My way on the highway

I was at ULL at Lafayette for my friend's graduation last weekend. It was a very different setting. Almost felt like they had transported the computer science department from india in lafayette. This does go to show that we Indians are definitely the majority when it comes to getting a computer science degree in America. Nice to see R and her friends bonding together. D and me had good fun making our side comments about the alma mater song and the snooty woman who thought she was God's gift to mankind. Phew! I never understand how some women can be so mean. I wonder whether she was intimidated by my looks:) (Well high hopes). Anyway R was so sweet and she went out of her way to make sure we felt good. She has some really nice friends and they really love her. Anyway my life is always filled with strange incidents that strike me. Only me! So we were staying at this hotel over night. I woke up early next morning and went out of the room to drink some water from the water fountain

I was deeply upset when I heard that Chandramohan committed suicide. He was someone I met when I went to India in June. We went tennis shopping and caught up at mocha. He would have been the last person that I would have thought would kill himself. But he did. Really sick! You never know what happens in those last crazy moments. It has made me realize the importance of life and how it's important to cherish every good moment. My mentor at work had a heart attack. He's better now. I just visited him today at the hospital. I heard this soon after I came back from thanksgiving. I just don't understand life anymore. You never know what will happen. It just suddenly hits you. I am thankful to God for all the happiness I've received till now. I hope that I will be strong enough to handle other major difficulties in life. I had a beautiful thanksgiving. I met up with my favourite girlfriends in charlotte and atlanta. I bond a lot with my friends from undergrad and they will re

Yes he really is God. Today I went to watch a superb match between two older tennis players. Older yes but also legendary. I went to watch the standford cup at the River oaks country club. First let me fill you in about the nature of the club. I've never seen such grandeur in my life. It was one of the most upscale places that I've been too. I was the only brown person amidst the predominantly white "hoity toity" group. It felt---NICE. As I was explaining to my parents, it was madras club multiplied by 100 times and the locality was boat club road multiplied by 100 times. Fabulous is the only word that comes to me. The end result of the two setter was that Goran won. BUt Mcenroe made sure he gave him a run for his money. It was superb to see such classy stylish rallies and John's great returns. He sure is one helluva fit 47 year old. However his attitude was still the same. He was grouchy from the word go. All the ball boys and girls were shivering. He screamed at

I think it's easy to say..."well google it and find out"! Google can be so misleading at times. I've really learnt it the hard way. Your search criteria is so important. If that's not good, you're dead meat. So this is what happened. My company uses visual studio 2005 with team system for versioning. However I found that some of the documents created under the documents folder is VS were not version viewable. So I decided to ask my boss. Of course the reply was he had not looked into it but it would be a good thing to research. So I researched and google searched. This pointed me to the MSDN blogs and there was another person who had the same problem. He very confidently wrote that VS did not support version controlling for word docs. However it was possible to do version controlling through the share point portal. Wonderful! I thought I'd found the answers and so armed with proof showed off to my boss. Oh not so fast ME! I should have known. So my boss co

Another week rolls by and I'm amazed at the people I meet. It's official- The highpoint of my life now is kickboxing. Turbo Kickboxing is simply superb. It gives you a power surge. I mean you can pump all that frustration down with those punches and crunches. I'm really unsure about the calories I'm loosing but all I know is "I'M HAVING FUN". There are these amazingly thin and superly energetic women, who come for the class. I wonder why? Don't they know that they give us a complex. I have to be the fattest person in the class. I never thought I was so overweight but you go in to the class and you realize that your fat is so becoming.....if you know what I mean. It's like another person. Jokes apart I love it because I would prefer this anyday to the boring treadmill and cycle. This week I attended a class called the intro to RDM. The training course is a must for people in our company. The course content wasn't very applicable to me but I love

June has lit my up my life. I love her!

I absolutely love the radio station 93.7. It's houston's classic rock station and it's called the aero. If anyone from houston, has not listened to it, I recommend it. Unlike other stations like 104.1 KRBE which repeats the same songs, this one picks a special artist each night and plays hits from them. It is a rock education. On saturday they had cream classics. I was introduced to this band a couple of months back but 93.7 goes on to give a history. Sunday was led zeppelin. Monday was aerosmith. Today it's a mixture of eric clapton and crosby stills. This group is really fantastic. I like the music. It's got an older feel to it. The lead guitars are amazing. In fact most of the times unless one has an ear for the lead guitar, you can never hear it. Somehow maybe it's sign of growing old but I like more earthy music. Gone are the days of "chemical brothers" and "prodigy"! In fact I'm a little ashamed that I listened to that group with t

This has to be an experience which has to go down in my experience book. I could actually give Lord Alfred Tennyson, a run for his money:) Well so this friend of mine A said we should go out somewhere in jersey city. I should see the sights and sounds there. A was like "We should go to this gay bar. My friend has been asking me and I'm curious to go". I :"Babe I have a flight to catch and the final straw for me would be to go to place where not a single man would be interested in me!!!" A: "Come on..what are you worried about...someone hitting on you...HE HE..WONT HAPPEN". Well curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check out this experience. I was a little worried. I did not want to see men making out. I was really freaking out but of course, I am so used to putting on the fake, really cool demeanor. And A and me actually dressed up to go to this place. Why even bother(I think now)?? Well so we finally arrived at THE PLACE. I was really surp

