Grad Life

Life’s Keyboard…

2009-11-20T17:08:00.001-08:00

…I wish I had one.

(Keys from Microsoft 2007 Clipboard)

Updated Keyboard as per Rachna’s comment (See comments). I know some of you will object to replacing “Coffee” button but since I don’t drink Coffee, so I would happily swap it with “Undo” button:

Tuesday Tag: How Dumb Am I?

2009-11-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am not sure if this dumb quiz is worth anything. To me most of the things in this list can happen to anyone. I am not sure how is it measure of dumbness. But then most probably I will get the highest point in this one. I just wanted to give it a try. So here it goes. The rule says:

The more [x]’ s the “dumber” you are.
[x] Gum has fallen out of your mouth when you were talking
[ ] Gum has fallen out of your mouth when you were NOT talking
[x] You have run into a glass/screen door
[x] You have jumped out of a moving vehicle
[x] You have thought of something funny while walking by yourself
[x] Laughed, then watched people give you weird looks
So far: 5
[x] You have run into a tree/bush.
[x] You know that it IS possible to lick your elbow
[x] You have tried to lick your elbow… a few times
[x] You never knew that the Alphabet and Twinkle Twinkle Little star have the same rhythm.
[x] You just tried to sing them.
So far: 10
[x] You have tripped on your shoelace and fallen.
[ ] You have choked on your own spit .
[x] You have seen the Matrix and still don’t get it.
[ ] You’ve never seen the Matrix.
[x] You type only with two fingers.
So far: 13
[ ] You have accidentally caught something on fire
[x] You tried to drink out of a straw, but it went into your nose/eyes.
[x] You have caught yourself drooling.
[ ] You have fallen asleep in class and fell outta your chair
So far: 15
[x] Sometimes you just stop thinking
[x] You are telling a story and forget what you were talking about
[ ] People often shake their heads and walk away from you
[ ] You are often told to use your “inside voice”.
[ ] You use your fingers to do simple math
So far: 17
[ ] You have eaten a bug
[ ] You are taking this test when you should be doing something more important
[x] You have put your clothes on backwards or inside out, and didn’t realize it
[x] You’ve looked all over for something and realized it was in your hand
[x] You have ran around naked in your house. (What's so dumb about that?)
So far: 20
[ ] You repost bulletins because you are scared that what they say will happen to you if you don’t.
[x] You break a lot of things.
[ ] Your friends know not to use big words around you.
[x] You tilt your head when you’re confused
[x] You have fallen out of your chair before
So far: 23
[ ] When you’re lying in bed, you try to find pictures in the texture of the ceiling or wall
[x] The word “ummmmm” is used many times a day.
So far: 24

Total: 24/37

So I am 65% dumb. Who knew?

Again a free for all tag…

Big Brother

2009-11-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

Over the years, I have heard my Indian friends complain about how unfair and partial US is. How it keeps giving aid to Pakistan even though Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism in India! How blind-sighted US is when it comes to Pakistan! After 9/11 attacks, we all sat up and thought that, now US will realize how stupid it has been in providing aid to a country that sponsors terrorism. But to no avail. And then as terrorist started concentrating inside the Pakistan border, we thought may be now US support to Pakistan will stop. But no. Then Taliban started raising its head in Pakistan. And US gave yet another aid to Pakistan! We think that US is blind-sighted. It’s being stupid in giving aid to Pakistan. But is it so? Do you really think US is that stupid? Honestly?

Well let’s take a step back from Indo-Pak relation and see the world politics from US perspective. Let’s start in 1940s. As we all know (or I am assuming), after World War II the world was divided in two super powers and we ventured into era of cold war between these two super powers. Coincidentally, at the same time Indian partition took place. If you have seen a world map, you will notice that we are geographically very close to former USSR which made our stand in this power balance of the world a bit crucial. China was already a communist state. Next big state in Asia was India. Now our leaders in that period started favoring USSR over USA, which made USA start looking for allies in the region. Someone who can cause trouble for us and disrupt our progress (remember Vietnam war, West and East Germany, North and South Korea?). And it found one in Pakistan and with that started the influx of financial as well as military aid to Pakistan. The ties strengthened when USSR attacked Afghanistan. US was simply looking out for itself. It didn’t have any personal grudge against us. It was simply wary of our relationship with Soviet Union.

