Day of huge proportions

Micheal Jackson is DEAD :) No, dont get me wrong- I never really liked his music and I am glad he has stopped his child molesting activities (That includes dangling his own kids from the balcony)... To whosoever writes back about this: Good for you, this is my opinion and my blog so FU! More than 80% of the "sympathizers" are mere hypocrates. If the world can tolerate really sad jokes made at the expense of Elvis "The King" Prestley himself (Him dying on the commode seat), how long will it take for jokes to start arriving here? Not very long:-

And if you thought that was not funny you need to watch CSI:Miami a lot more! Oh ya the rumours on MJ being still alive are here and while he is dead as far as I am concerned, I still wonder why the world conveniently chose to forget that he had changed his religion to Islam and his name to Mikaeel? Dont get me started on racism here...

Visa Experience Part 3

The time was 7:10 AM on 22-06-2009, and I was well ahead of the reporting time of 7:30 AM. Just as I was about to think it was just me, I realised there were 4 other people around me who had come early too. Here I wish to bring about a most peculiar aspect of human beings- In professional surroundings, they tend to have a conversation revolving totally around the current atmosphere and it’s immaterial that they don’t even know each other’s names. Similar was the case here and in the entire time I spent with these people, I can claim only to know the name of 1 and that too because I happened to glance at his Visa interview appointment letter: Jason Jesse James (JJJ, that’s a killer name!) from Kerala who happened to have an MS admit from Georgia Tech. The other 2 guys were from Chennai and were going to University of Illinois for an MS course. The gal behind me was going to Rice (I certainly had my share of lady company during this trip) for an MS course and it was obvious I talked to her more due to the fact that we had the same destination in the US of A.

At 7:20, we were allowed a free pass ahead of the crowd by a security guard with a most astounding moustache- The thing seemed to cover half his face! Thick tamil accent not withstanding, he had all of us hand over the passport and appointment letter to him through a window sill and then returned them all to us. The gate opened and for some reason images of Fox River Penitentiary (Prison Break FTW) came to my mind with the appropriate music. A series of security checks followed and the guys were separated from the gals for obvious reasons. Now I wont pretend I liked this, but I turned out to have a great time with Jason and the other guys for the entire 1.5 hours that I was inside. The guards inside suddenly seemed to have a much calmer demeanour and a voice that would put Baba Amte to shame despite being more Madraasi than Rajnikanth himself! Security checks over, we walked through a very heavy metal door into air-conditioning- Oh thank God for that…

Yes, someone actually made this image for the internet!

There seemed to be people of all possible regions of India here and I don’t envy the coordinators who had to handle them all. Mind you, we were still in the Indian section and sadly it was unanimous among the 4 of us that the Indian inspectors were clearly ruder than their American counterparts L…One of them was a grumpy old man (GOM; Nothing to do with the media player) saw me as he attempted to rectify my documents and in the midst of it asked me to write my name in Konkani on one of the forms despite it being clearly written that Konkani had no written script. Then the doofus asked me to write it in tulu, kannada and Hindi in that order. Finally his role was done with and I was asked to take a well marked path to another building where the US consulate-general along with his people worked. Here was where the actual visa interview would be:-

Inside, after crossing multiple security checks and those heavy doors, was a huge hall divided into 2 sections: One for the dependents of those coming along with the primary applicant and another for student/exchange visitors. All 4 of us, who were still together, took a gamble and sat at the far left of the waiting hall- Now this was mainly because the LCD TV set hanging directly above us was showing highlights of the ICC T20 world cup final but there were very few people here and the majority were in the right hand section of the hall. A lot of talking ensued which mostly revolved around the application process, including one of us who was forced to give his TOEFL in a Reliance webworld with 35 people all talking at the same time and another who had pressed Cancel on his GRE score window by mistake when he was confident of securing a 1600!

The visa interview counters soon opened and there were 3 people available: Another grumpy old man (GOM), a sweet matron lady and a unanimously declared hot latin chick (HLC). GOM & HLC seemed to handle the students and in the 20 minutes we waited, GOM interviewed just 5 students and rejected 3 of them with 1 girl bursting into tears right there at the counter while HLC accepted 8 of the 11 applicants at her counter with a smile: It was clear where we wanted to go but ultimately it was not our choice. However sitting in the far left paid off big time as we were asked to stand in the snake-way very soon. When I was the next to go to an available counter, the person in front went to HLC and I was cursing my luck. Luckily GOM decided to be extra special in his own way with the guy he was interviewing and by the time he was done, all 4 of us were finished with HLC…

HLC: What are you going to do at Rice?

