Meaningless things in life

A list of things that seems to be meaningless to me:-

1) Bollywood Heroins. Just for fun to eyes and possibly the hero.

2) Having 50 + friends in your orkut/facebook profile. Seems so much of waste storage when you have like 200+ friends on your list. Tells nothing about the individual at all. You are not sure that you knew someone at all. Just good for number crunching. 

3) Balaji's spate of lies. Now sure he lies about everything.

4) T20. Now that pakistan won the world cup. Hang Modi.

Would be adding more.........

Farmer's Market

The weather is sticky. Just bought a 140$ book after a lot of thought and haggling about the BUY BACK price. Books are always an investment worth making especially if the book isn't available back home. 

Thinking of making a side dish of vegetables today. I think I can pull this one of given the success in the earlier part of the week. So I bought the potatoes from the Farmer's Market. I had to search for them and mind wondered to buy cauliflower for gobhi parathas. But do not have a shredder at home. I finally zeroed in on the potatoes. I told the lady that I would buy them but she told that she can't sell anything before 11:30 am. Luckily my watch showed 11:30 but she went by her own time. So I was kept waiting for around 5-6 minutes.

I looked at the people selling their goods. These people are very simple people. You can make out from the way dress. Simple country side clothing nothing too flashy and flaunting. Most of them do not wear any footwear and their hands and feet are rough. Even the lady selling the potatoes has rough feet. Reminds me of the sabziwala in our market. The potatoes are priced reasonably at 4$. Other shops sell like bread, cookies, green vegetables and flowers. Its fascinating to move around with different aromas of food at different places in the market.

The whole point is we buy most of our stuff at Walmart or Weiss or whatever shopping outlet. We really do not benefit any individual there. All we do is pass our money to some retailer. We do not bother about people who get us that food in first place. Its just buy and enjoy for us. And for them as well. But it would be nice to go and just buy some stuff from such markets once in a while.

Relaxed

I do not know swimming and I am learning it. Finally managed to get the kicks right. Now able to kick from the hips. But breathing still remains a BIG problem but its getting easier by the day. Its kind of nice to work during the day and practice in the evening. It relaxes my mind and the mood is upbeat for the evening.

The locker room is however not very comforting. You can see shameless amros and chaptas changing in OPEN. They do not even use the towels to COVER up. And the showers are common. Shamelessness prevails even there.

Nevertheless I felt good and relaxed after so many days. Life here can be boring at times. And having insane roommates does not help much.   

Experiment Successful

Bored of the tortillas and rice, I finally decided to make parathas yesterday. Somehow for last some days, I am feeling a little homesick. Missing my MA a lot. So I brought a HUGE potato for the parathas, though my favorite are gobhi. 

I put the HUGE one on boil. But it won't. So I had to cut it into pieces. After the pieces got softer, I mashed them and added salt and mirch. And the mixture looked exactly like Ma used to prepare!! After doughing up the flour, I flattened out dough and the mixture. Tell you this is less messier than preparing the rootis. Though the amount of oil used was large( need not bother now that I go swimming daily), the first one was the most delicious. Add the tomato sauce and who can say that you are alone in America. I made two more with a little lesser oil but they weren't the same as the first one.

Sonu reminded me of our parent's wedding anniversary. And I took credit as the first one to wish Ma. Poor Sonu!! Not that I did not remember. I knew it was sometime in June. I was a little confused about the dates. I told Ma that I made ALOO parathas. She replied that my would wife would be petty happy with that!! 

The T20 type blog progress

So just too fed up looking at the live scorecards at cricinfo for past one and a half months. Just enough of T20. Stop it man!!! Not that India is also knocked out, I have little loyalties left. Just want this SHIT to end soon. Bring on the ASHES.

So I looking at my posts on this blog. Yeah I guess I am the only one looking at my posts. And it looked like a score card to me. It reads like this:-

• ► May (4)

• ► April (12)

• ► March (11)

• ► February (13)

• ► January (10)

Read the months as over numbers. And then calculate the blogs per month yourself. And June is yet to finish!!!

THE FIRST CLASS

So had my first swimming class today. Very nervous throughout the whole day. But thanks to Guru things worked out petty smoothly. There is way from the looker rooms to pool which I did not know. And I searched for the key given to me for the lockers somewhere else before figuring out where its actual address was. And you have to deposit your keys at the counter to get the locker keys and Guru even did that for me. Deposited his own keys for me. 

The first feel of the water in the pool was overwhelming. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!! But yeah the estimation of the depth was a problem at first. Nearly slipped and fell. And then I waited for 5 minutes before Rebacca found me. She stuck me with some lady and told her that this was my first time in the pool. She demonstrated me the kicks. But I was not able to keep up. madam I am SLOW learner. But I she did helped only a little and I kept struggling. She passed my file to a fat lady. She was nicer. She helped me learn some kicking with a support under my belly.