That describes my current state of my mind. I am happy and content. I thought I should blog when I'm like this because I don't want to seem like a whiny blog. I had a beautiful weekend just doing nothing after my hectic new york trip. New york and manhattan is amazing. I wish I could be there. Would have probably been there if I was working for one of those financial firms:) He he man is never ever satisfied. But the pulse of that city is simply superb. One has to be there to feel it. It truly is beautiful. I bought myself a CD player and radio and am quite kicked about it. It's in my loo and I love hanging out there now. It's super duper cool. It's such a destresser. I have aroma therapy candles and music and my shower gel! Bliss is all that comes to my mind. I can go on and on and on. I think the happiness is having a directly propotional effect on my weight. Yes it's increasing and I don't like it. It's quite scary. I hopefully should enroll in a gym

This weekend confirmed what I always knew. There is nothing like girlfriends hanging out. I've always had the most fun with my girl friends. This weekend was no better. I met SU after 5 years and we just reconnected. No ackwardness and we just took off from where we left off. It's so amazing to have such a comfort level with people. It's great to be yourself and su you really are the best! I also had something significant happen to me this week. It was my sign to move ahead in life. I thank that special person. That person is really a decent soul. May you find happiness and remain like this forever:) I wish you all the very best in life. You deserve it. Life goes on in it's hectic pace. There is so much to do. I've found a tennis buddy and we've been playing now for three days in a row. I hope this continues ...It's the best form of exercise. Especially for me with so much food around!!!

It pains me to see this subtle discrimination. I have not seen it maybe because I was transparent to it before. Coming from India one does not really see racism because everyone is the same color. It's not like I've faced anything but I hate the way people behave. I mean educated people questioning their safety because they are surrounded by black people. I mean I travelled half way across the world to see how it would be to work in multicultural teams and tp socialize with people from different backgrounds. Ofcourse nothing happens at work but to see people talking like this hurts me. Strip away the color and everyone is the same. Everyone is bothered about their families, loved ones, salaries, work, love life etc etc - So why think that you're some gifted race??? It also pains me to see Indians making such comments. Your brown for godsakes and you talk about hispanics and blacks!!! This is all a little strange to me. I remember hearing my little niece from england referri

I am quite fed up of the amount of work that one has to do here. I mean one has to be so alert otherwise, one would get cheated. I am so fed up of being so alert. I've already lost so much in so many stupid deals. I'm unsure whether I will learn from all this. I've had a raw deal in many many things that I've bought over the past few years. I get hurt by my stupidness but I guess one should just go on. I spent 24$ on a local call in india using my credit card. Can you imagine how stupid I was? Anyway now looks like cingular might cream my ass with another deal! I'm the only moron who has paid 50 bucks for a time warner installation. Only idiot who paid 50$ every month with an old phone! Only one to pay a non refundable deposit on my apartment!PHEW!PHEW!PHEW! On a brighter note other things seem okay. I went to the museum of natural sciences with a colleague from work. It was nice. I think one can only really enjoy a museum if you go with another lady. Gosh last week

I find it increasingly difficult to blog about my life. I don't know why maybe because whatever said and done this is a public blog and people seem to quote from it. So I've been seriously having doubts whether I want to blog anymore. It was nice initially but as I move into a new phase in life, I feel like I would like to open up more but people talk of spies and all that jazz. Woes of people losing their jobs because of blogging. So call me chicken or whatever but I'm going to be more careful and therefore curb the freedom to blurt out. Work is going on well. However I seem to already have some minor conflicts or difference of opinions with some people. They are unwilling to take me seriously because of me being fresh out of college and most people here have tons of experience. Anyway it's going to be a great learning experience. As the days pass I feel that I'm learning more about people. I am dying to write about it but unfortunately I'm sure atleast one of

That's the only word that comes to my mind. It's my third week at H and I am getting used to everything. There is a new office, a new boss, new friends, new home, new bedsheets, new utensils, new laptop(at work)...PHEW!! The list goes on and on. I almost had a mild heart attack last week as I could not find my way back from walmart. Well anyway finally managed to call a cab and come back home. I was wallowing in self-pity and felt quite bad for myself. But once I came back home and made myself mango juice in my new blender:), I was back to normal. All it takes to cheer me up is food! I guess I'm really an easy girl to please.Pretty low- maintenance! Anyway so I've joined a non profit organization here which does some social work with NGOs back in India. I figured I'd be happy and will get to meet some like minded people. I've met a couple of nice people thru this organization. I've played tennis over two weekends with one of the guys I met thru this. This wi

It's my first week in Houston and what can I say?? IS it hotting up? Yes it is and I really am looking forward to the action. My mood swings every day. I am really brave in the morning then things go haywire. I get all worked up and scared and wonder whether I can manage on my own. Then my inner voice gives me a little shout and tells me "this is why you came here to take a job. To be independent remember???". Then I am back to being tough. It really does not make it easy to know that my two best friends in texas are moving out of this state. Indie leaves by the end of the month and sri will move soon. Man!!! Why does GOD do this? My training starts first thing on Tuesday. I am reporting to work on Monday. I have fixed up a studio apartment for the time being. This is fully furnished and a girl from office lives there. She also takes the bus and is Indian. That will help in the beginning till I get my bearings. Houston is a place that is really huge and everyone drives. T

