blog 2005
Mayank's Blog from 1st Jan 2005 to 31st Dec 2005
27th December 2005: Munich
Steven Spielberg finally gave us something worth watching after disappointments in “War of the world” and “Minority Report”. To this man’s credit are great movies like Jaws and Schlinders’s List. Many friends of mine refused to watch it saying that it would be an action motion just like Bourne Identity. But no, this was just more than vengeance for the death of 12 Israeli Olympians. This was about what went thru the minds of these messengers of death. I convinced DK that he looked just like Eric Bana. Well Dk couldn’t be happier. There was something in that movie which some people might have overlooked. Anver is reticent in all the killings and is shown as a hardened killer until he listens to his young daughter’s first words to him “dada” and he breaks in to tears. I guess being a Dad is huge. Well we will know.
14th December 2005: King Kong
Wednesday, middle for the week and I had just brought a multimeter, and Vineet shows up and say how about watching “King Kong”. Peter Jackson has created this fantastic 3hour entertainer where you never pause to look at the watch. And just like that Naomi Watts looks stunning.
13th December 2005: RAFT
The Resource Area for Teacher is what every 8 year old has ever dreamt of! As a part of AMD’s efforts for the community we visit RAFT’s centre at San Jose, and did our fair share of community service. RAFT’s uses every thing that
12th December 2005: Two more Movies and a Book
I have been the laziest bum around! I pretty much wasted the entire week end. Running was out of the question. It was cold outside, so I just lay in the bed solved Sudoku, read books and watched movies. think I live to learn, meet all the wonderful, varied and completely different people around me. I live to see the whole world, different cultures, people, jobs, and languages. We as humans have been truly blessed with something no other animal has, intellect.
3rd December 2005: Why do you think living is worth?
Finally got the key board of my laptop working and am able to comfortably write emails from home (I spilled coffee on the key board, don't ask how ).
NPR today and they were asking every one's views about "Why do you think living is worth?". Every one had different views some one said he lived for the vacations and the paycheck, some one was living for hard work (what a lie!!). One mom turned to her 2year old son for her reason to live.
I think I live to learn, meet all the wonderful, varied and completely different people around me. I live to see the whole world, different cultures, people, jobs, and languages. We as humans have been truly blessed with something no other animal has, intellect.
So why do you live?
3rd December: Movies: Second Best, Madagascar ( got the totally cool song from the movie "I Like To Move It" by Sacha Baron Cohen)
I forgot to mention a really really good movie that I saw, “What the bleep do we know?”. Brilliant movie, totally changes your perception about life, its troubles and your choices. A must see for any one!!
Ohh yes my leg still hurts from the sprain twenty days ago. No running and it is mostly crutches for me right now.
2nd December 2005; Bragging Rights:
A close and good friend of mine had this to say about me
"Now about your writing---you are a very interesting man- you need to know that you belong to that 5-7% of men that we women call "perfect"-- you are writing observations and reflections!!!! You are in sync with your thoughts and feelings!!! It is an amazing characteristic and everybody likes people who possess it. "
Can I die in peace? naaah not yet,
29th November2005: Such a Waste!:
After eating out at fancy place for almost three weeks, myself and Vineet decided to eat at good'ld Subway. I order Chicken Parmesan and the girl at the counter duly starts making my Sub. She placed the chicken breasts and the gravy on the bread and before I could say a word she also put 4slices of cheese on the bread. I immediately correct her, "I am sorry, I didn't want the cheese". She doesn't even look up and just like that throws the 4 cheese single into the waste basket!! I am not sure if I should blame myself or the girl or this system for this absolute waste. Any comments?
24th Nov to 27th November:
This year I have out done my self. No seriously. India in Jan, New Orleans in Feb, Alaska in June, LA/San Diego in Jun, Sunnyvale in July, Vegas in September, then again Portland in October, and Now Florida in November.
Wow what a trip. There were certainly many firsts in this trip. Well frankly I can’t mention all of them in the public domain, but if you ask I can elaborate on them later. Pictures would be put, Ajay, Goli, Chinky and Anuj were there. Chinky and Anuj gave me the surprise of my life when they showed up from no where in the back seat of the Chrysler 300.
Absolute fun for 4day. I had so much fun in my broken leg. And for any readers other there, South Beach is the place to Party. Period. That’s it. At least in the continent of N America.
11th November2005: Shall we get the Nurse?:
So I am sitting in the hospital ER having sprained my ankle and there is'nt really a whole lot that I can do. Thankfully my friend Ashish Agrawal shows up to take me from the hospital. Now I am really pissed off at the hospital folks, the 911 call landed me in the hospital in 10minutes flat and then I had been sitting in the hospi for over 2 hours and I got to see the doc just for 15seconds. Whats with the neglect? So as we are leaving the hospi I make sure that I pick up ever single splint, bandage piece of paper that I was given to me (After all they will charge me 1000's of $$ any way). Well any way my insurance Co is gonna pay for them, so I ask my friend "Abe, kuch aur chahiye kya?, insurance co paisa dedegi", "Dude, do we need any thing else? we might as well ask for it, since insurance co is paying". He very innocently replies, "Yar vo Nurse..." ,"Sure, how about the nurse..."
13th October 2005: Ever lasting love:
On my trip to Portland, something beautiful happened. I was sitting in the Max and pretty much seeing the city go by when this elderly couple boarder the Max. They must be both in there 60s, but both of them had a unexplainable glow on their faces. They were happy, not like the grumpy couples that you see around. They had a newspaper in their hands they were working at the crossword it like it was the game of their lives and they both were on the same team. They were just ment to be together. As the couple they looked a hundred times better than the young teenagers that were sitting right next to me, almost making out in the Max in public view. Decades of living together and they still loved each other. The whole world could vanish around them and they wouldn't notice, cause they had each other to look after. I must confess, there is nothing more remarkable than finding the one you truly love. In their case: they certainly are the blessed ones.
9th October 2005: 5Miles:
Finished the 5Miler at the Portland Marathon in 34min40sec. Not the best of my times, still pretty descent given that I was shooting for under 35min. The best part of the racer: I actually ran past a volunteer from the last year's Marathon training and we both recoganized each other immediately. Isn't it a small beautiful world?
11th October 2005: Attempt to write blog offline:
If you can read this attempt was a success .
3rd October 2005: Me and my big mouth:
I was talking to a collegue and actually praising a superior of mine but the way it came out was dead wrong.
It seemed more like a prejudiced remark than a accolade. Think b4 you speak
2nd Oct: Funny thing: A student from Singapore actually read this b4 asking me a technical question about my thesis work. Man I wish I had that much time. (I am writing a blog and complaining about not having time, Irony?)
1st October 2005: I haven’t updated this page in months. Mom Dad left on the 18th of September. . (That is huge) and wait I already watched so many movies
The Triplets of Belleville: The French never fail to poke fun at the Americans and the Americans are cools enough to awards it at the Oscars
Million Dollar Baby: Rest when you are Dead, Tough an’t enough
Alfie : You better know where you are going cause
“And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death”
Cider House Rules: Show me a lady who is more gorgeous than Charlize Theron. Phew..
