Surface Scratching

Yes I am in Luanda, Angola ... but this is about something else altogether!

I cant wait to scratch the surface of Surface.

Yes - the new toy by Microsoft ... in short - ME WANT!


(image courtesy www.microsoft.com)

My crystal ball shows a whole new ecosystem ... even larger than tha Ipod franchise ... much bigger. The possibilities are so many ... (beyond the video on the web-site - which, by the way you MUST see!)
For starters I would like to have a DJ-turntable application for the Surface - so that it can replace all the expensive and bulky hardware and flimsy Discs!
Then they could have a "real" canvas ... you could paint with special pens ... just like you would on canvas.
Virtual Keyboards - the musical version!
Virtual Tablas, bongos ...
Don't even get me started on the interactive games ( I still have to post about my Wii fun for the past 6 months!) - so many that I can think of right now ... and multiply the fun with motion based controllers ...

I should stop! ... My mind is kicking into overdrive! All this excitement within 10 minutes of reading about the Surface is probably not healthy!
But remember this day ... you will! I sure will.

Sanjay Jha

Must be the Thursday morning buzz ... I dont't know but I can not NOT write about this ... My second stint in Bollywood - Sanjay Jha commented on my post
Now I have always been a big fan of Jhaji's funny and satirical Praan Jaaye Par Shaan Na Jaye and have been waiting to watch his controversial movie "Strings - Bound By Faith" but I never expected Sanjay Jha to post a comment on my post ... I am sooooo happy :)

Jhaji,
Thank You for your response. I will watch Praan Jaye again tonight and also watch Strings as soon as it is available here. And keep blogging :)

Actually now that the buzz has settled (somewhat) I must really appreciate -
1. Sanjay Jha's intellect on becoming a part of the blogosphere as they call it ... I mean if I am involved with media why would I NOT want to be a part of it!!
2. The power of the blog ... I know a lot has been said already but I never cease to be amazed at the power and speed of information that we enjoy ... sure the Telly may have sparked the downfall of Communism in erstwhile USSR - but blogs, message boards and the internet are taking everything to the next level and a couple more!

And if you really want to know what my fist stint in Bollywood was - well ... I was one of the characters in a happy-song in Aastha - a film by Basu Bhattacharya. Not only did I get to spend two whole days on location and get a first hand experience of how movies are made - but I had the fortune of enjoying the company of Rekha and Om Puri for the two days as well :)
For those who are not tired of hearing it ... Rekha looks amazingly incredibly stunning for her age - and she's a lot of fun too - no airs of being such a big star! and Om Puri is a very funny person - didn't expect that. We had a lot of fun during the shoot ... but thats a loooooong story for some other time!

Chalo then ... bahuut boasting kar liya ... time to get back to Earth :)

Goli Maar ... Thriller

This I could not resist! Have been busy for the past few ... but this is too much to keep to myself!


Goli Maar ... Bheje Mein or wherever!

Testing 123 - Democracy - Human Rights - Freedom

I just want to test again - this time in bold
DEMOCRACY
HUMAN RIGHTS
FREEDOM

Are we really living in 2007. All this censorship is utterly ridiculous ...
"Google actively censors results of searches conducted in China and has also removed sites offensive to the Chinese government from Google News. Microsoft actively censors blogs on the Chinese version of MSN spaces to filter out words such as "democracy" and "human rights."

taken from this article - Tech companies, NGOs working on code of conduct

No seriously - I guess they do need to work on a code of conduct ... and ethics ... and human rights - we're human after all!
Of course if you can't read this post then just know that you're being watched!
Vande Mataram.

errr ... WHAT was that again?

So I'm reading one of BBC's accounts on the Ardh Kumbh Mela ... interesting - stuff that happens out there, the people involved, the frenzy, the love, the sadhus, the passion, the water, the sand ... u get the message - nice read!

And then I re-read the part that mentions that this is the holiest day for Hindus and that a whole bunch of them (more than 18 million I hear) came a long way to get a dip, some walk miles, sins get washed, pure bliss, God, Heaven, faith, religion ... the whole shebang! I have to say - WHAT?

