Tuesday Tag: Get to Know Me

… as if I don’t blabber enough. Anyway, i again stole the tag from Shilpa (Man, you have done so many tags Shilpa!).

1. How tall are you barefoot?

5'3''

2. Have you ever smoked before?

Yes. When I was 10: I was curious why people form this nasty habit. I did find my answer ( I smoked the whole packet as I knew first cigarette won’t answer the question but simply give me a bad taste!) and now stay clear from any habit forming stuff.

3. Do you own a gun?

Nope. Though I will be moving to Texas soon enough, guess I should buy one :D. Jokes aside, I do like shooting (in the shooting range) and by some miracle I am natural at it. My mom says, it’s in my genes (my aunt won state medal in shooting during her NCC or something similar).

4. If you had a mental disorder, what would it be?

Cleaning mania. Again it’s in genes. My mom has one of those..

5. How many letters are in your crush's name?

Eight. I know it’s a long name. The last name is even longer: 12 letters.

6. What's your favorite silly song?

Kya Ada kya Jalwe tere paro (Shastra) and Humko Tumse Pyar hain (Ishq)

(Caution: Really loud. Sorry for bad quality.)

 

7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Water.

8. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?

What’s the time? Oh Crap! I am late.

9. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?

You are asking the wrong girl. If only I could lure the opposite sex or any one for that matter!

10. Do you own a knife?

Of course, I cook.

11. Name the last thing you have bought today.

Lunch: Caesar chicken salad spinach wrap with no cheese.

12. Name five drinks you regularly drink.

Water, milk, freshly squeezed orange juice, coke zero and Mango lassi (in that order).

13. What time did you wake up today?

7:42 AM (according to my cell phone and as I said I was late)

14. What song do you want played at your funeral?

O jaane wale ho sake to laut ke aana (Bandini) {Oh yes, I am coming back as a ghost to haunt few people! :)}

15. What song did you last hear?

Zulf ki chhaon mein (Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon) {I am a big sucker for old bollywood songs and this happens to be one of my favorite so I had it on repetition on my iPod approximately the entire day}

Sorry for the bad quality but this was the only video I could find with the whole song:

16. Favorite place to be?

Anywhere as long as I am with friends.

17. Least favorite place to be?

Any place where I need to make small talks.

18. Do you own slippers?

Of course. Why do they have to have a silly question like this in every meme?

19. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?

Working, hopefully, in London.

20. Do you burn or tan?

Rarely. I am too dark to do either.

21. Yellow and blue?

I have no clue. (at least it rhymes!)

22. What songs do you sing in the shower?

Changes. Today I was singing this one (although not the full song):

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?

Being poor. Okay this is not connected with night but that was my worst fear as a child. I know that’s completely irrational but for some reason, I always imagined what it will be like to be one of the kids in servant quarters (yes we had those in the university). Some of them worked full time with different families. I always imagined if for some reason, God forbid, something happens and I couldn’t finish my education and find a job, I would have to live like them. And I wasn’t even good at house work then! That would mean I  would actually starve to death or may be I would be one of those kids who beg at the traffic signals. Can you imagine my nightmares?

24. What's in your pockets right now?

Sorry, no pockets!

25. Last thing that made you laugh?

When someone told me that I am overanalyzing the Twilight books and it’s meant for teenagers and not 30 somethings (Ouch!).

26. Best bed sheets you had as a child?

The one with design of newspaper on it.

27. Worst injury you've ever had?

Agree with Shilpa here: A broken heart.

28. Do you wish on stars?

No. They are too fast. By the time I remember the myth, they are already gone. Usually I say: “Look, a shooting star!” By the time I finish that, it’s gone!

29. What were you doing 1 AM last night??

Um, Sleeping.

30. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.

- Should sleep now. It’s getting late.

- 4 more days and my internship will be over. Yippe!!

- I need to pack.

As usual: a free for all tag! :)

The mystery of "A"

I received yet another baby news today. That makes the total of 5 babies among my friends (friends are unrelated to each other: more or less) this year. Coincidentally all of them are boys. Even more surprisingly, all the parents have decided to name their son starting with alphabet 'A'. And that made me realize, though I am not sure if I am over-reacting/over-seeing, but I think majority of Indian parents name their sons starting with alphabet 'A' . And this is not a new trend either.


I remember when I was in school, more than half of boys in my class (whenever I had boys in my class) had names starting with alphabet 'A' : I remember having 5 'Ashish' in our class of 25 in IV grade!