Head Above the Clouds: Again I go it just because Charlize was in it, one shitty movie.
Corpses Bride: Beautifully well done anim.
Irreversible: Monica Bellucci rocks: but this movie was just too much to handle, until … until.. At the end of 96minutes you wonder what hit you? Then you fiddle with the DVD menus and there is a section where the director Gasper Noé tells you about the disorienting camera work. There is so much violence in this movie; you need some guts to watch it.
City of Angles: Hey even Meg is beautiful.
7th Aug 2005: A Note to a Dear One,
I wish to instill confidence in you: that you stand up for your self, think that nothing is too good for you and you deserve and will have the very best of everything. Life, Carrier, Love. NO COMPROMISES to be made. Life is Beautiful, fight for it.
Don’t set your expectations to where you can easily reach them, Goals should be sky-scraping and only then would you excel. Think Big and you will become Big.
5th Aug 2005: Mom and Dad visit me.
This is very exciting. The reassurance of having ones parents around, to have the feeling of a protecting shield. Nothing beats it, when you are with your loved ones; you are invincible, infallible because you know that you would be unconditionally loved.
But I am enjoying this for one more reason. I am reliving the thrill/the fear/the excitement of going to a new place through their eyes. The Ooh and the Aah. I hope that they have a memorable time.
20th July: Confusion
The good thing about a online blog is that you can simply delete what ever you don’t want and poof its gone. I wish I could do the same with many other things in life. ßDeletedà
1st July, 2005: Honesty usually pays off:
I have a very good friend, Deepak Kumar, he is my benchmark and whenever I am in a dilemma I ask the question, “What would Dk do in a situation like this?” Here is a nice thing that happened to me.
As I was leaving Lattice Semiconductor, and was having my exit interview I was walked thur all legal things that I could talk and not talk etc etc and then they handed me a check for 2051$ for my salary for the last two weeks of work. The HR person had completely forgotten that since I had stayed at Lattice for less than 2 years I would have to pay them back some of the relocation money. Well what would Dk do? “Tell them”. I asked Linda the question; she said that “Since there is a new person in the HR, she might have over looked that thing, but thanks for reminding me, I will take care of it”. 10minutes later I got a letter from Linda that I owed Lattice 2995$. God, I hated my self so much, me and my big mouth, why did I have to tell her at all. But then it is just money, honesty is much more valuable. I tell this to one of my close colleagues, Gary Kwon, and he laughs that he had thought that I was CEO material, but not any more. I had shot my self in the leg.
So I go to my Alaska trip, and carry on with life and I would pay the amount when I return back from the vacation. After returning I go to Lattice and ask them I could pay the amount over a period of 6 months and if the amount could be prorated. I was told that neither of this was possible, but the lovely lady at HR, Vicki Van Der Boom, told me that instead of asking the AMD HR I should directly talk to my manager at AMD and usually they would take care of it. I gather the courage to write to my manager and explaining the situation to him. Two hrs later, my manger replies that AMD would take care of my debt to Lattice.
See, I didn’t cheat or lie and it still worked all right. I wish the CEO’s of Tyco and Enron had realized this, sooner or later honestly does pay off.
18th June -23rd June: Trip to Alaska, the Last Frontier.
Between job changes I made a dream trip to the Last state to join the American union. The last frontier, the land of the rising Sun and the land of untamed wilderness. Alaska. I took some 200 pictures on this trip, documenting and commenting all these pictures is hard, but here is a chronological description of the pictures that I took. The pictures can be found here [better open this is a new window and then read the captions below]. Off course the two hour delay at Seattle airport due to a sick stewardess, the funny dorm at the International youth hostel at Anchorage, the 12 year old single malt Scotch at Humphrey’s, a meeting with the prospective mayor of Wasilla and his Canadian wife, the tour of the Alaskan History museum with display of native American and Eskimo history, the clarification of what an igloo is, the story behind the 9.2 earthquake, the Trans Alaskan gas line and the Exxon gas spill at Valdez did happen. But I don’t have pictures for them; they shall all just remain fond memories.
Click here for the Picture : There Description
Alaska at 4:16am in the morning!! This is right after I landed in Anchorage
This is a view from the parking lot of Payless. I rented for the first time from payless. 320$ without insurance for a compact car for 4 days!! This is insane.
A place near downtown ANC, near L street
On the way to Denali NP near eagle river. Stopped by to take some pictures. Further down the Eagle River. I made an attempt to reach the Eagle River Nature center. But never could, here are some of the views taken on the way.
Musk Ox farm at Palmer. I had a hard time getting to this place, I was so tired. High on caffeine and yet sleep deprived. These guys had funny names. Atta boy (for the new stud). These are definitely not Yaks. They are prehistoric animal that have just stayed. They have 49 at this farm. Their fur is 6 times warmer than wool. They even had their own toys. Blow up balls etc. Note the tag in the ear. They were tagged odd for male and even for female.
The Musk is a misnomer, as they don’t have musk it was probably the urine that smelt as musk for the name givers. (Urine ==musk??).
Notice the Spiral in the skull.
Right next to the farm was the Matanuska River. They had found gold here too. Note the huge plains.
Reading the guide book, I decided to do the lazy mountain hike. A 2.5mi hike (I thought this would be a cake walk). Well it had an elevation of 3200ft. It had rained the day b4 and the place was slippery like peanut butter. When I saw this dude at the beginning of the hike coved in mud and sweating like a dog, I thought what an armature!! Ha I regret my thought.
This is a picture not even 1/4 the way up. Again notice the Matanuska River.
These are the pictures from the top. This was one of the very few hikes that I have done in my life (I have done plenty) that I thought of giving up in the middle of the hike!!!
There were 4 fake peaks. Every time you reach a peak you realized that there was more to go up to. !! This can be so frustrating especially when you are coved in sweat.
Note the woman in near the top. She was visiting her dad for Father's Day. She was very nice and polite, and even suggested that I do the flat top mountain hike while I was in Anchorage. I was even told that the guy who was running on this treacherous hike might be one of the runners who train for the annual run on this Mt.
On the way to Denali NP, I was running low on gas but high on picture taking hormones. This is at a place 40mil from Denali, a gas station that did not have gas. I had the nerve to take a picture of the native's home. One of the many Mt in the Alaskan Ranges. Chulitna River might be seen occasionally.
Note the time is 8:30pm Sun way up high in the Sky.
I actually filled gas here, and spent 10minutes fighting with a gas pump that would not give me my payment receipt.
6miles away from Denali NP. I stopped at a 3rd gas station to ask direction to the Denali Grizzly Bear Cabin and Campground.
Mystic of the Alaska Ranges!!! What a shot. The time is 11pm in the night. This is one of my favorite shot. Surreal, mysterious.