The fag end of my holiday is being spent doing all good things like watching movies and FIFA world cup with friends. There is so much of bonding when one does this in groups. I watched a cheesy, cheap and gross tamil movie called pudupettai. Actually it wasn't as bad as I expected. The sad part was the way they objectified women. They are the "play things". My blood boils everytime that happens. It's quite sad but hey it's also the reality. Dhanush looked quite sick but hey what can you do about a guy like that. The good thing is he does not act like a hero. And there are people making references to his stature throughout the movie. He is the butt of all the jokes. Sneha looked nice but the other lady Sonia Aggarwal looked plastic. Yesterday I watched a visually pleasing film "fanaa". Kajol looks gorgeous. Aamir Khan does not. Manish Malhotra does really know how to make his women look hot. I did not see why the movie had such bad reviews. It was quite

She was sure of herself. She thought she was. She wasn't actually. She's always been dilly dallying. She never really knows. Atleast now she's sure. She tried. It did not work. At the end she is liberated. She is like a free bird. Yet she thinks that maybe things would have been different...NAh...no point thinking..she's never been one of those really analytical types. Of course she is a little hurt. The message was loud and clear. She would have been stupid not to read the signs. She was expecting it. In fact this is how she wanted it to end. Still "hope" was one thing pandora locked up when she closed the box. So she hopes! I've told her it's no use. She knows it's of no use but she still hopes. I want to squash all her hopes. Tell her it won't happen. But she is a dreamer and she dreams. I don't want to be the spoke on her wheel. Let her dream. Sadly for her this dream will definitely not come true.......

I had this opportunity to go on a war ship cruise into the bay of bengal the other day. I seized the opportunity. Who wouldn't? It was simply out of the world. The Indian Navy chief at madras is known to my dad and he had some space on his ship and the jobless one was sent to see the splendour of the ocean. So one friday morning I set out to the navy docks at INS adyar and set aboard sukanya. She was beautiful. Gigantic but very well poised. She was truly a class apart. I could imagine her if she were a person wearing a crisp cotton saree, a beautiful handbag, lovely sandals and neatly dressed. I imagined that she would be one of those ladies who would carry out intelligent conversations. Anyway so we boarded sukanya and travelled her length and breadth. I checked out her quater deck. A helicopter was there resting but ready to take off. The navy crew showed us many operation. Take off and landing of helicopters aboard sukanya. Firing from HMG shooting a rocket target. That was rea

That just had to be my blog title. I have been having such a blast here that I am seriously rethinking on my plans of going back to the US of A. I guess it is always nice to be on holiday:) From day one I have been not only visting temples and relatives but also actively partying. I've just come back from a bangalore darshan and that city never ceases to amaze me. It is definitely a paradoxical city. On one side you have these beautiful IT offices and clubs and discos and investment banking firms and shopping malls..you get the picture right? The roads and the traffic on the other hand suck! I wonder why all that money cannot be pumped into the roads? Madras is definitely better in those terms. Anyway apart from all that India still does rock. I mean I am only reminded of the line in Shantaram(a good read by the way) "In india people know how to love". I really will miss all the love and affection. I am sure that's what is going to make me come back. Anyway this stin

I have just finished packing my whole house and will be leaving to India tomorrow. I just realized that my whole life I've been riding on pure luck. I am so bloody irresponsible. Can you believe it that I packed all my important documents in my check in luggage???? Thank God I had this saviour in the form of aunty K. She just wanted to look at my stuff before I left. She was shocked. She was really sweet about the whole thing. She was like "You actually packed your originals in that??". Me:"YEs aunty the degree is too big to fit in my hand luggage" K aunty: "What happens if you loose your luggage?" ME:"Um..huh? That can happen(YEAH DUMB ASS)?" So now I'm in this deep introspective mood. I've done this many times before but I've not really learnt from these lessons. I hope I can change over a new leaf and become more responsible. If that does not happen I wish I have someone like K aunty, amma or someone else. This is all I can blo

I've just finished watching "pretty woman" for the zillionth time. I realized something after watching it, we're all the same at the base of everything. I mean women will always get all dewy eyed and want to have that perfect guy at the end of the day. Guys will never answer well when they're watching a match. Any guy! I mean just have a phone conversation with my dad when west indies and india play and it can be quite frustrating. I had similar experience when I was speaking to this other friend the other day. He said okay to everything I said. So my conclusion at the end of all this is that one just needs to look at the critical signs to find out about the person. I've graduated and things seem to be slowly falling into place. I will be going home. I cannot wait to hug my mom and sing along with my dad. Then of course I can't wait to see my sister. I can imagine us talking all night. Such fun! Gymkhana club, tennis, barista, driving down mount road, beac

I seem to be having a blast for the last couple of weeks and it just seems very surreal! One more weekend to add to the list of great weekends I've been having. This week I was at charlotte for my friend's graduation and boy did we have fun! Yesterday after the graduation ceremony we went to this real upmarket place for dinner. It was called "blue". I mean it was like "The Patio" of charlotte. For lack of better comparisons. Though I still think Patio is a shade better:) They had a jazz quartet which was playing along. I really loved it and they played some really nice songs. IT was nice to hear "killing me softly" after ages. I think there is some raw charm in good old strumming. It is so very mood uplifting. So anyway we had ordered Don perignon (250 $- OH HOLY MOTHER OF GOD). Then there were all sort of great starters and the head steward there obviously loved the sound of his own voice, so he was droning away to glory! The vegeterian food was q

  We sure have come a long from the time that was taken. We're almost like soul sisters. If there was one great thing about going to PSG it was meeting friends like you. Now that you're going to graduate and moving to the next phase of life I hope I'll be there to share your joys and sorrows. My dear "123" hope you get all that you deserve! Hope we'll be able to talk about all this to our kids and grandkids:) 