I don't understand why that is? What is the charm of naming their son starting with letter 'A'? Except that they might be one of the first in the roll-call, that is, if the roll call is arranged by the first name. In western culture, they prefer arranging people with their last name so that can't be the reason (most of these parents are residing out of India). So why? What's the charm of alphabet 'A'? Or may be it's just my imagination. After all I haven't done any statistical analysis, it's a mere observation based on my personal experience. May be I am just surrounded by weird people! :)

P.S.: And I think second most popular alphabet is 'V',  followed by 'S', 'P' and 'R'. I think 75-80% of any  class population (boys only) includes the names staring with these five letters. But then again, I haven't done any statistical studies. This is a mere observation.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn

Spoiler Warning.

Okay! Finished the series. Whew. Finally! I need to read some classics or may be a science fiction now. What a drama! Honestly.

I actually liked the plot for the books but I don’t agree with Stephenie Meyer’s writing style. She puts too much drama in the story which, at times most of the times, becomes a drag. And even at the end, she leaves the mystery hanging. I felt that way after the second book and that’s why I eagerly read the third book, just hoping she will explain it but was very disappointed at the way she explained things.

Now, even after reading all the four book, I am not satisfied. Her last chapter is titled: “Happily Ever After” but somehow it doesn’t fit the circumstances. It’s feels like the series ended abruptly. It was very anticlimactic. The drama and tension that she built up in the latter half of the book was never fully removed then how does she claims a “Happily Ever After”? Ugh. I knew this will happen ever since I finished the book two. 

Honestly, this series makes me appreciate J.K. Rowlings and Phillip Pullman even more. It is hard to write a good mystery/myth novel. You have to build up an entire web of myths and intricate your mystery around it.

You simply can’t feed a myth to readers for four books straight, never mention a rebuff till the last pages of the last book. And that too in a passing: devoting only 4 lines for that entire conversation! She has been telling us about werewolves in all of her books and I, as a reader, accepted her loose definition of werewolf to include Jacob Black’s pack. And then in last book during the last stand, she mentions that they are not the Son of the Moon (= Werewolves). Cool! Why not mention it before this then? Why waste pages after pages over the useless moping and nauseating dramas? Why not mention some useful stuffs before hand? It feels like being cheated. She absolutely have no balance between her drama and useful plot lines. She waste pages to elaborate the pain and emotions while forgetting things vital for the plot. And then she remembers them and so she mention those things in passing, giving them 2-3 lines. Hello? Ever heard about balances?

Okay, You get the picture. I am frustrated enraged by Stephenie Meyers writing style. I won’t mop any more. As I said earlier: she does have a witty way of writing. And I like most of her jabs: the reason I could get through the books. Here are few of the funny quotes from the book 4: Breaking Dawn:

- Oh well, I thought to myself. He was a vampire, after all. Maybe we were going
to Atlantis. (Bella wondering where they (Edward and Bella) are going for their honeymoon).

- “Did you know that ‘I told you so’ has a brother, Jacob?” she asked, cutting me
off. “His name is ‘Shut the hell up.’” (Bella to Jacob: Jibbing)

- Instead of being the A/V dweeb about to ask the head cheerleader to the prom, I was the finished-second-place werewolf about to ask the vampire’s wife to shack up and procreate. Nice. (Jacob trying to persuade Bella to give up her current monster child.)

- They are vampires, I guess, Seth allowed after a minute, compensating for Leah’s
reaction. I mean, it makes sense. And if it helps Bella, it’s a good thing, right?
Both Leah and I stared at him.
What?
Mom dropped him a lot when he was a baby, Leah told me.
On his head, apparently.
He used to gnaw on the crib bars, too.
Lead paint?
Looks like it, she thought.
Seth snorted. Funny. Why don’t you two shut up and sleep?

(Leah and Seth are siblings in Jacob’s pack. Seth is sympathetic towards Cullens (the vampires) and trying to argue for them no matter what. This is Leah and Jacob’s reaction for one of such arguments for something repulsive that vampires were doing.)

“Oh well,” I said lightly, relieved that my thoughts were still my own. “I guess
my brain will never work right. At least I’m pretty.” (After Bella turns into a vampire.)

P.S.: My laptop gave me the blue screen of death today morning. Thankfully, it hasn’t died yet. I am working in the safe mode at the moment, trying to back up my data over the net and on the measly pen drives that I have. I will try reformatting my laptop today. Wish me luck! Hopefully I will be back tomorrow. Otherwise, am sorry for missing out on the challenge! :(

Harvard Quidditch Team

When I first heard these words today morning, I expected some new aerodynamics model that can enable brooms to fly around while supporting a muggle on it. I was very disappointed to find this instead.