SHC

The Student Health Centre(SHC) had not mailed me my health card till now. My friend just put a nasty piece of information about the insurance card the previous week end. I finally went to SHC only because I needed some document for joining the swimming classes. It is THE swankiest building in the campus. More than our IST.

The lady at the service was partially blind and needed a magnifier to read. She asked for my ID and I placed it under the magnifier. She was still not able to read my card. I thought I should help her and I extended my offer. But she declined and her tone suggested that she felt offended to some extent. This is not India boss!!! The good thing here is that the people are self - reliant of sorts. Not that back in India people are not but it was different with that lady. My offer for help was not offending but she wanted to read the card as part of her duty. She appeared to be fine afterwards.

Got a copy of my card. Now I feel more SAFE.

Joined the swimming classes

Yupe got lucky again. Guru joined the classes and I came to know of these adult classes from him. And yesterday I enrolled. Although I have missed one class, but the instructor said she would accommodate the class. Four classes for 80$. Not bad for an entirely different set of skills.

Not very excited. But a part of my brain is apprehensive about Sunday. Just the shorts for swimming. Nothing up!! I mean. I do not have words. But I guess its about one day and then it would get easier.

Got really fed up of badminton. Not many people turn up now a days. The other day I stood idle for half an hour. And then on Monday loss to AJ was even more frustrating. One he did not give me time to warm up and second I had beaten him in straight games the other night. Third it happened before his lady friend. True I was desperate to beat him in front of her and messed up my serves and samshes. He was all sugary and treated her like a CHILD. Nothing against him but he is such as ladkibaaj. What's even more appalling that girls fall for such people.

Looking forward for Sunday.

Getting a good hang of security now

I have read a lot on security in last month. Research sometimes is very frustrating. Sometimes nothing seems to be working and sometimes many things in the jigsaw seem to come together. Its a constant process and does not come easily in a week or two. Though I have not started any RESEARCH but I think it would not be any different than what I have just mentioned. The key is to spend daily 5-6 hours.

Read a lot about web security. I was especially impressed with the work of Niels Provos. His paper on simulating the low level layers in Operating Systems and Networks to create a LAN of subvert machines to gather traffic information for security analysis was the most remarkable paper I have ever read. Not that it had something great but the idea and its implementation was special. I went on to read with other works in Google on web security such as classification of malicious URL's. The more I read, the more I am getting addicted. Got to be careful!!

But anyways I was very impressed with Google's organization of their E-learning modules at http://code.google.com/edu . It looks very professional and gives a feel of a university. Gosh if I could give one piece of advice to students back in India it would be to really imbibe the material at this site. Not that it would make any sense now, but they would not have to struggle like me to find good project ideas. Trust me its really good.

Wish I could meet Niels Provos some day.

Ever growing list of DISHES

This is just SOME of the DISHES that I can cook now:-

1) Rajma Chawl (Any beans here is Rajma)

2) Roti ( Not tortilla's. I do the regular Indian procedure)

3) Tea ( yupe Ma nevers made STRONG tea. I would teach her when I get home. )

4) Omelet ( Again something I learned with a lot of experimentation and discussion with others)

5) Most recent the Pullaw ( Not great but better than the last try)

6) Learning to cook vegetables from my friends.

More on agenda;-

PIZZA from Jagdish (hope he has cooled down!), will surely add more. Sooner I shall advertise on matrimonies as a groom who can COOK good.

GG has no loyalties

Yupe that's me. These days seeing the rupee getting stronger to the dollar is bothering me a little. I have a little saving in dollars here now and whenever the rupee is stronger the EVIL brain does conversion AUTOMATICALLY. And yes there is that feeling "Well had it been fifty, I would have had that much money as savings in India". Prior to coming here it was the other way around. Oh God why the Dollar is so expensive. Oh! we should have converted yesterday. It was cheaper then. Confirmed. GG is a Hippo-crate.   

THE NAMESAKE

Saw THE NAMESAKE but did not read the book. I brought the book from India but lazy me. A beautiful movie. Makes more sense to me now that I am an NRI now. But its theme is great. Its about the relations, a father and son, a man and his wife, what's real and surreal and what's happiness.

The boy of Indian couple always looked for happiness outside his family. And he could not find it anywhere but finally found it in the happiness of his family. Some people are just indispensable in your life and he discovered after a while.

Some months ago I saw the kid of one my friend from Mumbai speak english in fantastic American accent. I was amazed as the kid had been in US for only like an year. What's more his father told me that he understands Hindi and Marathi but can't speak them. I brought the issue to another of my Post Doc friend. He said that's normal and that my kids would be the same. I drew a blank. It stuck me profoundly. All this time I struggled with life here, away from my family, for my education but what after that. Would I stay here? Would I have kids like these? What after completing the degree?

I still do not have answers to them. And maybe I won't have them in any near future either. Movies like NAMESAKE do breathe any confidence of settling here . Does education, degree and research weigh more than the family? Its just to many things to think about and waste time writing them.

