Saturday, October 16, 2004

It's HomeComing Time

This is the last day of this trip here at the United States. Home is still 2 days and 35 travel hours away. Will be meeting my folks after a long time.. And Would be attending Durga Puja at home after 4 long years.. Cant wait for it.. ITs starting to get pretty cold here.. Am glad I am escaping the extremes .. .

Shane Keith Warne just overtook Muralitharan as the highest taker of test wickets.. He is an awesome leg spinner.. The best ever... I still remember seeing the ball of the century bowled by him to clean bowl Mike Gatting out from behind his legs.. (though I would contest this ball with the Alan Donald stunner of a off cutter that ripped off Sachin's woodwork during the first trip to ProteaLand) .. Warnie is true class.. The oNly thing that has detterred him is injuries .. and sporadic controversies.. But its the kind of control in flight and the deception in turn that they say make him a truly special bowler..

But An Average of 54 vs India is really noteworthy.. given the fact the against all the others its less than half of this... India has been the only big thorn in the crown.. I think he desperately wants to perform well here .. After All India over the recent years have repeatedly proven to be the nemesis for Australians, both as a team and as individuals. The team they lost their 16 match winning streak too... The elusive Border Gavaskar for years.. the Spoilt Steven Waugh Party... And a captain willing to give one back by the mouth.. they have had it all.. I dont think it gets better than this..

However it amazes me how much.. professionalism these cricketers put into the game.. I dont thnk any country can come close to them in this regard. Most of the players are not exceptional players.. but together they gel to form the unbeatable unit...

What can the Indians learn from these
a) Training Regimen..
b) No Ones the "God" in my team. No Ones "God" in the other.
c) Total belief In the captain -> "I will run into a brick wall if Steve tells me to" - > Justin Langer speaking to the media about Steve Waugh
d) Relentless. Ruthless..The Killer Instinct
e) Very good Inter State Cricket and a transparent selection policy.
f) Belief that they can win almost anything,That they are the best.
g) Endorsements are not the biggest part time activity.

Anyways.. I do hope The Chennai test is won and we square the series.. I will be in India to watch the 3rd one at Mumbai .. Lets hope for good quality cricket from both sides..







Friday, October 15, 2004

Live Like you were dying

"He said, I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime"
" and I spent, most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options and talking bout sweet time"

I asked him, when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
hows it hit you when you get that kinda news, man what'd you do?...

And he said ...

"I went sky diving ...
I went Rocky Mountain climbing ...
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named BluManchu ..."

"and I...
loved deeper, and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"

And he said ...

" Someday I hope you get the chance....... To live like you were dying."
To live like you were dying. To live like you were dying.

Lovely Lovely Song.. Its just been the last 2 years since I have begun listening to US Country.. and boy Tim McGraw rules.. He does. Seriously. No wonder its the hottest thing on the radio charts right now. for months now. The best part is ... I have the uncanny knack of starting my car radio exactly half a minute before this plays... and the song simply makes me take in a breath of fresh air.. and shoo my lethargy of the morning or the tiredness of the evening away...


What do you think? What If.. you came to know.. You have just 30 days to live... What will you do? ... And I know you would definitely say.. I will enjoy life.. and I will roam around.. I would do this , that .. things I had kept for myself.. to be done later... I will shrug off all animosity.. all hate n jealousy..


This Song equates to images of the evergreen Kakaji In Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand.. .. his brisk strolling down a twilight red beach.. a bunch of balloons in hand.. .. and Manna Dey Crooning "Zindagi... Kaisi Hai Paheli.... Haay... "

It takes a time line for us to know .. and realize how important the small things of the world are .. It took "Anand" the protagonist, terminal cancer to appreciate the importance of bringing cheer and fun to his life and of others...
It takes disability for people like Hellen Keller to teach us repeatedly.. how to grasp the beauty of mother nature..

And here we are, millions of us.. sitting at our cubes.. day and night.. servicing Across Atlantic MNCs.. taking the project leader's order.. that "Oh .. You HAVE to do a Night - out today cos we have the delivery lined. up" ...

Most Germans in my company dont work after 3 pm on friday.. The holidays begin almost at Thanksgiving.. to "prepare for the Chistmas festivities" ... I know my American colleagues who would take out half a day out to attend his 8 year old's school baseball match, or his daughters presentation.. at university.

Can we Indian's deserve take some time for us ? e.g. Put our foot down and say.. THIS IS THE TIME FOR THE FAMILY UNION... All brothers from the US.. and the sister in Hyderabad, or the cousin in Bombay can maybe meet up..

To Give up our huge imposing professional burdens for a while.. and meet loved ones.. . Or to spend time for yourself.. say read a good book .. walk by the beach.. trek a mountain.. or in fact whatever you want..