Finally at the Denali Grizzily Bear Cabin and Campground. My cabin was called Trapper. It was the most expensive place that I lived in my 4nights that I stayed at Alaska.
The funny thing was that at Seattle Airport this girl got on a plane to Alaska. And I saw her at the same campground at Denali. What are the odds??
The Place was managed by a Pole guy, Some 74 odd dollars. But I was so tired that I wanted to spoil my self.
Note the funny poem about the sleeping bag.
At the Denali NP in the WonderLake Shuttle. After serious contemplation I decided not to go all the way up to Wonder Lake (85miles) (11hr round trip would kill me given that I had to go back to ANC in the night).
I would get off at Toklat (53mi) and take the returning bus. The bus driver was Lee an Irish and he was super entertaining. So were the African American people in front of me from Atlanta Georgia.
What you will see next are a series of mountain picture that I tried to take. But the day was so over cast that most of these pictures have gone wasted. I could not see Mt McKinley. (only 30% of the annual visitors do)
On the way back our bus driver was Bruce. Man he was a story teller. Each story would be punctuated with break and pauses and you would die to hear the next words. He told how he made his own cabin even showed pictures and how they had not light so they would use Kerosene, and 12V batteries during winters. He had seen -90F one winter. Also a story about how trying to save a Moose he crashed his car and the car he could barely move was eventually pulled out of snow in minutes by GI who had come to Fairbank for cold training.
A northern hawk Owl!
The Teklanika River. As Lee says "take a leak river" because of the rest station at this place.
The Polychrome Rest area.
On the way back from Denali the day suddenly clears up. This is a shot near Wasilla. The highlight of the road trip was driving at 100 at a speed limit of 65mph and a big black bear with two cubs. The good news is of the 830 miles that I drove in Alaska I was over speed limit 90% of the time and way way over 60% of the time. There are no cops in Alaska!!! Peace this is like heaven...
11:40pm in the Anchorage. This is one day before summer solstice. The sun is barely setting in the west. The Land of the Midnight Sun!! Shot from Resolution Park.
At 3rd and L. Mt McKinley is usually visible form here, but like I said Denali was covered with clouds. :( Among the various peaks that are usually visible from here are Mt Susitna, Mt Spurr, Mt Iliamna and Mt Redoubt, I have not tinkered with the shutter time or the aperture. I have taken a panorama shot also.
Scenic Byway to Seward. Gorgeous day out side.
This drive is what I probably saw in the movie Insomnia. It can't get more beautiful. This is right next to the Turnagain Arm.
Tunnel at Portage to Whittier. This is pretty cool. You have to wait to get in the tunnel, which is open to one way traffic every hour for 15minutes. This is also what you would have to take to go to Portage Glacier. They charge you 12$ to get across. You would think they would have already raised all the money they spent to build the tunnel.
This is the place they have a lot of cruise ship to Prince to William Sound.
Portage Glacier. Notice the blue color of the Glacier. This is because the intense pressure of ice has compressed the snow so much that only the highest energy light is able to get out (blue). Note the fallen ice bergs.
With me is Alex, son of Jill and James. I met these hikers on the way. Hey they had seen a black bear in this area in the last couple of days and I had to keep some company. I went along whistling all along and chatting with these people. But I lost a knife and my precious Oakley’s on this trip. I was so pissed off. That is another 150$ down the drain.
Exit Glacier at Seward. There is a trail that tells how the glacier has receded over the last 75years. (Bush supporters please visit this place, to see global warming in action). There is a 1.6mi trail and a 6 mile trail.
Note how the glacier has chiseled the rocks. More pictures later. Keep 2hrs to finish the longer 6mil trail.
This is the Resurrection River that is formed from the glacier. A piece of ice from the Glacier that has made up to the river water. There are so many of these near the river head.
Note the fly on my hand. This hike is carpeted with flies and mosquitoes.
The Kenai fjord tour. This was a 9hr tour that was actually very pricy (164$) but the good thing is that it is mostly a guided tour and you get lunch and snacks on the tour. The tour promises view of the Hump back whales, Puffins, a whole bunch of other birds, Sea lions and much more. The Kenai Fjords is formed out of the Harding Ice fields and the ice field spills over scores of places to form glaciers. The waters are a quite rough and expect a lot of sea sickness. But the views are breathtaking.
The tour goes 80miles all the way up to the Northwestern Glacier near Striation Island. There is stop at Fox Island, where you can stay over night and do some kayaking.
One also sees the Bear glacier on the way. A gloomy day insured that most of my pictures are very dull. A smarter move would be to take a 5-6hr tour and probably avoid all the sea sickness. Eventually by the end of the tour I would have paid the tour company to get me off the tour boat ASAP. Try the excellent seafood at the Greek restaurant Apollo at Seward instead. Also the Moby Dick Hostel in Seward is a very nice and cheap place to stay and it is right in downtown Seaward.
Note the spikes at the top of the glaciers. Some how the cruise attendant from the SHS really liked it.
An ice piece just broke and you can see the snow rush down wards. Eventually you will see a snowfall in to the Harris Bay.
Some Sea Lions, The big fat is the male and he keeps an eye on his "harem" of 10-15 females.
This should be Rugged Island.
The Great Land, tour Boat.
15th June: A Wish
God give me the strength to fight it all. To bear pain. To walk down the road of righteousness. To rise above infirmities and to keep going on and on and on…
10th June: Mom, who else
Yesterday I got a text message from my mom, saying this: "If you had to use one word, just one word, to describe me, what would be it?"
Now this put me in to great dilemma. How was I to describe some one who had nurtured me for 9months, fed and brought me with love and selflessness, sacrificing on her part on every occasion possible? Someone who had not thrown me in to the garbage can when I gave her so many good reasons to do so, who bore all tantrums that I dished out, worried more about me than I did when ever I was hurt, had an exam or anything. And still make an intelligent and sensitive guy out of me.
One word? That is unfair,
This is all I could come up with, "MA" (Hindi) which translates to mother in English.
There is only one and only one person in the whole wide world that can care and love you so much and that would be your mom.
8th June: Fundaes in Life from an OT
There is this Russell Guy, a war veteran, a avid stock market watcher who runs a stock market column:
Comments from an Old timer.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Russell blabber -- I've learned a few things over the last 80 years, and since I consider my subscribers, as sort of my "kids," I'm going to repeat a few of the observations that I think are valuable:
I've learned not to "sweat" what I'm going to write tomorrow. I used to do that, but I've learned to "leave myself alone -- now I leave it to my unconscious." And if something worthwhile doesn't hit my brain by the morning, I guess I just wouldn't write anything that day. But this is strange, by morning something always comes to mind. I leave it to my unconscious, to God, to a genie, I'm not sure just what, but I always seem to have something to say -- that is if I just "leave myself alone and avoid trying to force it."