I have not really read any of the reviews. But I decided to have a girls day out out. So on the cards was shopping and a movie. My room mate agreed as her boy friend was out. Phew! Thank god for small mercies. One needs a good saturday especially after a depressing friday! So the movie was quite nice. It was a really racy movie. I love these action packed dhishum dhisum and sleek pictures. Tom cruise was just right. Even his girliness did not put me off. Those eyes looked just lovely this time. The gadgets and the guns were just okay and I don't think they were as good as the previous movies. STill there was some charm in the movie. I liked the execution. Especially the last scene at the shanghai towers. So fast and so good. Precision is the word that comes to my mind when I think of this movie. It all timed:) Plus Jonathan Rhys Meyers is hot. I loved his cute australian accent. Can't there be more indian men like this. Makes it so much easier for us girls:) I've seen him i

Why lord do I have to be so bothered about the way I speak? But I do. From time immemorial I've always wanted to speak really well. I was in the toastmasters club when I was in the 5th standard and then I would take part in all debates and oratorical things in school. I always wanted to be the best speaker. But life seldom works out like that. I just gave my final presentation today for one of the courses that I'm taking at school. I'm the only indian in class (err technically..there is another third generation indian american so can't count him) and there was a visible difference between the way they spoke and the way I did. The Americans delivered effortlessly and seemed more informal but I felt mine was more practised. I would like to come off as more informal but somehow that never happens. WHY LORD?? WHY?? Maybe I expect too much of myself because after the presentation my prof and TA said "good job". But somehow I was not so sure. I would like people to

Never in my life have I thought it's cool to be drunk. There is always such a hue and cry being made about being cool by partying. Today we had the annual GSA wine tasting party. IT was a classy event. There were a fine selection of red and white wines and also a jazz quartet. Unfortunately, I got stuck with a bunch of people who's only aim in life was getting drunk on wine:) IT was funny upto a point. After that it was simply chaotic. Everyone was suddenly talkative. To top all of this, I was incharge of getting nine drunk people home. Never have I been so stressed in my life before. I thought I would get high blood pressure. Now in hindsight it is funny. I mean all those people were acting wonky. I over reacted before but now it is fine. I guess people want to loosen up. However, I don't think I would ever do that to myself. Never!

School is finishing up and generally emotions are running high. There are a lot of things to do. ON top of all this I have been wondering about the human psyche. The words that come to my mind is the "power game". Some people want to always be at the higher end of the equation. Well it's not possible always. I mean the people who generally make the effort to always keep in touch also loose out sometimes. I mean they're also tired. How many times can they alone keep it going? How much of work all these things are! Is ego everything in life? Or is this some sort of message that others have to read. A really close friend of mine is going thru a rough patch now because she was at the lower end of the equation. I always told her it was fine and you do not have to go by book. She was fed up of the mind games and the moves she had to play. It was like constant game of chess. My sister often gets into these introspective moods and I used to blame her then for over analyzing.

Today was the cylab poster presentation. It went off really well. Cylab works in close contact with the department of defense and homeland security. So there were people from there and company sponsors. It was nice to explain our project to boeing and JP morgan chase. They were pretty excited about it. I guess it made also confident about my product. I think it has a lot of potentital. It was also a proud moment for me to be amongst such great people. It also increased my own confidence. I mean I can hold my own against a lot of these guys. I also found some commendable work being done with eclipse plugin development at the conference. I wish I could do more of that at my work place. But I'm not sure if western geco does that. I did get an offer from another company too. It does seem so surreal now. I hope I'm not suddenly struck by some lightning:) As my saying goes "when it rains it pours and when it doesn't rain it doesn't pour!". Amma and Dad will be prou

When will it stop? I'm always irked by it. I wish I could forget but alas that never happens. I think people who think too much are plagued by it but also there are so many loose ends to tie up and the fear of the unknown. There is a mixed feeling of excitement and anticipation. God know what will happen! God knows...oohhhh I wanna break free. I had a wonderful two days at chicago. It was good to bond with friends from undergrad. They'll always be the best. It was nice to see two people so much in love. I mean not in the lovey dovey sense, just living together as two beings. Nice I really liked it. I mean I always felt that was something that would be so distant. To see it happening to my friend made me suddenly feel all grown up:) Does one really require company in life? I don't know. I think it's nice to have someone in your life but one also needs to be ready to make that kind of commitment. I guess not everything is rosy but hey when was life like that:) Suddenly a

As Mahesh Bhupathi said, "When the chips are down you can't trust anyone better than Paes to do the job for India in Davis Cup". So we beat Pakistan and Paes proved that killer instict and confidence can get you thru a game. Good Job Paes! So there is a fair amount of effort being spent these days on counselling friends who have got hurt by their stupid boyfriends. This is to all those women who get hurt by those mean men! If you want to give them the message then there is no better way than quoting the following lines from Alanis Morissette. "And I'm here to remind you Of the mess you left when you went away It's not fair to deny me Of the cross I bear that you gave to me You, you, you oughta know" If he bugs you too much you can say "I never really loved you anyway":) And girls say this to yourselves "I will survive"!

