The Other side of Midnight

Emerging India

2009-03-14T15:44:00.004-04:00

This is by far one the best motivational videos I've ever seen in recent times. Every part of this video is perfect. Each time I see a sense of abundance and optimism pervades...

School and growing up....

2009-02-13T22:17:00.002-05:00

So, I've really started to enjoy my conversations and letters with my nephews and nieces... Here's a glimpse of an argument on whether school is the best part of our lives -which we all know is surely is, but only till we get out of school do we realize how beautiful school really was.

"WOW!!!!!!!! this is the best part of LIFE!!!
welll (insert bad word here(prob. something like damn)) This REALLY sucks. I think that the "real world" is going to be better. Sure theres more stress of "i hav to live off of wat i do so i better do it right" in a job but still at least (hopefully) ur doing something u enjoy.... and ur good at... right?
And u dont hav constant teachers wanting this and that POINTLESS stuff. With a boss u they have a reason for making u do stuff. And if u DONT like u boss u can QUITE (I think she meant quit)

I CANT quite school or quite HAVING a teacher (not till after high school (jkjk i would NEVER do that)) U can go find another boss for a dif. company or w/e
i cant just go find another school (yes i can literally but it usually doesnt work like that) and the best part of the really world ready

Here it comes

R u ready?
~
Here it is...
NO HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!!

I can deal with longer work hours as long as i dont have to wake u so early sure U have it bad think agian do u really mind wat u do i think not and i u DO mind
well then let me tell u WRONG JOB OPTION see i plan on doing something i wont mind doing and then thats why it will be WAY better then school and i no collage will Be MAJOR worse thats prob the worst part of life collage and the stress the freedom will be nice but everything else AGR!!!
Major bummer...

Anywho. I think u see my point but u prob hav a better grasp on life and time then me
i mean ur like twice my age right? So if u think im wrong..
well...
Do feel free to argue, correct me, disagree, have a productive discussion with me ext. Watever u want to call it. But please feel free to bridge ur opinion
:) Love,
Rachie"

Random Notes from Facebook....

2009-02-08T18:32:00.003-05:00

Seven is my lucky number... so...

1. Its impossible for me to "forgive and forget".

2. In case you don’t know already, I will give up everything given the opportunity to travel constantly.

3. I learn a new language, a new art and a new hobby each year.

4. I’m extremely punctual (thanks to the ‘Hitler regime’ I followed back home). I do not hang out with people who are perennially late. I absolutely hate anyone being even 10 minutes late. Everyone’s time is precious and so is mine.

5. I’m an early-morning and a late-night person too.

6. Contrary to my new 'amnesiastic' attacks, I never forget!!!!

7. I was a devotee of Lord Shiva – The Eternal Lord of Sleep in my last life. I can sleep anywhere, anyhow, anytime and I’ve now earned the name – “Sleep-on-Demand”

Cinderella and her lost shoe!!

2007-06-06T17:11:00.000-04:00

DEAR UNCLE PRAKASH,
I’M STILL WAITING FOR YOU TO RE-SEND YOUR E-MAIL. I DON’T CARE IF RE-SEND ISN’T A WORD IT EXISTS IN MY VOCABULARY BUT I’M PRETTY SURE IT IS.
FIRST IS MY LIST ABOUT WHY SHOES ARE GOOD SHOES

1. YOUR FEET WOULD BURN ON HOT DAYS WITHOUT SHOES
2. IT IS EASIER TO PLAY SPORTS IN SHOES
3. YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED IN SOME PLACES WITHOUT SHOES
4. THEY ARE MORE COMFORTABLE THAN GOING BAREFOOT
5. IF YOU NEED NEW SHOES THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT COLORS TO CHOOSE FROM
6. THERE ARE DIFFERENT KINDS SO YOU CAN USE THEM FOR DIFFERENT THINGS
7. THEY SHOW WHAT KIND OF PERSON YOU ARE

THAT IS A LIST OF WHY SHOES ARE GOOD. I’LL WRITE YOU MY STORY IN A DIFFERENT LETTER BECAUSE I DIDN’T HAVE TIME RIGHT NOW
BYE TALK TO YOU LATER
LOVE, SITA

Seven Blunders of the world

2007-05-08T14:34:00.000-04:00

The Seven Blunders of the World is a list that Mahatma Gandhi gave to his grandson Arun Gandhi during his last days. The seven blunders are:

* Wealth without work
* Pleasure without conscience
* Knowledge without character
* Commerce without morality
* Science without humanity
* Worship without sacrifice
* Politics without principle

Unwiring Pune

2007-04-11T08:36:00.000-04:00

This is something we ought to be proud of!! Pune is all set to become to first Indian city to have a Wi-Fi!!! Waaaaaaaaaay to go!! ^:)^

Missing Penn State Dance Thon 2007

2007-03-22T11:36:00.000-04:00

THON is the place for me
Welcome to the BJC
Dancing strong for 46
Hey DJ, spin that mix
F to the T K
For the kids is what WE say
D to the A
To the n-c-e-r-s, go dancers!

Globo gym, in Rec Hall
Watch TV, just don’t fall
Creamery, down the block
Nathans lights, what a shock!
Webmail 2 drops the ball
Creepy feed, tells it all
Penn State super fans
Zombie Nation breaks the stands

Roar, Lions, Roar
T-H-O-N
THON 2007
For the kids
Loyal to
White and blue
Anything is possible
Dreams come true

Freshman class, all-time high
Football tickets hard to buy
Puz breaks record with no fear
Conner stays for one more year
Outback Bowl's the place to be
State's the only 10 I see
Women's soccer wins again
You can't touch our lion's den

World cup takes the stage
Head butt hits front page
Beckham comes to galaxy
Jmac can shoot the three

LT scores with power
Say farewell to Coach Cower
Saints march into town
Gators wear a double crown

Diamonds in the stands
Di-diamonds on the floor
Diamonds are for Hershey,
And we've got 4

JT brings it back
So do Bond and Captain Jack
Samuel L. flies with snakes
Ricky Bobby shakes and bakes
Cars, cruise the street
Dancers move those happy feet

Roar lions roar
T-H-O-N
THON 2007
For the kids
Loyal to
White and blue
Anything is possible
Dreams come true

Katie Couric nightly news
Who will fill Bob Barker's shoes
Bindi Irwin follows dad
Crikey! he’d be so glad.
Democrats paint house blue
First female speaker too!
Science led us down wrong route
Planet Pluto gets the boot

Everybody grabs your cans
:claps:
And shake your money maker

Roar lions roar
T-H-O-N
THON 2007
For the kids
Loyal to
White and blue
Anything is possible
Dreams come true

Dancin' all on the floor
Until we find a cure
Jersey Boys, Broadway fame
Gotta getcha head in the game
Trump and Rosie fight some more
Britney shows K-Fed the door
Stretch pants, Skinny jeans
Don't get mad, don't be mean

:dance break:

We stand behind their courage
And wisdom at great length
We learn from their honesty
And celebrate their strength

Many Hearts
F T K
One Home
Here to stay
THON 0-7 rockin' out
On our feet, dance and shout
Our diamonds are forever
With pride we stand together
Fight On State!

Sleep and why its important...

2007-03-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

Moving on from more serious things into lighter vein!! Although been a while... The more I read it, the funnier it seems!!! This email from my neice a couple of months ago.... I'm dumbstruck by the creativity of these 8-year olds.. :-)

Dear Uncle Prakash,

Hey dude what’s up? You’re lucky you’re not a worm because if you were I’d be a bird and eat you. Since you’re a human I’ll eat you alive considering I’m a crocodile. Rachael is still going to order your pizza with extra toppings do you follow? You just don’t get it as usual right? Rachael is giving Sita some of the ideas. You told me to write a lecture on sleep so I will.

Sleep is very good for you because of many reasons.

You can stay awake during the day
You have energy to do things while you are awake
It’s relaxing after a long day
It’s good for your mind
You can stop thinking about your work
It feels really really really really really really really really really good

That is why sleep is really good and relaxing for you

Miss you see you soon

From SITA

Knowing Gandhi

2007-02-28T16:12:00.000-05:00

I was never a fan of Gandhi!! In fact I proclaimed myself as being anti-Gandhian and somehow took pride in it. My maternal grandfather is a true Gandhian. He still lives his life the Gandhian way. We always had conflicting views on that subject. And that was something I could never digest for I always looked up to my grandfather. Commercial cinema and various history books which I had managed to gather, generally held anti-Gandhian political views which I took as authority!!!

What I possibly failed to do was myself research on the subject. Half-baked knowledge is truly dangerous, but I would say, more importantly its stupid. I realized my folly. I decided to know more about the person, whom the world held in awe, while many of us as Indians always criticize and abuse.

I kicked off by reading his autobiography "The Story of My Experiments with Truth", which I thought would be a good starting point. Although I haven't even read half the book, I believe that only a person supremely divine could accept his greatest follies. Some of the incidences he mentions is really shocking, as though it was unreal. I won't quote extracts here, and curb your curiosity, for I really encourage every reader of this blog to read this book. His political views might have been unpopular, his links with the Nehru family might have been controversial, his path of non-violence might have been ridiculed, in the quest of Indian independence he may have faltered - but as a human being he was above all. He was supremely divine. I was really moved and shaken. Today, I feel stupid for having lived under a rock for so many years - such ignorance on my part.

An interesting incident took place during my flight from Boston last month. I was seated at the end of the plane. I was so engrossed in this book that I failed to realize the air-hostess, who was an African-American woman, came back and sat next to me. I looked up and smiled, when she asked me "Is that Gandhi?" I replied in the affirmative. She said, "Martin Luther King was heavily influenced by Gandhi and his non-violence movement. He surely must have been a great man for he changed our world. You Indians must be really proud of him." I didn't know what to tell her. I felt ashamed. Being an Indian, I didn't know half the facts about Gandhi. My quest to 'know Gandhi' continued. Each incidence seems to embolden my respect for him! Each chapter unfolds his divinity!!

I end my blog using Einstein's own words on Gandhi - "Generations to come will find it hard to believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."

P.S. I do not intend to express any political views on Gandhi and I do not wish to get any political comments, too. I have started to admire Gandhi and hence the blog. If it hurts your sentiments, you would be better off not posting a comment!!!

Airborne to ScareBorne

2007-01-09T23:21:00.000-05:00

I don't like flying. No seriously – I don't like air travel. I walked to school, rode the bus to college and cycled to the university. Our annual family trips were generally by rail. I'm not afraid of flying – not that there is anything wrong about the human tendency of fear of flying. Human beings are not supposed to fly. Put a shark in a bus and he would feel the same. So its perfectly normal to be afraid of flying.

Coming back to the point. I hate air-travel. And then the most worst things happen when you are flying. The flights are always late. Your bags never reach the destination. All flights are overbooked. You don't get the seats you ask for. There is inevitably a fat lady in the adjacent seat. They always have to change the gate at the 11^th hour. You have to arrive at the air-port 1 hour prior to a 30 minute flight. You are stripped at security. All this for arriving at your destination late after spending tons of money.

I'm a vegetarian – yeah kill me – its a crime being a vegetarian in America. Each time I have to create a huge ruckus while food is served in the aircraft. This time thankfully I was flying First-Class. And the stewardess comes up with the menu “Sir, would you like to have Shrimp with Pasta or Garden Salad with Chicken?” I replied, “Could you make a Vegetarian salad??” And she goes, “Sir, that would cost you 5 dollars”. Now seriously how difficult is it NOT to put the chicken in the salad or how cumbersome it is to avoid adding the shrimp to the pasta. And to top it all, I'm flying First Class. Pay shit-load of money and don't even get food. And they have to ask for a meager 5 bucks. Such apathy!!