Me: Pursue my Doctoral Studies, Madam

HLC: In which field?

Me: Inorganic catalysis (Quite clever if I do say so myself, its probably the most harmless chemical topic there is)

HLC: What’s that?

Me (With my mastery of peshaab): Study the effect of imbedding metals and metal compounds into carbon or silicon based catalysts to get a higher surface area-to-volume ratio (For the 3 people in the world who know my fascination with the “surface area to volume” term, it’s now less… A lot less!)

HLC: Uhmm… Ok! What are your parents?

Me (Highly tempted to reply Homo sapiens): My father is a banker with Bank of Baroda, and my mother is a home-maker

HLC: And how are you sponsoring your studies at Rice?

Me: I have a full fellowship from Rice University

HLC (Gives a hard look which for some reason got the other guys there jealous J): Ok study well at Rice

Me: Thank you, Madam!

And that was it: Less than 30 secs for a process spanning 2 weeks of work and a further 2 weeks of waiting! Coming out the fortress took a mere 15 secs owing to no checks or obstacles, there was another door there and voila- I was out at the gate! Waited a little for the other 3 guys, shook hands while congratulating each other and we went our separate ways…

The train journey back was routine and I am thankful for that- I didn’t think I wanted anymore to do with loud girls/babies. I bought 2 novels and 10 DVD’s from a seedy looking guy (Aren’t they all seedy??) and at 10 AM, 23-06-2009 I was back home. I got my passport soon afterwards and that was the end of the Visa experience, for now atleast…

Visa Experience Part 2

This post is dedicated mainly to Yuvi-Macha and Prabha-Kutty who tried their best over the last 4 years to convince us of the beauty of Chennai: Ya right! Anyway…

As the train ceased its motion finally, I realised why they say you can tell Chennai is not far off from the smell! But to be fair the stench emanating from most central stations is not that of Aphrodite in her hall of flowers. I got down:

and without questioning why, just followed the masses to the main entrance hall: It was my first impression of Chennai proper in over 10 years and to say it was chaotic would be an understatement. The human scent was everywhere and sounds of “Thambi!” and “Macha!” showed the brotherhood of the common Madraasi.

Getting off the station, I crossed the road and a heat wave hit me full on! Mind you that I had just spent over 18 hours at 20⁰ C but it was 3 PM and the temperature must have been atleast 40⁰ C. Alas that it was much later I learnt the secret of survival here: You need to keep moving- If you stick in one place then you will melt, but the relatively less humidity (wrt Mangalore) keeps away the heat upon constant movement.

The rickshaw guys didn’t help make things better for this poor visitor as they asked for anything between Rs 150 to Rs 400 (No, I am not joking!) for a 7 Km journey. About 30 mins (and over 500 buses later), I got the proper bus and it charged me Rs 3.50 (Lol) for the very journey!

The roads in Chennai are bifurcated, and each bifurcation is then bifurcated too in the sense that it’s a 2 lane road made into 2 mini lanes each for up-down movement. The city par-se is actually clean but then the open drains next to nearly every bus stop doesn’t help raise the city’s prestige in the alien’s eyes.

My destination was a cool little lodge with air-conditioning (The only thing I cared about!) and settled down soon in front of the TV to watch the women’s ICC T20 world cup finale.

In the late evening my dad decided to go out “for a walk” or so he told me and asked me to join him. Too late I realised it was just an excuse to visit Saravana Selvarathnam: The Shopping Mall FROM HELL!!! Over 6 stories of garments and nothing else stood in front of me and everywhere there seemed to be a picture of a ridiculously happy (and ugly) man who probably owned the whole thing… Did I ever mention I hate shopping for ordinary stuff like clothes? Take me to Chor Bazaar and you will find it near impossible to drag me out but this can go to the Birds!!

Things were looking routine until I developed a case of loose motion - That Chicken Biriyani was a little bit too funny I guess! Now this is probably the worst thing that could have happened to me given that the consulate people look for any sign of weakness you present there, but luckily I healed in time with the help of medication. The next day saw me in formals and carrying a file looking like an IT coolie, took an auto and got down in front of the VFS centre because the auto driver thought it was the US Consulate. Luckily the consulate was only a minute of walking away and I turned the corner, only to see a mass of humanity- trying their best to be part of the Indian exodus into the US of A. This place is a white fortress and there seemed to be people everywhere…

Tetris with Lyrics

Courtesy of You-tube and a certain Malaysian friend, this video is one of the funniest I have ever heard. For the benefit of, well, everyone I got the lyrics below: Hear it and tell me you didnt like it- I dare you! It has 18+ wording content though...