You know it’s not like I am asking too much from a Harvard Quidditch team. I don’t expect violent bludgers or disappearing snitches (not yet anyway!). Just flying brooms. That’s all!

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Spoiler Warning.

Okay finished the third book last evening and am already reading the fourth book. Nothing much changed in the plot..well nothing strategic as far as I know. Same old Edward, same old Bella and same old Jacob. Their same old love triangle and same old stupid, juvenile blabbering. I am losing my patience now. If it wasn’t for the refreshing jabbers here and there, it would have been hard to finish.

okay, I lied. I need to finish this series now. I want to know what’s wrong, what’s so special about Bella.
Anyway, some of funny quotes (may be they are just funny to me but still I am putting them here. At times, I go back and read these quotes from my previous posts. I know I am weird..)

Okay they are not quotes per se but entire incidents this time. Sorry I couldn’t resist:

- (Bella was arranging magnets on the fridge while she waited to go to work(she was early)): The last two magnets –round black utilitarian pieces….-did not want to cooperate with my fixation. Their polarities were reversed; every time I tried to line the last one up, the other jumped out of place. 

For some reason – impending mania, perhaps – this really irritated me. Why couldn’t they just play nice? Stupid with stubbornness, I kept shoving them together as if I was expecting them to suddenly give up. I could have flipped one over, but that felt like losing. Finally, exasperated at myself more than magnets, I pulled them from the fridge and held them together with two hands. It took a little effort – they were strong enough to put up a fight – but I forced them to coexist side-by-side.

“See,” I said out loud – talking to inanimate objects, never a good sign - “That’s not so horrible, is it?”

I stood there like an idiot for a second, not quite able to admit that I wasn’t having any lasting effect against scientific principles. Then, with a sigh, I put the magnets back on the fridge, a foot apart.

“There’s no need to be so inflexible,” I muttered.

It was still too early, but I decided I’d better get out of the house before inanimate objects started talking back.

****

- (Bella is talking to Jacob, trying to make peace between him and Edward) “See,” I explained. “I don’t care who’s a vampire and who’s a werewolf. That’s irrelevant. You are Jacob, and he is Edward, and I am Bella. and nothing else matter.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “But I am a werewolf,” he said unwillingly. “And he is a vampire,” he added with obvious revulsion.

“And I am Virgo!” I shouted, exasperated.

…

“Okay. Just Bella and Jacob. None of those freaky Virgos here.” He smiled at me.

****
Okay I am not typing any more. Have to get back to my book…

Orkutiquette

Okay I am confused (as usual!). So I took photographs of my friends while I was in NY and posted them on Orkut . I have received comments on the photograph directed to them, from some common friends. I am not sure what's the proper etiquette about responding to these comments. They are meant for the person in the picture while they are posted on my account. Should I reply them or should I ignore them?

Well this has happened to me before! You see I am more comfortable behind the camera than I am in front of it. Ahhh..the dilemma of being a photographer!

Does anyone has any solution except, of course, the obvious one: Stop taking pictures of others or at least stop posting it on Orkut! :)

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Spoiler Warning

Okay I have to eat my words. Well not entirely though. So after the first book in the series, I declared that the series seems very juvenile. And well it’s still juvenile in a lot of ways like Bella’s complete infatuation with Edward, the concept of first sight love and all those teenager romance stuff.

However, the story does take an interesting turn in the second book as Werewolves enter the scene and with them enters Jacob Black. Playful, young, sweet, childish, charming Jake. And at some level Bella falls in love with him too even though her juvenile status doesn’t allow her to go through it. So as you can imagine, now from plain boring girl meets vampire and falls in love, it has become a love triangle. And somewhere in the horizon, there is a promise of some great mystical secret about Bella.

Well as you can guess, I am addicted to the series. I am already more than half way through the third book (I started it yesterday and it has 630 pages!). I haven’t bought the fourth book of the series as it wasn’t available in paperback. But guess I have to now..

For some reason, I didn’t find many, correction any, funny quotes worth mentioning. As I said earlier, it was slightly depressing book, except for Jake, of course :) Anyway, I have quite a few quotes marked in third book so I will put them here. Now I need to get back to the book.