Last week I was flying to Dallas, the flight was delayed due to a “technical snag” - The air-hostess was extremely apologetic. No seriously she even delivered her speech. “This is Anna. US Airways apologizes for the delay. The aircraft door was slam shut and we had to break open it, thereby causing a minor crack in the door.” Its something like the pilot forgot the aircraft keys at home and had to rush back to get it. They should avoid handing the microphone to blondes henceforth.
And then the pilot goes on the PA system “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Steve from the cockpit. We apologize for the delay. Its a 5 hour flight to Dallas and we hope to cover up for the delay, enroute.” Now seriously, how do you intend to cover up for the delay. Fly faster, I assume. So if you can really faster, why not just fly faster all the time... Do they intentionally fly slow at all other times????

This blog has been heavily influenced by Jerry Seinfeld.

Making sense out of Nothing

2006-12-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

I realize that I have come a long, long long way from what and where I was. So sometimes, I fail to recognize myself, and sometimes I fail to understand the world around me. I cannot sort my feelings for people well these days and simply cannot understand my relationships with people. And I accept that I'm not making any efforts in this direction too. Maybe its just be a phase or possibly might be here to stay. Not that I'm complaining - since in no way is it troubling me. For I have given up troubling myself with such thoughts – more often than not its futile thinking about it anyway.

I've become more lazy than ever, and I can declare myself not to be 'busy' at all. Possibly I have started managing my time much better or not getting unnecessarily burdened with futile projects. I'm getting more time for people, but I find that some of them aren't even worth my free time. I've been spending money extremely miserly for myself - but still for the world around me, I seem to spend money extravagantly. I feel I'm enjoying myself more than I possibly should – still I feel its well-deserved. This wonderful medley of thoughts and feelings has left me confused....

Cruising Along!!

2006-10-30T19:49:00.000-05:00

This was one of the most horrifying telephonic conversations ever. (Even the talk, Kerry and Bush had, was more pleasant)

I was in Washington D.C. last weekend. I checked in at the Hampton’s and went into deep slumber pretty soon, when I heard the phone ring. I was barely in my senses. The receptionist was on the line:

Receptionist: Hello Sir, How are you doing today?
Me: Yeah fine! Thanks for waking me up!!! (@#$^%$%#@$)

Receptionist: I’m sorry sir. But, I want to know which car you are driving?
Me: Ummmm….I think its a PT Cruiser. Its a rented car. Why?

Receptionist: Which color is it sir?
Me: (#$@#^$@#%! - Its like waking someone up and asking what the capital of Morocco is) Ummmm

Receptionist: Well. The tree just fell over it.
Me: Holy Crap!!!

Receptionist: Is it red or purple?
Me: Red. (Choosing between the lesser devils)

Receptionist: Well the tree fell over the purple Cruiser. You have a good night sir. (Click)
Me: @#$!@%^@^#

Words of 'Wisdom'

2006-09-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

“Never trust your dentist.” -George Elliot.

Me: So what does the X-ray say?

Dentist: I'm afraid at this age, we would need to extract all your teeth.

Me: Holy Smoke!!! You got to be kidding me!!

Dentist: I'm sorry, I meant all your wisdom teeth.

A Tribute to the Crocodile Hunter

2006-09-06T16:27:00.000-04:00

Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter" died today. For the rest of the world, it might not even matter. For me, my favorite entertainer is no more. His televised death-defying crocodile stunts and his “Crikey!” in a ripe Australian accent became an international catchword. He was a passionate environmentalist. And was a heaven of knowledge. He just about knew everything about wild life. He was the only reason I watched Animal Planet. Irwin's boundless energy and daredevil antics around deadly beasts made him a household name. His fearless exploits in the Amazonian basins were a treat to watch.

Australia might have lost its favorite child, for me its huge loss too. I will greatly miss him.

Forgive them O Lord, for they know not what they do!!!

2006-07-25T11:18:00.000-04:00

"My work has always been better than Rahman's. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was better than Taal, and Devdas was better than Saathiya. Foreigners encouraged him so people think he is very good. I wonder why people run after name and fame, and not good work. Kyunki hamare yahan bahut kum akal ke log hai (we have very few intelligent people here). We see some foreigners holding someone's hand, and he becomes a big man. I am not saying this because of jealousy. This is the bitter truth." Ismail Darbar said. 28^th March 2005

Rahman was paid only Rs. 25000/- ($900 USD) for his work in Roja!! Roja has been rated as one of the top 10 music albums of all times by the Time Magazine.

Mani Ratnam dropped a song from 'Bombay' to release the film earlier. Heaven knows what we lost!!!

A well-known composer from Bollywood said on the release of Roja, "Let us see if he is around after two years, Rahman's type of music is just a temporary passing fad which will wear out once the crowd gets used to his music, he will not be able to sustain himself".

With the release of Taal, Nadeem-Shravan said “Rahman is at his worst now! As for Taal, I would give it 70 out of 100. Our film Pardes would get a 100 on 100!”

Rahman refused to be drawn in to a war of words and responded characteristically with a very curt "Music speaks, statements don't.". And as expected he replied with his music which blew all the other composers out of the scene. ^:)^

The 70s Show.... up!!

2006-07-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

I was going through a couple of job sites, when I came across this position. It required 7-55 years of experience!!! Yeah beat that!!! and if you don't beleive me click on the link.

I was just wondering, whether the interviewee possibly in his 70's, would come in with a walking stick or possibly interview from his death-bed. Nevertheless I applied for the position... I just want to hear from them. :D They seem to have some nerve to put up such outrageous demands.

Random thoughts, rants and pointless observations....

2006-06-16T19:22:00.000-04:00

A couple of random thoughts about my life off late, which may very run into several blogs

A letter, which I received the other day, really meant a lot to me. Its true that people get back to you in times of your successes and happiness; few console you in times of difficulties and worries. That email made all the difference. I really wished that I could touch the person's feet then!!
Nidra-devichi aradhana – Old Marathi lesson - About people who can sleep anywhere and everywhere. Count me in this elite clan. Cricket matches, soccer games, movies, parties theaters and I broke the record by sleeping at the Stomp Concert in New York City. Its a rhythm and percussionist show, known as the 'loudest' show on earth. Now this is something I'm really not proud of.
Stayed at this really nice place in Brooklyn, NY. It was a century-old apartment. In fact, we stayed at one of the Stomp lead performers' house. And the whole design was out of the world. Pretty neat I must say. I wish I had taken a snap.
I hate it when people don't have a decent level of sense of humor and fail to understand my jokes. All my creativity goes down the drain. What a shame!!!
For once in my life, I felt I was in love.............after listening to this beautiful song!!! Haahaa....Now thats weird. Pretty ridiculous. Nice thought though (repetition :D)......... but brushed aside and it can wait. Love should be the last thing on my mind these days....

Time to move on!!! Looking for a great family reunion over the weekend :)

Retrospection

2006-06-10T22:18:00.000-04:00

2 things have deeply influenced my life in the last couple of years and 'they' have made a big impact on my lfie:

Best Friends – My closest friends have given me more support and encouragement than I have asked for. Days seem meaningless without interacting with them. And its amazing how I can 'keep in touch' with them on a daily basis. Even 'daily' is an understatement. They all really really mean a lot to me. They are the ones closest to my heart. And I hope they know about this too!!!

Music – AR Rahman ^:)^, Yanni, Kishoreda and off-late Strings have not only kept loneliness and boredom away from me, but 'they' have really added a new dimension to my life. I've learned that I can sit for hours at a stretch just enjoying their music.

I thank God for these creations and making it an integral part of my life – however different each one might be, it has given a new meaning to my life. Amen!!!

So dark the con of the man...

2006-05-26T12:17:00.000-04:00

I saw Da Vinci code, the other night. And to be honest, I'm pretty happy with it!!!! I guess the media is always being extremely critical by rating it 1.5 / 5.0. Thats ridiculous. And lets not even get into the discussion about the controversy it has stirred globally.

If the movie is short, they say it didn't cover the book comprehensively. If its too long, they say the director has gotten into much detail and its totally haphazard. If the script has its own dialogs, they say the director has diverged from the book and if its the same, they say one might as well read the book instead. Reviewers cannot write in favor of a movie these days. Or maybe thats their job. Just to blindly criticize the movie!! And people who read these reviews before going to movie, are in that frame of mind.

No film till date has matched up with the book it has been based upon. But I feel director Ron Howard has done a fine job. For instance, it is supremely difficult to picturize the thought processes of people, particularly those able to crack codes and anagrams. The director does a great job by highlighting it when Robert Langdon solves the anagrams. And to be honest, I got a better understanding of them, when I saw the movie. The script, of course, follows the novel to the letter.

Though there has been some monkeying with plot details, plus some noteworthy exclusions and additions, the 2-hour-and-32-minute film is careful to be as faithful as it feels it can be to all of the book's major plot elements. Especially for all the fans of Tom Hanks, its a big let down though. On screen, Hanks mouths most of the dialogs without emotion. And I didn't quite understand why Sophie (Audrey Tautou) is so confused about her accent – neither English neither French and ends up screwing both. (thanks to rediff for pointing it out). But all in all, the film has an exciting visual texture and a racy pace. I must say, I'm happy!!!

O Draconian devil!
Oh, lame saint!

Calvin at his best!!!!

2006-05-13T18:27:00.000-04:00

Nicknamed!!!!

2006-05-08T10:40:00.000-04:00

Apart from having a Bombed Identity and an extremely confusing Full name, which has always been brutally butchered right since childhood, I just felt that I had my fair share of nicknames.. Some of which, I'm really contended to possess:

Prak – Almost everyone uses this. I believe its due to my migration to the US. Americans find it hard to pronounce my name. Guess this works for them

Piku – Credit goes to my Maths Teacher Mr. Contractor for popularizing this name throughout Loyola. Most of my Loyola buddies use it. I really love this one. Although it seems a little kiddish. But no complaints

Proxy – Credit goes to Piter Pan. Sounds ridiculous, but I kinda like the sound of it.

Prax – Sounds like the abbreviation of Practicals. Used by a couple of my school friends and Penn State buddies too.

Clientu – Solely used by Consu. Totally Professional.

Petu - Considering I was generously built, sometime in the neolithic age, the Devil incarnate named me Petu!!! I find it cute though...

Dumbo – Credit goes to Dumbo. I love this one, but its patented, so don't even try using this one. Now thats what is confusing, isn't it??

Sholay schooling

2006-05-02T14:21:00.000-04:00

Although I worship this Movie and really feel its one of the finest movies ever.... I think this time they have take it too far. Just too far!!!
Popular entertainment and education shouldn't be mixed. It really doesn't make a fine medley.

Driving me crazy...

2006-04-26T07:56:00.000-04:00

Two things that drive me crazy off late
- False promises
- Peoples' realizations and their failure to act on it!!

Phase Lag!!!

2006-04-23T20:31:00.000-04:00

I hope this phase passes... the phase where I'm trying to find solutions for problems which aren't even defined.... Life's bothering me. I want to get rid of it!!! Not life damn it, I meant the phase....

From the Merry Book of Riddles - 1975

2006-04-15T20:35:00.000-04:00

Shortly after the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, some of the first books ever printed for popular entertainment went collections of riddles. One of these, titled The Merry Book of Riddles, was published in 1575. Here is a riddle from that work:

He went to the wood and caught it,
he sate him downe and sought it;
Because he could not finde it,
Home with him he brought it.