I mean these are supposed to be my people, my country, my way of life (Liberal and all that - read Hinduism) -- the people who I have seen for all these years, lived with some, laughed with many ... but how come I don't relate even one bit to all this drama!... almost like I was reading a science journal about the migratory habits of lemmings!

I dont' connect - even on a microscopic level - with any of it! the feelings, the frenzy or even the holiest microsecond part of it! Its a peice of land on the 3rd rock from the sun, and then there is some water - go figure!

I know who I am and where I am. So where does that leave everyone else?

Air India - National Airline or a National shame !!!

Posted verbatim is a hair-raising experience of Subhayu! I thought I should share it with everyone ... it could happen to any one of us!

"
Folks,
This is a absolutely true & horryfying experience that I just went
through with our national airline - Air India. It was so traumatic
for me that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. I have
heard of stray incidents of various
types happening with different people, just couldn't believe when
ALL of those happened with me in 2 days. Here's my experience. I
walk into the Mumbai airport at 12.15 pm for a 14.55 pm flight to
london. (AI 131). After about 40 minutes, AI counter representatives
just start walking around and chatting amongst themselves. Maybe 15-
20 minutes after that, someone raises some noise about their
behavior and then they come out open stating that the flight was
full and that the flight was overbooked. Now overbooking as AI puts
it is a very common action that most airlines resort to, even in
peak seasons such as the one I was travelling in. To my outmost
surprise, they had overbooked a flight of 210 passengers (they fly a
Boeing 767 for this flight) by 40 odd passengers. Absolutely
ridiculous !!!. Thats when this whole saga of trauma began.

We fought with the AI officials to come up with a reason and tell us
what they were gonna do for us. But they refused to budge and did
not give any reasonable explanation. After about 30 minutes of
screaming and fighting the duty manager arrived at the scene and the
very second statement he made was that we r going to put you guys in
a 5 star hotel. The next possible flight that they could put us on
was AI 101 which would leave at 7.10 AM the next morning. They
couldn't arrange for any other flight citing that they were all
full, but they did not confirm with anyone before making that bold
statement, just because they wanted to save the buck for AI. My case
was a bit complicated cause I had to make it to the US the next day
on a American Airlines (AA) flight. So they promised me to rebook me
on a different flight and also provide me a hotel accomodation in
London since I wouldn't make it for my original flight. After that
around 14.00 pm, there was a change of shifts, which meant a new
duty manager was to arrive and be briefed about the situation. Some
passengers like me, decided to take the lead and explained him the
situation. He promised us that he would take care of us and would
assign a hotel and boarding passes ASAP. Before that he had to head
to a small meeting for 15 mins. That 15 mins, took him 2 hours and
then he comes and states that out of great difficulty he could get
us to the next flight at 7.10 AM, which we should have always been
given priority to board since we were bumped off our original
flight. But he refused to check in our luggage and give boarding
passes, asking us to come to the airport some 6 hrs in advance. We
refused and decided not to budge, and maybe after an hour he agreed
to check us in. Still no hotel and it was 5.00 pm. One of the fellow
passengers lost his head since he was travelling with his 80 year
old mom who was struggling to sit through this trauma. Another
family with an infant just wanted to know if they r going to get a
hotel and still no action on AI's behalf. Finally around 6.30 pm,
they come out and say that they cannot find hotels for us and offer
to put us up in the airport area, where they have some facilities.
Some of us went and checked the facilities. There were some beds
with some dirty linen, no bathrooms, no TV's, no kind of
entertainment and full of mosquitoes which would definitely give you
malaria before leaving india. One guy mentioned that he wouldn't
even let his dog stay there in that room. Such were the facilities
offered to passengers who paid full fare, after being promised 5
star accomodation. Little did we know that this was a beginning of
what we had to go through. After that we all went to the duty
managers office and sat there and he refused to give us priority.
After forcing him to give us his attention and forcing him to inform
his seniors of our position, he negotiated with us. After about 2
hours of this, AI made another offer to us. Find a hotel on your own
and get us the bill tommorow and we'll reimburse you. The ceiling
limit was set to Rs. 5000 / passenger or Rs. 7000/family, which is
really a small amount given the costs of hotels in mumbai. Anyways,
we tried hard to negotiate with them to give us a reasonable limit
since we would never get a decent hotel around the airport for that
kind of money. Sensing that we weren't making much progress with
this issue with AI after an hour of debating and they still looking
or acting to look for hotels for us, some of us decided to take the
offer and share rooms. To our surprise, AI said they would not give
us cash and we would have to produce a bill after paying it on our
own. Some of the passengers had no indian currencies, some students
have very limited credit card limits which blocked them from taking
this limit. So we again tried to negotiate, but with no success with
the thick skinned inconsiderate AI people. Also at this stage, AI
managers told us that turn up at the aiport only around 6.30AM next
morning since AI 101 is delayed to 8.00 pm. That would give us an
additional 1 hour of sleep. By then the next shift came into work
who again argued with us that every airline rebooks and they are
justified with their hostile behavior and actually gave us a hard
time to even dispurse the mininal taxi costs to us. Finally, around
10.30 pm in the night after spending more than 10 hrs at the
airport, some of us decided to take a cab and give it a shot to look
for a hotel on our own. Found one at around 12 in the nite and spend
the next couple of hrs trying to get some sleep.

