Tired Exhausted Drained

Well all the adjectives that mean "tired" apply to my state today. I have never been this tired ever after working for just 8 hours a day without any breaks. This Maryland crap is draining all my energy. I'm so tired and all I can see in the night is black screens and SQL queries. I just wish it ends sooner than later. Feel like kicking Ms. S. To worsen matters, this I-know-it-all attitude of someone. God, I want to go back!

America vs The Rest of the World

Why are Americans so different from the rest of the world? Are they too advanced or still very primitive?
Is it their resistance to change or inability to adapt to new standards?
Or is it that they have to prove they are way toooo coool and different from the rest of the human species? What is it - it really intrigues me more and more by the day..

Here are a few instances :

1. Km to the rest of the world is "Miles" to them
2. Liter is gallon
3. Kg is pound/Ounce
4. Chocolates are Candies
5. I don't know anybody is I don't know nobody
6. I can't get any satisfaction is I can't get no satisfaction
Oh yes two negatives make a negative here!
7. Soda is like Coke, Pepsi not as in NaOH or Caustic Soda.

I'll keep updating the list as and when it strikes me!

Freshly brewed Coffee
I've come to like freshly brewed coffee with lil or no milk at all. The smell just drives me crazy.. Dad is so addicted to coffee but he always has it with cream. I grew up thinking how could one have their coffee black but now I understand the real taste of having it black...
This is so true...
Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love.
--Turkish proverb

The Union of Two Souls

Today one of our very close friends is getting married to a beautiful girl. As I post this message, they are gearing up for the most exciting day of their lives. Vinay and Reshma, Wish you both a very happy married life. The following song features in "The Wedding Story" on TLC and is one of my favorites, dedicated to you both today:


and when the spark of youth someday surrenders
I'll have your hand to see me through
tears may come and go
but there's one thing I know
love is all there is when I'm with you


You have stood by us thr rough times and we'll stand by you too always.

Snow and Skate

The weekend, despite its dull start turned out to be good. The weather is really unpredictable here. I was completely taken by surprise yesterday morning. I was talking to a friend and he asked me when I was leaving to run a few errands. I replied maybe in a few minutes and I look back to face the window and go speechless. It took a few "hello's" from him to get a response from me. The clear skies had given away to a snowstorm. The snow was mercilessly leashing my windows. Though surprised and a lil upset over my plans, I was internally very happy. It gave me a reason to sleep for a few more hours.
Walking on the snowclad frozen sideways when you can hardly distinguish a road from a sidewalk wasn't fun. I almost slipped off the sidewalk onto the road. It indeed is so silent after a storm, in terms of weather. But for the noise and buzzing activity on the roads, it definitely isn't. It felt good to get out though and after a 3 hour grocery shopping I got back home.

Sunday took off to a slow start and a pissed mood - no reasons for the low mood. Mustered all the strength I could to go ice skating by myself - I'm so glad I did. I must admit that I'm no good at outdoor sports. For someone who grew up in a setup where studies and coming first meant everything and being good at sports was considered good-for-nothing, this was a big step today. I did it all by myself - 2 rounds of ice-rink walking (mind you no skating - will get to some skating perhaps next week) without falling down. A good Samaritan helped me skate a lil bit by holding my hands.
This image has been playing in my mind since evening - wondering if I can find a similar machine that transformed Tom Hanks from a 12 year old into a 30 year old in the movie Big. However what I would do is make it transform me into a 6 year old and I would do all the things that would make happy - play basketball, roller skate ice skate, roller blade, no studies, no schools and live my childhood the way I want to. Well all these things I could still do now but when you grow up you also get a set of inhibitions and living-up-to-others-expectations attitude as part of the package. And it is so difficult to change that.

After skating I went over to the library to issue a bunch of books for a friend of mine. He was so particular about Pulitzer prize winning entries only. Limited was my knowledge on Pulitzer winners. I admit that the Booker Prize winning entries and the Pulitzer ones are my recommendations to sleeplessness. Never could get past 5 pages. Anyways so I found that Ernest Hemingway was a Pulitzer winner too. The next task was to find which book of his bagged him the honor. Thanks to a foreword in one of his books, I found that The old Man and the Sea was the work in question. Its a 127 page book and there were many copies of the old book. Hope my friend enjoys this classic piece of literature.

I issued a couple of books for myself too. I don't know when I would get the time to read all the books that are lined up in my shelf now. Currently reading " A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami. This is one thing I'm gonna miss about this place - easy access to books and the urge to read everyday.

Work Place Bitching

It is so sad that healthy work place relationships no longer exist. Its not an ideal world anymore. People strive more harder to pull someone down than work effectively. Its not uncommon to find someone jumping at the first opportunity to shout to the world others' failures! How sick! I guess I'm going to start another blog on work place relationships than discuss them here. Its so sad that there is so much hatred than the will to work together and make something a success. I wonder how people forget that their petty fights does not benefit the company or the product in any way. All that is lost is time, energy and mutual respect. You fall in others eyes and in your own eyes too.