“Patiti” Devo Bhavaha – The love of an Indian Woman

2006-03-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

I picked this from one of the books, I'm reading about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. This is an extract from one of the letters his brother wrote. Maybe they might not be applicable in this present century or may not be applicable at all. Who cares!!! But still I found it pretty interesting and thought-provoking and the nerve of this person to write such a 'controversial' statement in the early twentieth century. Here is how it goes....

“The love of an Indian woman has for her husband was of less value than the one a Western woman has for hers because an Indian woman's love for her husband is a duty, while a Western woman first falls in love with a man and then gets married; which placed a higher value of her love. Love of a woman of good character is more praiseworthy than love of a woman of good character in our country because she has liberty here and must have strength of character.”

'The Lost Hero - A biography of Subhas bose'
By Mihir Bose

Coming out of the closet.................. with equipment

2006-01-27T15:44:00.000-05:00

Didn't really want to share this 'classified' email sent to all my labmates by one of our labmates. But then its genuinely funny. Its that time of the year when we work our ass off to reclean some stuff which gets stashed into our lab-closet over the last millenium....

Have you every wondered at the weight of an early nineties SGI monitor? Everwished you could see dust from 1973? Well then todays is your lucky day. Starting today and working through the Sabbaths, we will be cleaning out thelab closet in room 204 in hopes of completing it by Monday morning. Volunteers and those impressed into service will be exhilarated as they get haul ancient computer equipment to and fro. A select few will even get to experience the majesty of booting antiquated machines to look for old EM code, and that not so PSU fortran version of FDTD. So as soon as I get off my ass today we will be hauling. So, you in the closet...

Dr. Matthew Bray
Director of closet cleaning

C++ Ten Commandments

2005-12-08T11:21:00.000-05:00

This is absolutely brilliant. Have it for my OOP course tomorrow. Thought of sharing it with you guys.

By Phin Straite
1) Thou shalt not rely on the compiler default methods for construction, destruction, copy construction, or assignment for any but the simplest of classes. Thou shalt forget these "big four" methods for any nontrivial classes.

2) Thou shalt declare and define thy destructor as virtual such that others may become heir to the fruits of your labors.

3) Though shalt not violate the"is-a" rule by abusing the inheritance mechanism for thine own twisted perversions.

4) Thou shalt not rely on any implementation-dependent behavior of a compiler, operating system, or hardware environment, lest thy code be forever caged within that dungeon.

5) Thou shalt not augment the interface of a class at the lowest level without most prudent deliberation. Such ill-begotten practices imprison thy clients unjustly into thy classes and create unrest when code maintenance and extension are required.

6) Thou shalt restrict thy friendship to truly worthy contemporaries. Beware, for thou art exposing thouself rudely as from a trenchcoat.

7) Thou shalt not abuse thy implementation data by making it public or static except in the rarest of circumstances. Thy data are thine own; share it not with others.

8) Thou shalt not suffer dangling pointers or references to be harborer within thy objects. These are nefarious and precarious agents of random and wanton destruction.

9) Thou shalt make use of available class libraries as conscientiously as possible. Code reuse, not just thine own but that of thy clients as well, is the Holy Grail of OO.

10) Thou shalt forever forswear the use of the vile printf/scanf, rather favoring the flowing streams. Cast off thy vile C cloak and partake of the wondrous fruit of flexible and extensible I/O.

Abra-Ca-Dabra David!!!!

2005-12-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

I’m totally crazy today… Its like a dream come true. Since I was a kid I’ve been watching his shows, his magic and when I say magic, its out-of-the-world magic. I have a dozens of video cassettes of his shows. Well… I’m talking about David Copperfield – The magician. For the uninitiated, check out his website.

I particularly liked three of his magic shows:
1) Disappearance of the Statue of Liberty – with billboards all over New York city saying “Can David do it??” that sequence was inconceivable
2) Escape from Alcatraz – Claimed to be one of the most secure prisons in the world.. David did it again.
3) Right through the Great Wall – This is a rare show which few might have seen wherein he walks right through the Great Wall of China

And yeah, today I’m the proud owner of a ticket to his show here at Penn State University. I still can’t believe it. :-) 24th January is definitely going to be a special nite!!! Abra-ca-Dabra Baby!!!!! :-)

Net Suffering!!!

2005-11-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

Aankhon ki Pyaas Hai... Is Dil ki Aas hai... inki talash hai... :-)

2005-10-31T18:20:00.000-05:00

Working Offline!!! huh???

2005-10-26T08:11:00.000-04:00

One thing has always puzzled me ever since I started using the computer. If you have noticed, there is a 'Work Offline' option in Internet Explorer/Mozilla . Pretty much an oxymoron, I believe.... But then I was proven wrong yesterday. It really made a hell lotta sense.

I've been using a development beta version of a software which was released by the Computer Science Department of Wisconsin Madison. And there was a virus/worm attack and they lost all the data yesterday. And surprisingly for such a reputed Department, they hadn't even backed up their data. Even my nephew saves his projects onto a tape drive each week. Neways, they requested all the users to send in whatever data/webpages which was stored in our cache. This can be accessed by activating the 'Work Offline' option in the File Menu. It was then I realized its true worth... I sent them as many webpages and data i could find in my cache. And they were extremely grateful.

Here's the reply we got 'Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!! :-) -Sys admin

Guess everything is there for a reason.... Microsoft is not all that dumb after all :-)

Italiano... Must see

2005-10-18T14:58:00.000-04:00

Really don't know why the earlier post got deleted. :-( so I'm not writing the story again... Neways, here is a kewl presentation. :-)

Europe versus Italy

Yeh hain Poona meri Jaaan... :-)

2005-10-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

Happiest Indians live in Pune!!!! Click on the title to read the Times of India Article.

B(l)acked Out!!!

2005-09-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

Why dedicate a blog when all my frustration has been summed up here!!!!

Click on the title of this blog..

Wah Ustad

2005-09-28T20:23:00.000-04:00

Penn State had the pleasure of hosting the master sarod performers in the world, maestro Amjad Ali Khan’s two sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, with Sandeep Das on the tabla. Listening to this music was like attaining Nirvana.!!! I’m neither a critic nor a connoisseur of classical music, although my parents used to drag me to almost every other musical concert in town. But, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this concert and I’m offering my personal impressions and reflections of an unforgettable evening.

Amaan and Ayaan are the youngest members of India's oldest Sarod playing family - their father is Sarod King Amjad Ali Khan. The two sarod maestros glued everyone to their seats for more than an hour. There were several spontaneous thunderous applauses at various points when the appreciative multi-ethnic audience. The elegant, soft-spoken and unassuming maestros Amaan and Ayann, and the tabla player Sandeep Das created timeless music with their unconditional mastery over their instruments. There was liveliness and passionate concentration, faint ripples and rushing musical waves, perfect symphonic harmony and individual displays of unique talents.

If anyone has the chance to see these two do their thing, by all means go! You will be glad that you did!

The Other side of the Coin

2005-09-23T12:57:00.000-04:00

Click on the Title to view it...

The masterpiece.

2005-09-17T18:21:00.000-04:00

Finally 2 weeks of effort has born fruit. And I must say its been a totally rewarding experience. I read so many interesting facts about India during the course of this 'project'. I love my India!!!!

Katrina versus Mumbai... Is that a comparison???

2005-09-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

Inches of rain in New Orleans due to hurricane Katrina... 18
Inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1

Population of New Orleans... 484,674
Population of Mumbai.... 12,622,500

Deaths in New Orleans within 48 hours of Katrina...100
Deaths in Mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

Number of people to be evacuated in New Orleans... entire city.. wohh
Number of people evacuated in Mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in New Orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in Mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach New Orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach Mumbai...12hours

Status 48hours later - New Orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
Status 48hours later - Mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country.. Oops...did i get the last fact wrong???
Well Done Mumbaikars

Here’s something I got as a forward. Its totally disgusting!!! I mean, how low can we ever stoop, that we are now taking pride in comparing our natural calamities with other countries?? Are we proud of the fact that less number of people died in Mumbai than in New Orleans? Or are we celebrating because there was violence and shooting in New Orleans?? Could we stop these comparisons for Christ's sake!!!

Goran... I'm on my way...

2005-08-04T16:17:00.000-04:00

Since Bapat Sir has asked me to avoid mushy-gushy topics, I value his advice. I found the following note, a couple of months ago, in one of the books I borrowed from one of the affiliate Penn State Libraries. The book was in the antique-stacks and was last issued in 1987 and yeah it was issued only once before me. For me, it was the height of coincidence!!!

A Tryst with Statistics:

Probability of issuing of a book from the vast Penn State Libraries (Over 50 of them) = 1/10^12

Probability of a ‘Prakash’ issuing a book among Penn State students, staff ‘n faculty (assuming there are around 7 Prakash’s in Penn State University presently) = 7/70000 = 1/10000

Probability that Prakash-1 issued it and Prakash-2 issues it again = (1/10000)^2 * 1/10^12 = 10^-22 :-)

Chaddi - Buddies

2005-08-01T20:59:00.000-04:00

This is one is for the yesteryears ‘n all my childhood friends. Its been a really long time since I left a paradise called ‘Loyola’ - 5 years to be precise. Loyola signified a impressive institution for everyone. But, it meant almost everything for all of us who lived at the staff quarters for more than 20 years of our lives. Far away from the maddening city crowd, in a secluded place,. Hidden among the hillocks, the pristine surroundings, the happy valley, the beautiful gardens, the wildlife, the waterfalls and more importantly - the beautiful people. I’m short of words to describe the place I will always be in love with.

A dreamer’s heaven, a poet’s abode, a musician’s wonderland… it had and has it all… Today as I sit back and dream about Loyola, a sudden tranquility fills my mind… I've really written this poem with utmost love and admiration to this place. It will be my clumsiness with words that will fail to relate to you its mystic charm and beauty...

All is tranquil in my stunning paradise
I feel the warmth in the spring air,
Whistle the birds high above in the trees,
There’s melody almost everywhere.

And today I again marvel at that beauty
Its serene, Its calm, everything's at peace
It comforts, it soothes, it pleases
It gives that reassuring ebullient release.

I continue to hear the sounds around
I make my way back, reluctance in my heart
My mind rushes thru those moments of bliss
‘n I feel the dawning sadness as I loathe so to depart.

Peace – Perfect Peace –My Paradise – ‘Loyola’.

And after years of seperation, we have all gotten together to strengthen those childhood bonds forever. forever. Kudos to the Loyola gang!!!

You know when....

2005-07-12T18:25:00.000-04:00

Inspired from funspume's post.

Scenario 1
2 guys are fighting. Both are Pakis. And then there is Jihad – supposedly War for peace. (how antithetical) That’s Kashmir.

Scenario 2
Two guys are fighting and a third guy comes along & tries to make peace. The first two get together & beat him up. That's Delhi.

Scenario 3
Two guys are fighting. Both of them take time out and call their friends on mobile. Now 50 guys are fighting. You are definitely in Haryana.

Scenario 4
2 guys are fighting over a girl. One is the ghost of the other. Then we find Amol Palekar is directing the film. Well… That’s Rajasthan.

Scenario 5
Two guys are fighting. A crowd gathers to watch. A guy comes along and opens a Snake-bar (to be read as Snack-bar). That's Gujarat – Land of the Patels.

Scenario 6
Two guys are fighting and finally two polictical parties are fighting. A big scam ensues. Babua, you are definitely in Bihar.

