on a QWERTY keyboard the keys F and J have notches on them? Similarly there is a notch on the number 5 on cell-phone keypad to help touch-typing. That will be helpful if you've to dial 9-1-1 in the dark!
Did you know that those weird characters that have to be put before variable names in Perl have a name? They are called sigils - from the word "sigil" which refers to magical symbols used to refer to angels and demons.
Did you know about copyleft license as opposed to a creator's copyright license?

@Copyleft: All wrongs unreserved! :)

The end?

2008-07-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a graph of the number of posts I've posted on this blog in the past six months. Not a great sight! I peaked too early and have been unable to maintain the momentum. Its not for the lack of ideas that there has been that dramatic dip but due to the lack of time. More precisely, due to the lack of time management. ;)

I've come up with a couple of strategies to ensure that the graph looks better over the next six months. The goal is to keep chugging along and to do that I've decided to post often (maybe once in two days or so) even if the post itself is not very long and insightful(sigh!). And if it is a choice between posting nothing versus a couple of links and a couple of lines describing those links, I'll choose the latter. Yeah I'm letting quantity take over quality! But I've an argument in its favor here. :)

Here is to my new resolution! Cheers! :)

Amway phenomenon amongst the Indian diaspora

2008-06-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

I'm browsing through the movie section in Walmart wondering if my bank account can afford the luxury of buying a dvd. An Indian couple is strolling by and the lady says "Excuse me" and I turn around to see this smiling lady dressed in red standing a few feet away from me. She says that I look very familiar and wants to know if I stay in Sunnyvale. I smile back and say "Sorry. No I don't" and am all set to get back to my movie browsing. In my mind I just shrug the converation off as another case of mistaken identity 'cuz we are a lot of Indians in CA!

But the lady seems interested in continuing the conversation. I wouldn't want to be rude to someone I've just met so I politely reply to her questions of where I'm from and what I was doing in CA. All the time I am just being cautious to not offer too many details. And in response she offers a few details about herself. Then it goes on to how the weather in CA is similar to that of my hometown and I'm getting fidgety and looking for a way to end the conversation. Then the lady asks me for my phone number. And then, things fall into place in my head.

"This is the Amway band!" screams a tiny voice. Now I know I don't want to continue the conversation. The pick-up line ("You look familiar"), build familiarity questions("India, weather in CA") and the request for my phone number - they follow a pattern I've heard a lot about. My friends had forewarned me about being hounded by these "salespersons" but it had never seemed real until it happened to me. I say I don't have a phone and thankfully Murphy didn't play his prank to get it to ring right at that very moment. She's quick to reply "Oh you can give me your mail-id and I'll send my phone number to you". I have never met anyone who is so eager to be in touch with me and instead of being flattered I felt like I was being taken advantage of. I manage to get out without giving my contact details.

It was amusing to be waylaid that way in Walmart. Amway's "get rich quick" scheme seems to have allured tonnes of Indians into its fold. And the side effect is that the non-Amway crowd is totally cynical and cautious. We don't want unsolicited mails or calls about products nor do we want to get into the cult. But in the process of avoiding these things we avoid making eye-contact with anyone while shopping and miss out on meeting genuine people who don't have anything to sell.

How many of you have had a similar experience? Do you think that multi-level marketing is acceptable? Do you think that mostly Indians take to this?

Here are some links to other Indians' experiences with the Amway gang and their multi-level marketing.
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/i-hate-indian-network-marketers-so-much
http://www.stuffindianslike.com/2008/04/2-4-8-16-32-amway.html
http://www.chakkarapani.com/graffiti/?p=156
http://www.cocs.com/jhoagland/

I'm listening to...

2008-06-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

Gimme more by Britney Spears

Kung fu Panda

2008-06-22T10:48:00.001-07:00

This one gets 5 stars.
A meaningful story - not the run of the mill fairy-tale, amazing graphics and great fun to watch.

"The secret ingredient of my secret ingredient noodles is.... nothing!"

Wishlist...

2008-06-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

First book

2008-05-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

An unconventional kid's book. In fact, the content was so un-kiddish in certain places that I thought it can't be a kid's book - it must be some kind of a joke. But then I googled and figured out that Ladybird is definitely a known name in kids' books and they even know that they don't provide "'pure and healthy literature' for children" any more. In fact their website says '... those books would no longer be politically correct.' However the particular book that I read is not the original one! Thank god!