If you do what you've always done,
then you'll get what you've always got

27 years of togetherness

Staying with somebody for 27 years must have definitely made a difference to - their attitude, patience, lifestyle - everything. Its my parents 27th wedding anniversary - guess takes a lot to stick to each other after turbulent times. 27 years, two kids, a home, a new son and a daughter yet to come, the journey from a small town to another country - sounds like a complete life with its share of hardships, happiness and sacrifices.

The "blog-Google" Connection

Its old news that goggle acquired Pyra Labs in early 2003. Blogger, the flagship product of Pyra Labs eventually because a product of Google. Goggle toolbar started featuring the lil orange icon "B".

Blogging is a good form of journalism but it is so annoying when Google started giving preference to blog results. When one is seriously googling for authentic information, a good percentage of the first 10 results are always from blogs. Maybe goggle should think about creating a new tab/category in its search results page for blogs (ofcourse it becomes difficult to identify if the blog is on one's personal website) but the free ones such as LJ, blogspot should be eliminated.

Laughter, the best Medicine - This edition of RD has the following entry -
light travels faster than sound
thats why you appeared to be bright until you opened your mouth :)

Diplomacy and Fanaticism

Chk out this quote - "A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." I clarify that I don't have anything/anybody in mind as I post this.
People management is a much tougher job than I had fathomed. Well, I had a rough day at office yesterday and was on the verge of calling it quits. It took a walk, a glass of cold water and sane advice from H to land back. H said, " If you quit, they win". Its true but I guess its not war in the end. It was good talking to T and I really really admire him for being wise and a good diplomat and a good manager. With age, men become wise and studying management makes them wiser faster and better (what they technically call as "diplomacy"). So, I want to be like him some day!
There was a direct attack today- I sailed smoothly nonetheless. Someone truly said "Diplomacy is the art of letting
the other party have things your way" and that "A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip."

Currently Reading : Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

I'm seeing the movie "As good as it gets" now. Jack Nicholson is asked "How do you write about women so well?"
He replies, "I think of a man. I take away reason and accountability".

One of these days, when he drives me up the wall or talks to me with disrespect, he's going to see a true Aquarian.

Come Winter, Come foul mood

This article on Chicago Tribune titled On the bright side, it's OK to be gloomy
spoke my mind. All that I feel about winter - a justification to the gloominess. She said so rightly, one can get away with a bad mood which would pass as bad manners in the other seasons :)
This is my first winter in the true sense. There is no such thing as Spring, Fall and Winter in the southern part of India. We have only 2 seasons - monsoon and summer ( in varying degrees ofcourse). So I'm actually enjoying the cold. Initially I despised the cold and wind so much. Now I embrace it with a good attitude. This would be my first and last winter! For someone who has never experienced a temperature below 70 deg F this is indeed a sweeping change. Its so funny that I actually call 25 deg F as "Summer in Winter" - don't you think its better than the 10 deg F with chill winds blowing.

Memories of winter for the record (when I visit my blog next January and when the temperature in Bangalore is 70 F):
1. Kids look the best in this season. Covered completely, sleeping all the time in their cute prams ridden by their beautiful moms. The only thing one can see is 2 little eyes popping out of the warm clothes.
2. Well I think adults look good too, I would say sophisticated rather. Woolen clothes somehow make one charming. Layers and layers of clothes to dress and undress is so much fun.
3. Hats and mufflers and scarves are the best. They add color which is otherwise absent in winter. All the flashing colors of fall get buried inside the dark black/gray winter coats.
4. Snow flurries slowly falling like small cotton balls getting carried away by wind..not the ones that you see on a snow storm but the normal ones that you see on any winter morning.
5. The urge to snuggle under a warm blanket all day and lazily watch one movie after another until your eyes are tired.


The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell,
lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything
quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a
way no other season did, hushed, solemn.


Did you know Fannie May is closing down ?

My insane mood : Just for the record

I HATE it. I want to go back 1.5 years in time and set everything right - my married life (if there exists one). I'm tired of this. Now he has to goto Portland. Can't the goddamn business guys treat people like humans - suckers!
Already I'm so pissed off today - periods, commas and quotes mean so much to people - stupid English language and stupid literature and stupid egos.
How I wish I was a 1 year old kid away from all these miseries and loneliness of the world :(

2004 is here!

What I thought would be a uneventful year turned out otherwise. Here I'm reminiscing 2003 as a good year that passed by - new place, new friends, new home, renewed relationships. 2004 - No Resolutions, No expectations, No Plans. Intend to cope with it as time requires.

New Year's eve has been very special to me since childhood. The past few years have really sucked because of the differences that existed. Until day before I thought I would be spending this New Years' eve alone too. Our first one after the wedding was spent thousands of miles apart. And then on 31st V surprises me by flying down. That's the best present I could have got. We had a nice time at Navy Pier watching the fireworks. The night was cool. I take it is a good beginning.

And guess what I actually got thr Dad's number exactly at 12:00 - something that just didn't happen for 4 years in a row. And got thr Pravin's number just 2 mins before the end of his day.