(Img from:http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/images/new_moon_twilight_sequel.jpg)

P.S.: 1. My laptop has been acting funny since yesterday. I am not sure if I will be able to post if my laptop decides not to cooperate. Am keeping my fingers crossed.

2. Just so we are clear, I choose team Edward Not that I don’t like Jacob (he is a sweetheart!) but I like Edward more. He is my type of guy I guess…

Tuesday Tag: The Brand Tag

Today’s tag is borrowed from Shilpa. So the tag rules are:

Numerous brands move us in our day to day life. I think brands are like relationships. Do you maintain a good friendship brand? Are you loyal and caring in your brand relationship?

Take any day in your life and chart out the brands you have used.

Okay let’s start with morning. I mean early morning:

Then I reach the office and my day looks like:

And then I come back from office:

The credits for logos:

• Colgate logo: http://anzspd.org.au/images/Colgate_logo.gif
• Dove logo: http://www.lascomadres.org/home_e/events/spon_events/images/dove_logo_silver.jpg
• Extended Stay America: http://www.fabuloussavings.com/us/ca/esalax/images/logo_lg.gif
• Sony Ericsson: http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/sony-ericsson-logo.jpg
• Lincoln Logo: http://www.chromespinners.com/images/lincoln-logo.jpg
• Revlon logo: http://dropshiponline.co.uk/images/logo-revlon.jpg
• Outlook Express logo: http://en.onsoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/outlook-logo.jpg
• Microsoft Office logo: http://javierleal.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/microsoft_office_logo.jpg
• MATLAB logo: http://www.activemedia.com.sg/IMAGES/MATLAB-logo.JPG
• Dell logo:http://www.broadleafservices.com/logos/dell_logo.jpg
• Google Reader logo: http://www.blogsdna.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/google-reader-logo.png
• HP logo: http://www.pcdiskclone.com/img/computerBrand/hp_logo.png
• Magnavox: http://www.gulfcoastvideo.net/nss-folder/pictures/MagnavoxLogo2.gif
• Prestige logo: http://www.pots-and-pans.co.uk/acatalog/prestige-logo.gif
• Oxygen Channel logo: http://media.photobucket.com/image/oxygen%20logo/NinaHagen1986/OxygenLogo.jpg
• USA network logo: http://www.midstatetv.com/images/channel_logos/BASIC%20CABLE/25_Basic_usa_network.gif
• CBS logo: http://devotedfansnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/cbs-logo.png
• Blogger logo: http://www.themorris.org/images/blogger-logo.jpg
• Twilight logo: http://twilightsagamovie.co.cc/twilight_logo.jpg
• Juniper logo: http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/nnews/2007/8994/Image/JuniperLogoLarge.gif
• Stanford logo: http://radonc.ucsf.edu/research_group/jpouliot/EPI2k8/partners/images/stanford-logo.jpg

A free tag for all. It’s a fun tag, try it…

New York

    
(img from: http://drx.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/26/lewis_hine_phot_nyc_empire_state__2.jpg)

Rockfeller Center Construction: New York, 1932. Image by: Charles C. Ebbets

I bought a small copy of this image from New York. I loved this image, the first time I saw it. I think that was NY Times archive section. Anyway, this is the first time I ever bought a photograph or even a wall poster. So I am excited. At some point I will like to have few of Ansel Adams as well as HCB’s photographs too. Some day. 

As for my NY trip. It was slightly marred by the snow fall on Saturday. Apparently, the winter front that snowed in Houston reached to NY on Saturday. So I literally took the snow with me from Houston to NY. However we were able to make it to the Times Square on Sunday. But I guess none of that matters, as this was a trip to meet friends and not go around the city. So fun was had during the short period. And hence the purpose of trip was fulfilled.

The trip wasn't uneventful, however. I lost a friend during the trip and it was all my fault. I dropped my camera twice on the floor and lost my dearest 50mm lens. It was my favorite lens and had costed me around 200 bucks. I am really sad about it. The silver lining: My camera still works. The lens took all the heat and hence saved my camera. I will always remember him as a martyr and from now on will be extremely careful while handling my camera. I will not loose my self in the passion of photography, the heat of the moment so much ever again that I forget about minor details as safety of equipment. Never again..

Chasing the Butterfly

During Thanksgiving break, I visited San Antonio’s Natural Cavern. The cavern is within an adventure park. I spend around an hour after their “tour” chasing this butterfly. I finally got a good shot..

Orkut Screwup

So I deleted all the scraps and for some reason it still says I have 2 scraps in my scrapbook even though there are no scraps in my scrapbook. Some technical glitch, huh?