Scenario 7
2 guys are fighting in the jungle. The naxalites jump in. The police are summoned. The Bangladeshis infiltrate. The Border Security Force jump in. Soon we don’t know what they all are fighting for. That’s Arunachal and all North-Eastern States.

Scenario 8
Two guys are fighting and a third guy comes along, then a fourth and they start arguing about who's right. Babumoshai!!! You are in Kolkata.

Scenario 9
2 guys are fighting. Cyclones hit the state. They seek for relief from the Centre. Peace prevails. That’s Orissa…

Scenario 10
Two guys are fighting and a third guy comes along, sees them and walks on. That's Mumbai meri jaan.

Scenario 11
2 guys are fighting. Chandra Babu resolves the issue by distributing laptops and satellite phones to all the farmers. The matter is resolved. Peace prevails. Tammudu, that’s Andhra Pradesh for you.

Scenario 12
Two guys are fighting and a third guy comes he writes a software program to stop the fight. But the fight doesn't stop b'cos of a bug in the program. That's Bangalore- Silicon Valley.

Scenario 13
Two guys are fighting. A crowd gathers to watch. A guy comes along and says that "AMMA" doesn't like all this nonsense. Peace prevails. Anna, that's Chennai.

Scenario 14
Two guys are fighting. Soon they hire a boat and head to Dubai with the whole village. That’s Kerala, thambi.

And yeah finally… :)
Scenario 15
2 guys are fighting. Chintu comes along. He tells Asha. Asha tells her father Jadhav Kaka. They discuss it over tea at the society meeting. And soon it’s the talk of the neighborhood. Finally, Joshi Kaku intervenes and resolves the issue. They all head to Vaishali for onion uttappa. That’s Amchi Pune!!!

Throw him to the lions!

2005-07-05T17:48:00.000-04:00

Why is that sometimes even if you are excused after committing a mistake, you continue to feel guilty? Sometimes I find that when the authority acts leniently rather than taking strict disciplinary action, it makes me feel even worse. Guess, I’ve been brought up that way or thanks to my severely strict schooling.

Sounds weird, I presume, to ask for a ‘sentence’ rather than get away without it. Trust me; punishment makes you feel much better after committing a mistake. But, getting away without it is what makes you feel disgusted and cheated. I don’t know whether this is a unique feeling nor do I know if anyone has experienced it before.

Señor Orkut Büyükkökten’s today’s fortune for me: The star of guilt is shining upon you. Beat that!!!

‘Born’ ‘n Bombed Identity

2005-06-22T18:56:00.000-04:00

For the Swiss, I’m French.
For the Americans, I’m Italian.
For Afro-Americans, I’m American.
For the Turks and Chinese, I’m Iranian.
For Tamilians, I’m a Maharashtrian.
For Maharashtrians, I’m a South Indian.
For others, I’m debatably short and fair .
For all my family members, I’m a dark kid.

And all this has not happened for the first time with one person at one point of time. It’s the same story, each day of my life. It’s so frustrating. Identity Crisis is killing me at this stage of my life… :(

The title goes here.....

2005-06-09T15:23:00.000-04:00

I would be an absolute idiot to proclaim that nothing new is happening on my side during this period of 'blog-hibernation'. In fact over the last couple of weeks so much has happened and I’ve lost a count of the good ‘n bad things happening around me. A couple of pathetic B-grade Bollywood flicks may possibly have a detrimental effect on your sanity. But, here is the story so far which more or less seems to be a collection of events.

I missed my brother’s graduation party last month. :( Last fortnight saw me working on something I boasted as the ‘Proposal’ for my Thesis to my friends. I'm working on something absolutely weird - Integrating Antenna design and analysis into parallel computing. And more so, I had the courage to present it to my advisor. Although he gave a green-signal for that, I know that the road ahead seems dark and shady. My funding through summer got confirmed and it was perfectly timed before my Philly trip.

And over to Philadelphia – the land of brotherly love. Ooooooh la la. Its an complete paradise. Met Rohan who had come from India on a business trip. And it was the perfect reunion after a year. Had a bus-tour round this beautiful city. Museums to churches – everything seems just perfect in Philly. I could go on and on about this city actually. But it was that long 4-hour chat on the banks of the Delaware River, which was the icing on the cake. From COEP to Penn State – we just about discussed everything on this moon-lit night watching the Jersey skyline. And it made me feel home-sick for a change. One of my most memorable weekend trips, I can proudly declare.

Photos are now available at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hkprakash7/album?.dir=ca69&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hkprakash7/my_photos

And yeah sometimes there is such a lot to say, lots to discuss, lots to gossip – but you always feel cheated when you are not able to keep your blog updated.

Good Ol' Times

2005-05-31T14:59:00.000-04:00

Juz to save my skin and keep the blog updated, here is a gr8 link to check the top websites in their embryonic stages. Juz plug in the names of top sites like yahoo, google, hotmail... and check it out. :-)

http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html

Hum-Drum!!!

2005-05-09T11:14:00.000-04:00

With Hum Dum, we have reached the threshold of Indian cinema. A threshold no filmmaker will dare to cross. As Sheroo puts it “Isse bekaar movie hum bana hi nahi sakte yaar”. Actually, this is a movie not even worth writing about. But, today I’m absolutely drunk after seeing this movie. Totally hung over. And I had to watch this movie, simply because I couldn’t find an economical way of torturing myself.

The entire story can be summed up in a few lines. One only wishes the movie had been just as short. Really really short. As short as the actresses skimpy clothes. I believe the producer had a shoe-string budget or his daughter was held for ransom and he was compelled to wrap up with the movie in a day. Let's not even talk about the actors, the less we talk the better… or the jarring music…Even Sonu ‘n Abhijit couldn’t save the sinking boat… Too many inane characters spoil the broth, which was an insubstantial stew to begin with. Not to mention that there are 26 dogs in the movie, way more than the number of characters. And no prizes for guessing their names – Amar, Akbar Anthony Jai Veeru ‘n all bollywood crap. Really didn’t know whether it was meant to be comical. But the actor who stands out is Mogambo – one of the pet dogs. Exceptionally brilliant acting. A tough contender for AB at the Filmfare. Huh

Dialogues are the worst part of the movie. Nothing can beat the most powerful dialogue of the movie. “Mein sirf bolna jaanti hoon, kehna nahi” Leaves you wondering whether you really spoke Hindi back in school. The actors don’t even realize what they are talking. And suddenly speculate whether you could have written better dialogues.

Perhaps it's time we all take a break from the Hindi cinema and rethink our style of entertainment.

P.S. On second thoughts, I feel I can write really tormenting reviews. Guess reading indiatimes reviews has finally helped.

Bheegi Bheegi....

2005-04-19T22:12:00.000-04:00

It rained here in Penn State. Damn – I hate the rain. Why on earth does anyone like the rain??? Messy streets, stinking trash cans, flooded roads juz to mention a few of the added ‘advantages’.

Here is an extract from a mail one of my friends sent me, following which is my reply to her. I’ve reproduced it without her permission. :-)

A Monday afternoon today. It was raining. I was looking out of the window in my room, couldn't get wet today as I have a test tomorrow. And have lots to study. So just wrote this up. I just can't seem to resist the rains..

That familiar smell, I jump out of the chair. And run to the window...'the rain..!' A hot murky Monday afternoon suddenly overwhelmed by the powerful prowess of thick dark clouds. The leaves look up with outstretched hands and parched brown faces. And sway wildly, moved by the unharnessed breeze. Sway in their happiness in anticipation of Nature's most benevolent form. The rain. The green undergrowth also looks tired, eagerly awaiting the shower..

The sky rumbles.. once, twice.. then a loud proclamation of the power to be unleashed.. Then a drop, then another.. and then long sparkling silk in unending lines. The leaves are wildly happy, the trees sway rigidly, acknowledging in their own way.. Little streamlets here and there.. join and form a small, crooked stream
Tiny puddles reflecting the fluorescing green of the freshened leaves and the wet paint of the man-made structures; They, also washed clear of the monotony surrounding them.. People peeping out from their windows at first, rush out after some time. Eagerly welcoming the change in Nature. And letting the slight spray of the shower refresh them bodily and inwardly..

The rain lashes on.. light , then heavy, then heavier It seems to go on, determined to wash away all it can and create a fresh day. Bent on it's resolve to reiterate Nature's infinite wisdom which man sometimes chooses to overlook.. But then it steadily and slowly ceases.. it goes away as elegantly as it came..

Everything is fresher; trees, leaves, shrubs, walls, minds.. Life must move on..

And here’s my reply. Any resemblance to the previous mail is totally unavoidable and purely coincidental.

The familiar stench of rotten garbage from the nearest trash can due to the soggy water. I faint in my chair. And run to the window - obviously to close it down. Can't bear the stench!! A hot murky afternoon suddenly overwhelmed by the powerful prowess of thick dark murky frightening clouds..

The leaves look up with outstretched hands and parched brown faces - Oh no not again. Why do we have to fly away from our brothers to land up in some far away land. Ye Mohabattein ke patte hain.. kkkkiran.

And sway wildly, moved by the violent breeze.. sway in their all sadness that they will soon have to depart. The green grass undergrowth which already looks tired can bear it anymore. Why not get trampled by a herd of cows rather than get soaked in this menacing rain.

The sky rumbles.. once, twice. Its just unbearable. Then a loud proclamation of the power is to be unleashed. Why does He have to shout at the top of His voice to proclaim his supreme power when half of humanity has already accepted His greatness.

Then a drop, then another. Then it pours. Pours pours and pours leaving behind homeless families, stranded passengers, grounded planes, broken nests, helpless children, flooded streets, stinking trash cans. Its filthy and dirty everywhere. It makes you wonder why ppl love the rain when it comes down with such a fury....

Everyone is sad, dull and morose. But as it is rightly said Life must move on.... Really sad... LOL.
Obviously my friend was very much pleased with my reply. Spoiled her rainy mood!!! :-)

Population explosion !!!

2005-04-15T22:21:00.000-04:00

Recently read an article on BBC - An agriculture minister in Maharashtra, India had passed a law to cut down water supply to farmers who have more than 2 children. Good brains on the shoulders of Indian politicians these days you might say, Guess the minister just started his neuro-motor yesterday and tired out his solitary nerve cell. Seems to be an important way to curb the explosive Indian population. Why pounce on poor farmers??? Why not the politicians themselves, industrialists, CEOs, scientists…. Huh!!!
With due respect to the honorable minister, here is a list of few suggestions to curb exorbitant expenditure amongst politicians with regard to family planning:

1) Lower down their wages ten-fold if any politician has more than 2 children. They better practice what they preach
(That way Laloo Prasad will be paying millions back to the Indian government)

2) Cut down all types of security, if a politician has a criminal record which is an important qualification of every Indian politician.
(The entire police force would be idling till eternity)

3) Confiscate all cars for the politician, if the politician is caught having an extra-marital affair.
(This way they wouldn't frequent those hotel rooms. And all Ambassador cars in India would have to be exported to Malaysia – the largest junkyard for cars in Asia.)

4) All politicians should be actively and rigorously involved in family planning during their tenure, failing which he won't have the right to stand for the next election.

We look forward for a better tomorrow, Mr. Minister. We, the people !!! Jai Hind :-)

Miles to go before I break down and sleep….

2005-04-11T20:47:00.000-04:00

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost could not have done better justice to my position. After the first unsuccessful attempt at the Driver’s License centre due to lack of proper documents, I made tried my luck again today. Got up with a gr8 body-ache after tiring each cell in my body by playing basketball yesterday. Had no urge to even get up. But had to make it to the centre by 10:00.