Now let’s come back to present. There is no USSR anymore and Russia doesn’t pose as much threat to USA. However, the two fastest growing economies of the world are still in the same region: China and India. As much as I understand world politics, US is more threatened by China than it is by India. However, India does remain in its watch list. Add on to it, its past wariness of India as a friend of communists as well as all the outsourcing issues and migration of businesses to India.

Now tell me, do you sincerely think USA is going to stop aiding Pakistan any time soon?

And here we are thinking US is blind-sighted, and even stupid, for supporting Pakistan. For some reason, we want the Big Brother to be fair. We want it to support us as we are the good kids and Pakistan isn’t. I think, it’s high time that we grow up and stop expecting US to put world peace above it’s self interest. It has never done that and it never will. That’s what we call capitalism! So let’s stop whining about what US should or shouldn’t do. Let’s start thinking about what we should or shouldn’t do.

Disclaimer: This post is not about Americans but US government’s policy. I personally know Americans who are against these policies. And quite a few who has no clue about US policy in the region. I am criticizing US policies here and not American people who are indeed fair and honest.

P.S.: I know that US is now feeling the burn of terrorism themselves. But again they think they will be able to handle it. They created that monster so they can kill it too. Plus the fight is so far away from their home, they don’t suffer the daily killing of their civilians on their own soil.

Ice Skating and Desi Dance

2009-11-15T20:39:00.001-08:00

A must watch, if you haven’t already seen it:

(Link via Varun)

Missed

2009-11-15T08:39:00.001-08:00

Well I didn’t post anything yesterday and most probably won’t be able to for next week. I have a very stressful week ahead and it’s toll started even before the week began and hence the missed post of yesterday. I have few queued posts for coming week so hopefully it won’t be a complete dry week but I won’t be able to keep up with comments at the moment but I will read them and moderate them even though I won’t be able to reply to them. So please do leave a comment if you find something interesting. I will catch up with you guys next week…

Criticisms and Insults

2009-11-13T22:00:00.001-08:00

I don’t get it. Why do commentators who disagree with you choose to insult you, instead of defying your logic? And when they do so, why do they need to use the term “gay” as an insult? I mean, I don’t get it. Let’s say I am gay or whatever other insult they want to use, how does that prove my point wrong and theirs right? And then they have audacity to comment again and tell me that I don’t have a backbone as I can’t handle criticism! This is from someone who chose to comment anonymously! Really?

I know I shouldn’t get upset by bonkers like that and that’s the reason we have comment moderation system in place but still they do get your blood boiling. No matter how cool you are, these irrational, irrelevant, foul-mouthed comments do pinch you somewhere and usually spoil your day. It’s easy to preach that these random people are not relevant and they need to be ignored but it’s not easy to do so.

The difference in opinions I can tolerate. I might tolerate some polite criticism, as long as it is sugar-coated. I might get defensive (all of us do that) if someone raises his or her voice while criticizing me (*Disclaimer: Advisors are not included in ordinary people. ;P ). But if someone starts throwing insults at me instead of criticizing my opinion or my work, it’s gets a bit hard to deal with…

I am sure a lot of bloggers must face these issues and hence most of them uses comment moderation. And I know, one is supposed to ignore them and get on with one’s life but I am curious to know how do you deal with the rage and frustration after reading such comments? I went and bought a Snicker bar today along with a coke bottle early in the morning. I have been refraining from either for past few weeks. And I guess, I am still angry hence this post.

What do you do?