"Skydiving , I went... Rocky Mountain Climbing.. I went 2.7 Seconds.. on a bull named.... "

:)

Anyways, for anyone in Bangalore reading this.. There is one more way .. to bring cheer to your inner self..
Its a pity the Silicon City of the world with billions of revenue generated and fatter paychecks than anywhere else in the country cant bring forth its residents to foster 1.1 million children living in abject poverty.. for a better life .. and education.. Bangalore boasts of a 30% illiteracy rate which is horrible in any urban standards of the world.. Do Check out the websites of Parikrama, the Human Foundation.. at http://www.parikramafoundation.org/halfday/htm They have come across a novel idea of providing Nutrition, Health Care and above all Education to the under - priveleged slum dwellers' children of the city.
As they say, provide these children a level - playing field.. and just sit back and watch what they will do to the country. I am going to donate half of my day's salary to them .. Cos thats just what they want .. from us for their cause.. ( THere is also apparently a 30th October Rock fest ticket that you get for this)..



The last line of the song is what gives ppl the goosebumps..
" Someday I hope you get the chance....... To live like you were dying."


Enjoy life pals !! Party hard.... Take a nap in office :) watch a movie.. play a prank on your boss :) (thats taking it too far I spose)
Enjoy every moment.. Cos you wont get back the time that you just spent..

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Of Italian keyboards and Barbie Dolls

Just signing off one of the pretty lousy days of my life .. Mucked it up from the start.. . Got up an hour late.. got totally drenched on the way from the office parking space to the front door.. Spilled hot coffee on my pants ( and just as when I thought I could take all this in my big all forgiving stride.. comes the mother of all ) ...

I KONKED OF MY IBM T40's MOTHER BOARD !!

Whoaaaa !! For a sec, it feels like I can allow myself a small shirt-collar raise ceremony .. Crashing the thinkpad is not a joke.. But wait a sec. Let me try figure out what I did... Was I in my lets-see-how-much-dust-can-we-blow-from-the-processor mode? No.. Did I read a jumper manual? Nyet !! Or was the Idiots Guide to EChip Circuitry at my desk.. NO. I was just dabbling at something on VC... Then why the hell did it just decide to leave its *motherly duties and die? And it knew I had the all important delivery tomorrow..

Anyways.. the wise man hath spoke:

"There Shall never be a dearth of ‘Vella’s in any office corridor anywhere in the world"

I was swarmed too, and the only solace I could find in the wisecracks was that the average melanin content of their originators is different from what I generally find back home .. The comments range a wide perspective too.. from "see whether we can discharge the capacitor" to "why dont we plug in the HDD to the nearby Dell"

My Italian colleague has graciously agreed to spare me his T41p for the rest of the night.. He says.. "Enjoye"
But the head scratchers are plenty at this front too. Pausa might mean pause.. but. BlocS is a ScrollLock and Stamp means PrintScreen.. Canc is what you press for Delete.. "Kanch" is how its pronounced quirped Marco, the Pound symbol stands for # the ( stands for ) and the & stands for ^ and e stands for { And DONT EVEN BOTHER IF YOU HAVE a special character in ya password.. :))

Funny key locations too.. I thank the IBM ppl they have kept the basic keys the same.. The German ones are even more horrifying.. They are all jumbled up..

One of the things that bewilder me when I view the American society is their version of the zeons old concept of buy and sell. Back in India, or let me generalize it to the developing nations, there are quite a few basic realms of trade which transgress economical hierarchy and allow millions of people to form small independent worlds of socio-economic interdependence.. We have thousands of people supporting their families just by selling bread, or by knitting baskets, or opening a Road side Dhaba, or running the auto.. Every industry has many branches and segments, from grass root rural to small scale cottage to large industries. Here? Most of these industries that we see on the roads are only for Corporate houses. The poor man can just consume and pay.. or serve the company.. I see the malls (Walmart, Target, Harris Teeter) , Garments (Sears, Hechts, Dillards) , Electronics (Best Buy, Circuit City, Electronic City) , Food (Food Lion/ or some other name) , Restaurants (Hardees, Bojangles, Taco Bell, McDonalds) Cars, Rentals, House Accessories, And None of them are in the reach of the poor.. for town after town , village after village , city after city, you will get the same Brands, the same color the same taste.. I used to keep asking myself.. What does the poor do for a living? Or maybe there aren’t as many..

Clothes that would fit a city for 3 years.. Food worth feeding thousands… A thousand cars to choose from just for rent. It all does fit perfectly into the great magnanimous vision America and its culture prides in itself. “Its Always more than the eyes can see, More than what you can grasp in one go” . You have to crane your neck at its skyscraper, gasp at its power, get blinded by its glare, and fear its dark . Gigantic..Plentiful, Awe-Inspiring.