Next morning when we got to the airport at 6.20 AM, we noticed the
same story being repeated with the AI 101 passengers who were dumped
thanks to us. Similar shouts and screaming and determined AI
officials fending off all allegations of mismanaging reservations.
Infact funnily, the AI desk officials kept blaming AI reservation
ppl for messing things up and telling us that they couldn't do much
about it since thats how its been since the past couple of years.
One of the AI officials mentioned that the whole overbooking saga
was going on for the past 7-8 days, but surprisingly they still did
not have hotels booked and they just kept using their strategy to
hold passengers in the airport until they got frustated and left on
their own. Suddenly we get rushed stating that we were delaying the
flight. To our surprise the flight is stated to be on time. So we go
thru immigration and then identify our luggages and finally make it
to the flight. It leaves as stated - i.e. at 8.15 AM. During the
flight, I fell sick with the previous days food. The moment we
landed, I was throwing up and had a very hard time keeping myself
hydrated. Go to the luggage claim area in london and after about 1
hour, AI official comes and says that they did not board some 20
passengers baggage. Guess what .... all the 20 ppl were from AI 131
flight. It was so ironic, that they did not board things like the
old lady's wheel chair. Can u imagine that ? After all this ....
they do that. Also, with AI, something else we learnt is there is no
compensation for your baggage if they do not arrive with you. I
tried to negotiate, but one of the AI london officials mentioned
that they would not entertain any requests unless the luggage was
lost for more than 48 hrs. Nice !!!

Thot I was done and so I went to the AI customer service and asked
for the 1 nite hotel stay that I was promised in bbay. AI flatly
refused stating that their responsibility ends in London. They do
not care anything beyond that. Infact this one lady in the AI
customer service was so rude and so insulting that I was amused if
this is what "Customer service" meant for AI. No other airline
counter had such rude officials. I decided to wait and speak to the
duty manager, who also refused but after he heard my traumatic story
asked me to stay there for a bit. This is like 3 hours since I
landed in London still trying to get something I was promised.
Finally, he took pity on me and decided to give me a room for a nite
and he was perhaps the only AI official who had backed his words
with some real action. I went to the hotel & crashed thinking I was
done with AI for good ....I was dreaming .... yes, I was. Next
morning, I reach Gatwick and presented my booking details to AA to
take my flight to the US. They see my booking and ask me for a paper
ticket. AI did not give me any paper ticket. They just gave me a
piece of paper and thats it. The reservation was a no go and they
asked me to buy a new 1 way ticket to Raleigh. At that stage, I
couldn't think of anything to do. But i remembered that my original
booking was a refundable, changeable ticket. So AA looked up my old
reservation and the lady at the counter did some magic and I made it
to the my flight to Raleigh. AA tried to trace my luggage, still no
information and I am still waiting for it after 40 hrs of my flight.