This book with all the nice pictures and the big font reminded me of my early reading days. I don't remember my first book but I do remember starting off with Tinkle, Champak, Gokulam, Phantom comics, Chacha Choudhry, Asterix and Tintin and slowly making my way up to Harry Potter! ;-) That's another book which deals with dark side of the grown-up world.

Do you remember your first book? What were some of your favorite books when you were growing up?

Update: Here is an article on some new books to read this summer and all through the year.

Howlarious!

2008-05-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Google Purge??

2008-05-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

I totally fell for this story!!! Although I wonder if this is what's on Google's mind...

Harry Potter - Trivia

2008-05-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter is an amazing book series as much intended for adults as for kids. The way things fall into place you'll start believing that we are all muggles and that there is this magical world out there. Rowling weaves true magic with her stories. I've lost track how many times I've re-read the books. I've just finished reading the 5th, 6th and the 7th books. Re-reading the books brought back so many new perspectives and details into the fore-front. Thought I'll share a few here in the form of questions and did-you-know s.

What is Albus Dumbledore's full name?
Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour have a house by the sea. What is it's name?
Ginny is the short form for? Clue: Can't imagine calling Minerva Minny! :D
What is Hagrid's first name?
Hagrid's mom was a giantess. What was her name?
The golden Snitch that a Seeker captures during a Quidditch match has what is called the "flesh-memory". Who is the inventor of the snitch?
There is a reference to Mark Evans in the Deathly Hallows. He was no relation to Lily Evans. What was the incident where he is referred to?

Scroll down for the answers!
There are tonnes of interesting tit-bits online about Harry Potter. I mention a couple of these sites here.

veritaserum.com
accio-quote.org
the-leaky-cauldron.org
potterish.com
the official one - www.jkrowling.com
And wikipedia is a great one-stop-shop for most details you'd want to know.

Did you know that there is a "Hermione"ish theory about the differences between spells, charms, hexes and curses?? Did you know that the elder wand was made from the hair of the tail of a thestral? Did you know that there is a significance to why Harry's wand core was holly-and-phoenix while Riddle's was yew? And that Dumbledore's patronus was a phoenix? All this and more nuggets are hidden the official website.

There are a couple more side-kick books about the magical world that JK Rowling has written. The Tales of Beedle the Bard is one such and there is a detailed review on Amazon which makes for an interesting read.

An aside: Its a pity that JK Rowling's official site doesn't turn up very high (if at all) in any of the searches I did for Harry Potter trivia. I suppose that is due to the fact that the site is flash-based and hence cannot be trawled by web-bots. But it would be good if her site would get atleast as good if not a better search-ranking than the other fan sites. To the credit of the web-site, there is an option of text-only version but it's presentation is done so shoddily that I'd have preferred that there wasn't any.

The answers to the questions:

Dumbledore's full name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Shell Cottage is the name of Bill and Fleur's place.
Yes! Ginny is short for Ginerva!
Rubeus was Hagrid's first name
Fridwulfa was Hagrid's mom.
Bowman Wright was the inventor of the snitch
Harry refers Mark Evans in a conversation with Dudley mentioning that Dudley had beaten up Mark.

The most hectic week ever...

2008-05-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

I am recovering from the most hectic week I've had in my life! I was totally swamped with work and work and more work. I've still not cleared up all the stuff on my plate but the major deadlines are met for the moment and I can take a breather. I sooooo hope to catch up on all the lost sleep. But this is definitely not the time to rest what with another set of deadlier deadlines waiting to pounce upon me... Grad life for you! ;-) It's amazing how blogging, mailing, browsing, cooking, sleeping and gymming just disappeared from my life for the ten long days to make way for programming, assignments and studying! I didn't compromise on eating and bathing though! ;-) However, its been worth the while and I'm planning to treat myself to another reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So long!

Russell Peters at OSU

2008-05-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Russell Peters is going to be here at OSU! And students are allowed a free ticket! Yipppeeee! :) Can't wait for May 21st.

Russell Peters@OSU

Russell Peters on Youtube.com

Angular momentum...