Life is easy. Maybe some Choices are too.

Got blinded by a collection of about a 100 Barbie dolls, just the other day while searching for a gift to my cute little cousin Punpun the other day. I always thought about how crazy and foolish small girls could get over a piece of plastic ... but just looking at each of those models each time my heart filled with joy and a smile passed my lips. I now realize what a child’s dreams can be made of, and how much love the mute idols..,, can bring to the toddlers . God bless its creator J Choosing was very tough.. but I had narrowed to Barbie in Naples.. and Barbie the Dream princess .. waitin for Ken..

I chose the latter.

And Italy striketh back..










Monday, October 11, 2004

Long Time, No C

Sorry Bloggy,

Ignored you after just our first conversation.. Got a bit bz.
Plead ya, forgivance this time.. okay? Wont mess up again.

For my pals, who know all , and some who dont.. or just for the record.

Lets see what Ive done since July..
a) Brought up the project I have been leading since March to a good shape. Have battled resistance, competition, technical difficulties and now am starting to see the efforts bear fruit .. am pretty happy at myself..
b) Reached Raleigh , North Carolina Its been 3 months here at the Candlewood Suites,
c) Visited New York, Washington , Pittsburgh, Have driven for almost 3000 miles since these past three months, Tried out the Chevy Malibu (awesome car), the Mazda 6 (sports modelish but bad mileage) and the Oldsmobile Alero (Naaaaaahhhh) !!
d) Splashed at the Atlantic.. waded across the brooks... trekked the hills and viewed the beautiful waterfalls at North Carolina..
e) Caught up with atleast 15 friends over this period (cousins, schoolmates, neighborhood mates, ex office mates) .. some of them even after 7.5 years.. Did loads of talking..
f) Loads of American culture.. American ppl , movies, series, Presidential debates, roads n highways, malls n markets, blacks and whites, (A) football and baseball, food and restaurants, hangouts, museums and torrid weather (hurricanes) :)
g) Missed my folks and all my friends back home..

What else is up? What else is arnd?
a) Cricket, Cricket, Cricket.. India Australia At Home.. We trail by 0-1 at this stage.. With Tendulkar out of the first two tests with a Tennis elbow and Sourav and guys horribly out of form I think we should be lucky to survive with even a single draw..
b) Two of my friends.. Aparna and Harsh ..getting married.. Aparna on the 8th of October.. Harsh on the 8th of December, Pretty happy for both of 'em
c) maybe a MS degree?
d) Growing a teeny weeny paunch :)
e) Loads of shopping for friends and relatives .. the loved ones :) and some fer myself..
f) Hearing New songs.. Veer Zaara, Swades... also.. old ones.. loads of Mozart, and Mohd. Rafi..
g) Happy Birthday to the Phenom .. Amitabh Bachhan .. I love most of his movies..
Sholay,Chupke Chupke, Amar Akbar Anthony, Mard, Deewar, Kabhi Kabhi, Silsila, Anand, Agneepath, Namakharam, Baghbaan , Abhimaan, Zanjeer, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Namak Halaal, Mili, Sharaabi,Lawaaris, Naseeb, Coolie, Kaalia, Trishul, Shahenshah,Kaante, Majboor, Hum, Khuda Gawah mostly in this order :) The others I dont like much..
h) The first Afghan elections since years and years.. Tho I seriously think , the US media here is closed and biased, I think it showed some really heartening images about the Afghanis ... I hope the country gets some peace.. and some development.. and have some kind of economic and social independence..


What may the future hold?
a) Back home in Delhi for the festivites next week.. October 18th... starting.. will be visiting Ma n Dad after a long time.. and would be back for the Durga Puja after 4 long years.. Just Cant wait :)
b) A bit of planning for the next 3 years
c) Updating my blog and website.. (will tell you the site url a bit later when its presentable).. Over the next days.. I plan to update this space with more about myself.. .. about me .. my life.. my past and my profession.. my likes and dislikes..
d) Loads of excercise and toning up (courtesy previous section Point d)
e) Learning more of Distribution Transformers .... and Learning more of .NET ... (it still continues to fascinate me)

Before I sign off for the day.. I must admit the fact that there was one specific thing that made me write up today. .. I read up my friend Sameer's blog after a long time..Ran through some of his archive writings, and enjoyed them a lot.. Maybe its time.. I start keying up as well. :) ...


BBye for now.. Meet you tomorrow.. (and yes i know, tomrw is 24 hours and not 3 months :)) )

Archan