P.S.: For those who know I don’t like chocolates: Snicker bars don’t taste as bad as chocolate. Its main flavor is peanut (which I absolutely love) and not chocolate. So yes, Snickers are my weakness…

True Christian

2009-11-12T19:03:00.001-08:00

This is brilliant:

No this isn’t the middle ages. Landover Baptist Church is a fictional church based in a fictional town. Though the first time I went to the page I wasn’t sure that it was a parody. You never know the religious zealots. For example, look at this news item: Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum (thanks Jeff). The Church says:

"The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."

Honestly! They can’t provide social services funded by the city, following the city laws. For some reason it reminds me of Bal Thackeray and his brand of politics.

I can’t think

2009-11-11T19:52:00.001-08:00

Honestly. My mind has drawn a blank. I have been working non-stop for past 3 weeks and my mind has finally given up on me and I still have things to do. Anyway, as I can’t think at all today, I thought of posting another photograph today. This one is from an year ago taken at Grand Canyon. I guess it’s a typical Grand Canyon shot..

BTW, can you see the people at top of the peak? No? They are tiny dots at the top. Look closely. Now you get the scale of Grand Canyon. It is really Grand! It’s a breath taking beautiful and still very depressing place.

Tuesday Tag: In a word

2009-11-10T05:30:00.000-08:00

I stole, er I mean, I borrowed today’s tag from PB.

There is only rule for this tag. You have to answer the question in one word. So here it goes:

1.Where is your mobile phone? Bed
2.Your hair? Shoulder-length
3.Your mother? Psych-Major
4.Your father? Lecturer
5.Your favorite food? Home-made
6.Your dream last night? None
7.Your favorite drink? Coke
8.Your dream/goal? Happiness
9.What room are you in? Bedroom
10.Your hobby? Varied
11.Your fear? Breaking-neck
12.Where do you want to be in 6 years? With someone I love
13.Where were you last night? Home
14.Something that you aren’t? Inhuman
15.Muffins? No thanks
16.Wish list item? Hasselblad
17.Where did you grow up? Roorkee
18.Last thing you did? Checked mail
19.What are you wearing? Clothes
20.Your TV? Normal (?)
21.Your pets? Pleo
22.Friends? Life-line
23.Your life? Complicated
24.Your mood? Varies-by-the-minute
25.Missing someone? Always :)
26.Vehicle? Toyota
27.Something you’re not wearing? Newspaper
28.Your favourite store? JC Penney
29.Your favorite color? Blue
29.When was the last time you laughed? Today
30.Last time you cried? Last week
31.Your best friend? Puja
32.One place that you go to over and over? Stanford
33.One person who emails me regularly? Administration
34.Favorite place to eat? Home

Again, it’s free for all tag. :)

Claustrophobia

2009-11-09T20:43:00.001-08:00

I don’t remember having claustrophobia. I never liked elevators though but it had more to do with motion sickness, rather elevation-change-sickness, that made me uncomfortable. I place it in same category of my air sickness symptoms. I am not comfortable moving up or down an elevation. However, I am not afraid of heights. I am not scared of roller coasters either. I think it’s simply the unknown force moving me up or down an elevation that makes me sick (not scared but sick).

Anyway, that isn’t point of the post, is it? I was talking about claustrophobia. So I never had any incident of claustrophobia in my life. However, few months back I had my MRI done. I spent around 30 min in the machine for that. And ever since then I get slightly anxious if I see anything enclosed in small space as someone being buried alive or such. I don’t like to think about me being in any situation like that anymore. As it turns out there have been a study that indicate that people actually become (okay 30% of them) claustrophobic after an MRI exams. You know they should have this as a warning for this exam.

Anyway, my recent discovery of this new fear make me wonder why aren’t we all born as a claustrophobic, after all a fetus has to spend 9 months of its life in an enclosed space? How can spending 30-40 min make me claustrophobic then? Was I braver when I was a fetus? Or maybe I was simply dumber to realize the fear. Either way I don’t fancy being a fetus or, for that matter, being Anarkali at the moment. The idea sends chills down my spine now..

Nothing to post today…

2009-11-08T21:50:00.001-08:00

…so I am posting a photograph. I took this one recently, well, it was taken in Stanford so it is at least 3 weeks old. The subjects are two daughters of a friend of mine. They were playing when I took the shot… P.S.: It’s 10 min to midnight and I can’t come up with anything to write in 10 min.