One, two, one two three four
Shapes made of four colored blocks like a T or a box
Come down like falling bricks
You can place them in rows, but everybody knows
That they made this game for chicks (HEY!)

Mom just loves to flip and stack
Grandma says this shit is like crack! (Well it is!)

This is the game girls deserve, there is no learning curve
Which makes it great for noobs
It will fill you with glee, especially if you have a vaj and boobs (HEY!)

Your mom loves it
Mine does too
Call me sexist, bitch it's still true (just kidding about the bitch part)

Deep in a girl's dainty brain, there's a spot near a vein
Which regulates their bliss (The T-spot)
Once they see falling blocks, the T-spot unlocks
And they start to sing like this (SING!)

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA
WE LOVE TETRIS, LA LA LA LA

Here is a trick I have learned
To avoid getting burned
When you piss off your chick

If you sing this on key,
Immediately she'll forget that you're a dick (Try it!)

LA LA LA LA (I'm still mad.) LA LA LA (Is that the Tetris song?)
LA LA LA LA (I love tetris!) LA LA LA (Im happy now.)

Tetris helps when chicks want to neuter us (Snip, snip, snip)
If you love it, you probably have a uterus!

The misadventures of last night's get-together

When a friend of 16 years, Darshan, revealed he was all set to join Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) in New Delhi from the 28th of June I knew it was the end of what I believed to be an extended run at closure from NITK for a lot of my classmates: 5 dayscholars, 1 in college till July and a few who keep visiting made it feel like college never ended-Yet!

Enter Preet Joseph Joy who after spending what seemed like an eternity at Sreekumar Sir's farm at Karkala was beginning to look a lot like him:-

Preet normally

Preet Now

He was returning to college to bid farewell to the faculty and it seemed perfect that I had returned from Chennai an hour ago! Plans were made to meet for dinner at Chef's, Kadri for 7 pm and all around promised to be there. The weather was great and sunny and I made the huge mistake of not taking along an umbrella which, as it turned out, made this evening unforgettable even before we met at all...

I have a confession to make- I am ridiculously punctual; to the point where I arrive 15-20 mins earlier than the expected time even though I am fully aware others arrive 15-20 mins later. Similar was the case yesterday when I arrived at Chef's at 6:45 pm where the others (The earliest group atleast) was a good 40 mins behind. The weather was still breezy and clear so I decided to go "exploring" and went along a side road which I had not before traversed. Seeing that I had atleast 30 mins on me, I kept walking till I realised I was about 4 Km away now and night was falling quickly. All this was no problem until the first drops of rain started coming down on me, and I turned back only to spot a sideroad which "could" be a short-cut...

I have another confession to make- Even when I know the direct path will surely lead me to my destination, I will take chances on possible shortcuts to the destination if only to get it into my memory bank of maps and routes! Similar was the case yesterday and I took a road which led me to a small tea-shop by the side of the road when the heavens poured down- literally!

The rain was so bad that when I decided to chance it, I had to scurry back running and the "gud-angadi" man gave me a cup of his finest coffee for free (I had offered to pay!) and maybe due to the given circumstances it was the most delicious coffee I can remember having. The rain stopped briefly and I hurried back. I was but 200 metres away when rain struck again and this time I had to make do under a few banana leaves near the edge of a 50 foot fall off the road

straight onto the roof of a shop and so I waited, getting soaking wet nonetheless. In about 15 mins (the time was 7:25 pm) I was able to reach Chef's where the doorman had second thoughts about letting me in unless I dried myseld off!

Anyway everyone soon arrived and the party was great, especially knowing that I was probably seeing most of them (Preet, Manoj, Kiran) for the last time and the rest had few days left themselves- Suddenly August was not that far off!

Sanjay & Darshan

Manoj, Preet & Kiran

Manoj, Kiran, Me (via Mirror), Sanjay, Darshan, Shiva and Preet

Shiva, Me, Darshan & Sanjay

Great evening, capped by the memories! Thanks guys..