Walked to the International Student’s Centre at 8:15 a.m. and woke them up from their deep slumber. Was the only person idling in the bus to the Exam centre. The bus driver made some futile attempts to strike a conversation with me, but found me deeply engrossed in the booklet – reading the rules for the exam.

30 minutes passed - I thought we should have reached the Exam centre by now. Peeped outside the window and found to my horror that we were miles past the Exam centre. Heavens!! I screamed. He jammed the brakes and the bus came to a grinding halt. We were a mile from the exam centre. The driver apologized profusely. Had no option but to walk back one mile. :-(

Reached the centre to find it totally deserted. Just one guy punching something into his computer. Was puzzled. Ran up and down the hallway like a hungry wolf. Anxiety at its best. That guy seemed excited. “Its Monday today” he grunted. So what?? It’s a holiday!!! Holy shit!! Second unsuccessful attempt. Came out of the centre ‘n found that the next bus back to the mall was after 3 hours.

Packed my bag and hit the road – 10 miles hike. My body aches and my bones crackle as though they are being fed to the lions :-(

Enjoy the poem by Robert Frost till then....

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. -Robert Frost

Blacked out!!

2005-04-08T09:22:00.000-04:00

My wish comes true. No No No!!! I didn’t see pathetic Kisna. Spare me!!! Finally Black saw the light of the day in Penn State. Might be too late for everyone back in India. A film of such sensitivity, perfection and elegance has been finally created in Indian Cinema.

Amitabh Bachchan is undoubtedly 'the best'. He rocks. He is my guru. Wish AR gave the music for the movie. Can’t expect everything I guess. J AB has delivered the character of eccentricity well – in his finest touch. Unparalleled and flamboyant excellence. Black is one of the most heart-rendering emotional saga of the life of a deaf and blind woman. And also the little Ayesha Kapoor has done a gem of a performance.

To tell the truth, I didn’t get teary-eyed or feel a lump in my throat or a chill through my spines through the film. But, we just couldn’t resist applauding at the end of the movie. Those who were fooling around in the first half of the movie, were glued to their seats till the end. In a capsule, Black is one of the best films I have ever seen with my hero AB in the lead. Hands down. If SRK fell to AB’s feet after watching this movie, I wouldn’t mind following suit. And Master-creator SLB needs a real good pat on his back. His work has frozen all superlatives.

Although it leaves some questions unanswered.

--> Why do directors like Chopras and the Johars ever get so popular due to those sad rigmarole pop-corn movies??
--> Why don’t we see films of such sensitivity ‘n passion in Indian cinema?
--> Have all the other Indian directors lost their creativity that they have to get ‘inspired’ by Hollywood movies?
--> And the million dollar question everyone's asking - Will Black get the Oscar??? – methinks by sending it to the Oscar ‘n if it gets rejected, it will be a disgrace to the whole Oscar fraternity. – more so its not a film to categorize or classify.

Okie Sheroo – here it is. Thankx for getting the DVD. Happy?? Now don’t show that dagger, it scares me to death. :D

One Helluva Adventure

2005-04-06T21:09:00.000-04:00

Got up at 6:00 in the morning to witness the greatest sunrises in the history of State College. Seemed to be the perfect day for a trek. But god damn I had to give the most stupid Driver’s License written exam. So kept reading it with occasional naps in between.

Packed my bags ‘n boarded the bus for a long ride. 15 miles outta town. Reached the mall ‘n boarded the second bus ‘n to my ‘horror’ the bus was a old age home special. It was a trip of the old age home down the country-side. The average age in the bus was 65 (including mine acutally) :-o. And then they started asking all sorts of weird questions like who my girlfriend is and stuff like that. All the while I was eyeing at my escape route – the door. Finally, freedom came at noon. The driver bus pulled over ‘n the driver told me that the next bus would be in two hours back to the mall!!

Got down from the bus and was awestruck. Juz one small cottage in the middle-of-nowhere. Till the horizon, I couldn’t see a single soul. It was freaky – direct from the Ram Gopal Verma flicks. I ran back to the bus – but was too late. It already speed away with my ‘old’ friends. Went to the driver’s centre. Showed all documents. Was ready to take the test, when one officer came up to me ‘n said that one of the letters from my employer was outdated. Bloody hell. Was planning to shower the choicest abuses. Was shown the escape route again.

Came out. Next bus in 2 hours!! Fields, rivers, hills, bridges ‘n jungles was all I could see. No options. Started singing ‘Deewana Mein chala’ and hit the road. Thought would be a helluva adventure down the country-side. Not to mention the frequent stares from passer-bys. Seemed the perfect day for the trek. Bright sunshine – cool breeze and the sweet tune of the cuckoo!!! Couldn’t be more perfect a trek. 10 miles to walk.

Was kinda exciting though. When a humble soul thought I was hitch-hiking and offered me a ride back to campus. And with his dog – Caesar, we drove back. Was exciting meeting this guy, who knew India as being the out-sourcing territory of the US. And there it started. Told him that India was more t it. And then started the 'Discovery of India'. Pandit Nehru would be totally humbled if he had heard my version today 'n Mother India would be proud to know of this true Indian at the darkest corners of the earth who has perfected the dates of Indian History. (And while we were talking Caesar gave a perfect wash by licking all over.) Couldn’t have asked for more!!!

Google 'n Yahoo juz got married !!!!

2005-04-05T18:54:00.000-04:00

For all those google-dicts, here is a very useful link. Really Classy, kewl and useful stuff.
http://yagoohoogle.com/

Courtesy: My roomie – the one and only - Sourabh Pawar (aka Sheroooo) :-)

Mein aur mere roommates

2005-03-26T13:24:00.000-05:00

Found this classy remake online. Identify so much with this poem... ;)

Main Aur mere roommates
Aksar Yeh Baatain Kiya Karte Hain
Ghar saaf hota to kaisa hota
Main kitchen saaf karta,
tum bathrooom dhote Main hall saaf karta,
tum balcony dekhte Log is baat pe hairaan hote
Aur us baat pe haste

Main aur mere roommates
Aksar Yeh Baatain Karte Hain
Yeh hara bhara sink hai Ya bartanon ki jang chidi hui hai
Yeh colour full kitchen hai Ya masalon se holi kheli hai
Hai farsh ki nayi design Ya doodh,beer se dhuli hui hain
Yeh cellphone hai ya dhakkan, Sleeping bag ya kisika aanchal,
Ye airfreshner ka naya flavour hai, Ya trash bag se aati badboo
Yeh pattiyon ki hai sarsarahut Ke heater phirse kharab hua hai

Yeh sonchta hain roommate kab se gum sum
Ke jab ke usko bhi yeh khabar hai Ke machar nahi hai, kaheen nahi hai
Magar uska dil hai ke kah raha hai Machar yaheen hai, yaheen kaheen hai !
Mood ki ye haalat, meri bhi hai, uski bhi
Dil mein ek tasvir idhar bhi hai, udhar bhi
Karne ko bohut kuch hai magar kab kare hum
Kab tak yoon hi is tarah rahe hum
Dil chahta hai Walmart se koi vaccum cleaner la de
Ye Carpet jo jeene ko joonzh rahi hai, use kahin fikwa de

Aur haan, hum roommates hai - roommates hai - roommates hai
Hum saaf rahe sakte hain, logon ko bata de :-)

The God is back with another Blockbuster

2005-03-21T23:13:00.000-05:00

The God in question being A.R. Rehman and the blockbuster being ‘Bose – The Unforgettable Hero’. Awesome music which has just released. Never-before-heard tunes ‘n A.R. sings his best song ever. Sonu has done a great job too. It will send the Maliks, Darbars ‘n Lalits back into their caves.

For those living under the rock, ‘Bose ..’ is being directed by Shyam Benegal, Lyrics by Javed Akhtar ‘n Music by the God himself – A.R. Rehman. Eagerly waiting for its release so that the DVD reach my village by the next decade.

You can listen to the songs at http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/17/s/movie_name.7516/
I will upload the songs soon for downloads.

Sorry about the earlier controversial blog. Didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings ‘n sentiments !!! Listen to the awesome songs 'n cheer up :-) Chalo Delhi.. Jai Hind!!!!

Safar-e'-Pakistan

2005-02-25T13:35:00.000-05:00

Have bought the copy-rights of the title from Sir. Saw that the previous blog invoked much criticism. But, a ‘feeble’ attempt last time made me at least realize that there are a few readers of this blog and I should not let them down. So, I installed Extreme tracker to keep track of ppl visiting my blog. I would really appreciate if ppl did comment on my blogs. Acutally, I was quite skeptical about putting up this new blog. Quite an old story for all of us. And the worst being no lessons learnt at the end of it.

Neways, last week I had a talk with a Paki girl – Hira (reminiscent of Zhara from the latest hindi flick :-) ). I had a couple of Muslim friends back in school. But, the interaction with her was totally different. Its still stupid that we really remain confused about our feelings with the fellow Pakis. Maybe its just not anyone’s fault or maybe it is? Do we really know the social life and political structure in our neighboring country? To be frank, I was totally clueless!!

Well, she is doing her MS in Economics and Political Science (or something like that) I thought there could be no better person to ask. And to put it really straight. It is no different from our own. I find absolutely no difference in our democracy, only that their government seems to be more militant. Or thatz what is always potrayed – thankx to our media run for political interests. Right since childhood we are bombarded with images of enmity with Pakistan and as you guessed they too are. And maybe in a few generations it will be rightfully enter the school history books too and would become a part of a curriculum. Thanks to our ‘so-called’ ‘selfless’ and self-proclaimed leaders whom a bunch of goons ‘n illiterate people respect ‘n are ready to do anything on their command – be it ruining pitches to disrupt cricket matches, ransacking theaters stating that the movie is immoral, even when the censor board has cleared it and then the list goes on.

And there its no different!!! As she says, only that there are self-proclaimed religious leaders called Mullahs present at every nook ‘n corner of the streets. People abusing the world in the name of religion. And its because of these handful people, the country’s image is at stake. And then there are so many problems flooding both the countries, that its just limitless even to mention them

And do we all really want this. In this so-called ‘modern hi-tech’ age, do we really care if the person in the adjacent seat or cubicle is a Pakistani or an Indian. Does it really matter?? Soon, it will be that soldiers on either side will not know what they are actually fighting for. A soldier will only abuse and kill his opponent only because his great-grandfather, who was also a soldier and did the same.

India wants Kashmir maybe as much as Pakistan does. But, what the common man here wants is peace!! He is surely not bothered if Kashmir is in India or in Pakistan. As long as its residents are living peacefully and not witnessing their brethren die in bloodshed each day. I’m not trying to draw any conclusion nor propose any solutions. I believe its beyond anyone’s will and imagination. No one knows when and where the dispute of Kashmir will ever end. Why are we in this state today??? I believe Hira is just confused like many of us….

But, doesn’t the whole scene disturb you??

Its Finally Here!!

2005-02-18T17:22:00.000-05:00

Its finally here!!!
Friends, I’m really very pleased to inform you that I’m getting engaged on the 29th of this month. Please consider this as an official invitation for My Engagement !!
The honor of your presence is requested. Please celebrate this momentous occasion with us!!!

Thank You and God Bless You!!
http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/isc/Newsletter/Wedding-Invitation.htm

Google - 2005

2005-02-12T18:26:00.000-05:00

Have been so addicted to Google nowadays. The other day, I was unable to open the new locker which was provided by the staff assistant. I was so embarrassed that I could not ask her how I should be opening the locker. Tried hard for half an hour. Went to Google and typed 'How to open xyz cupboard'

Googldicts we have become. Now here is a wish list - what I expect in Google 2005.