When you hire someone to work for you, ideally, you would like the three following -- he or she is fast, he or she is intelligent, and he or she comes cheap (or reasonably so). But the irony is that the best you'll ever get is just two out of those three.
I've found that the two hardest things in the world are (1) to get the correct information about almost anything. and (2) to get anyone to do what they say they are going to do.
Life can be frustrating. Therefore, I've developed two sayings that fit every situation. The first is that "Nothing's easy." So expect it, I don't care if it's your marriage or operating in the stock market or putting a new roof on your house, NOTHING'S EASY. The second saying that I use is that "Everything gets done." I used to drive myself up the wall because my car had a flat or the computer blew up or I hadn't written the day's report -- but calm down, take it easy, because EVERYTHING GETS DONE.
There's another thought that I learned from my smart old engineer dad. It's that if you try hard enough or look long enough, you'll probably come up with an answer to your problem, because "there's a correct answer to everything. The answer is out there somewhere, and it's up to you to find it."
Here's another thing I learned from my father. He used to say, "When you're young, you're convinced that you're going to 'beat the world.' But if you absolutely insist on beating the world, you'll end up finding out that the world is probably going to beat you."
Another one from dad. "If you go into business with a partner, and you're the one who puts up the money while your partner's the one who knows the business, the chances are that it will end up this way -- you'll know the business and your partner will have the money. Russell comment -- I've seen this happen many times. So don't start a business unless you're darn sure you know what you're doing.
Finally, if you're in a relationship you better stick with the truth, and if the truth blows up the relationship, so be it. The strange thing is that the truth seldom blows up a relationship -- what is almost guaranteed to blow up a relationship is avoiding the truth, better known as lying or lying by omission.
Then there's this oldie which seems to apply to men. "Never eat in a restaurant called Mom's. Never play cards with a guy named Doc. And never get involved with a lady who has more troubles than you do."
5th June: Bug in Gmail??
I think there might be a bug in gmail, the email client from Google.
Mails sent to joebruin@gmail show up at joe.bruin@gmail [note the dot]. I (first.lastname@gmail with a dot) got an email that was intended for firstlastname@gmail. This is scary, but it is hard to believe that some thing like this could happen with a product that comes from Google. I have a lingering suspension that probably the guy sending the email was not sure of the email address of the recipient and he sent it to first.lastname@gmail in the BCC field?
If this happened to any of you do let me know.
Thanks
Mayank
5th June: From BBC Scientists create 'trust potion'
A key hormone helps determine whether we will trust lovers, friends or business contacts, scientists claim. Exposure to an oxytocin "potion" led people to be more trusting, tests by University of Zurich researchers found. They report in the journal Nature that the finding could help people with conditions such as autism, where relating to others can be a problem.
But one expert warned it could be misused by politicians who want to persuade more people to back them.
Some may worry about the prospect that political operators will generously spray the crowd with oxytocin at rallies of their candidates
Dr Antonio Damasio, University of Iowa College of Medicine
Oxytocin is a molecule produced naturally in the hypothalamus area of the brain which regulates a variety of physiological processes, including emotion.
It also acts on other brain regions whose function is associated with emotional and social behaviors, such as the amygdala.
And animal studies have shown oxytocin is linked to bonding between males and females and mother-infant bonding.
"The scenario may be rather too close to reality for comfort, but those with such fears should note that current marketing techniques - for political and other products - may well exert their effects through the natural release of molecules such as oxytocin in response to well-crafted stimuli.
"Civic alarm at such abuses should have start
Well what does this mean? The implications are amazing. To think that when we put faith in someone, making sure that we are making that decision in the best of our interest, using all those years of experience and understanding of a person, is actually a façade. A tiny little molecule can actually govern and direct our brain. And you thought that you were not gullible.
3rd June: A sad goodbye to and hello to
2nd June: Kinsey, Lets talk about Sex
How could a man be so resolute in his quest for scientific data that he could even put his own wife on the fire? Met Dr Kensiy, aka ProK. This is a must see movie.
1st June Numbers:
The TIME magazine has a popular section called NUMBERS. This section compares two number figures for a metric under two different scenarios. Here is a comparison that I came up with:
Body Fat percentage that I had as of 31st May, 2005: 5.5%
25th May: Passage from Wordsmith:
"Many people who have grown up in socially, deeply conservative societies have a very hard time coming to terms with the freedoms available in liberal countries. Indeed, they take this personal liberty as a sign of decadence, and often despise Westerners as effete and irreligious. Unfortunately, they have no idea of the centuries of strife and struggle that have gone into attaining this level of secularism and freedom from the church, society, and the state."
Irfan Husain; Existential Dilemma Forced by Clash of Civilisations; Khaleej Times (Dubai, United Arab Emirates); Dec 2, 2004.
20th May: Movies: Sex and Lucia, Mulholland Drive, We don’t live here any more.
17th May: Correction!!
One of my blog reader pointed out that the 5th May blog that I had posted had a fundamental flaw in it.
The reason being: The bidder might have brought the piece not for its aesthetic value, but as an investment that would definitely appreciate in price some years from now. There would be one more cash wielding billionaire who would spend much more that 27.5mil on this “Bird”
5th May: How Rich should the Rich be?
Christie’s Auction House today sold the art sculpture of a “Bird in Flight” by Romanian Constantin Brancusi for (Ready??) $27,456,000. Yes Sir, there are no typo’s in this, 27.5Million US Dollars!! If curiosity got the better of you, here is the BBC Article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4516303.stm
and a picture of the sculpture.
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/ftptoc/brancusi_ext.html
As an engineer I have often been interested in the true value of a thing, Supply and demand in free market govern the price of every thing. The life of a CEO might be worth millions while the life of a homeless man worth a few pennies (I don’t agree to this, but this is how it is). But what I really find apoplectic is that a few people have so much money for something so useless.
29th April: Be nice to me, I Gave Blood Today. Red Cross was here at office today and I had pledged to donate blood. I have a fascination for those stickers which the Red Cross gives, “BNTMIGBT”, at some point of time in the past a thought got fixed in my head: Girls really like it, thus I had to have this. I turn up for the donation at 4:05pm and read this long list of things I must know before I can donate blood. Things I should have not eaten, done, been with and pass all the check boxes. Then I move on to this mobile blood donation bus which right next to my office. There a nice old lady that again walks me thru another long list of question, if I had been in prison, if I had a transplant, if I had sex with multiple partners. Just as I was about to finish the questionnaire and initiate the process of getting my prized sticker, comes the usual suspect. “Have to been out of the country in the past 12 moths?” Well guess what? I was out to India, just four months ago. I wouldn’t lie for a sticker, if I had visited a malaria potent country that was it, no further questions asked. “Sorry son, you can’t do it”, is what I got from the nurse. But seeing my zeal for donating blood, she promise me one thing, when you leave office today, she will arrange for one of those stickers for me (apparently they had run out of those stickers). So today out of the 40 or so people who donated blood from my office, the only person to sport a sticker saying, “BNTMIGBT”, was a guy whose blood had been rejected.