Twilight: the book

By Stephenie Meyer.

Girl meets boy. Boy turns out to be a vampire (although “vegetarian” type: he only feeds on predatory animals’ blood). Girl, being a teenager, still believes that she is in love with him. Enters another vampire and a thriller drama follows. And obviously, the hero vampire manages to save the girl. Predictable? Yes. Cheesy romance book? Yes. However, Stephenie Meyer is pretty funny. I usually smile at jokes in the books but she made me laugh out loud. Actually few times, I had to keep the book down and laugh for few min. May be it’s because lack of friends around me at the moment that I found it extra funny. But either way I enjoyed the first book of the Twilight Saga called Twilight.

Here are few of the excerpts from the book that made me laugh:

- Of course he wasn't interested in me, I thought angrily, my eyes stinging — a delayed reaction to the onions. I wasn't interesting. And he was. Interesting… and brilliant… and mysterious… and perfect… and beautiful… and possibly able to lift full-sized vans with one hand. (Bella, the girl in love talking about Edward, the hero vampire. This was the initial phase of their affair when Edward was ignoring him.)

- From the cheerful topic of my impending demise, we were suddenly declaring ourselves. (Edward and Bella on their first date).

- "And you're worried, not because you're headed to meet a houseful of vampires, but because you think those vampires won't approve of you, correct?" (Edward to Bella, when he was taking her back to her family for the first time).

- "Afraid of a needle," he muttered to himself under his breath, shaking his head. "Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV, on the other hand…" (Edward to Bella after the whole thriller drama).

- I rolled my eyes. I was pleased to discover that this reaction, at least, was pain-free. (She was in hospital with broken leg, broken ribs and a lot of other injuries after the whole thriller drama).

I am currently reading the second book of the Twilight Saga: New Moon. Will be back with funny quotes from that one as well. I have been actually crying (with real tears) so far while reading the book so don’t know whether I will find any funny quotes.

P.S.: The Twilight Saga so far seems very teenagerial stuff (I mean, adolescent). I liked Harry Potter series better than this. Lord of the Rings is the best in comparison though very very dark. I also liked His Dark Materials more than Twilight Saga. At least as much as I have read so far…

NY, Here I come!

I am going to NY today! Yipee! Well, technically I am going to New Jersey and not New York but hopefully we will be visit NY city over the weekend. Weather forecast says that it’s going to rain in NY city on Saturday but whatever.

Talking of weather forecast, Houston is expected to receive some snowfall today or tomorrow! For those who don’t know Houston: It rarely snows in Houston. It’s closer to a tropical climate to receive a snow fall.

In any case, I am leaving for NY tonight!! I am very excited about it! I won’t be able access much of net for next 3 days so I am scheduling posts so that I don’t forfeit the NaBloPoMo. Enjoy!

P.S.: I have never been to NY before. The picture above is statue of liberty in Paris. Hopefully I will be able to get a picture of her sister this weekend.

UPDATE: Due to snow and ice on the runway, there are flight delays and flight cancellations expected. I am keeping my fingers (and my toes, for that matter) crossed. Please wish me luck and wish it sincerely! I seem to be low on it today. Why else would it snow on the day I have to fly, when it rarely snows in Houston?

I am trying…

Well I told you that already. I designed this badge yesterday so couldn’t resist to post it here. Well the icons are from various sites indicated in the credit section (left sidebar) of the blog. But still it’s a lot of work to arrange them and create the badge so I am putting as a post too.. :)

Google Wave

So you heard about this new thing from Google called Google Wave. A friend of yours managed to get an invitation and asked if you would be interested. You jumped at the opportunity and said "Oh yes! definitely Yes! Wow! You have Google Wave! However did you manage that? You are like totally awesome dude! " or something on the similar lines. He/she sends you an invitation.

It takes few hours for the invitation to arrive and you check your Gmail account every 5 mins. to check if it's there yet. And then there it is: XXXX has invited you to preview Google Wave. Finally! You eagerly sign in. Now what? You go through the demo video as well but still no clue what to do next?

I know I am not the only one with no clue. And I also know that some of you out there must be scratching your head that what I am talking about? So, for sake of those who have no idea what I am talking about, let me take a step back and explain what the hell Google Wave is.