2008-04-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Cleopatra Stratan

2008-04-18T14:28:00.001-07:00

Cleopatra Stratan is a little girl of three who sings very endearingly. According to Wikipedia, she is one of the youngest singers to achieve commercial success. Her Spanish (Moldovan?) accent makes her so captivating. Here is Ghita, one of her famous songs that's available on Youtube.

ಇವರು ಮೆಚ್ಚುವ ವಸ್ತು ಇಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ ಜೋಕೆ...

2008-04-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

When I was studying in school one of my teachers had taught us a kannada poem. I don't remember the poet's name but I do remember a verse that had made a lot of sense... Here goes.

ಛಳಿಗಾಲ ಬಂದಾಗ ಎಷ್ಟು ಛಳಿ ಎಂದರೋ
ಬಂತಲ್ಲ ಬೇಸಿಗೆ ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಬಿಸಿಲೆಂದರೋ
ಮಳೆ ಬಿತ್ತೋ ಬಿಡದಲ್ಲ ಶನಿಯೆಂಬ ಟೀಕೆ
ಇವರು ಮೆಚ್ಚುವ ವಸ್ತು ಇಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ ಜೋಕೆ

Roughly it means:

They complain that its too cold in winter
If its summer they say that the heat's terrible
If it rains they crib that it never stops
Beware! There isn't anything they like here...

PS: I'm not sure why the kannada font looks awful in some browsers. I will see if I can help that.

Windows flame

2008-04-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

I've been a Windows user for more than four years. And it has suited my needs all along. But there is one bug (I'm sure MS thinks its a feature) that haunts Windows users given that MS comes up with so many updates and so often. The dreaded automatic update and restart is a bane - you leave your computer to get yourself a drink and when you come back - wham! The bloody thing has restarted your system! The worst part of it is that the OS reboots and shows a pop-up saying your system was rebooted (what is missing is just the sound of an evil laugh). And it din't even do you the favor of saving your session and bringing up that up.

It seems that MS thinks that users are the slaves of the OS and I believe they'll make more friends if they changed this mindset.

If I were MS, I'd change this one "feature" and let the users decide when to restart the system or atleast save the session and bring that up after the reboot to make the lives of so many customers less frustrating. MS are you listening???

I was looking for methods to beat the crap out of the automatic restart. I found some useful tips here.

An interesting blog

2008-04-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

A sample blog written by swissmiss. It is one of the most visually-compelling blogs I've come across. All the color, graphics, photos and videos makes for great browsing.

A story by Isabel Allende

2008-04-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Video of a talk that Isabel Allende delivered in TED 2007.

Tech tools

2008-04-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

A list of useful tech-tools that I stumbled upon...

Cry, cry and never stop crying!

2008-04-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Onion has this very insightful article about crying. After reading the article, I sooooooooooooo miss my bawling days! :D

Slambook entry...

2008-04-07T14:38:00.001-07:00

I happened to read this on Giri's blog and I thought it would be an interesting aside from the usual posts.

Names you go by:

HG
Bajji (Nothing to do with Harbhajan, nothing to do with my weight (yet!), just that it rhymes with hgggggggg.....)
Shilpa
Edgy??

Three Screen Names You Have Had:
Hmm... Just my name! I was never very creative with those.

Three Physical Things You Like About Yourself:
I'll pass that one!

Three Physical Things You Don't Like About Yourself:

My teeth
My hair
My growing girth!

Three Parts Of Your Heritage:

Locational

GB in Surathkal
Bangalore

Characteristic heritage

Laid-back (cooler word for lazy ;-) )

Three Things That Scare You:

Having to walk alone in dark alleys
Horror movies
Flying cockroaches (The feeling I get is an intense mixture of primal fear and disgust)

Three Of Your Everyday Essentials:

My Gmail inbox
Reddit
Cereal (Getting Americanized you see!)

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now:

T-shirt
Jeans
Floaters

Three Things You Want In A Relationship:

Trust
Space
Fun

Three statements that are not all true or all false:

I sooooooooooo love graduate school. ;-)
I cook well. :D
Can't think of anything else...