-mayank
26th April: An Office View Lost for Ever:
I have subconsciously accepted the fact that a significant part of my day has to be spent in the confines of a 10’x10’ cube of mine. This is why I installed the extension Forecast Fox 0.7.1 on my Firefox browser. This little feature gives you the capability to seeing the current weather at you location on your computer, which by the way you could have also figured by looking out of your window. I love this feature. The fact that forlorn humans now need a computer to see what is ten feet’s away from them is quite scrumptious. I guess this is what we call progress. By the way the extension is not that totally useless, one can also see forecasts for the coming days, which now that I have watched over the last two weeks, is totally a joke and inaccurate.
-mayank
25th April: Hotel Rwanda: Madam Archer, “And they said ‘There isn’t enough room’”, Paul, “But There is always enough room.” Just like “Schindler’s List”, Hotel Rwanda tells the story of a man, who values his compatriots more than his own life. This also brings a point which one of my colleagues at office totally overlooked. According to him, there is no use of the UN. Well if the Americans, Italians and the British don’t get a dime out of Rwanda, they don’t save it, but then who does? United Nations. Yes Sir, why do you think that a prosperous country like Iraq was bombed by so many nations and millions of people in Darfur Sudan died without anyone raising an eyebrow? Well there is no oil is Sudan… and if my memory serves right, Sudan was bombed in ’98 as there were terrorists in Sudan. Here is what I found on Google while searching for “Sudan Bombing”. Well, why not stops the terrorists now?
But like every place, there are good and bad people in all over.
-mayank
15th April: The luckiest guy Ever! Period.
Ever look at some one and you think, “Lucky Bastard! How does he do that?” Well ladies and gentle men I am that guy!
I have done something that most people would, simply put, ENVY. I have legally and legitimately ripped my cable company of nearly 100$ a month in the last 6months. Yes and that evil capitalistic corporation would be Comcast. Back in September of 2004 I changed apartments and asked the cable to be transferred to my new home. Well the cable TV and Internet got transferred, but there was a glitch in the automatic bill payment. And they duly send me a delinquency bill in two months. I call those guys and tell them that they have already set me up on automatic bill payment and it was impossible that I don’t want to pay my bills. Well that was in November and I am yet to get a bill from those cheap guys. Free cable, I don’t think they even have that in heaven.
-mayank
14th April: One Father One Nation One Race
And yet so diverse!!
An interesting article that appeared in BBC today is copy-pasted below. [Hopefully I am not violating any copyrights]. Notice how everything seems to start from the Middle East where the ark of Noah/Manu was supposed to be. So can the religious books be actually correct?
-mayank
DNA project to trace human steps
By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter
A project spanning five continents is aiming to map the history of human migration via DNA.
The Genographic Project will collect DNA samples from over 100,000 people worldwide to help piece together a picture of how the Earth was colonised. Samples gathered from indigenous people and the general public will be subjected to lab and computer analysis to extract the valuable genetic data.
Team leader Dr Spencer Wells calls the plan "the Moon shot of anthropology".
The $40m (£21m) privately funded initiative is a collaboration between National Geographic, IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation charity. Participating in the five-year study are some of the world's top population geneticists, as well as leading experts in the fields of ancient DNA, linguistics and archaeology.
Future resource
"We see this as a resource for humanity going into the future. It could potentially become the largest genetic database ever created," Dr Wells told the BBC News website.
Members of the public will be able to buy a kit that contains all the material needed to add their genetic information to the database.
Already, evidence from genetics and archaeology places the origin of modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago. It is thought, the first moderns to leave the continent set off around 60,000 years ago.
By studying the Y (or male) chromosome and mitochondrial DNA (which is passed down exclusively on the maternal line), scientists have pieced together a broad-brush picture of which populations moved where in the world - and when. What is lacking, says Wells, is the fine detail, which could be filled in by this large-scale project.
"We know which markers on the Y chromosome to focus on; we know our way around the mitochondrial genome fairly well. We just haven't had the large sample sizes to apply these technologies properly," Dr Wells explained. "There are still many questions we haven't answered. Was there any interbreeding with Neanderthals as modern humans moved into Europe? Did any of the migrations to the Americas come across the Pacific - or even the Atlantic?"
These and other unanswered questions form the research goals of the project. They include:
Who are the oldest populations in Africa - and therefore the world?
Did Alexander the Great's armies leave a genetic trail?
Who were the first people to colonise India?
Is it possible to obtain intact DNA from the remains of Homo erectus and other extinct hominids?
How has colonialism affected genetic patterns in Africa?
Was there any admixture with Homo erectus as modern humans spread throughout South-East Asia?
Is there any relationship between Australian Aboriginal genetic patterns and their oral histories?
What are the origins of differences between human groups?
A total of 10 DNA collection centres located around the world will focus on obtaining samples from indigenous peoples. The genetic markers in the blood of these groups have remained relatively unchanged for generations. "Sub-Saharan Africa harbours the spectrum of variation that will allow us to trace the very origin of our species as well as more recent incursions," said Himla Soodyall, principal project investigator for that region.
Collection challenge
But some researchers said experience on other projects suggested this one could run into trouble with indigenous groups - particularly those, such as Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, with a history of exploitation. "I don't know how they'll deal with getting samples from more sensitive places," commented François Balloux, a population geneticist at the University of Cambridge, UK.
"Amongst Australian Aborigines and Native Americans, the cultural resistance to co-operating with scientists is very strong. "For example, many Native American communities are strongly advised by their elders not to give samples." Ajay Royyuru, IBM's lead scientist on the Genographic Project was optimistic on the issue. "We want to attract their participation by being extremely clear about what we do and do not do. For example, we are very clear about not trying to exploit their genetic diversity for medical uses," he told the BBC News website. Project directors said they had already sought advice from indigenous leaders about their participation.
IBM says it will use sophisticated analytical techniques to interpret the information in the biobank and find patterns in the genetic data. The IT giant will also provide the computing infrastructure for the project. Kits sold to the public contain cheek swabs used to scrape the inside of the mouth for a DNA sample. The swabs can then be mailed to a central laboratory for analysis.
After four to six weeks, the results of the analysis will appear on the website behind an anonymous password contained in the kit. The exact budget available for the study will depend on how many test kits are sold to the public. The net proceeds will go back into the research and into a "legacy project" to support indigenous peoples.
The Genographic Project's directors emphasise that the information in the database will be made accessible to scientists studying human migrations. "We see this as part of the commons of our species. We're not going to be patenting anything - the information will all be in the public domain," said Dr Wells.