Google Wave is the latest application from, well you know this one, Google. The idea behind it was to have a common place or platform for all the different communication tools available on internet. That includes the emails, IMs, SNS as Facebook and Orkut, Twitter and blogging services as blogspot and wordpress. Sounds cool? Well it does to me. Instead of having 5  different tabs open, I can use only one platform to check, send, post and update all of my communication sites. And that explains my excitement about getting the Google Wave. But a fair warning:  Google Wave is a beta version application at the moment and you can only get access to one if you are invited by a friend. And since it is a beta version application, there are not a lot of gadgets or robots available for the application. Oh yes, you heard me right: gadgets and robots.

That’s how the Google Wave works. So the Google Wave has the concept of waving (you can think of new wave as a new message). You can wave at anyone in your contact list. So the Google Wave Robots (or bots for short) have their own email addresses as tweety-wave@appspot.com for twitters. You simply add them to your contact list and start a new wave with them. They will send you the instructions through the wave for how to use these applications through Google Wave. For example, the first time you start a new wave with twitter robot (tweety-wave@appspot.com) you would need to login to your twitter id and once you do that you can see your twitters as a Google Wave. You can read the twitters, update your status and reply to other people’s twitter.

Gadgets, on the other hand are URLs that can be added using the green icon on a New Wave screen.

Well that’s all I know about Google Wave, anyways. As I said it’s a beta version software and is still very new so there aren’t a lot gadgets or bots for it at the moment. However, as Google is planning the Google Wave to be open source, I expect we will see a lot of Google Wave in future. Just as an example, consider this bot:

TwilioBot (twiliobot@appspot.com) automatically transforms the phone numbers in the wave into click-to-call links. If user clicks a link, a call is placed to his cell phone or landline and to the phone number in the link and the two are connected. The phone call can be transcribed and automatically inserted into the wave as text with a link to the audio of the conversation.

Scary, isn’t it? Well I still like the basic concept behind the Google Wave and I am, for one, looking forward for it to become fully functional!

P.S.: For those of you, who have a Google wave and want to try new gadgets and bots, check out these two sites:  http://wavety.com/ and http://techpp.com. Happy Waving :)

Tuesday Tag

So I am starting my month with a tag. Well as so happens Dec 1st falls on Tuesday. So I am once again borrowing the tag from PB. So here are the questions of the tag:

1. What was your favorite subject at school?
Believe it or not, my absolute favorite subject as a kid was GK. Yes, General Knowledge. Pity we only got grades for that subject and it was discontinued after 5th grade. I loved the subject as it made it easier for me to understand the news. Oh yes, I used to watch the news every night. So after the subject was discontinued from the school, I got addicted to magazines like Competition Success Review and General Knowledge Today.
Well technically GK is not considered a “subject” so for sake this question I would also like to mention that my second favorite subject was Maths. Most of the people who know me would have expected that to be my answer. Sorry to disappoint you guys…

2. Did you have a favorite teacher? What was it about them that you liked?
Oh yes! I have had my favorite teachers during different period of time. So let me go in  chronological order:

Sujata Ma’am: The first teacher whom I absolutely loved was my 8th grade Maths (what a surprise!) teacher, Sujata Ma’am. She was a terrific teacher. Her teaching technique was unique. She divided the class in 4 groups (according to the columns of seats in the class) and have the groups compete each other. She will usually teach a topic and solve 2-3 problems on board. Then she gives us time (about 5 min) to solve few of the problems on our own. Then she will pick any girl from the group according to the turns. That girl would have to solve the problem on board and explain it to the rest of the class. She will help the girls who will have problems solving it. She wouldn’t give the answer, but prompt them to think about the problem in a logical way. So you see why I absolutely loved her!

Kapoor Ma’am: She was a senior teacher in our school. She was our Social Studies teacher in X grade. It was the first time in my life that I looked forward to history periods. She wouldn’t read from the book like all our previous teacher, instead she told us a story. I still remember almost everything from my X grade history. She became our English teacher in class XI and our class teacher in class XII. She was the only English teacher that I had who knew her grammar. I kid you not. Any of the English teacher I had before her never told me that you never use past tense with ‘did’. I didn’t know about the redundancy of using the phrases as ‘intermediate between’ or ‘revert back’. My English is still not good and  I blame my childhood teachers for that!

Chander Sir: My next favorite teacher is from M.Tech. days. He taught us Oceanography in our second year. Again like all my favorite teachers, he liked to tell us stories. And moreover, unlike all the other teachers I have had before him, he insisted that we understand the subject instead of memorizing it. Even his exams never asked us to recall things from memory but quizzed us on how much we have understood the subject. It was fun to attend his classes and his exams were even better!