Launch Google Apartment – which will let users search for shoes, keys, wallet, ironed apparel etc. in the apartment.
Launch Google Homework – which will let Grad students find solutions for their homework and assignments.
Launch Google-Idea – Patent the idea for Looking for something
Launch Google Debug – which instantly finds the bug in your code.
Launch Google Good Gal – Good gals are hard to find. ;)
Add 'I'm feeling unlucky, lonely and miserable' button to their homepage
And yeah occasionally shut down so that people like me stop taking them for granted. :-)

‘Puzzle’ing questions???

2005-02-02T09:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry for long time absence. Actually nothing interesting going on in my life off late. Not that something interesting always does happen ;)
Neways, you got to hear this. Last Friday, when I was about to leave my office in the evening for the movie, I came across a jigsaw puzzle box lying on the corridor. Was quite a tempting offer. Took it back to my office. Sat on it for 5 hours. Skipped supper, movie et al. And did it in flat 5 hours 22 minutes. Din know what to do with it. So signed a ‘Thank You’ note and kept the arranged picture in the same place on the corridor. Totally forgot about all that over the weekend.
Yesterday, when I went to my office after class. I found my puzzle still lying there. And another puzzle kept next to it with a note “Now try this!!” So burnt the midnight oil and got it done in 6 hours yesterday. Now they have arranged a table on the corridor and kept both my puzzles on display. Kinda funny ain’t it!!

2005-01-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

Happy Republic Day

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY!!

2005-01-26T09:53:00.000-05:00

No celebrations around here in Penn State and the most patriotic thingie we did was we watched Swades. :-)
Awesome movie.. Although the ‘Piracy’ board thought that they shouldn’t spoil our innocent souls. Cut Cut Cut !!! ½ the songs, 1/4th the dialogs, awful sound recording, movie ended even before we sat down properly – but still we managed to grasp Ashutosh’s objectives with a lot of snide comments off and on. Loved AR’s voice as always. :-)

The Black Chapter Day is finally over…

2005-01-25T09:19:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Vinayak and his Gang that the Telerana once again stands tall atop the E&TC building. Congratulations to the entire team that did this Herculean feat.
Good one folks : -)

2005-01-25T09:02:00.000-05:00

The Telerana Back in Full Charm

Aaj Mogambo khush nahi hua!! :-(

2005-01-13T19:58:00.000-05:00

The 'baddest boy' of Hindi Film industry Amrish 'Mogambo' Puri passed away today. Felt sorry for this veteran villian who set a new trend for villians in Baddywood after the rigmaroles of Pran 'n Ajit. His film career kicked off from my Nishant and he has graced the screen for over 35 years. He did films in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi and English, besides Hindi films. He was a very versatile actor.

Okie now I better stop before this starts to look like a news article...

Goodbye Purisaab!!

Bury the hatchet .... but don't forget where you buried it.. :-)

2005-01-12T16:26:00.000-05:00

“What are the basics applications of the Internet?” my Computer Networks professor roared in class. Well well... Venting out frustration 'n settling Old feuds ;) i thought.

The following is an extract from one of my friend's chat. We used to attend a class long long ago. And now she blames that i was a spoilt kid. (Guess I need some consultation with consu) Read on..

“We were the worst of enemies. I should say best enemies. Totally, i used to absolutely HATE you then.. Kitna pain marta tha. I never found my shoes in place after getting out of class. Not only the shoes dear. I always found my cycle misplaced.. Books, pens, and what not. And one day my cycle was gone!!! Later it was found in the gutter.. And another day, you had stuck a filthy cockroach (cockroaches are meant to be filthy, i presume) onto my seat (knowing that she had cockroacho-phobia). And you used to keep writing innovative and annoying nicknames on my notebook.. kya pain tha!!!!

I absolutely detest them till date. Once you hid my textbook under aunty's sofa and I found it the next semester. Yeah,my poor textbook was under aunty's sofa for the whole sem and i did my exam without one. All thanks to you!! You used to trouble nandini bhattacharya also, do you recall.. that innocent soul..and you pained her also.. and monica ko to chod hi do.. Who was that guy who came along with you for tution?? That guy was alloted the responsibility by you to render similiar treatment to monica.. He was such a poor quiet little thing,and with you as company, he used to be forced to do such painful activities!! You always had the potential to do more. If salvation could be achieved like that, you would have been St.Prakash my now.. Rev Fr. St. Prakash. It was mental abuse and torture. (Phew)

Ok, lets end hatred and school defending.. (Lets Bury the hatchet :-) ) “

Its finally here

2005-01-09T20:11:00.000-05:00

Sholay has finally touched the US soil.. What a pleasant surprise Parag gave me yesterday!!!!
Thank you Sushrut for going through all that trouble and delivering it at the airport. Can't be more grateful to you :-)
Premeirs - Feb 7th ;)

Out with the Sisters

2005-01-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

Well. Finally the party ended. 15 fun-filled days ‘n those never-ending playful nights. The most interesting part of this trip was that I got to meet 3 of my sisters. And with each of them I have had such a wonderful experience.

Charu : An over-worked dentist who barely has time, who took an off last week. It was superbly gr8 at her place in Boston where she made every effort to keep me occupied ‘n entertained. We met after 5 years or so and the level at which we interacted was so different. Those long nights of playing Pictionary which ran generally till dawn. Those cooking lessons, house-improvement tips, carrom, decoration and interaction with her kids. It was so soo sooo sweet of her

Uma : Was totally a different person when I met her, as against the formal ways when we spoke over the phone. I presume we were meeting after 10 years. It was superb in New Jersey where the two of us spent the whole day shopping and driving when the kids were away at school. Nights were generally flooded with the memories of childhood ‘n days in India. We often went into more serious issues like American ‘n Indian politics ‘n rural development where she has hands-on experience. My image totally changed ‘n thatz when I realized how different it is when we interact with anyone personally.

Mads – Needless to say, the absolute blast. It was finally when we met, even though it spanned only for 2 hours. That was heaven!!! It was then I felt that surely nothing had changed in the last few months. Some things never change ‘n at the top of my list is relationships. J It was the same ol’ fightin’ smashing hitting and the host of other things we enjoyed… And the most painful good-bye L .. But, mads we’ll meet soon.

Life in the last 15 days was simply exciting. Felt like paradise. 2004 finally ended ‘n 2005 began with a bang! Time to get back to the mundane routine. But, this vacation is one of the most exciting I have ever had.

The party begins…

2004-12-22T11:51:00.000-05:00

Late to bed and early to rise. The day began at 5:00 a.m. yesterday after I had watched almost 3 movies the previous night – Terminator –III, DDLJ and Musafir.

Rushed to lab at 7:00 a.m. and chatted with Sir, Lux and Shruti. Dunno why I always end up chatting with sir. Start my day chatting with him ‘n end it with that. Its really amazing to chat with him.

Neways ran to the bus stop and caught the bus juz before it left. Sad movie on the bus – Scooby Doo. Grabbed my CD player and Da vinci code. Neeti had maazed on me to complete the entire mystery. Dozed off while reading it. Woke up to find our bus going over a bridge across a frozen river. I was amazed. I shouted “Oh My God” Had seen such stuff on Nat geo before. Ppl gave quizzed looks. “Ye kaunsa chaman aa gaya??”

Took a transfer at Harrisburg. Bus was packed. Grabbed a seat next to an Afro-American. Was skeptical whether he would speak. But he broke the ice. And then for the next two hours.. It was really gr8. We spoke on Veggie food, Barbeque, American History, Atrocities on the Black, British rule in India, Bhagat Singh and our life-story… It was truly splendid. He was impressed by India and Indians. J

He got down at Philadelphia though. We were already running behind schedule due to the traffic at King of Prussia. The driver stepped on the gas at philly and we shot like a bullet to Jersey, while Lucky Ali ‘n Rehman blared out of my headfones…

My bro-in-law picked me up and we drove home where the kids were anxiously waiting outside the house. And after that it has been awesome. Uncle Prak (thatz what they call me ;) has been on his toes ever since. OH my God… having a rocking time with the kids.

Shopping Season !!!!

2004-12-18T20:49:00.000-05:00

First.. Speacial Thankx to Consu. I’m blessed that Ms. Rujuta Consu Kulkarni has added a link to my blog… Can u imagine that??? I’m so so so blessed.
Sorry for not updating this page since long.. Was preoccupied with ‘nothing’ frankly and that too after a long time. Slept almost for 18 hours the other night and didn’t remember which part of the planet I got up. My roomie had to refresh my mind of what I was doing here at Penn state.
Neways, had a real funny experience. Went shopping today to the city’s largest Mall. Real real real huge place. It was a ride through the country-side. A great drive across the streams and beautifully decorated houses with vintage cars parked outside. Felt rejuvenated. At the Mall I was totally perplexed. Millions of people around and billions of items!!! And I had no clue why I landed up there.
And the hardest part was deciding on something to buy. Juz couldn’t make up my mind. And doubts flooded my mind. Was the item I was buying worth the tag price?? More so was it really necessary??? Would I get a cheaper deal in the adjacent store?? Is this cotton/terracotta/wool??? Does it shrink?? Is it the right size??? Gaaawd…
Thatz when I realized my folly. I had never gone shopping alone ever in my life. It was always with my mom ‘n dad around. And I used to sit in one corner in the shop, showing no interest at all, while my mom used to rack her head on the best deal. A small grunt of yes was sufficient from my side to get that item. Things seemed so peaceful.
Never knew shopping would be such a pain. Did any of u faced this problem. Feeling real stupid today….

Antenna Day again!!!

2004-12-02T10:15:00.000-05:00

Well it was those exciting days, I used to look forward back in India. The Antenna Days!!! Never expected that I would have the same here in Penn State too.

As a part of the semester project in the Antenna Engineering course, Jackie and I were expected to simulate a Short Backfire Antenna for the GHz range. But, I got a ‘weird’ idea that we could indeed build the antenna. And it juz worked out. Like all Antenna days, this one too was scheduled on a Sunday. And believe it or not, using household items like cake tins and sheets we managed to build the antenna in a day ‘n got it tested in the anechoic chamber on the next.

And the workshop around here. Oh my God!! Its awesome. I juz thought that if we had the same facilities back in India for the Yagi and log-periodic, things would have been so much simpler. Back in India, getting a pipe turned was a big adventure for the lack of facilities. Here you can almost have the ‘world of workshop’ under one roof. You must see to believe the stuff ‘n tools they have around here.

Neways, The Short Backfire Antenna (SBFA) turned out to be a cute-looking, practically no-cost, robust, portable antenna. I will upload the snaps tomorrow. I gave the presentation yesterday and it went off smooth.
But, I remembered all those exciting days on the antenna terraces… L Gone are those days.

Bless the Food !!! Amen...

2004-11-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

However clichéd it might sound, you must really experience all this to really verify these ‘Universal truths’

1st clichéd truth – Mommy’s food is bestest – Nursery saying – “My mother is a very good ‘cooker’!!!”.

2nd enlightening fact – Wherever and Whenever – Only Indian food has the variety – An estimated 10000 or more delicacies are made in India each day. US has only 2 – Pizza ‘n Beer

3rd and final testament – Anything ‘n everything you make tastes excellent when you are hungry.. I mean anything. Hunger is the best sauce.
Thankx to Goddess Demeter that we are still alive.