I remember this being the favourite piece in "The hindu". I always wanted to share this excitement with my family and would get scoffed at for getting excited over that in the newspaper. Anyway I suddenly thought of that after reading bbc.com. Today is the April 8th. ON this day in 1994 curt kobain died. It was quite shocking for the grunge community. I felt a personal loss because my "grunge" cousins were so hurt on this day. I never understood why they were sad but I felt sad too. Maybe because they kept repeating "little girls" won't understand. Anyway he adds on to the list of artists who died young! In other news, Paes and Bhupathi helped in putting India in a better position by winning the doubles at the Davis cup. I am unsure about the reverse singles though. I never liked the way Paes handles singles. He is too much of a doubles player to play singles. I think he has lost his nimbleness and whenever I used to watch him at the Goldflake open an

"Almost heaven, west virginia Blue ridge mountains, shenandoah river Life is old there, older than the trees Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze Country roads, take me home To the place, I be-long West virginia, mountain momma Take me home, country roads" Yep I visited John Denver's west virginia over the weekend. I understood the mood behind the song. It's really beautiful and had a typical country setting. After hiking through the dense forests of cannon valley, I sat at one place in the middle of the forest. I just observed the trees and the mountains. It was calming. I never thought I was a nature person but the surroundings probably does that to people. It's a must visit place. I really had a blast. Of course I did a lot of other "city" like activities like swimming, sauna, playing pool and partying:) Phew a hectic weekend! I need another weekend just to unwind.

How cool is that? I hope this bullishness continues:-D ET

Yesterday I had the most brilliant time. I've realized over the past nine months that I am a people person. I seem to get a high by just talking and interacting with people from different cultures and places. I feel like I've won a prize everytime I do that. Yesterday I met some wonderful people who all had some connection to Haiti. I learnt about the country, the poverty and the cabola dance. Apparently the cabola is sensuos dance form. It is the dance of love as they call it. The cabola music reminded me of being vaguely caribbean in nature. The language creole is so close to french so I was again very taken in by the whole thing. I met some selfless doctors who like working in third world countries. It was a refereshing experience to meet so many different kind of people in the same room. Haiti is one of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80% of the population lives in abject poverty, and natural disasters frequently sweep the nation. Two-thirds of all Haitians

Today I watched rang de basanthi and was reminded of the fun times I had at college. In fact those boys just reminded me of boys in my college:) And that song Roobaroo is so beautiful, I mean it's just a simple strum on the guitar. I think AR Rehman has got a perfect voice for such earthy songs. The start "Eh saala"! Wow romba super! Today I spoke with one of really good friends after a really long time. I realized how long it's been since I spoke in tamil:) and been out of touch with madras bashai! Finally end this post with a great TR like dialog Engg college lla padicha engineer aaga mudiyum anna... Presidency college lla padicha president aaga mudiyama???? Summa superaaahh! I'm in the mood.

Sometimes there is a song stuck in your head and no matter what you do, it never goes out of your mind. Most of these songs are cheesiest tamil or hindi numbers. SO I think of other songs to prevent these raunchy numbers from replaying in my mind. I wonder if this happens to a lot of people?? So today I woke up and while I was humming to myself in the shower, what should be the song that props up?? "Ramnarayan" (that cheesy govinda number) !YES!!! So that just would not get out of my mind. So I tried remembering other songs. I had a lot of wierd songs playing in my mind all throughout this morning because of that. I tried "sound of music" ('Maria and being nunly'). Then because of that hangover I had "I am sixteen.." going on. I infact told this guy "you need someone to care of you"! He thought I was mad. Now "turn me on" by Norah Jones. Atleast it is better than last week's "kaizaloo". Yeah blame it on my limite

I was wondering whether I should blog this or not. But I simply could not resist. So I am:) What a great explanation! Well so last week they had this old books sale at the university and there was this illustrated history of 'The Doors' and I was sure I had to buy it. So I did and spent a pricely sum for a student (Now people tell me it's okay, I don't have to crib). So this week we have vacations and I'm doing all the things one does during a break. So coming back to the or rather magazine which basically traces the group's history. It was so intense. I would definitely recommend the weak hearted to read a couple of pages a day. Those who can't tear themselves from a book will have to exercise more caution. Take breaks and read it because it is heavy. I mean I'm really not someone into Freud and Maharishi Yogi's teachings. I don't know, I thought it's cool to be a rebel. You know the typical fitting into the "intellectual mould".

I feel all grown up. Catching a metro in some strange town (read virginia:-)). Managing quite comfortably. It's nice, I mean doing it in India was an experience in itself and now here....what can I say. I'm all grown up.

Today I attended the most brilliant technical talk in ages. Grady Booch was at SEI and boy was he good! He can be called the founders of software abstractions and the thinking on software architectures. His prediction is that next generation there would be more emphasis on frameworks and less on actual coding. I can see that happening. I also like the fact that he acknowledged that one would need something more robust than UML. God knows maybe ABEL groups Acme language could become defacto standard. Maybe I could shoot into fame. This project is so cool. Wish I could get into more of the modelling aspect though. Another thing that baffles me still is complexity of algorithms. Even here most people are not very clear about the nlogn notation. So It's fast but proove it. Lets see maybe suddenly it would dawn on me. Anyway none of what I code is that fast. Imagine o(n). I'm sure those google folks have that solved. Phew!!!!!!!!!!!