The project will shed light on the origins of human diversity (Image: Jodi Cobb/National Geographic)
Spencer Wells aims to build the world's largest genetic database ( Image: Mark Read)
Scientists aim to trace ancient human migratory routes (Image: Chris Johns/National Geographic)
François Balloux, University of Cambridge
Many Native American communities are strongly advised by their elders not to give samples
Dr Spencer Wells, The Genographic Project
We see this as part of the commons of our species
The DNA double helix is held together by 2.9 billion chemical components called base-pairs
HUMAN MIGRATION ROUTES
Map shows first migratory routes taken by humans, based on surveys of different types of the male Y chromosome. "Adam" represents the common ancestor from which all Y chromosomes descended
Research based on DNA testing of 10,000 people from indigenous populations around the world
Source: The Genographic Project
9th April: Sideways: I have been watching movies at a prolific rate these days. This was an Oscar acclaimed movie. Miles is an aspiring book writer and nothing is going this way and his friend, Jack, is the lucky guys how pretty much manages to get every thing he wants.
The excruciating detail in which Miles rates his wines is also any eye opener, though Jack never gets the hang of it. How would I rate it? 6.5/10. Mayank
One more movie, (I forget the exact date I got it although it was in the last two months.)
“Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself”: How much selfless effort Harbour puts in to save his suicidal brother is unbelievable. And the way he gets paid back by life, depressing.
-mayank
8th April: From BCC
Science shows how malaria 'hides'
Scientists have worked out how the deadliest malaria parasite is able to "hide" from the body's immune system.
The US-led international team said Plasmodium falciparum constantly changes the appearance of a protein it deposits on infected cells.
This meant the human immune system did not have enough time to begin making antibodies against the protein before the parasite changed its appearance. The discovery could lead to new avenues for drug research, the team told Cell.
Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one million deaths each year, most of them in developing countries. The P. falciparum parasite has evolved to have a long life because it has to be around long enough to live in a mosquito before it is transmitted to a human. It does this by continuously changing the version of a protein known as PfEMP1 that it deposits on the surface of infected cells. By the time the human immune system learns to recognise the protein and starts making antibodies against it, the parasite has switched to another form of the protein, and the game of "hide and seek" starts again.
1st April: Sin City: and you thought that you had seen it all. There is so much gore and carnage in this movie that the movie will “Sin”ctify you. But the style in which the Frank Miller comic has been adapted to screen is slavishly faithful. More On NYTimes
25th March 2005: U.S. Moves to Sell F-16's to Pakistan Over Indian Objections
Did I miss something?
Pakistan has a dictator who threw a democratic government and promised election. And even 7 years after he came to power, he has no willingness to leave it. Pakistan has the most number of madarasas (schools that preach fundamentalist principals). Pakistan gave nuclear weapons to Libya, Iran, Korean (read the TIME front page 3 weeks ago). Osama is in Pakistan since the last 2-3years and local people openly and the govt secretively supports him (read CIA report). AND Bush thinks that Pakistan is an ally!! And gives them F16s. Either I am a total idiot who doesn’t understand a word of world politics, or there is something really wrong with Bush.
The best part is this
Mr. Ereli described the sale as part of a wide-reaching effort "to improve security and improve prosperity and improve development" in the Subcontinent and surrounding region. He emphasized that the United States would gladly consider requests from India as well as Pakistan - both of which have nuclear weapons - to buy arms.
Lets sell weapons to the India and Pakistan, North Korea and South Korea, Greece and Turkey, Israel and Palestine and let them blow each other. There you go we have a more secure world.
The last thing developing nations need is to spend 850million dollars on fighter planes, so that Bush’s friends at Lockheed Martin get richer. I am all for love between India and Pakistan, but this is definitely a step in the wrong direction.
-mayank
From the NY Times
U.S. Moves to Sell F-16's to Pakistan Over Indian Objections
By DAVID STOUT
Published: March 25, 2005
The Bush administration agreed today to sell Pakistan F-16 fighter planes in a major policy shift that was meant to reward Pakistan for its help in combating terrorism but was also certain to deeply antagonize Pakistan's longtime adversary India.
President Bush telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from his ranch in Crawford, Tex., and "explained his decision to move forward" on the sale, a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told reporters in Texas. Mr. Singh expressed "great disappointment," a spokesman in New Delhi told Reuters.
Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, called President Bush's decision "a good gesture," one that shows that "our relations are growing stronger," Reuters reported.
There were conflicting reports on how many F-16's might be involved in the sale, which would require Congressional approval. One Bush administration official said the number was 24, but another said it was still indefinite, Reuters reported. A State Department spokesman, J. Adam Ereli, said that both the number of planes and the terms of the sale had not been determined. Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Va., said the planes could cost $35 million each, Bloomberg News reported.
With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the administration may well get its way on the sale, but probably not without heated debate.
Mr. Ereli described the sale as part of a wide-reaching effort "to improve security and improve prosperity and improve development" in the Subcontinent and surrounding region. He emphasized that the United States would gladly consider requests from India as well as Pakistan - both of which have nuclear weapons - to buy arms.
Indeed, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited both India and Pakistan earlier this month, and there were reports that she had signaled American willingness to sell F-16's to both Pakistan and to India, if India wanted them. Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Jehangir Karamat, was reported to have told American officials last month that Pakistan would not object to India's buying the jets if Pakistan also had access to them.
As for any possibility that Pakistan's acquisition of F-16's could reignite tensions between Pakistan and India, Mr. Ereli pointed to a recent thaw between the old rivals - "relations between India and Pakistan have never been better" - and said that "stability comes from a sense of security."
"And to the extent that we can contribute to Pakistan's sense of security and India's sense of security, that will contribute to regional stability," Mr. Ereli said.
The F-16 is made by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Operational since 1979, it comes in both single-seat and two-seat models and is one of the premier weapons in the Pentagon's air arsenal. It is designed both for air-to-air combat and for attacking targets on the ground. It is by far the most common fighter in the United States military and in the fleets of many Western allies.
Washington sold F-16's to Pakistan in the 1980's, after Pakistan provided assistance to the forces that drove Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. But Congress ordered a halt to deliveries in 1990 in retaliation for Pakistan's pursuit of its nuclear ambitions. With its original F-16's now aging, Pakistan is no longer satisfied just to buy spare parts for its fleet and has been trying for years to acquire new planes.
People opposed to the idea have said that Pakistan gets enough military aid from the United States as it is. And India has lobbied against Pakistan's acquisition of the planes because it fears Pakistan would use them if war between India and Pakistan broke out again, as it has several times in the past half-century.
The United States' relationships with India and Pakistan, have long been sensitive. India is a democracy and would thus seem to have more in common with America than Pakistan. On the other hand, India sometimes sided with the Soviet Union during the cold war and obtained arms from the Soviets, while Pakistan tilted toward the United States.
Then, too, the commission that investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, recommended that Washington move beyond ambivalence and mistrust in its attitude toward Pakistan and commit itself to providing aid for that country - both military assistance and support for the country's public school system as a counterweight for the sort of Islamic religious schools that foster extremism.
But the commission emphasized that American support should be contingent on Pakistan's making progress toward democracy, curbing nuclear proliferation and confronting Islamic extremists.