If I were a baby again

2009-11-07T07:28:00.001-08:00

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 4; the fourth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Well since everyone is doing it, I thought I should write something about it too. But honestly I don’t like the topic. I don’t understand how and why people are writing about this? You see, if I was a baby again, I would have no control over most of the things I do. Even toddler don’t have as much control, how can you expect a baby to know what he/she is doing? As a baby, I would have a very short term memory. Though I think my attention span hasn’t change much since I was a baby, so hopefully that will remain the same. As for my daily activity, I would lie on my back whole day and wait for my mom to guess correctly what’s making me cry. Rest of the time I would sleep. Hmm…on second thoughts, I guess I wouldn’t mind being a baby again.

Anyway, I digress. So I don’t get the point of this topic, “If I were a baby again.” I understand if they have said about being a kid (age 4-12) or, even more relevant, if they asked me if I was a teenager again. That's one time of life that everyone would like to change one way or the other, but as a baby, as I said, you have pretty much no control over any of your functions. You are completely dependent upon your parents. You don't even have any memory of that time, then how can you change it? You might have some memories of being a toddler or the first day of school (I remember how much I cried!) but you aren't baby then. The term baby technically defines an age of 0-1 years old. Once you start walking you become a toddler. At least, that's how I understand it.

And then the blog says that we need to publish the post on November 7, 2009 anytime between 0000 hrs and 2359 hrs. Do you see the problem in this? No? Oh okay, here are my problems:

- There is no time zone specified! I couldn’t find any indication about which part of the world this site belongs to (this is the first time I have visited the site. Sorry if I am being ignorant). How am I supposed to know?

- Second problem I have: I can change the time of posting manually, so would it matter it I cross the time limit and still put it there? okay may be when I comment on their post with the link, a time stamp will show. But again which time zone do they (the comment's time stamp) belong to?

Having said all this, I have read quite a few creative posts on the topic and admire the bloggers for being so imaginative, innovative and artistic. Well,all I can do is to be sarcastic or rather I should say, all I can do is complain so here I am complaining about it. Though I do wonder if anyone else thought about these points too? I mean about the relevance of the topic, and not my ramblings about the time zone.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

P.S.: 1. I am not sure if I should put this in their comment section as they might consider it malicious.

2. On second thoughts, they never specified what people can or can not write. I simply chose to complain about it. So I am putting it up…

Un-Indian

2009-11-06T16:00:00.001-08:00

I recently had lunch with couple of newly acquainted Indian ladies. As I don't have a car, these new friends have been very sweet and have been taking me out for lunch and while coming back, we take a short Indian grocery trip. They have really made my life here so much easier. Anyway, I was talking about this particular lunch that we had in a Gujararti restaurant. BTW, I don't like Gujarati cuisine, especially the fact that they add sugar/jaggery in everything including daal! For me, it's beyond scandalous. But I digress again. So we went out for lunch and, obviously, started talking. At some point, for some reason, I mentioned that I donate blood. The reaction to this statement reminded me how un-Indian-lady like I am.

A typical Indian born shudh desi bhartiya nari doesn't donate blood. She doesn't play sports. She will never ever join a martial art group. She doesn't climb stairs, if there is an elevator available. She doesn't go for a run at any odd hours. Arts mean sketching, painting and handicrafts to them and not photography. She won't ride a bike for 10 miles to reach office if there are other mode of transportation available, especially a car.

Like my friend Rachna (she is my high school friend) once commented on this blog and I quote:

"You have lived too long in the US- pata nahi vilayat mein rah kar chhori kya kya sochne lagi hai ;) ”

I didn't think much about it then but now I realize how different I have become since I landed in US. Though I think all these changes have been positive (at least that’s what I think). The environment here gave me freedom to try and realize my full potential in all direction, just not academically. I am far more active, far more social and far more happy. No more inhibitions about what people will think or talk. No more inhibition in trying anything new, whether its physically or artistically or academically challenging. I don't get embarrassed now, I don’t even get annoyed at people on sideline pointing at me (figuratively, of course) while I try something new. I pity them now. I used to be scared like them once upon a time but not any more.