I was reading news online today after a chat with my sister. She asked me to check out the UC banerjee report. I just did that and am shocked! 54 hindus and 789 muslims killed. The politicians play a dirty game and justify the "Godhra" massacre. Most people killed were women and that too brutally raped. The UC banerjee report claims that the fire was caused by some inflammable liquid. Can you believe that? I mean there were no muslims who burned coaches s6 and s7 carrying the karsevaks. I just cannot imagine those 789 people, predominantly women,were raped and killed, for nothing!!!! What is happening to this world? My fellow bloggers as well as readers--> read this Objectifying women. Men will always do that. There goes the "chick"! I guess it is so deep rooted that one believes that by raping women one is powerful. Excerpts from the above link " And we see it clearly, I believe, in Gujarat. Muslim female bodies symbolize a recalcitrant part of the nation

I decided to spruce up my life and what better way I thought, than to get groovy doing the salsa! I also secretly looked at it as an option to meet a lot of new people. Or so I hoped:-( I was in for a rude shock. I entered the UC gym and I see a bunch of desis. What's with us? ARe we the only folks who don't mind making fools of ourselves? Anyway there were some other folks too and so we did the cha cha 1234 and it was nice. I mean it's not as vigorous as the hip hop intro I took last semester. So I'm sure this is not going to help with the weight department. Then I keep thinking we have one life, who makes the rules?? And plus I think fat people are so cute. I mean they always seem happy. LIke today the first partner I had was a fat guy. He reminded me of Adnam sami. He said something like "I'm arroyo or some such name". Anyway what I'm trying to say is that he had a really cheerful disposition and that's what mattered! Back to salsa jig, the inst

Okay pal! This is my 50th post and it has to be dedicated to one of the craziest people I've met. In fact she's just a little crazier than me so we get along real well. A great person who's stood by me thru thick and thin:-) Apart from the fact that she's a walking disaster(biggest clutz i've seen), her life is pretty smooth. The modest person that she is, she'll never admit how good she really is. You're too much! Similarities ============= 1. We both cannot take compliments and underplay ourselves (to a point which is cloying to the person who's at the other end). But Indie takes the cake! 2. We love cribbing. 3. We used to be the cry babies of room 16:-). Differences =========== Indy has a tremendous hit ratio with men. Half of our college was behind her:-) I wonder if it's the same at TAMU! (You cannot kick me..I'm far away:-) ) Hope you get the dream job that you want and all your dreams come true! Je vous aime beaucoup di! And INdy before y

What is life? Where are we going? Life is so transient and nothing can be done about it. Then why make such a big deal of it. And I hate the expression "Life goes on" but yeah it surely does. Look at me I just attended class, went out for lunch, going to attend a meeting now, class, meeting, i'll swim and then sleep. Nothing affects the routine. I'm numb. I have no feelings. Someone said selflessness was overrated. Right now I wish I could agree but I am selfish and it hurts. Darwin was right "survival of the fittest"!

Its 2 AM and I have a big project submission tomorrow but it's just like me to get irked about some arbitary topic which has no consequence to my life. How did this whole thing start? Why is there such a mess? Why do all the synogogues here have "hail the land of israel" inscribed on them? Blame me on being unaware but I finally read up some stuff so I've decided to fill in my blog with that info. Apparently there are biblical references where God describes the land of Israel. There is even a map of Israel in the Tanakh. So that map shows Israel as being composed of the modern Israel,westbank and Jordan. Now Great Britain being the meddlesome lot that they were promised the Jews all of palestine. Then suddenly they felt their interests lie with the Arabs. SO they gave Arabs, palestine and did not allow the jews to enter palestine for 25 years. Meanwhile Jews in America were in high posts and were and probably are still a moneyed lot. So they stuck their guns in Israe

I've also stuck to being personal in my blogs but I just watched this shocking video by John Perkins a couple of days back. John Perkins was an economic hitman employed by the US government. I would definitely recommend people reading my blog to check out democracynow.org and check out this interview. I cannot believe that the american gov is so manipulative. But then again you do not become an economic superpower by just being laid back I guess. What shocks me is this conspiracy. How can people just sit numb? Isn't a democracy one where you can vote out a president if you don't think him fit enough? I don't know how people here can let themselves be run down like this. I mean India might be poor but atleast we vote out people who suck (for lack of better vocabulary-I can hear my father cringe). Well atleast the liberal folks here are doing a good job of bringing this out so that the common man knows what is happening. If this continues then maybe the entire world will

I cannot believe I'm actually getting used to this. 15 minutes before the interview and me is blogging. Imagine this happening 2 months back. I would be the nervous one waiting, sitting and praying:-) Now I'm like "Bring it on baby". I wonder how this will go. The first "tell me about yourself??". And I want to scream everytime "DO U REALLY CARE????". Do you want to know what kind of person I am, what kind of music I listen to, how I hyperventilate and over analyze. DO YOU DO YOU??? But then I'll be this perfect girl playing my part. Smile.....I did my undergrad from India...blah blah blah and how I'm a good fit for the company. A fake laugh thrown in here and there. WOW I'm actually becoming pro at this. He he...then tonight I'll feel I have to give myself a break and then watch some crappy romantic comedy....or some sad book and cry and then have loads of ice cream! Then I'll crib about the lone pimple that appears because of

Man is never satisfied......And one genius thought of this in the 1950s. It's a pity he had to die so you. We chased our pleasures here Dug our treasures there But can you still recall The time we cried Break on through to the other side Break on through to the other side Yeah!