Three Physical Things About the Opposite Sex That Appeal To You:

Sense of humor (I know its not physical but thats what is appealing you know!)
Height
Biceps

Three Things You Want To Do Really Badly Right Now:

Get done with this blog.
Go to the gym!
Get a haircut.

Three Places You Want To Go On Vacation:

Lake Baikal, Siberia.
Lake Tepako, New Zealand
Lake Tanganyika, Africa

Three Kids Name You Like:

Birdie
Short-circuit (from Munnabhai MBBS)
Calvin

Three Things You Want To Do Before You Die:
I've no clue. :( Would wanting to gorge on tonnes of Ghirardelli square chocolates, Belgian chocolates and Ferrero Rochers qualify?!

Three People Who Have To Take The Quiz Now:
Difficult one... I actually can't think of anyone! Less dramatically, the ones I'd want to take this quiz don't blog. So in short, no one.

Listening to...

2008-04-07T14:32:00.001-07:00

...a Hindi song I recently stumbled upon. I don't know which movie this is from.
Update: This song is from the movie Aaja Nachle, a come-back movie for Madhuri Dixit.

Recession?

2008-04-04T09:03:00.001-07:00

It makes sense to be in school during the recession than to graduate and look for non-existent jobs says BusinessWeek in this article. They quote survey results which claim that in the long run graduating and getting jobs during recession earns a student lesser than staying in school for longer and graduating during a bullish market.

Why do I try to gym?

2008-04-04T08:32:00.001-07:00

Because...
The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.
-Courtesy JumboJoke.com

How ice-creams are made...

2008-04-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

The source is here.

Good news: Coffee helps the brain

2008-04-03T08:02:00.001-07:00

Here is some more good stuff about the cuppa' coffee! :)

Spring is here!

2008-03-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ah! Finally no more eskimo suits - the mammothic winter jacket, thermal wear, snow boots, caps which would harm the little hair on my head, the gloves which would make me as nimble as a thistle... Not any more! :)

The sky is blue, sparrows chirp, squirrels scurry around and the sun is up till 7:30pm... Life's a bliss. :)

And the theorem of my dreams! :D

2008-03-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

The Onion claims that there is a law (The Law of Difficulty) which makes Science (and its child, technology and grand-child, information technology) very hard! Someone explain this to my adviser! :P

The car of my dreams!

2008-03-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Scoda "cake" Fabia!

Problem of plenty

2008-03-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

An interesting post on how huge numbers dumbs down people... I wonder if our huge numbers in India caused us to be very restricted and dumbed down. How often we've heard the comment that Indians do well when they aren't in India?!

The white Cobalt

2008-03-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

Finally we (thats me and my friend) managed to rent a car! Murphy seemed to be haunting us throughout the spring break and had successfully jinxed every attempt that we made to rent a car in Columbus.

Towards the end of the last term, we decided that renting a car in the spring break would be a cool thing to do. Since we are graduate students and short on cash, we picked the most economical car rentals. But the rentals close to our place were not open when we wanted to rent the cars. So we decided to go to the airport where the rentals are open 24hrs. And we were lucky to get the special OSU shuttle 52 to the OSU airport or so we thought. We reach the airport and go to our best option only to be turned down saying "Sorry - we just have SUVs and trucks available!". Disappointed but not yet ready to give up, we make our way to the head of the queue at the next best car-rental. Here we are told that the car can't be rented on a learner's license and there will be additional charges for an additional driver when just the rent would've left huge craters in our not-so deep pockets. We gave up at this point and decided to try our luck at other rentals. It was too late in the day to try other rentals.

The next day, on talking to some other students we figured out that it was after all good that we dint find any cars at the airport as there would've been an airport- surcharge! So we thank our stars, reschedule the driving license test and pick another economic car rental which even had a pick-up and drop service! We were more than happy to have stumbled upon this. We try to reserve a car and schedule a pick-up online. But the system says that we need to pick a time at least two hours away but their store closes in 1:59min! Having given up on their technology, we call them asking them to pick us up but they say that they are over-booked and they won't be able to help us. So another day comes to an end without a car in sight.
Again we go back to the drawing board. This time when we try to reschedule the test, the number of options has dramatically reduced as our spring break will end soon... So we make the best choice given the situation. Again, we pick yet another rental. Once bitten twice shy syndrome ensures that we reserve the car online well in advance. We take the public transport and go to the rental in person with the print-out of our booking. All is well till now...
And wham! The booking was not done for March but for Nov??!!!! WT *&#^$$&! We curse our luck and hang around hoping against hope that this time something works out for us. The lady at the counter is not feeling very well - between her sniffles she explains that she has no cars and the only one that she has says "Oil change required" but which actually doesn't require a change! That she'll have to charge us for 4 days as this is the Easter weekend and they can rent out cars only for the entire weekend. We agree to all her conditions and she hands over the keys! And this is how we finally managed to get a white Chevy Cobalt.