All these realizations made me wonder about other things as well, like: how different I would have been, if I had grown up in US? How would have my life turned out to be then? Did any of you ever thought about it?

This is hilarious!!

2009-11-05T20:57:00.001-08:00

May be you have already seen this one but I found this on FB (thanks Subhash) today. It’s simply hilarious. I never thought about these names before this. It’s brilliant.

P.S.: 1. I am too tired to blog today so enjoy this clip today.

2. BTW, Condoleezza Rice used to be a professor in Stanford before she joined Bush administration. On March 1st, 2009 she returned to Stanford as a political science professor!

3. I think the famous “Stanford Arrogance” has finally started to have it’s effect on me. Guess it’s time for me to graduate, I have now acquired the last ingredient! ;)

I am not bad

2009-11-04T18:43:00.001-08:00

In past few days, I have met quite a few people (all Indian: just getting demographic right, that’s all) who call their family almost everyday. Every Single Day.

I call my parents once in a fortnight or so (sometime it has been once in month) and it’s usually after my mom gives me a missed call or send me an email asking me to call. So I have been wondering if something is wrong with me? And then I saw this comic strip (see below) and realized that almost none of them did a PhD! The one with PhD have kids of their own, and hence, don’t belong to my demographic.

Img from : "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham, www.phdcomics.com

(Click to enlarge)

My demographic, you ask? I am a single female student working on my Ph.D. and the above strip explains all the reason why I don’t call my home as often as others. Phew. What a relief! Thanks Jorge Cham for this strip!

P.S.: BTW, did you know Jorge Cham is a Stanford alum? Just saying…

Tuesday Tag: Innocent or Guilty

2009-11-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

Okay! I am back with some more tags that I “borrowed” from all over the net. Today’s tag is stolen from here. The rules are:

RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.
RULE 2- You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks!
RULE 3- Copy and paste this into your notes, delete my answers, type in your answers and tag to your friends to answer this.

Asked someone to marry you? Innocent

Ever kissed someone of the same sex? Guilty

Danced on a table in a bar? Innocent\

Ever told a lie? Guilty

Had feelings for someone whom you can’t have back? Guilty

Kissed a picture? Guilty

Slept in until 5 PM? Guilty

Fallen asleep at work/school? Guilty

Held a snake? Guilty

Been suspended from school? Innocent

Worked at a fast food restaurant? Innocent

Stolen from a store? Guilty

Been fired from a job? Innocent

Done something you regret? Guilty

Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Guilty

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Guilty

Kissed in the rain? Innocent

Sat on a roof top? Guilty

Kissed someone you shouldn’t? Innocent

Sang in the shower? Always Guilty

Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? Innocent

Shaved your head? Innocent

Had a boxing membership? Innocent

Made a girlfriend cry? Guilty

Been in a band? Innocent

Shot a gun? Guilty

Donated Blood? Guilty

Eaten alligator meat? Innocent

Eaten cheesecake? Guilty

Still love someone you shouldn’t? Innocent

Have/had a tattoo? Innocent

Liked someone, but will never tell who? Guilty

Been too honest? Guilty

Ruined a surprise? Guilty

Ate in a restaurant and got really bloated that you couldn’t walk afterwards? Guilty

Erased someone in your friends list? Guilty

Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? Guilty

Joined a pageant? Innocent

Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? Guilty

Had communication with your ex? Innocent

Got totally drunk on the night before exam? Innocent

Got totally angry that you cried so hard? Guilty

The final scores are: 25/42. Not bad! I am over 50% mark. Yay! It proves that I am not a total nerd. I have done stuffs in my life!