3. What do you like most about yourself?
Everything. What? I am perfect. You don’t believe me? Oh well..

Okay. Seriously, I like my self-sufficient, self-reliant attitude. I don’t have to relay on others for my well-being. Not that I don’t treasure my friends but I am not dependent on them and that’s very important to me.

4. Why did you start blogging?
I am not sure. I guess I was bored of talking to myself and hence started putting my thoughts here. This is my third attempt at blogging. I deleted my previous blogs for one reason or the other. This is the longest I have been blogging and hope I will continue to do so.

5. Can you show us your 5 favorite blog posts?
1. Stanfy News Channel..
2. Life Lesson #1: One mistake or three mistakes
3. Please Don’t
4. In name of culture
5. Gandhi and Bose

6. What do you love most about your partner?
Don’t have one yet..

7. Next to your husband/partner/significant other/children, who do you speak to most often?
Myself. Well that’s not actually talking but thinking..


8. What are your 5 favorite books?
It depends on my mood. As per today:

1. My Sister’s Keeper: Jodi Picoult 
2. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
5. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

9. Do you have a favorite work of art?
Ansel Adams, The Snake River

                 (Img from: http://kconway01.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/ansel-adams/)

10.If you could live for a year anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
San Francisco Bay Area. That’s where I currently live and absolutely love it.

Again a free for all tag!

NaBloPoMo: December

Okay I have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo even though the first half of December is very busy. But I am still going to try. Wish me luck!

For the people who are clueless: NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month. This means that I have to post everyday. Most probably you are going to see a lot of photographs or some stupid posts. I will try to write something meaningful but I can’t promise at least during the first half of this month.. Hopefully I won’t blow it.

Heh..

This is hilarious!!

The Bird

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday to ya’ll!

Negotiations

Okay I can’t hold it in anymore. It is the main reason for my decreased frequency of posts in past few days. So here it is:

After weeks of being judged and being put on the spot (which are my verbose description for interviews), okay fine I exaggerate: it has been just a week so far and only three interviews, but it feel longer, I got a job offer (I am still going for other interviews)! Yay and all that.

Okay don’t take me wrong, I am very excited and happy and relived and everything else that goes with it. But as the initial excitement is subsiding, I am realizing the next hurdle that’s staring in front of me and that’s called Salary Negotiations. I have never done that. At heart, I am still that meek Indian student who never questions authority and now I have to push my limits (it is expected of me, everyone in industry tells me). Any suggestions from anyone who has done it before?

Seems I need a new button on the life’s keyboard:

Faith

Few days back, I read this comment somewhere on the net (I don’t remember the source any more):

I don’t understand why new-born Christians and Atheist bully people to join them?

Tuesday Tag: Mera Bachpan…

I know I disappeared again but this time due to a good reason: PB tagged me to do a post on the childhood memories (for once I was actually tagged and not borrowed it!) and I was working on it. As the topic suggests, it will be a long long post. And very personal too. I am not very comfortable with that hence I am writing the post in a general tone and avoid any specifics. It’s just to make me comfortable writing about them.

First some background: The year I was born, my dad got the lectureship in a reputed university. We moved from my birth-town to my home-town. That also meant we moved away from our extended family in the area. So I grew up in a nuclear family with very few memories that involved uncles and aunts, cousins and grandparents. Another fact that you would need to know is that my brother is 9 years older to me which made for a very interesting experiences as a kid..

Ear Piercing: I was 2 years old when my Mom took me to Jewelry shop to get my ears pierced. I distinctly remember the day. There were two other ladies in the shop and as the shopkeeper readied the hot needle (back then that’s how we did it in small towns) to pierce my ears, they readied themselves for a kid to howl and cry. However they were surprised when I didn’t. I remember the pain and the fact that I tried my best to keep my tears from flowing out. For some reason those ladies challenged my control by expecting me to cry. It became an ego issue for me (yes at 2 years!) I remember my mom asking me if it hurts and me nodding (I didn’t trust myself to speak). She said that she will apply Boroline when we get home and it will be okay. I also remember the long time it took for us to reach home after that!

Primary School: I started school when I was 2.5 years old. I remember crying out loud on the day (I was a nuclear family kid with almost no other kids around me) and the Principal of our school offering me candies if I stopped crying. I immediately stopped and got my favorite orange candies. However, after the first day episode, I never cried when I went to school. I was a model student who never never disobeyed the teacher. Always did my homework and was the best in the class. I loved learning new things. This continued till I was in grade II.