Visa Experience Part 1

“Just look into the eyes of the person, be confident and don’t be nervous!”

Such words and others (Many, many others) were the cause of tension for me the last week as I attempted to get my Visa for the doctoral studies I would soon pursue at Rice University. Of course I was as cool as cucumber till news came of Sameer Rao getting his name on the Visa wait-list and not the instant approval: Despite the external differences, both him and I are smooth talkers- Our mouths are probably our greatest strengths and in this case our greatest weakness.. Talking incessantly was not good here- not good at all…

Forgive me for making this sound like something out of a suspense novel! I can’t help write such for my mind thinks in a way that makes even the most routine of jobs seem equivalent to building a skyscraper all the way to the moon... But before I get ahead of myself I need to go back in time: Back to Thursday, 18-06-2009 and the time was 5:25 am. I was talking to my senior at Rice, Sravani, who told me all it took was the I-20 form which said I was funding myself through a fellowship and the Visa would be mine. Well Sam had a superb GATech admit with a full fellowship too, and as far as sensitive topics go- Nothing is more sensitive than a Chemical Engineer attempting to study Nanobiotechnology (Read Michael Crichton’s Prey for more).

I took advice from many corners, some human, others from the internet. But there I was at 9:30 pm on Saturday, 20-06-2009 sitting in my train seat waiting for the train to depart from Mangalore Central railway station on its way to Chennai Central. Within 5 minutes though, everything changed…

No- Robbers did not attempt a burglary, there was no terrorist attack and neither was a couple fighting through its marriage with the bride attempting to jump off the moving train (The one who this happened to, knows it and I need not mention the name here!) but something far more uncomfortable for me, atleast for now. I had seat 30 in the AC 3 Tier coach and the 5 closest seats to mine got occupied by a group of college girls who I soon learnt were on their way to Salem for a trip. Now those who know me will have giggles by now and as I attempted to make light humour of this situation by informing some friends, the responses ranged from “Oh ya great dud… very lucky… Introduce ur self to them and give ma number ok…… ;-)” and “Oh wow.. J why don’t such things happen to me man… L” to “How fortunate you must b! Take advantage of the situation, my dear friend 4 such golden opportunities rarely knock twice. ;-) lol. Enjoy.” The only “enjoyment” I had for an hour or so in the beginning was listening to some splendid, and utterly nonsensical, express Malayalam with the words “Kankanadi” and “Parotha-Meen” coming in nearly every sentence for some reason..

People fail to realise I have already had my share of good luck for the entire summer and it was bound to run out. So it indeed did: I wake up in the morning to find them replaced by a family with not 1 but 2 wailing kids! Ok so maybe I woke up a lil late given that I slept a lil late (Ahem!) but nothing was to stop the infants that day… I was willing to tolerate it if it weren’t for the adults accompanying them who seemed to have a penchant for making conversation with the babies…

I ask you- Why is it that a perfectly functioning human adult lowers his/her IQ by a 100 points when in front of a cute (And awake) baby? The multiple sounds of “Gilli, gilli” and “Baa baa” resonated throughout the compartment for the better part of the morning and retiring to my top berth was no help as they put on the fan at high speed (I was right underneath the AC shaft). Lunch soon arrived and the Chicken Biriyani tasted a bit funny- little was I to know that it was not going to be funny for long…

The time was 2:50 pm on Sunday, 21-06-2009 and the ingeniously placed announcement board in the compartment announced Chennai central was a minute away. I gathered my luggage and got down, following the crowd into Chennai- A place I haven’t been to in over 7 years and all the times it has been mentioned, it has been with a shudder: People do NOT want to go there, and I was about to find out exactly why…

Pseudomonas fulva????

The National Centre for Cellular Sciences (NCCS), Pune finally released the genotypic identification results of my bacteria 2 days ago and to say it was surprising would be an understatement! While all of us were expecting it to belong to the genus Lampropedia (Which was my find from the huge Bacteriology manual btw), the result gave it a 99% match to Pseudomonas fulva- A pretty new species given that no one around had any clue about it. For those who are interested, here is the genetic composition of the bacterium:-