Again as always, the tag is free for all. It is a fun tag, trust me. And as for questions about some controversial questions in the tag, remember curiosity killed the cat. So don’t ask anything that I can’t answer. If I answer, I would have to kill you…

Random questions…

2009-11-02T21:21:00.001-08:00

..that has been popping in my head recently.

- Why do people who walk fast expect other people to keep pace with them? Some of us have back problem and can’t walk fast.

- Why do people who are willing to work overtime don’t understand that other people might have commitments after work like picking up their kids from day-care?

- Why do Maggi sauces have those caps that can be only opened by the bottle opener?

- On that note, what is those metal caps are called?

- Continuing on the same topic, why don’t an extended stay hotel studio have a bottle opener in the room when they have a wine opener and a can opener?

- What is the difference between a motel, a hotel and an inn?

- Why do administration or whoever is responsible, keeps the temperature at sub human level in a centrally climate-control office buildings? Don’t they freeze in their offices too? Or is it an outsourced job hence the perpetrator don’t have take the consequences? Or the person responsible always belong to either Canada or Alaska or Siberia?

- Why don’t the TV in the hotel room have A/V output? (I know I have blogged about this one but I couldn’t resist)

- Why don’t people try to knock instead of sneaking up to you and start speaking to you while you are working on your laptop? It’s very annoying.

- Why do people look so smug when someone else’s mobile starts ringing in the meeting? They must have forgotten to switch off their mobile too, some time or the other.

- Why do I people I know have birthday on exactly the same day? For example, I know three people with birthdays on 29th Oct, four on 3rd November, four on 10th November, five on 6th September and so on. Why can’t they have birthdays one day before or after? And surprisingly I don’t know anyone whose birthday falls a day earlier or late for any of these birthdays. Weird, huh?

That summarizes my day. Don’t have an ending line and as I am already late for bed, I will simply say ciao. See you tomorrow…

P.S.: I am too tired to check the post for obvious mistake. Hopefully everything makes sense. If it doesn’t then ignore that question and proceed to next :)

Blog readers

2009-11-01T09:18:00.001-08:00

..and their feedbacks are very important. I am realizing that yet again while writing the WPW blog. Unlike this blog, WPW blog is focused on a very specific audience and for some unknown reason, they don’t comment (or may be they don’t even care about the blog). And it makes writing on the blog difficult and highly un-motivating.

This blog, on the other hand, has been a personal blog and hence the friend’s feedbacks through personal communication had been enough to motivate me to keep writing over the years. Plus, I never focused so much on the reader while writing on this blog. It has been more of a venting place for me than writing for an audience. I guess that’s why I find it so difficult to write on the WPW blog. I have never written for strangers!

The reason I am ranting today about this is because I spend hours yesterday writing and queuing up posts for WPW blog for the next two weeks. It was easy to pick out the pictures I wanted to put in the post but it was so hard to write about them or anything else. I am not entirely satisfied with the posts I have written there. They seem to be missing the soul. I have written for sake of writing. I think it would have been so much easier for me to write, if I knew at least few of the readers (if any) of the blog but guess that’s not gonna happen! :(

In any case, I have 5 posts queued up on WPW to be published in next two weeks excluding the one I posted yesterday for Halloween. Hopefully one of those Alumni will care to comment or even check out the site. Am keeping my fingers crossed.

P.S.: Please don’t get offended, I am simply ranting. The feedback I get on this blog is very important to me as well. It motivates me to take time from a busy schedule and write. :) You guys are very kind to tolerate my endless ranting and complains, and support me through difficult times. In a way, I know you and hence don’t feel like that I am communicating with strangers while writing on this blog unlike WPW.

NaBloPoMo

2009-10-31T23:34:00.001-07:00

NaBloPoMo is short for National Blog Posting Month. Its a community of bloggers who post everyday for a month. PB is taking up the challenge this month. I have always admired her frequency of post. Unlike me, she tries to post everyday and quality of her post never suffers by that frequency. My best to her for this endeavor. She has managed to inspire and motivate me to increase frequency of my posting.