In this whole experience, the thing I was surprised (or rather not)
was the sense of accountablity in the AI employees. Its a true
government organization where there is no accountablity and everyone
is trying to push the buck onto someone else and run away from the
responsiblities. I pity the old parents, families with infants and
foreigners who get screwed and swindled with this kind of treatment.
The saddest part of my experience is the AI officials behaviours and
no sense of urgency to deal with our issues. It just seems to be a
every day issue at AI and I personally noticed so many people losing
their heads at the AI counters. After this experience, I have
decided that I am going to pay additional money and travel any other
airline but AI. They simply do not understand a passenger's or a
paying customer's plight after making them go thru such hell. Not to
mention how bad the AI website is to dig out any details. A nation
like India which is the world leader in IT, our national airline's
website sucks and doesn't get me any reasonable information.I just
felt that after this experience I need to let every Indian whom I
know in the US know about this. AI will not get off the hook this
easy. They need to learn a lesson and I am gonna put every effort in
trying to do so. I have refrained intentionally from naming
individual AI officials since I dont think that would help cause I
believe its an organizational issue and the attitude needs to change
from the top to bottom, just changing some officials will not make
this airline any better.
So adios AI .... national airline .... my ass.

-subhayu
"

Acquired Taste

I really didn't like this movie much ... but my wife loves it ... sure enuff I've seen it eleventeen times by now and guess what ... I like it now - I can even tell you obscure trivia about the movie!
And then there was yoghurt - hated it a few years ago ... then went to a remote town in Korea (South of course!) ... yoghurt and tomatoes were pretty much the only veggie options available ... at it for 6 months ... ta da - love yoghurt now – even know how to make it!
And oh, didn't think much of cheese 10 years ago ... and then nothing happened! never traveled to France - was never locked away in a room made of cheese and never wanted to join the Cheesy Club (pun intended!) Guess what ... I still don't think much of it - some of them stink!

But then Cheese is an acquired taste dumbass! You have to ACQUIRE IT! … over time … slowly and with class, elegance and oh-so-pompousness …
Gah! What a bunch of crap!
Really don't buy into the notion of acquired taste – if you don’t like something you don’t like it – PERIOD!
Unless of course by some unavoidable circumstances you move to Korea, succumb to peer pressure, lose your olfactory senses, need to be called "classy", become blind or are desperate(in no particular order)

Funny part is – You only attach acquired taste with the supposedly "classy" Cheese, Wine, Havana, Scotch etc.
For everything else … you either like it or are allergic to it! God forbid I ever mention that broccoli is an acquired taste - no couture they say!
What Crap!

New Adventures of Old Fuji

A lot of interest was generated from my random musings where I mentioned the two words ... "New Camera"
So in all fairness, I guess my time (of silence) ahem! has run out ... out with it you say? oh well ... (u know how secretive I am :P)

Its a tiny camera and not an SLR like my S602 but a Fuji nevertheless ... I searched and I searched ... and then I researched some more ... and finally found the Fuji F30 (quite by accident1) - sheer brilliance in such a small package ... something that I could carry with me wherever I went and also feel nice about taking pictures. some "high" lights -
- Super low light capablility (ISO 3200!)
- Exceptionally good battery life (required since its a proprietary battery)
- superb clarity
oh well I'm going to stop here - yo uknow where you can read the (rave) reviews and details!
Here are the recent pics *with captions* from the F30 ... since November 2006 i.e.

New Camera - F30

But then, I still am faithful to my S602 - and I have to confess that size does matter ... the larger lens in the S602 provides much more capabilities ... and crisper pics - prolly the only thing better woudl be a S9000Z - but then that would depend on Soumya wouldn't it ;)
the New adventures of old Fuji speak for themselves ...

New Adventures of Old Fuji

so that kinda summarizes the activity-list in the past couple of months ... inactivity here but active somewhere else :)

And then we jumped ...

Titusville (in the vicinity of Orlando), the 27th of December 2006, Pranav and Dipti were taking the plunge (again) on their first aniversary ... and we joined in the celebration ... and jumped off a perfectly fine plane flying at 18000 ft at the SkyDive Space Center!!
Yes - we finally did it :) and wow was it fun ... it was sooooooooper ... if you cant already tell by the video :D
70 seconds of free fall ... and I mean free followed by 7-8 minutes of slow descent ... with the space center and the likes in the vicinity ... ah ...

Next time we're going to do it over some city ... Chicago or New York perhaps ...
until then ...