Oktober fest – End of Hibernation

2004-11-22T21:16:00.000-05:00

October has surely not been the best month of my life. But looking back I’m thankful for all those ‘hard’ (really hard) lessons I learnt… A new chapter has begun… 2 ‘deadly’ exams are over… And by God’s grace, I’ve come out alive….Sorrry for not being in touch with the outer world. I will doubly compensate for all of it… The lessons learnt…

1) Faith can move mountains.
2) You make one mistake and the world doesn’t come to an end.
3) Life is full of ups ‘n downs. Its hard-work and perseverance that keeps the boat sailing.
4) No man can please two masters...I tried serving 3
5) Sleep is sometimes necessary
6) You win one battle when you are in the midst of a new one.
7) Faith in the Almighty is utmost important. I can’t more strongly emphasize that from this experience. Thank you God….
8) Room-mates are the next best species on this planet. God bless.

P.S. Hi Prashant, Thankx for dropping in… but may I know which ‘Prashant’ you are???

2004-11-15T08:24:00.000-05:00

One Calling card - $5
Speaking to friends back in India – Priceless

Thankx Upasna ‘n Nilu for calling up this weekend. Felt like heaven. Really made my weekend special.
Happy Diwali to all of you.

Guten Tag @#$!$^!%&

2004-11-03T14:24:00.000-05:00

As if reading Technical Papers and Journals was not enough, i have to read an entire Antenna Conference Paper written in German...
God save me!!!!
I'm publishing my conference paper in Marathi now...

Back to Civilization

2004-11-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

It was when my professor refused to recognize me the other day, that I realized it was high time that I visited the barber’s shop. A hole, no a quarry, in your pocket for sure, I was trying to postpone it to the limit.
After a long survey myself ‘n Sourabh found the ‘cheapest’ ( in relative terms). It was at Walmart – the superstore. God damn – a female was going to cut my hair for the first time in my life… I was upset…

Weirdest questions were asked by that female? First one was an embarrassment

1) How many inches of hair do you want cut???
(As if my hair was a few feet long)
2) Is this bend in your natural style or are you forcing it that way?
(Holy Cow… I don’t know)
3) Is this tuft of hair you would want twisted or flat as it is now? (Anyhow juz make it short)
4) What is that big scar on your head??
(Well it was another irresponsible barber who managed to do that)
5) How are you feeling now (It was after the shampoo)???
(I’m waiting to leave)
6) Its time to pay the bill?
(Holy Christ - $12)

Back to EM TV

2004-10-29T12:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long wait for the EM answer. We received many ‘intelligent’ answers. Ups ‘n Pun you were almost there.. gr8 job.. Thankx to Nilu ‘n Aniket for their invaluable suggestions.

The answer is:

Grad T = 2x ax + 2y ay - az

The mosquito is located at (1,1,2). Hence at this point, the Grad T = (2,2,-1).
The mosquito should move in the direction of 2 ax + 2 ay - az in order to get warm as soon as possible.

Hope all this made sense. And keep watching...

My first resignation and it comes with a twist.

2004-10-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

The other day I filed my first resignation at the Café Union Street. Days and nites were getting hectic and so I thought I should call it ‘quits’.
And the interesting part was when I spoke to Kim, the Manager in-charge. She was very disappointed. First she thought I was kidding. There are generally around 1000 more students who work in the café ‘n no one has any track of who comes and goes. But, I worked with Kim to get well acquainted with her for the last 3 weeks. She told me that I should have told her before. She said that I was the best around there ‘n that she was ready to offer any other job in the café to me.
It was indeed a very awkward feeling I should say. I didn’t know what to say… Never knew Quitting a job would be difficult too…

Electrocuted by Electromagnetics….

2004-10-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

Never ever experienced the ‘beauty’ of the horrifying subject of Electromagnetics… probably the worst subject ever… A sample problem for you folks….
Problem:
The temperature in an auditorium is given by T = x^2 + y^2 –z. A mosquito located at (1,1,2) in the auditorium desires to fly in such a direction that it will get warm as soon as possible. In what possible direction must it fly???

Solution in the next episode…dekhte rahiye… EM TV… :(

2004-10-09T20:37:00.000-04:00

The Majestic Telerana
The Majestic Log-Periodic back in June,2004

The Black Chapter Day…

2004-10-09T19:37:00.000-04:00

As Parag rightly quoted in his mail today - The Crown of E&TC department – fondly ‘remembered’ as the Telerana is no more… The magnificent piece which adorned the E&TC building has been quietly bundled up in the club… U don’t know how miserable the ten of us are feeling now…

The Telerana is gone…Wooosh in a jiffy… Months of hardwork and toil – the sweltering heat – the back-breaking workouts – the brain storming sessions – the painstaking efforts – the quibbles – the fights – the meets – the ups and downs - the vim, the vigor, the enthusiasm we put in – the enormous amount of money - the race against time – the never-ending source of energy of each of the hammers. And finally the sense of pride, joy and achievement when the Telerana was actually put up. The beaming faces – the many smiles it lit up….

‘It was the perfect blend of skill, technical knowledge, co-operation, man-power, intelligence and more importantly common sense. All these formed the perfect ingredient for its resounding success.’ – Farewell Letter to the COEP Amateur Radio Club, July, 2004.

All is gone… And sadly so, many of us far far away from the India, can do nothing at all. Looks like we were fighting for a lost cause.

9th October, 2004 will surely be the Black chapter Day in all our BEhammers lives….

2004-10-01T17:34:00.000-04:00

My Latest Design in IE3D...
My latest design

Is it Friday yet????

2004-10-01T17:15:00.000-04:00

Oh man…. This is one heck of a lab and it was one heck of a day… These guys around here are so helpful.. Too much… I’m thoroughly humbled…

I set out with a new project today.. and this new antenna had to be designed in a totally new software IE3D… Unfortunately, there is only one licensed copy of the software in Penn State University… (We are living in America where piracy is looked down upon… I’ve buried all my ‘highly’ pirated CDs in the deepest dark corners of the earth..:-) So it meant that I had to share the copy with 3 other folks… Not a really good start…

Most of the guys in the lab were making plans for the weekend.. Ppl seemed to be in their own world… But, fortunately Craig lent me the copy for today… Matt lent me the manual… Doug came down in the afternoon and taught me some simple designs.. But, when I sat designing the actual code it kept crashing repeatedly…

As it was Friday, I din dare discuss any of my ‘crashing’ problems.. Doug came down again and looked at my design.. and within a few minutes half the people in the lab got my design thru the network and were busy debugging it…. I was really impressed..

Finally Doug found the bug ‘n I sent it for simulation… Although it’s a Saturday, Doug promised me that he would drop in and teach me the next part of the design simulation… These folks out here seem to be way way ahead…. In every aspect… Hats off to them… I stop here before I begin the BIG controversial debate…. No controversial topics on my blog… I have been advised….

And finally its Friday – over and out…. Big day for me though…

Kya hain mobile number....

2004-09-30T14:52:00.000-04:00

My new mobile number is +1-814-880-6663...

What is this life, full of care…

2004-09-24T07:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry, I had a big halt in Bombay this time due to torrential rains.… Inconvinience is regretted...

The other day I had to rush back home at around 11:00 a.m. I had forgotten some stuff back home… And when I opened the door to my room I found something really weird. Something was totally out of place and I wasn’t sure what it was… I juz couldn’t guess reason why… But, I ain’t got much time then; for the next bus was to arrive soon… hence I grabbed my stuff ‘n was off. But, I was still pondering over it when I was traveling to campus in the bus….

And then it struck me… Eureka!!!! My room had been illuminated by ‘day-light’… Had not seen it in the last 2 months… Leaving before sunrise ‘n coming home late nite.. Its funny that we don’t realize the smallest things in our hectic schedule….

That reminds me of that beautiful poem Leisure by W.H. Davies… What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare….

Enjoy this poem from school…

Leisure

2004-09-24T07:17:00.000-04:00

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Salaam Bombay

2004-09-19T03:17:00.000-04:00

Saw a Hindi flick in something like ages… And the movie was the icing on the cake.. ‘Salaam Bombay’… My thirst was surely quenched yesterday nite… Long time desire.... We were gonna see Dev (AB in that man), but landed up watching Salaam Bombay…

Awesome movie – Mira Nair Direction – Great acting by Nana ‘n Kisna – Real Locations – Real people (There are some shots which were taken by hidden cameras)… Real touchy ‘n u end up crying… One heck of the movie.. Truly awesome… I recommend each one reading this blog to see the movie right now…

Akhir Yeh hain Mumbai meri Jaan!!!... Enjoy the pic…

2004-09-19T03:14:00.000-04:00

Queen's Necklace
Queen's Necklace

Whatz in a name????

2004-09-14T17:12:00.000-04:00

Even my mother wouldn’t have taken my name as much as Ilgin does… Well before u have any misconceptions!!! Ilgin is a student from Turkey pursuing his Masters at the Plasma Physics lab at the EE dept in Penn State….

Each time I enter the lab to meet my roomie Axe, Ilgin is elated… He will enquire each time, “Is it Pra-akash or Prakash or Prkash ???” and then the same answer “It really din sound different..” then Axe will tease him, “Look Praks has come”….And then there would be a burst of laughter…

All the while he plays the game Conqueror, he names all his capitals ‘n kingdoms ‘Prakash’… He makes every effort to pronounce my name correctly… Oh my god, he is in love with my name more than I’m with it… I hope Ilgin gets out his ‘nameo-philia’ soon…. My girlfriend is concerned… :))

P.S. Sorry dumbo about the blog thingie.. :(

After the storm comes the calm......

2004-09-13T11:57:00.000-04:00

It’s the misunderstanding which is interpreted differently which sputters another.. Sounds confusing.. And it juz seems never ending… It’s the thunderbolt which strikes during the storm of misunderstanding… A wind of misinterpretation blows ‘n u are swept into the ditch of assumption, which is the threat to friendship…
But rightly so… After the storm comes the calm.. And the ray of hope penetrates through the dark clouds of despair… It is when u cum face to face with the truth that u realize what a fool u have been… The cool breeze of friendship washes the dirt of ignorance ‘n stupidity from your face And you are much wiser now…
I guess a small fight can go a long way in bringing two friends closer to each other… I have experienced it twice in these two weeks… Can’t be more jubilant… Physical distances bring friends more closer ‘n how true it is… Kahi jhepla ka?? I can’t even read what I’ve written… Plz comment….

P.S. Consu load gheu nakos.. U will remain my consultant for life… After all its free right.. J why wud I ever change then… J but I guess I can swap over Kulkarni’s right.???? J
Please look forward to the next edition on this blog… Dumbo listening???

The Sat-Nite that juz din seem to end…

2004-09-12T20:49:00.000-04:00

The weekend nite when the whole world parties.... prakash stays awake with voice 'n chat.....
10:30 p.m. Saturday… My parents were there already online.. I hooked up the mic ‘n webcam.. I chatted with them and bro for an hour or so… Got fully updated about the latest happenings back home…
11:30 p.m. Saturday… Shubhangi came online… Bingo.. She had squeezed in time despite her busy schedule.. Unfortunately her mic din work.. But she could meet hear me… Parag was also supposed to come on air… but the horrid power cut in Mumbai... I showed her the lab, workplace etc.. And it was almost 2 months that I was speaking to her.. Felt gr8… And then Aakash (her kid) started crying ‘n hence she had to leave….
12:30 a.m. Sunday… Parag came online… I heard his voice for the first time after coming here to the US… We chatted for an hour… Shubhangi joined in again and we had a special voice conference with our webcams on… It was truly splendid… invigorating experience.. ppl at different corners of the earth in finest touch, bound together by the thread of the internet… Shubhangi came in off and on… Parag ‘n myself kept chatting for I don’t know how long… I believe it was almost 3 hours…
3:30 a.m. Sunday… I juz finished speaking to Parag… Sushrut came along.. The chatting juz seemed not to end… We tried voice chat, but there was some problem at his end.. We compensated by chatting for something like 4 hours…. And simultaneously, I was chatting with Upasna for 3 hours… It was too much fun… it seems real stupid penning all of it here.. but it was surely gr8 time for me…
7:30 a.m. Sunday Although I really din wanna leave, but I had to take the bus home for household chores..… And dozed off to sleep… A very lazy weekend… My first lazy weekend in US…..