AJ

Who is AJ? Another one of the oldies here. I means he is around here for six years now. And he one those who lives life his style and like all other oldies thinks that he is always right and you are wrong. 

But why suddenly him. I meet him around February for accommodation for next year. It did not work out. Then again we met in the IST lift, where I smiled at him SMUGLY ( according to him. I heard the word for the first time.). Then again he is the co-ordinator of the badminton club. And he always coaxes me to pay the fee. 

So I met him again that day in my casuals the PAJAMAS. And he fired a partial salvo on my dressing sense. It was only for some 50 seconds but it somehow stayed in my mind over the night. He then got busy with some desi GIRL and ignored me there after. 

Next day I dressed better and appeared in the IST cafeteria for breakfast. And I motioned to him to join me. And that was the beginning of a long wiping session. I tried to digress him but he is still not that old. He kept pounding me with uncomfortable questions on my dressing sense and my unshaven face. And after the SESSION I was convinced that something was seriously wrong with me. He called me CHICHORA. And some more of unmentionable words. 

But yeah he was right. Office and lab dressing should be decent if not great. And PAJAMAS are simply not decent. A piece of advise which no one ever pushed on my face. And what's more a good apparel doubles your chances of finding a girl-friend (Or her finding you).

Lessons learned. What's more I discovered that girls also blog and they also have the same amount of FRUSTRATION( again according to him ).  

An Eventful Week

So after three weeks of lull the storm arrived. Yeah it was getting boring, after perhaps the most eventful semester( read four months ) of my student life ended. But it brought a lot of bad blood but some more fun as well.

So my adviser was after my ass from the beginning of the week. I had to set up the system for HIS paper and I had not done it as yet. And then understand the code. This is perhaps the MOST difficult thing for me. Understanding some one else's CODE. It fucks the mind. But I am in CSE and this is supposed to be my strengths. Too bad. Anyways this kept me occupied for the whole week. Good break from freebies I guess.

If that was not enough our electricity was shut off on Wednesday. Now electricity shut-offs is one of the most CATASTROPHIC things that can happen to you in AMERICA. I mean we as Desis are used to live without any power for days but if you have lived in US for nine months it is painful as hell. No power means no gas. No gas means no cooking. Implies you are practically homeless. All this happened because Balaji did not deposit the bill on time. What followed was even more uglier. Jagdish and Balaji just went over the boil. There were different versions of facts from both of them, each accusing each other of something. Jagdish threatened, I suppose, to move on this weekend for good. For the first time I did not feel voilated by Balaji, but jaded. May be the news of his moving out. After all he's been my only support system here. I always looked him as my elder brother( I do not have one ). Anyways the whole issue got so blown out that my Papa was worried back home. Electricity returned yesterday night but I guess we guys need to sit and sort things out.     

I never tried sleeping in my lab, but this time did just that. I just heard that one of my friends was doing just that for a few days now, but didn't think I would do the same some days later. I joined three chairs and slept, though uncomfortably. First night was difficult, second one easier and I expect tonight would be even better. 

So finally Friday arrived. After spending the whole day configuring LDAP, I went to my friend's house to have a good sleep. We had fun. We made ARBI. And ARBI and rice is not the greatest combination but if you do not get home food for three days I guess everything tastes great. It indeed did. I think we would cook some better combination next time. And I learnt to cook the vegetables. 

The sleep was just great. Eight hours of winking was very refreshing, though with another GUY by side. I guess not everybody is lucky.

So I returned home in the morning. There was ELECTRICITY in our house now. A bath and half an hour of yoga was soothing. A lot of stuff had rotten badly. I decided to cook. Opened up a can of  BEANS. And very casually tried to get rid of the lid. And?? Ouch the RING finger in the right finger was cut rather badly. Blood spurted out even faster than the pain pulse reaching my brain for it to process it. And I was scurrying around for help. Just hate blood. I did the old trick of putting the finger in mouth, but the blood would not stop. There are no band-aids and Balaji is useless. I woke up Jagdish. He told to put the finger in cold water and let it CLOT. I called up my friend but no wail. Finally caught the first bus to campus and bought a pack of band-aids to relieve myself. 

I ended the day with a nice ice-cream treat with Guntas at the CREAMERY. It is a very famous ice-cream parlor here. They serve you a hell lot of it. It is difficult for SOME to drain it down their throats. The guy is a foodie like me. Then we went to Walmart. All the time we just kept chuckling and ogling at the girls. Reminded me of the days when I did the same with Karun.

There's more to write but I do not want to bore the reader out.

So her name is Anika

Finally! After nearly two months my niece(not sure of my relation to her) has a name. The name is ANIKA. Some form of Durga. Achin says that she is very active. What a 2 month child is active. How do you know that!!! Anyways nice to know her name. A meaningful name. God Bless her.