The commission, headed by former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, a Republican, and former Representative Lee Hamilton, Democrat of Indiana, said, "It is hard to overstate the importance of Pakistan in the struggle against Islamist extremism."
It added, "Within Pakistan's borders are 150 million Muslims, scores of Al Qaeda terrorists, many Taliban fighters, and perhaps Osama bin Laden."
President Bush has courted Pakistan's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and heaped praise on his government for aiding in the campaign against terrorism after 9/11. But Washington has been angered by Pakistan's willingness to export nuclear technology, including help that a rogue Pakistani scientist, A.Q. Khan, gave to Iran.
But India, too, has long courted Iran, which President Bush once characterized as being part of an "axis of evil," with Iraq and North Korea.
Moreover, despite their decades of enmity, India and Pakistan have lately began exploring a more cooperative relationship. India has wanted for years to build a natural gas pipeline from Iran, with whom it has ancient ties, to help meet its fast-growing energy needs. The pipeline would run through Pakistan.
24th March 2005: Ray: “If you think pennies you make pennies, if you think Dollars you get Dollars”.
21st March: I Love Huckabees: Quite a movie I must say. The title says that it is a comedy. But it is quite thought provoking movie. Why we try to conform to standards set by other?
13th March: I personally think that Adobe FrameMaker is the best word editing software out there. It has a long list of special characters, which are not so easy to find more than often. I found these two pdf documents that elaborate these special characters, bullets and arrows:
Tip2: FramMaker 5.5 character and their default HTML mapping
-mayank
10th March: Shabdh: Frailty of the human being. Ok movie, could have done much better if the irrelevant out of the blue songs were cut off. The underlining message: Despite knowing the eventual consequences, we make mistakes in life. Friendship, love, honor, we sometimes do things that we know can lead things astray, but then what is life with out a little surprise? If ever thing was to be played by rules, what would the thrill be?
9th March 2005: Bourne Supremacy: Best Car chase scene ever, hands down. I though I had seen it all. Right from the nadir of film making in Mission Impossible II to the enthralling Highway chase in Matrix Reloaded. And then I saw Bourne Supremacy… Never seen any more real life like that. Period.
2nd Mar 2005: Proof of Evil: This was like déjà vu, I have seen this situation happen in those ghost movies, supernatural events, inexplicable chain of miss happenings, and I always managed to laugh at them. Heck how can all the things go wrong simultaneously? What is the statistical probability? One in a gadzillion? This is what happened this morning.
I started investing some money in the stocks some time back, and usually when I wake up 6:45am in the morning, I watch the market action, and make a move only if things are drastically bad.
I turn on my compi and the wireless lan is down, (chances: only twice in last six months), I reboot the machine and in the mean start checking the prices on my cell. OS was down 6%, shit I need to get rid of this. Yesterday it dropped 5% and today another 6%, it had already wiped out all my gains and now the stock was simply caving in. Right at that moment I get my yahoo alert, “Your stock OS is down more than 5%”. Ya ya I know that, by this time I am getting the panic virus. By now my m/c is up, I hit the firefox icon and I swear to God that thing didn’t come up until 1whole minute. Usually it is up is just a fraction of second and today one whole minute. Finally it opens, I login in to my Scottrade account and check the streaming quotes. OS is down a further half a point (6.5%). I immediately hit the sell button, the regular sell window pops up and asks me for the amount of shares to sell. I double check the number of shares that I had and then go to the # of shares to sell field and MY KEYBOARD FREEZES. What the hell? Here I am watching the streaming quote show that prices plummeting and my keyboard has to freeze now? Now in the last two year this has never ever happened that ever thing else is functional and my keyboard in not responding. And today when I needed it the most this had to happen. Coincidence? I would say some really evil superpower.
18th Feb 2005: New Vegetarianism: Had a lunch at the Thai Orchid, with a group of company colleagues. Since I had been eating a lot of nonveg off late I ordered a vegetarian entrée this time, making sure that the usual vegi suspects (broccoli and bamboo) were not there and it had cashew nut in it. The dish came and I completely forgot what I was eating in the usual banter. Once the food was over and there was brief moment of silence on the table, I realized that I had plenty of left-over in my plate. Wait they looked like Broccoli, hmm what is broccoli doing in my plate? Ohh also I never had cashew nuts either. We summon the waiter; the dude arrives and after considerable thought and consultation with his manager declares. “You had ordered vegetarian, so we added broccoli as the vegi and removed the cashew as they are non-vegetarian”. God, have mercy on this idiot, for he will go to any length to save his skin. Amen.
-Mayank
15th Feb 2005: Read a good joke today: A mother complained to her doctor about her daughter's strange eating habits. "All day long she lies in bed and eats yeast and car wax. What will happen to her?" "Eventually," said the doctor, "she will rise and shine!"
10th Feb 2005: “I think; therefore I am”
A statement by the seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes. “I think; therefore I am” was the end of the search Descartes conducted for a statement that could not be doubted. He found that he could not doubt that he himself existed, as he was the one doing the doubting in the first place. In Latin (the language in which Descartes wrote), the phrase is “Cogito, ergo sum.”
Now the story behind this wise saying.
I have a colleague in office who is a fantastic story teller, Tom Raymond. He can tell you even the most mundane story in way that you end up doing ohh aah.
So here I am sitting on the lunch table having my lunch and suddenly Tom say, “You ever heard of the saying ‘I think; therefore I am’? Isn’t that from a French philosopher, Descartes something?” Well I had heard that saying, but I had no clue as to who said that. So I passively node, “Probably it was a French philosopher but it could be a Greek philosopher or anything”. Before I could allow my chain of thought to begin, Tom came up with this funny story.
“There is this guy standing in long Queue at Starbucks and waiting for this morning cappuccino. Like most of us he had subconsciously made a of habit of drinking one kind of drink and not fooling around with other stuff. Seeing this huge line, one of the waiters walks to him and say, “Sir would you like to have a mocha instead of a cappuccino today? That way you won’t have to wait in the line for ten minutes.” The man thinks for a moment and says, “I think not”. AND PUFF, HE VANISHES INTO THIN AIR.
4-6th Feb: New Orleans, Mardi Gras: Finally I stepped in to this part of the US. The South. I had heard so many stories about this place. Two days of full blown party on Bourbon Street. The motto of the town is
"Laissez les bons temps rouler," that is French and it literally translates to - let the good times roll…
Ajay and Chinky had also come all the way to this place, we
1) Ate an Alligator, (well an alligator tail, but still it was a gator, yuck)
2) Ate Oyester, (the south is know for its cajun sea food, so this had to be done)
3) Ate Beignet (French pastry) at Café du Monde.
4) Did the river walk besides the Mississippi.
5) Smoked a Cigar. (even 1/3 of it was killing)
6) Watched Super bowl at Pat O’Briens, with a bunch of Patriot and Eagles fan.
Some very sober pictures are here.