This weekend was one of the best I had in this city. We had so much fun that now the very thought of working tomorrow seems daunting. WHY can't every minute be fun?? On friday we had a blast and visited tquilla willy's. What fun. I loved the decor. It was really good. One of the better places I've visited here. I've noticed that people don't pay much attention to interiors as in back home. This I mean for hang out places. So it was refreshing to see something different. Of course we had a fabulous time and did not feel like leaving the place. Yesterday was valentine weekend. So there was a grad party organized at the Phipps conservatory. It was so beautiful. The food was mainly salads and cheese and wine. So "up market", we would say back home but here it's so blase. Anyway basically there were a lot of single people so as usual we scoffed at the couples and danced away to glory. I met people from so many other departments. It was nice and everyone was

Today I heard some little kids sing a song that I used to love when I was in baby class. SO here goes Skilam linky linky do Skilam linky dooo I love you Skilam linky linky do Skilam linky do I love you I love you in da morning n in da afternoon I love u n da evening underneath the moon Skilam linky linky do Skilam linky dooo I love you I love you baby... I...LOve ...you ..do shoo boo bhi doo BAH!

"Now I was sitting waiting wishing That you believed in superstitions Then maybe you'd see the signs But Lord knows that this world is cruel And I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool Learning loving somebody don't make them love you Must I always be waiting waiting on you? Must I always be playing playing your fool? I sing ya songs I dance a dance I gave ya friends all a chance Putting up with them wasn't worth never having you And maybe you been through this before But its my first time So please ignore The next few lines cause they're directed at you I cant always be waiting waiting on you I cant always be playing playing your fool I keep playing your part But its not my scene Wont this plot not twist? I've had enough mystery. Keep building me up, then shooting me down Well im already down Just wait a minute Just sitting waiting Just wait a minute Just sitting waiting Well if I was in your position Id put down all my ammunition I'd wondered why'

I signed up for a SKI trip organized by graduate student wing at school because I felt I must do something different. I mean for a person from the tropics getting to do something in snow is bloody exciting. So we left in the morning at 6:45 AM for seven spring ski resort. Though it hasn't snowed for a week at pitt these people kind of preserve the snow with some chemicals and something else. So we entered seven springs and it was really cold. The person from the tropics was of course well equipped. Three layers of sweaters followed by the BIG FAT UGLY red jacket. But a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do when it's below freezing. So after the initial ski lesson we learnt the basics of sking. Then it was upto us to practics and try stuff. So I skied for about 6 hours yesterday and right now my feet feel like jelly fish and my hand and feet are swollen. The thing about sking is that one needs to learn from your mistake everytime you fall. But me being a slow learner, took

It's difficult to be oblivious to the surroundings. The streets are decorated with steeler flags. All the buildings at CMU have yellow and black. Everyone is wearing steeler shirts. Groups of undergrads are chanting "steelers steelers". Giant eagle has special steeler cookies and cakes. There is a sort of nervous energy which is infectious. I mean I thought we as a country were fanatical during India Pakistan matches. But this state beats all that. It's quite scary their love for sports. I only wish I could understand the game. And I'm sure if steelers loose then this place will bear a cursed look on monday. For that I ask them to win. I hope they do!

I think when one gets a reject from a job interview especially after it goes well, one feels extremely dejected. I mean I am good. Who do these morons think they are? Right now I am seething with anger. I am going to go with this kind of an attitude and check what happens. No more being modest and good. Lets check if this works. I really want to start my own company. I just need a venture capitalist to help me out. And some bright ideas:-) Let me start the campaign straight away. Applicants invited!

Gosh I cannot believe I'm actually doing it. But hey i hope it does wonders to my mood now. I just missed breakfast and a shuttle and had to walk in the cold to get to school. ONly to hear that the meeting i came for is cancelled. Damn! Anyway without further ado Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life: Daughter (Duh!!!) Helper at Cakes n Bakes Software Engr PDC Scholar Four Movies you'll watch over and over again (In principle I never do it. I feel the movie loses it's charm when you watch it the second time..but yeah whatever) Sound of Music (i've watched it 5 times..big record in my book) Mary Poppins (Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down) Michael Madana Kamaraj (Hilarious rip roaring..tirupura sundari) Bridget Jones Diary (It so reminds me of my life except for mark darcy. Love it) Four places you've lived Madras coimbatore Bombay Pittsburgh Four TV shows you love to watch The practice Sex in the city Full house Wonder years Four websites you visit

So today I sat for yet another interview. The only difference being these people I could really communicate with. Hope things work out. I really like the work they are into. Their bread and butter is model driven architecture and lot of architecture work. I sure would like to work there. Yesterday I watched this lovely movie called Snowfall on cedar. It starred the oh so handsome Ethan Hawke. There is something about him. He has very powerful eyes and his dialogue delivery is excellent. I wonder why he isn't among the top ranking actors. So basically my friends and me were treated to a one and half hour drooling session. It was awesome and very moving. Can't actually believe an egalatarian society like America was so cruel to the Japanese during pearl harbour. I think there was a repertoire during the 9/11. That's what happened to the Indians and pakistanis. So despite all the talk about the world being a global village we still have boundaries.