Here is a picture of the "beloved" car - the fruit of hard labor. :)

Banana Leaf

2008-03-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

There is an Indian vegetarian restaurant in Columbus called Banana Leaf. It serves excellent food at a very reasonable price. They offer dinner buffet at 9.99$ and it includes unlimited chaat, lassi, dosa, idli, vada, paratha, pulao, aloo sabji and kheer. A tummy filling spread of good vegetarian food that I've eaten in a long time. And what made the place stand apart was the service. In fact, we reached the place just around the time they were closing, in spite of this the waiters were very accommodating. The combination of good service, reasonable price and great food particularly vegetarian, makes it a rarity.
It has had very positive reviews and is located close to the OSU campus on Bethel Road.

Lost an hour...

2008-03-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

The daylight saving is not in effect any more. So I lost an hour just when I needed it the most - during the exam time! And I've posted more this weekend than ever before so that makes my loss more acute.

Even the idea of "daylight saving" comes as strange to someone coming from the tropics. Although, according to Wikipedia, even India was following daylight saving sometime in it's history. I believe it was during the British occupation. That apart, I was curious to know who started this concept, if it was widespread and what are the advantages of following it. And as with any practise, it is controversial.

Record snow in Columbus

2008-03-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

Columbus, OH had its share of bad weather this weekend. It was even reported in the Times of India! Columbus reeled under 24 inches of snow dumped in two days breaking an almost 100 year record. The previous highest of 15 inches was in 1910. The part of the city where I live had almost come to a grinding halt. Cars were buried in the snow and no one was seen walking or driving around. We had no disruptions in electricity or gas supplies but our internet "supply" was disrupted for a short duration! Another report of this news is here.

The downside of advertisements...

2008-03-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

"Advertisements sell more than the products for which they are made."
Watch this video (duration: 35min) "Killing us softly 3" by Jean Kilbourne. If this is the scenario in the "developed" world, what happens in other parts of the world may not even be documented and discussed.

People who are trying to make a difference - About-face
An ad campaign that gets it right.

What keeps Florida warm?

2008-03-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

A picture of the Gulf Stream as seen from one of NASA's satellites (with visualization effects)

Earth at night...

2008-03-09T04:51:00.000-07:00

We seem so vulnerable and yet beautiful. A picture of the earth released by NASA.

Google watch...

2008-03-08T05:23:00.000-08:00

A few of the newest cool features that Google has come up with

Teleportation - Search within a site
1-800-GOOG-411: A new service that lets you call this number to find and get connected to a local business for free.
The night sky - presented the Google way
Another useful tip from Google's blog

Did you know that your gmail id is "." insensitive? That is, all email ids which have the characters in your mail belong to you irrespective of where the "." is placed.

World Clock

2008-03-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

Its exam time! That will mean less blogging for the next week. I so would like to set the clock back by a few days to get more time to prepare... Talking of time, here is a cool world clock. There are also very elegant clock-based wallpapers here.

Music during college days...

2008-03-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

In college, we used to be crazy about these songs. Good old days... :)

Zombie by Cranberries

Breathless by Corrs

We will rock you by Queens

The Final Countdown by Europe

Gmail Art

2008-03-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

A neat video of what Gmail can do.

It doesn't matter if you don't understand Russian!
Notice the way the arrow changes to a link-icon! All the attention paid to minute details makes it an entertaining watch.

Things to do in Bangalore...