I used to post quite regularly once upon a time but I haven’t been able to maintain that for past few months. I am pretty busy this month what with the internships and trying to get a job as well as working on my research, trying to submit a paper and managing my life in Houston without a car (Have I yet complained about the absence of proper public transportation in US?). However, I will try to post everyday this month, even if it means posting 4 lines summarizing my day. If I succeed to do that this month, I will take up the challenge next month. I have a lot to complain about these days, so I don’t think I will have dearth of topics to write about. I will also try to reply to comments, at least once a week. So please be patient with me. :)

See you tomorrow…

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T15:50:00.001-07:00

Bhaiya

2009-10-28T19:14:00.001-07:00

(Img from: http://choombak.com/boyfriend-ke-saath-bhiaya-117/)

I wonder if it is meant for auto rickshaw driver or the boy friend?

For non-hindi speakers, it says: If you are with your boy-friend don’t call him (or the auto-rickshaw driver, I think) your brother.

Link via Alok.

Name Game

2009-10-27T21:09:00.001-07:00

And it happened again. I am not sure if people realize how rude it is!

Okay, let me start over. As I have told earlier (here and here), I have only one name: Richa. I don’t have a last name. Period. And YES that’s how it appears on my passport too as well as in all my legal documents. Indian government doesn’t have a problem with that (Did I tell you that I love India? Well I do, sometimes.). But obviously US system doesn’t accept that so everywhere I go they ask for my last name and when I tell them I don’t have one, they repeat my name twice. And I wouldn’t have problem with that, as long as it remains on paper. But no! People usually insist on calling me Richa Richa. It’s very amusing for them. The secretaries like to print my name on official badges as Richa Richa even though I would have requested them not to do so the evening before. They find it highly amusing as they point it out to others and tell them that I don’t have a last name. I DON’T FIND IT AMUSING.

I don’t get it! They are okay with people shortening the names or someone insisting on being called by their nick names then why, in heavens name, do they have problem with me insisting to be known as Richa and not Richa Richa? Gerald can become Gary, Richard can become Rich but I can’t be Richa when it’s actually my name. Why? Just tell me, why?

P.S.: Don’t try to call me Richa Richa for your amusement or as a joke . You might get an earful or a very cold treatment. I mean it.

A note from Houston

2009-10-26T20:54:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know I promised to be more regular with reading and writing blogs and I haven’t yet started that even though I have plenty of things to complain about (as usual). For example, the TV set they provided in the Extended Stay I am staying in (I am in Houston for an internship) doesn’t have any A/V output for plugging in a DVD player (thankfully I noticed that before I decided to buy a cheap DVD player here). The cable has very limited channels. So basically I don’t have anything to watch in the evening even though I have a lot of work (I am trying to work on my research while doing this internship: not much success so far though). Lack of proper TV makes working a lot more difficult.

Other complains include: lack of public transportation, rain, unsafe environment, HR questionnaire, the cold temperature in the temperature-controlled offices and people’s reaction on my name. But guess all these can wait for a later time.

However, I do have something fascinating to share. Today I met someone who won first place in triathlon in their age group twice (50-54 years and 55-59 years)! It made me feel guilty about myself. That guy is almost double my age and is far more healthier/fitter than I am. Well, someday I might run a triathlon (forget about winning). Someday…

You are not dead yet

2009-10-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

… You said “Til death do us apart.”

No, this is no Psycho story. It is the new campaign by someone called John Marcotte to outlaw the divorce in the state of California. I kid you not! He is trying to “rescue” marriage.

The rational being: Same sex marriage was banned in California as it endangers the traditional marriages (Prop 8 in 2008 election). Well, honestly, divorce endangers the traditional marriages more than same-sex marriage, don’t you think?

I think this is a very compelling argument. I am all for it. :)

P.S.: Last of the saved draft series :)

Dropping a line…

2009-10-19T22:08:00.001-07:00

…to say that I have reached Houston and am trying to settle in. I am sorry for not replying to comments or for not visiting your site recently (I have more than 500 posts in my Google Reader!!). I promise I will catch up soon. Just let me catch my breath…