GCGGTCACTTAATCGCGTTAGCTGCGCCACTAAAATCTCAAGGATTCCAACGGCTAG

TTGACATCGTTTACGGCGTGGACTACCAGGGTATCTAATCCTGTTTGCTCCCCACGC

TTTCGCACCTCAGTGTCAGTATCAGTCCAGGTGGTCGCCTTCGCCACTGGTGTTCCT

TCCTATATCTACGCATTTCACCGCTACACAGGAAATTCCACCACCCTCTACCGTACTC

TAGCTTGCCAGTTTTGGATGCAGTTCCCAGGTTGAGCCCGGGGCTTTCACATCCAA

CTTAACAAACCACCTACGCGCGCTTTACGCCCAGTAATTCCGATTAACGCTTGCACC

CTCTGTATTACCGCGGCTGCTGGCACAGAGTTAGCCGGTGCTTATTCTGTCGGTAA

CGTCAAAATTGCAAAGTATTAATCTACAGCCCTTCCTCCCAACTTAAAGTGCTTTAC

AATCCGAAGACCTTCTTCACACACGCGGCATGGCTGGATCAGGCTTTCGCCCATTG

TCCAATATTCCCCACTGCTGCCTCCCGTAGGAGTCTGGACCGTGTCTCAGTTCCAGT

GTGACTGATCATCCTCTCAGACCAGTTACGGATCGTCGCCTTGGTGAGCCATTACC

TCACCAACTAGCTAATCCGACCTAGGCTCATCTGATAGCGCAAGGCCCGAAGGTCC

CCTGCTTTCTCCCGTAGGACGTATGCGGTATTAGCGTTCCTTTCGAAACGTTGTCC

CCCACTACCAGGCAGATTCCTAGGCATTACTCACCCGTCCGCCGCTGAATCAAGGAG

CAAGCTCCCGTCATCCGCTCGACTTGCATGTGTTAGCCTGCCGCCAGCGTCAATCTG

Even mightygoogle has no useful info on this but I suppose its clear now that I got pics to compare:-

Pseudomonas literature Picture

My bacterium observed under Microscope

While that may sound gibberish, it was big enough to warrant an application to present this work at the National Conference on Biotechnology to be held on 1^st and 2^nd of July this year in Hyderabad. More on that if selected to appear!

The Broken Jinx

This post is wholly dedicated for my friend Manoj Krishna, who broke a most elusive jinx this past week. Apart from the multiple treats at restaurants, its pretty evident he is one happy person now.

Beginning in early July, 2009 he sought to get placed in a reputed, if not high paying, company through the placement cell of our college and lets just say things never worked out for him! He sat through the placement procedure of nearly every company and all he got was the rejects at various points of the procedure:-

Aptitude test rejects

• TCS
• Hewlett Packard
• Dr Reddy Labs
• HSBC Bank

Group Discussion

• Accenture
• Coca Cola
• Jindal Steel

Personal Interview

• I-Gate
• Globallogic
• Patni
• L&T
• L&T Valdel
• BPCL
• Saipem
• Engineers India Ltd
• MRPL
• ACC Cement

Finally he decided to give the GATE an attempt and it turned out to be the best decision he tool with an AIR of 125 in Chemical engineering. Oh but the jinx was not done yet...

Tried out for National University of Singapore but gave up in the middle due to several IIT interview calls. Then went to IIT Delhi, but failed to pass the interview. A most hideous turn of events when he was selected to do the M.S (Research) at IITB but later learnt it to be a non-degree, 1 year program with no career help from it! Then an interview at IISc which was botched up in the 1st place but got a further degradation due to Arati not mentioning to anyone in class about her admit at Michigan State University but the IISc interview panel knew it.

Finally he got a call from IIT Madras to do an MS program there, and after thorough checking into it- He accepted it!! Congrats Manoj, and hope you do very well there indeed (Still waiting for the second treat :P)

New Indian currency coins

Finally got my hands on the new 5-rupee and 10-rupee coins issued very recently by the Reserve Bank of India. Now I am not a professional coin collector who gets mail-order catalogues but as an amateur I happen to think I am a pretty good one. So when my uncle happened to get a specimen of the new coins, I was pretty much ecstatic.

The new 5-rupee coin is of the same cast as those issued 3 years ago except lighter and has a golden finish:-

The new 10-rupee coin is bimetallic and has the now familiar cross symbol which supposedly means "Unity in Diversity" though I have no clue how it says that:-

So if anyone sees such coins in the near future, dont be surprised and just accept them!

A Fellow Blogger Arrives!