2008-03-01T14:40:00.001-08:00

I've a cousin who works in the USA (almost everyone does!) Last week he was visiting Bangalore, my hometown, after a gap of a few years. And he asked me to suggest some places of interest that he could visit and some activities that he could do. I was flummoxed and couldn't come up with anything novel or fun other than visiting Bannerghatta the national park, Vishweshwariah Museum, Cubbon Park and Lalbagh, Bangalore palace, Vidhana Soudha and the planetarium!
I was slightly miffed with the fact that he seemed to imply that there wasn't much to do there. This got me thinking as I've lived all my life in Bangalore and never felt bored there nor found it lacking in activities. So I made up my mind to make a list of places/activities that could keep one occupied. Here it is! Of course, this is no comprehensive list but just a sample of things/places that I've seen/done/been to.

Bangalore is a total foodie's paradise. There are innumerable number of places to eat each place catering to one kind of taste. Some good restaurants that come to my mind are:

Barbeque Nation
Little Italy
Ebony
Angeethi
TGIF
Casa Piccola
Mavalli Tiffin Rooms

These maybe more biased towards a vegetarian as I am one. You can imagine the variety that the non-vegetarians have if vegetarians have so much to gush about!
Then there are specialty dessert places which offer tongue-tingling desserts.

Painted platters
Just Chocolate
Mama Mia
Corner House
Baskin Robbins

If one is not in a mood for a full-fledged meal one could hang out in one of the many cosy or cool coffee places that have sprung up on every road.

Cafe Coffee Day
Pure and Natural
Coffee World
Lekkerbek
Barista
Brewhaha

Apart from all these places, there are an infinite number of chaat places on the road-side which dish out yummy chaats (only for the brave hearts!)

Or catch a movie in one of the funky multiplexes

PVR Cinemas
Inox Cinemas
Innovative Multiplex

Or shop@

Forum Mall
Garuda Mall
Bangalore Central
Commercial Street
Brigade Road, MG Road

Or go bowling at one of the hep bowling alleys

Amoeba
Leela Palace

Or go book browsing in any of the very good book-houses.

Crossword
Sapna Book House
Gangaram's
Tata Book House
Prism Book House

If you are the activity types you could go-cart or visit Wonder La, Bangalore's fun park. Bangalore is a city of lakes and a couple of them have boating opportunities. There are several weekend-getaways close to Bangalore one could drive out to. Then there is Ranga Shankara in J P Nagar for the theater buffs. The Chitra Kala Parishat holds many exhibitions of indigenous art work. There is the Bengaluru Habba, a yearly cultural event. Lots of college fests are organized year round. There are numerous concerts that happen in Palace Grounds. Bangalore has the "Pub City" tag and I presume with good reason. The Bangalore Science Forum invites eminent guests to speak in it's lecture series in July each year. Bangalore also has it's fair share of temples and other religious shrines. And there is the ubiquitous Radio City FM 91 which will give you company during traffic snarls and entertain you and give you useful updates on traffic flow, cricket score, current events etc.

I could go on and on. Soooooooo.... my point is that Bangalore may not have famous historical monuments or have the attraction of sand and seas. But it has it's own unique flavor and there is no dearth of activities that one can participate in. All one needs to do is spend some time to figure out the details of these events. There is a host of information in here and here for first-time visitors to Bangalore.

Google Health??!!

2008-03-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

Surprise surprise! Google is involved in health-care. I'm not sure how many people out there knew about this but it came as a big surprise to me. Google-Health is going beyond searching about health issues on Google. Google's idea is to let people use their application to keep track of their prescriptions and medical records online and to allow medical representatives access these as per the user's wishes. Since it is Google's offering, we would be assured of a clean and clutter-free intuitive interface. But we'll need to wait and watch how Google plans to handle privacy and security issues associate with this.

More details are here
Eric Schmidt's address at HIMSS

And here is one good reason to believe that Google will come up with a neat interface...

My first post!

2008-02-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

Salut!

I'm your host, HG and this is my own personal space in the world-wide-web. I plan to maintain this blog as a place-holder for my random myriad thoughts, weird opinions, links on the web, information that I find interesting or useful and anything else that won't fit into my grad web-page. :) And like most first-time bloggers resolve, I earnestly hope to not abandon my blog after an initial spurt of activity! ;) Please feel free to browse through and do let me know if you've a comment or a suggestion about any of the material here.

Cheers!