29th Jan 2005: I friend of mine came to visit me form SFO. We were discussing how to go up on Google rankings and he told me Bush bashing is the sure shot way to get a lot of hits on your page. Now I could really care less if some one read my blog of not, but then I remember the days when typing “mayank gupta” on Google to give my home page as the first link. Of late that has taken a lot of beating. I think I don’t even stand in the top 15. Damn all those mayank gupta’s out there. For the records Google gives 1130 links to “mayank gupta”, but to console my self the number of hits for “Amit Jain” is 10,600!! My heart goes out for every Amit Jain out there.
Oh yes back to Bush bashing, now that I already have a grudge against his policies, I might as well write them. This is what I wrote to a friend who wanted my views about how Bush’s 2nd term would affect India.
My view is that the euphoria among Indian with the return of George Bush is really uncalled for. While most of the world is horrified with the results of the US polls, Indians surprisingly are in jubilation.
[Ref http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4185205.stm]
Here is why I think so
a. W thinks that Pakistan is US’s strongest ally in southwest Asia and the coming 4 years will just reaffirm this believe of his. Aid to Pakistan which had almost come to a stand still after the atomic tests has started flowing again. Mostly recently US approved 1.3billion of arm sales to Pakistan.
[Ref http://india.news.designerz.com/pakistan-rejects-indian-objections-over-us-arms-sale.html]. This would also mean that it is virtually guaranteed that India won’t get a Security Council seat for the next 4 years
b. The war on Iraq has not helped any one. The prices of oil/gas have doubled in the past 1 year, while this hardly affects the wealthy nations; countries like India are hit below the belt. Speculations the war on Iran are just increasing the global oil prices. And while bush is in power, it is very unlikely that these speculations will die.
c. Bush is so engrossed with this war on terror that he forgets the role which as the leader to the only super power on the planet, he has to play. Although India has always opposed the intervening of US in Kashmir, this also means that the border dispute with China or Bangladesh are not going to be solved in the next four years.
d. The national security act which was vehemently opposed by W’s opponent in the election makes racial discrimination almost legal. This means that any Indian in America can be detained without proof or reason in the name of national security. What would we expect from the leader who still gets his commands/directions from “God”.
e. The only reasons that Indian favor George Bush is the fact that that under him the whole BPO flourished. We should remember that the BPO was not something that W came up with. The BPO is a natural result of the cheapest and best ruling the market. Isn’t that why the US drives German cars, use Japanese electronics and buys Chinese goods? So why should the good educated and cheap Indian stay behind? In fact companies had started moving offices and help desks to India in 2000 while Bill Clinton was in power. Conservatives in the US are already clamoring for getting the calling centers back to the US and if push comes to shove, W will do that too.
Those were my 2 cents, hope it helps.
warm regards,
Mayank
22nd Jan 2005: There is this girl I loved so much. I grew seeing her and she grew on me. Ever year four times for two weeks I would see her. Looking at her mesmerized. Transfixed as she would win my heart again over again. Enraptured as she decimated her peers. She is the only girl whom I sent a get-well card when she got hurt. Yes, I paid international postage for it. In fact I had to pay more than the regular postage since the card was too big. And then she got married…
Today I saw here again, there she was on the TV. Impeccable, flawless as ever and I felt my knees wobbling.
Ohh the side note: Andre Agassi withstood a record 51 aces from Joachim Johansson to beat the in-form Swede 6-7 7-6 7-6 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
21st Jan 2005: Google goes a step further
Google changed its default word search from
http://dictionary.reference.com/ to
Now how does that help? For starters you get the meaning, synonyms and the translation in other language all in one page. Then there are links to other pages that have useful information about that word. I have always wondered how can one company in all its motives and efforts, work to such an extent for the betterment of its products and the satisfaction of its end users. I guess there is a lot of learning to be done. Either the world is not as bad a place I think it to be or some people are simply too good.
4th Jan 2005: Keeping the tradition of doing something extraordinary while traveling back, this time was no exception. I was visiting the famous Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi Chauk and after two hours of pooja, when I was returning back, I suddenly realized that my wallet had been stolen. I had it all along, while entering the temple, while paying the Poojari 5Rs as Dakshna, and some where in the last 15-20minutes someone had managed to flick it. It had about 900-1000Rs, which was ok, but it also had 3 of my credit cards and my Bank Debit Card. To top it all, I had my Oregon state id (Now why would I carry that in India, well for starters I am nuts) with my address and signature. It also had a telephone number of a certain someone which I really didn’t want to loose. Viola, I was screwed.
We went to the temple and frantically searched the wallet to no use. In fact one to the pandit’s curt remark was this “Baba Vishwanath ki ye hi marjee thi” (“The Lord wanted this to happen”). Brilliant! Thanks for the supportive words, Sir. Any way we registered a FIR with the temple police, knowing fully well that nothing was going to happen, at least not from the police side. We returned from the temple with glum looks on our faces. I was totally upset and even shouted at my folks for living in a place that was so abundant with thieves (I certainly regretted that remark later).
I called up the ever faithful Dk at 00:30hrs (Pacific Time) and asked him to call up all my credit card companies and cancel the cards. Dk as trustworthy this chap is woke up in the middle of the night, went to his lab and called up all the Cos. Just as we were about to have our lunch, I got a call from a friend of mine, Arjunan, in Bangalore. Even before Arjunan could start speaking, I told him that I was really pissed off as my wallet was lost and this was definitely not a good time to talk. To this Arjunan replied that I could chill out because he knew where my wallet was. Now for the records Arjunan has this annoying habit of acting smart, so I thought this was again one of his pranks. But, what he told me next took me by surprise. Some one had found my wallet thrown near the temple and from the wallet he had found Arjunan’s number and then called him about the lost wallet. Arjunan then gave me the number to the guy who had found my wallet and the locations where I could meet him. After I reached the temple, I identified my self to the guy and he returned back the wallet to me. The money was all gone but the cards and the driver’s license were all there, not to forget the all important telephone number. We then offered the guy how had found the wallet and called up Arjunan, 100Rs but he flatly refused to accept the money. He even refused to take money for the STD called he had made to Bangalore! Talk about the good that is still left.
3rd Jan 2005: Another name has been added to mine. More pictures and details to come.
The malaria parasite is carried by mosquitoes
Professor Chris Newbold, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine
We don't yet understand enough about the mechanics
Why the BLOG?? Well it is true that for 24-25 year of my life, I never cared to maintain any kind of log, then the obvious Question: Why now? Frankly it is more influenced by an article that appeared in the New York Times on 18th May 2003, but then it is new too late to LearnJ . The New York Times puts is more beautifully: This is for people like me “who draw from their personal experiences — and often the personal experiences of relatives, friends and colleagues — to create a kind of memoir in motion that details breakups and work and family issues with sometimes startling candor.”. So let this be my attempt at Blogging. One thing I promise: Never to use any real names in my logs.