Before I speak more, I urge you to visit the Incident 2009 website and notice that it was all made by a young chemical engineering student- Namely, Kiran Kumar- who happened to be my classmate and good friend the last 4 years. As a tech genuis, he is rivalled by few in this world for his age and he finally opened his personal website Kiran's Universe albeit with a tech blog (Some things never change!) and with a wordpress frame work even (I told him Blogger is better).. If you are a typical nerd/geek or just someone who has a technical problem just visit his site (No, I am not advertising- the site doesnt have any ads!) and have a good time.

Day of the Gentleman

Without doubt, this Sunday was a sports mega bonanza with as many as 5 different sports being broad casted on television. And in all of them, players with class prevailed. Now I am not telling I am against guys with passion but I am always up for genius rather than playing for winning alone. For those who know me better, I am always for class in life: A Nokia N series phone, a HP DV9000 laptop, a Sony Bluetooth headset, Pioneer speakers, Bose headphones and when I get a car it will be a Mercedes or a Ferrari eventually! High standards? Class, people, class..

Without doubt the biggest winner last night was Roger Federer who got his grand slam championship (Finally!) and equaled Pete Sampras with the total number of grand slams (14) and for everyone who says it was only because Nadal wasn't there: He didn't even make it to the finals! 6-1, 7-6, 6-4 will be recorded in history for those 6 numbers brought a great player 1 step closer to being the greatest yet.. For the record, Soderling proved himself victorious against players who depend on routine, ie, the same style of play with devastating accuracy but Federer was all art with him back flicks which won him the title!

Speaking of class, Jacques Kallis and Abraham de Villiers personify class and they proved it in their match against the minnows Scotland last night. The ICC T-20 world cup has begun in full flow and its a treat to watch after the stupidity displayed by the same commentors during the IPL!

Then there was Formula 1- The Turkish GP- which was "buttoned" up by Jenson for Brawn GP. Winning 6 of the 7 races so far and missing only 4 of the max possible 65 points so far, he looks set to claim a maiden driver's championship this season- Oh and Lewis Hamilton is rotting in the back :)

The Day of Reckoning

I will not be forgetting Friday, the 5th of June for some time. Quite a few things happened but clearly the biggest was my laptop crashing straight down to hell! Ya thats right, my Rs 85,000 juggernaut decided that since the warranty period was up it could now begin to give up on me.. It began just a week after the warranty ran out when the application on hand would suddenly hang and all I could do was remove the battery so as to force a shut-down (crude but effective), then came the "Sleep" problem where sleep no longer worked and the aforementioned solution took place. The last few weeks saw graphic issues with pink dots/lines on the display panel but a restart took care of it- till yesterday!

I was playing a great game of Dota, albeit with AI, when the screen blurred and the pink dots appeared. I knew Vista too had a blue screen of death and I finally saw it when it said there was a critical (That didnt sound good even for me) error with the display adapter and Boom- a magic restart only to have the screen come like a 1990's screensaver with waves of White and Black moving slowly! I swear I took this harder then the end of college last month as my days of joblessness were survived only with the help of my laptop and its 500 GB hard disk of data..

So I was on my way to the HP service centre when the person I bought it from calls and tells me to come to him as he can fix it himself in 10 mins.. Happily I changed buses and went about 2 Km walking on the course of which a thunderstorm gave me company but I was finally able to reach a dear friend by phone so I never noticed the rain! Anyway I reached the place and she (Yup, the "he" was currently unavailable and she was his wife) takes a look and tells me to go to the HP service centre itself.. The HORROR!!

An hour later (which included 20 mins of walking in sludge), I found myself in the service centre where the guy in charge tells me I got no warranty left - I know that, Sherlock! But then he gives a sly smile and speaks in Konkani (Does everyone in Mangalore speak my mother tongue?) and suggests that I get additional 2 year warranty for rs 6.5K rather than spend close to 20K on repairs- typical Konkani mind working faster than computer (You see, Chacha Choudary was also one of us!) and then the big bomb: Laptop will be out of action for 2-3 weeks minimum..

Then just as it was time to head back home a most vicious rain strikes and I am drenched fully waiting for the bus to arrive. I reach home at 1:15 pm only to learn my car driving class is at 2 pm, rushing through a lunch I arrive just in time but not enough luck was left for the day as the instructor proceeded to belt me twice for not ever touching the brake pedal & just decelerating for sudden turns..