I got briefly transferred to another school towards the end of my second grade. That school (it was in Bihar) was a very good school, however they used to hit kids with stick as punishment. So in the morning when we filed in for the assembly, teachers will hit kids in line if their boots are not polished properly or if their socks are dirty. I was never hit but I never liked that school. I went to that school for a month. Most of the time I was there I complained of frequent headaches and fevers. I remember I used to sleep in the class and wasn’t able to concentrate in class even if I wanted to, until one morning when my “fever” completely took over. I was unconscious (or sleeping, I don’t know and I don’t remember much except that I had high fever and I was vomiting every half hour or so) for most of that day. I am not sure how and what happened but I do know that doctors suggested that I should be taken off that school. So I changed school again.

First Friend: I was an extremely quiet, introvert and shy girl. I had classmates and playmates (oh yes I had two different set of friends as I was the only one in our colony who didn’t go to those big schools in our town) and while a number of them told me at different occasions that they consider me as their best friend, I never returned back the compliment. I usually smiled and felt happy about it but I never said the same to any of them (I was a weird kid). In sixth grade, a new girl was transferred to our class. For some reason, I hit it off right away with her. She was a brilliant and hard working student. After my second grade, my grades took a nose dive and I had lost my interest in studies. It changed when I met her. She would insist on learning the lessons the day they were taught and would ask me to quiz her next morning. I wasn’t too willing but I complied. Two months later, we had our quarterly exams and I scored better than she did in one of the subjects. I had the highest marks in the class! I couldn’t believe it! And the best part: she was not a least bit jealous or offended! She was jumping up and down with me. I had never met anyone like her before that. She was my first friend ever. However I never told her that. Unfortunately, her dad got transferred to other city a month after the exams. I have no idea where she is. But I know she must be a doctor. That’s what she wanted to be and I know she is one girl who will and can achieve whatever she wanted. She was a great inspiration and a great friend.

Other thing that I got from my first friend was love for movies. It was the time when QSQT released and she was a big fan of Aamir Khan. For some unknown reason, I was not in touch with the current Bollywood till that time but her non-stop chatter about Aamir affected me and since then I had kept in loop with the current movies until I came to US. Now I keep in track with upcoming Hollywood movies, so in a way I still keep track of current movies even though not as much with Bollywood movies.

Bhaiya: I can’t end this post without mentioning my brother. As I mentioned my brother is 9 years older than me. It means that he was biking when I was learning to walk. He was reading the comics when I was struggling with alphabets. He was memorizing Kabir’s and Rahim’s Dohas when I was trying to learn the nursery rhymes. Do you see where I am going with this? As a kid I looked up to my brother for everything. He was the coolest person possible. That doesn’t mean that I never fought with him: far from it. We fought although I was the one who used to get whipped. No matter how hard I hit him, I couldn’t hurt him till one day when I was 10: I hit him and it hurt him. I was so shocked that I forgot what was coming once he gets over his shock and pain.

And then he has a great sense of humor. I remember how he could make me laugh no matter how down I was feeling. And that was another great thing about hi m. He was very perceptive about my moods and would know if I was upset about something. He never bothered me with the questions like why I am upset or whether I want to “talk” about it. He would simply camp in my room and won’t leave it unless I am laughing again. It doesn’t matter how much I scream at him to get out of my room or even if I throw things at him to get him out of my room. He won’t leave unless his mission was accomplished. Oh yes, he was the sweetest brother possible! Shhh…Don’t tell him that.

I also remember the day when for the first time I could snap back a smart reply at him. I remember the whole conversation word by word. He was teasing me as usual. On this fateful day, he was telling me how our mom bought me as a baby off the street for 10 paisa (Yes, 10 paisa!). And the reason she bought me was to serve him. And I replied back, “At least she paid 10 paisa for me. You came free! So you are the one who should serve me”. He never teased me again about that. I know it’s juvenile humor but it was a great moment for me.

I can go on and on about my brother and my bachpan but guess all these incidents describe my childhood pretty well. So I am leaving at that. As for tagging others: It’s a free tag. Feel free to borrow it and write your own story. :)

Credits: The last two images are made using Microsoft Clipboard 2007. The first two images shows their respective origin and if you click on the respective images you will reach the webpages they were taken from.

Life’s Keyboard…

…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?

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

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

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

(Link via Varun)

Missed

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

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

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

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

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

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…

…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

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

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!!

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

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

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…

..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

..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.