Yesterday the weather was glorious. The sun was shining warmly and it just radiated so much warmth. I never knew the weather could do so much for one's mood. I was so happy and that it showed in the lilt in my walk. I went to carnegie library. I've been wanting to do it for long but something keeps preventing me from doing that. Well yesterday I got over all that and went there. I spent a good one hour looking at the books and then DVDs and music. I picked up this movie called "Green card" starring Andie Mcdowell and Gerard Depardieu. And another vague art movie. I'm trying to gain appreciation for things that I've done before:-) I also picked up some african music. Lets see how the listening experience goes. I went for a swim yesterday. It was great. I mean what amazes me is that the inflexible pudgy body becomes so acrobatic under water. I was so drained after that but felt really light after that. I swam for about an hour and boy was that tiring. Finally wo

So today the company from India organized the second round of interviews. It was typical murphy's law "what has to go wrong will go wrong"! The first conference room that I booked was really large and the irony was that only two people were there in it. The next conference room where lunch was going to be served could accomodate only 10. So I guess we all got very cosy:-) My interview went off well. There was no technical so you can never judge these things. Lets see how things go. I'm not too hot about working at tambaram though. I mean I don't feel like travelling to back of beyond to work. But if thats the way God has planned for it then that's how it will be. I know that getting office space in numgambakkam is quite tough and I would like to work there! Pittsburgh is nice and America is interesting but J1 waiver needs to happen too:-) One great learning experience of this whole setting up thing was that it's not easy to please everyone. I

I'm so tired and it's back breaking. Today I had to organize this company's meet here at CMU. It was really tiring. I mean i admire people who are into logistics and event management. All we techie folks think that what we do is the toughest. Ony today did I realize how tough event management is. I mean right from greeting the recruiters, to having a formal demo, to organizing food, organizing schedule. Gosh it is tough. Hats of to people who do it effeciently at companies. It is definitely time consuming and stressful. Well me gotta go now. Still no comments for my previous blog. Traitors. People please comment now.

Life is a joke sometime. I mean it plays out like that in front of you. You feel like laughing. I could not believe when my mum and dad gave me a serious lecture on getting married. I guess every indian girl goes through this phase when her parents say "Babe it's time you get married". And I say why?? WHy should I settle down? Who makes the rules? I found Mehul's blog on median males hilarious. It's not very different here. I mean we girls also search for that perfect guy who'll like us "as we are" a la Mark Darcy style in Bridget Jones. So we meet many guys who we would like to probably go out with but it's often the case that :- 1. Either we're tongue tied in asking...I mean how many women are actually that bold 21 st century types?? 2. If we finally do manage to tell the guy, he's either married, hooked (this happened to one friend of mine) or he's in another continent (and we're killing ourselves for being so dumb)! 3.He does

I love the feeling of just lying in bed doing nothing. Who says that one must be productive to be happy. I love it to just laze around. It's such an amazing feeling. I mean there are no worries. Look at me I had to get up at this unearthly hour to do some work and I hate it. I'm not happy. God give me deliverance. Find me a job where I don't have to work hard!!!!

I think music is such a beautiful thing. Today I had visited some family friends and we had an informal JAm session in their house. So there was the tabla, the guitar and then of course me singing. I really enjoyed myself. Something about music it enervates me. I've also realized that I'm very good with rhythm. I can change tempo and beat. I hope this remains with me.

Today was my birthday. It was nice. I made sure it was eventful. So there was cake cutting ceremony at 12 AM. It was really sweet of my room mates to have organized that. I got a couple of calls in the morning. Then we had this super duper meeting with Mel. Basically our team got split up. Wow it was amazing for the morale. Then my dad sent me a big choclate cake and flowers. All in all a nice day. Really good for the calories too. I'm sure I would have gained a couple of kilograms. I wish there was some inversely propotional law which equates food and weight. The more you eat the less you weigh. Then I'll be the next bulemic (did i spell it right), anorexic babe!

Feeling is a complicated thing, It comes at you like a swing, It hurts you more than any crazy thing, I wish it was something I could fling.

My last day included visiting salesforce, juniper networks and VM ware. Salesforce was beautiful. It is located in the heart of san francisco. That city is so beautiful. From the eight floor, the view of the company was breath taking. As usual we got a warm welcome. The chief architect gave us a detailed presentation. It was good. What worries me though is the security issues. Basically the service is open to whole wide world. Any prankster can play hanky panky with the service. Of course on the contrary I think the on demand model is superb. Who would have thought 5 years back that internet was going to change people's lives like this? The valley is such a trend setter. It's the best place to be if one wants to live and breathe technology and truly be high tech. The next company we visited was VM ware they are into virtualization software. It was again a great technical presentation by an MIT guy. It was too technical for me though. One would have to be interested in OS progra

The day started with breakfast with David Steiner. He works for pricewater house coopers. He spoke about career in professional services. It was a really good talk. It was just half an hour but more of an interactive session so it was good. Of course for a career there one would have to look at taking at least some minor courses in finance. The first company we visited was broadcom. The chief technology officer was CMU alum. He was really humorous but he was not very clear and I could not understand the technology. I think it’s amazing to see the kind of work these chip companies are doing. Of course it’s something that clearly does not align with my skill set. But I find what they do something like rocket sciences. The response at broadcom was good though. They seemed like they would like to hire us. The next company that we visited was tellme networks. It is a startup company. They deal with companies that provide voice services. They are planning to move into voice based search. It

So I am in SFO! WOw only as I would say. I'm in the heart of the computer heartland and it's good. So day one started with us having a scrumptious breakfast, followed by a talk by a CMU alum who is a venture capitalist. Not that I want to explore this option but it seems really fascinating. Maybe 20 years down the line I would like to look into this. Let us see. The fact that you get to invest in something that you believe in sure seems interesting. After that we left for google. And it was good. But i dont see much happening for our career there. IT was more like having lunch and then there was a Q&A session with CMU alum. The place was gorgeous though and the facilities were top class. It would be amazing to work there. But boy is it tough to get in. The principle there is to have food accessible within 100 feet of one's cubicle. There is so much variety and so much vegeterian too. So it was great. But I wonder how people remain thin there??? I met krishna bharat for