Gym followed at 2:30 and after all the running around previously followed by a hard work-out I weigh myself to see I have GAINED a kilogram.. Incredibulous! But the day was still not done, for on the way back I took a different route and found myself close to a broken down building which I later remembered had this children's tale of being haunted.. I am gonna explore it soon but till then I have to find a way to exist using my lame old pc which I neglected for the last year.. sob sob!

Oh and at 6 am today, I found out that it was STILL the 5th of June back in the US of A and that I won a lottery to an apartment of my choice at Rice Graduate Apartments so finally something going well..

Need for Speed

Finally started with my car driving lessons! I was supposed to begin in early December of last year but with the applying to various universities going on, time was not easy to find and well, I procrastinated a long time. But with 3 months of nothing else to do than get ready for Rice University, I finally went ahead and started it.

So it was 7:30 am on Wednesday, the 3^rd of June and I was sitting in a white Maruti Alto feeling the power of a 1250 HP engine beneath me.. Needless to say I was thinking more along the lines of the popular Need for Speed gaming franchise and started out great- ready to handle the clutch and manually shift the gears from the word "Go" until the near miss some 10 mins later..

About 400 metres away from the BASF company branch here is a small road frequented by bus drivers who are in a rush to get to their next stop and if you have ever been here then you know how maniacally these guys drive.. This particular stretch of road had a steep turn downhill and I was going uphill at about 45 km/h when two, not one, buses come hollering down the road at great speed trying to overtake the other.. I admit I had a heart beat that would have made Usain Bolt proud but was aware enough to use the handbrake which I knew did exactly what the games told (Who says gaming is not useful?? ) and steered to the left of the road which was about 20 metres above a thorny ravine and then steered back onto the road just as we were about to fall in! I deserve the Bravery Award from the President, I say..

Oh I am just kidding, the instructor pulled over to the road before I could do anything and thats that! Seriously though, nothing ever happens when you want it to- least of all during your very first car driving lesson.. I have had two classes so far and its been a cinch till now: Looks like that Merc is not far off :P

Recent Videos and Films..

I finally saw Delhi-6 despite everything everyone said and let me tell you this: I liked it! Of course always in the back of my mind remained the criticism of a friend who thought the movie went all bad when the hero came back to life and I kept waiting for it to happen.. Kinda dumb given that it was at the very end and so never spoiled the film for me.. For those who didnt like it, how the hell did you like Rang de Basanti then? Here too the moral fabrics of society are tested and its made conscience by 2 superb instances- The "Monkey Man" and the "White Pigeon".. Does no one remember the terror of the Monkey Man and his successor the Bear Man in various places of north India about 10 years ago? Didnt anyone realise the pigeon when tied up stood for the plight of the Indian girl and later when free but remaining there stood for all those people of India who complain about anything and everything bad going on in the nation but still love it so much that they are unable to go away? Its ironic then that such people who dont appreciate this nation remain here while others go away, more so given that I wont be feeling the Indian flavour (Original, atleast) for 18-20 months once I leave for Texas in some 75 days..

A friend also brought to my attention last night that Hindi films arent being released because of a strike in bollywood- I never even noticed this! Trouble is I am hooked to getting my jolly's off the internet and use my laptop to see the avi versions of any video I want to. To that my college has done a lot with over 25 TeraBytes of data shared among the inmates and more data getting added by the minute. For those with space to afford (like my 500 GB laptop, Oh I simply cant stop showing it off) there are now HD versions available with each film consuming about 7-10 GB each.. Given this clarity, superb audio options and the incredible convenience/cost savings who would go to the multiplex often? Not me..

I have also been making great use of my broadband internet at home and so far I have the following series with me which are finished/updated to latest episode:-

1) Friends

2) Seinfeld

3) LOST

4) Terminator- The Sarah Connor Chronicles

5) 24

6) The Big Bang Theory

7) Dragon Ball

8) Dragon Ball Z

9) Dragon Ball GT

10) Smallville

11) Hustle

12) Prison Break

13) Scrubs

14) Fringe

15) House MD

16) The Entire Life collection by David Attenborough (Close to 50 GB of intense nature films)

17) Two and a Half Men

To be taken soon:-

1) Damages

2) According to Jim

3) Aliens in America

4) Taken by Steven Spielberg

5) Chuck

6) Numbers

Clearly I am jobless and need entertainment till august :D

Speaking of LOST though, an eerily similar situation unfolded yesterday with the Air France 447 aircraft missing off the coast of Brazil.. My hopes are they are alive and are rescued soon!