The Thunderbolt....

2004-09-10T17:47:00.000-04:00

It is when the thunderbolt strikes bang on target – Your Head… It is then u realize that everything in life is not fun ‘n frolic and u can’t always get around joking about every damn thing… There are times when u ought to be serious… And maybe these times are coming quite too often than I can pace up with…. We ain’t kids anymore… Long way to go for me i gues....
Thankx for the thunderbolt though, Gargi…
-Prakash

2004-09-09T21:03:00.000-04:00

Prakash

Version 2.822

2004-09-08T16:18:00.000-04:00

Jubilant is a very light word which describes me today…. I got a mail from the person who wrote the software I’m using for my simulation… I had given him my design a day back for it was not giving the expected results. He told me to meet him at the earliest today..

I rushed to the Cadillac lab (as it is called) taking my Zip and USB drives and my result sheets. I was a bit scared and anxious.. Din know what all he might ask… I reached the lab and he called me in. He showed me all the results. I was indeed very happy. But what was the reason??/ He said my design had detected a bug in the software and hence he had to rectify it. And thus developed Version 2.822 of the FDTD software.. then he gave me the copy of the new version. Probably I’m the first proud customer to get that copy and he gave me some additional tips to use the software… I was greatly relieved. My first assignment done.. Mission accomplished…

Only guys above 18 years read on…. Disgusting piece of history…

Interesting though… The Cadillac Lab is actually the Antenna Research Lab.. But its called the ‘Cadillac Lab’… I never bothered to find out why.. And each time I said that, guys around here giggled… When Matt told me the real reason. The Antenna Research Lab occupies the place which was once a Strip Club – the ‘Cadillac Club’…Disgusting ain’t it???

Plz don’t comment on the history part…. I had told u not to read it….

All in a Day's work.....

2004-09-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday seemed to be one of those days which juz din seem to go right, but I ended it with a smile…

It was Labor day… which meant no labor at all and more labor for us… Got up at 5:04 a.m. and slept again in keeping with the tradition of ‘labor day’… Got up at 5:43 a.m. again... And rushed to the bus-stop.. Axe followed me… And the bus was to come at 7:51 a.m. We waited and waited and it seemed that the bus-drivers had taken a day off too… Finally a bus came at 8:23 a.m. And it chugged towards the campus… We overheard the bus driver cribbing that he wanted the day off and he was royally pissed. We were abusing him at the top of our voices… Par matra bhasha mein… hope he din know hindi… It took us almost 45 minutes to reach the campus when it generally takes not more than 20 minutes…

Axe and I started working on the painful advanced EME Homework…I couldn’t understand EME in under-grad… Advanced EME was a far throw… I had to finish the simulations too over the weekend… And I had screwed up with my closest friend big time.. Life seemed stupid for me in the morning.. Fortunately caught my friend online and settled everything… And I learnt the greatest lesson in friendship… Among friends, we fight because we are sure that we will never end up screwing anything big-time.. I was so relieved and it simply invigorated me.. I was extremely happy…

Then I went on to the homework.. Did a few problems… And as luck had it, I got an appointment to meet ‘the person’ who had written the software which I had been using for my simulations.. I thanked my stars.. I me him at 4:33 p.m. Discussed with him the design.. Explained what all I had done.. Gave a small demo.. He went through the design.. And bingo!!!!! Everything I had done was correct.. But, he too couldn’t figure out why the results weren’t as expected. He volunteered to do the design again, since it was his software... My job had been delegated… That meant I could rest for the day... It was the icing on the cake…

Kal phir milenge… Isi website par.. Isi time.. Tab tak ke liye Namaskar….

Its Show-time.... The First Football Game....

2004-09-05T16:41:00.000-04:00

After an initial disappointment on Sunday, I finally made it to the Football Game… We were expected to volunteer for AID (Association for India’s development) a stall which had been set up at the Beaver Stadium for the first football game yesterday… The money earned from the stall is forwarded to India for rural development.. A novel cause…. I heard we made almost $5000 :-) ....

We entered the Beaver stadium and it was juz overflowing with ppl… Almost everyone was wearing blue.. it was the deep blue sea which was juz limitless… Everyone was screaming and the atmosphere was juz too good… Never seen anything like that before… Gr8 music was being played by the band and all those lovely cheer-girls ;) The start was simply fabulous… The noise level was so so high that I felt we could be heard from India… J…

We were given blue aprons and we set on our hawking adventure. We took Aquafina bottles and sold them for a whopping $2.50 (i.e. Rs.120) and surprisingly we sold them in the first row itself. We went back to our stall and then hell broke loose…

It was the first break and everyone made a bee-line to our stall.. I managed the drinks.. don’t worry I wasn’t a bar-tender.. I managed making the cold drinks… ppl here drink more cold-drink than water. It superb fun to cater to everyone’s needs of Pepsi, coke, Fruit Punch, Mist .. juz to name a few… I was working with another girl from Hyderabad – ranjana and we formed a great team…

After the break, we went on another hawking expedition and weren’t as lucky. But we did enjoy the game a bit. We even took a full-length video-shoot from Azam’s handy-cam… I’ll mail the pics soon.

And yeah totally forgot about the game.. Penn State beat Akron 48 – 3… I mean full kachara kar diya unka.. All in all, a great thunderous experience…. Looking forward to the next game....

One million and still less......

2004-09-03T22:25:00.000-04:00

Tonite I went to the Opening Ceremony of the Soccer games here at Penn State…

For those who are still clueless…. Penn State University has the second largest football stadium in the entire of the US. 110,000 – seating capacity…. Joe Paterno, octogenarian has been the football coach of the Penn State team ‘Nittany Lions’ - since 1950 – being the Best football coach in the US and has lead the Nittany lions to many victories… Soccer is a religion here and has a great, ‘zany’ following…

It was around 7:30 p.m. when me ‘n Sourabh walked down to the stadium… We entered through a small entrance…. And Behold !!! – It was paradise on earth…. We could see people almost till infinity… It was juz limitless… There was beautiful music going on and it was juz such a gr8 atmosphere… There were soo many freebies being distributed – Coffee mugs, T-shirts, Posters… etc etc… There were many documentaries…

There were some contests too.. And then the man – Joe Pa as he is called entered and he received a standing ovation… He spoke like a fiery patriot and the crowd went berserk ….. His passion was in his words... And u juz can't beleive that he is more than 80 years old... And then there were fireworks…. Real poor show I must say… Even our galli Diwali fireworks are better… We gotto give these guys a few tips in this regard…

But, all in all, a great feeling….

At the speed of light...err sound...

2004-08-28T11:15:00.000-04:00

My hands are still aching, do we call it the ‘hand-ache’… My family had come online today… We decided to have an e-conference. I was in the lab at Penn State, my bro in the classroom at Texas and my parents at home in Pune, India. Okie then, my parents type disastrously slow, so we decided to voice chat.

The problem…

I had no mic, only headphones…. My bro couldn’t use his speakers as he was in his lecture.

So the solution –

Whatever my parents were talking and I had to relay all the messages at the speed of light (oops at the speeed of sound) to my brother…. A repeater station…

Oh my god.. I juz went crazeeeee…. Spare a thought to my fingers which are being displayed at the Museum of Human Anatomy, Washington D.C…

There are some things in life that you juz can’t do....

2004-08-26T19:39:00.000-04:00

There are some things in life that you juz can’t do… Even when you have all the will in the world to do it… It is being at two places at the same time…

Specially when one of our best friends needs you the most in her hour of need and its then you stand totally helpless.. You possibly can’t do anything sitting here, some ten thousand miles away… And whatever it might be, not being there with your friend in the hour of need, is juz the worst crime in life….And it suck big-time.. All you can do is pray for her well-being…

The chat.....

2004-08-24T15:39:00.000-04:00

Continuing from where I had left on…. It’s the smallest things in life which makes us happy and this is about a ‘small’ friend…

Next one to go….

Prak says: Hi xxxxxx
xxxxxx says : hi
Prak says : Howz life???/
xxxxxx says : ek min haan

ten minutes….. twenty minutes…

xxxxxx says : arre sorry.. I was on the phone…
Prak says : No problem yaar… So whatz going on??/
xxxxxx says : kahi nahi general…
Prak says : ber… done with submission???
xxxxxx says : veda aahes ka
Prak says : nahi

Brief gap of 5 minutes

Prak says : are you there???
xxxxxx says : arre ho…too many ppl online mhanun.. sorry
Prak says : its okie…
Prak says : do you have digital counter sheet with you??? Have you written it??
xxxxxx says : thamb

ten minutes…. I presume xxxxxx is searching…. Twent…. Trying to be optimistic…. By then I have chatted with her neighbour, her dog, uncle aunty ajji... juz about everyone other than her..

xxxxxx says : arre nahi aahe majhyakade
Prak says : thankx….
xxxxxx says : neways, jate atta…
Prak says : oh ber u going???
xxxxxx says : ho… arre I have to write digital counter chi sheet… (I guess I was asking for that particular sheet)
xxxxxx says : bhetu udya..tata
Prak says : Which lectures tmrw???

xxxxxx appears to be offline and may not reply….

Guess who??? The woman with all the computer problems in computer history…. Routinely failing connections… Failing modems…. Disconnecting messengers… Off lately ‘Banned‘ messengers… Mouse jamming difficulties…. Automatically opening CDrom drives… Password forgetting problems… Automatic email address changing troubles… Well you can contact computer support at Dell to get the exhaustive list.. They have compiled it on this woman’s experience with umpteen computer problems…

Sir you ought to comment on this…..

P.S. BTW, this is not all about this person… I’ll write something real good about her maybe in my next blog….

Its the small things in life....

2004-08-23T20:28:00.000-04:00

I didn’t know that I would get requests on my blog tooo :-)
Yeah about ‘my friend ‘thingie, I would restart it again, bcoz I really din know if ppl were reading it… neways…

It’s the smallest things in life that make you happy.. And it sure is….

It’s a real hard day out here.. Wake up in the morning… Do all your personal stuff… Cook the food on your own… Pack your bags… catch the bus on time… go to the campus.. Attend some really boring sessions… Go the lab… slog out there… Half the simulations run for hours at a stretch… After all that you find that those are not your expected results… You read along if you went wrong somewhere… You catch the bus again back home.. Stop at the grocery… cook your food… and then catch the bus back to college… And start debugging again…. Gosh its hectic…

And its one thing that really made my day today… One of my lab-mates, we hardly speak to each other… Before leaving came upto me and said have a good nite… And thatz that… It pumps your spirits.. And for god knows what good reason.. not even 10 minutes after he has left I was able to find out why that stupid darn thing that wasn’t working in the morning…. Truly amazin’!!!

P.S. Consu, I’m sorry I did sing in the lab yesterday nite when no one was around.. I sang all the ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’ songs and felt real good….