Skydive

Zoom Zoom

All the power and still troubled by speed limits … frack!
The other day we were cruising in the TL (and I mean cruising) and cursing (that was me) at the horrible 65mph speed limit boards! And then it came to me …
for all of the speed enthusiasts, they should appoint one day in a year, one Sunday – when they can drive --as fast as they want--!
Think about it – all the pent up frustration of having a zippy car and not really being able to zip around – can be released – one Sunday in a year – that’s not too much to ask for … and we’ll learn to live by it like the daylight-saving time change date.

They could earmark certain critical sections as off-limits for emergency vehicles, airports, hospitals, buses etc. but all other freeways would be game for speeding – Insurance coverage would not be effective on that day or they could charge a super-surcharge for that one day.
If you don’t like driving fast, then don’t drive on that Sunday – stay home and watch TV, do the dishes, laundry or do whatever else that you do on most Sundays! simple.

That would be really cool me thinks … a brilliant idea … and Soumya did not say anything in protest either :) (which is saying a lot)
vrroom vrrrrroooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ...

Fast Car

Whats my fav car? Hmmm … was thinking abt replying to Arvind’s post with this post and obviously I’ve taken my time (other things I assure you) … but here we are talking about my “wishlist of cars”. As the wise old man ( I mean Arvind) wisely mentioned that his list was made of cars that he would love to drive and own as well, coz he kept out the uber expensive Veyrons and McLaren-Merc’s … good thinking there. (I told you he's a wise old man)
So the cars that I would love to own someday –
1. Lancer Evo IX (I’m sure by the time I get to it, it would be a XII or XV)
2. Lotus Elise
3. BMW M3 (Of course I would want the M3 GTR but then that would be frivolous wouldn’t it!) (and oh if they “upgrade” the M3’s to new body styling, then all bets are off – will never buy those shitty looking cars)
4. Civic Si (the one I almost bought this year)
5. Audi S8 / BMW 750 iL (The E38 series) – tough call between the two


That’s pretty much it – not very different from Arvind’s list (am not surprised) – and dude thanks for including the TL in your list :)
OK if I’m going to be frivolous when I find gold treasures in my backyard (and after making sure that we have a big house, enuff savings for everyone, yada yada yada and still be left with a LOT of money) then … (and only then)
1. McLaren SLR (cmon – this is sheer engineering)
2. Ferrari FXX
3. Maserati MC12
4. Lamborghini - Murcielago
5. BMW M6
6. BMW M3 GTR
Oh man – this list can be quite long … I might even put in KITT from Knight Rider - so nevermind :P

scratch scratch

vacations,
friends,
movies,
bowling,
put-put golfing (in the cold),
new camera,
drives (of course),
working out,
eating right and hence losing weight,
Orkut,
work,
christmas parties,
flying kites,
remote controlled air-planes (vich didn't last too long),
california for work,
putting the big bosses in a tight spot by asking them an honest question,
chatting with old friends,
music,
fruity loops,
ICICI,
half-life 2,
lyrics,
loans,
birthday parties,
shopping,
air-hockey,
Mind your language (the TV series - thank you Arvind),
making new friends,
LOTR (again),
Guru - the music (and waiting for Guru - the movie),
library,
debates on religious beliefs (and everthing else in general),
new comics,
battlestar galactica,
reflecting on humanity (how sick we really are)

... been over a month ... a busy month

Rape

Somebody please please PLEASE help me understand what I am missing here!
According to the Hudood Ordinance enforced by dictator Zia in 1979, - "a rape victim is liable to prosecution for adultery if she fails to produce four male witnesses to her ordeal"

Wiki puts it as - "A woman alleging rape is required to provide four adult male witnesses of "the act of penetration", and if the accused man is Muslim, the witnesses must be Muslims themselves. Failure to prove rape places the woman at risk of prosecution for adultery, which does not require such strong evidence"

and today after more than 25 years when Pakistan is trying to get this ridiculously absurd law changed , some wonder why!!!
BBC says - The MMA parties boycotted the vote, saying the bill encouraged "free sex"

at this point I want to bang my head onto the monitor in hope of simply understanding ... "how?"

Rape is the extremest form of violation and these people are making a joke of the whole affair.
I just want to scream out loud - really really loud - coz at this point thats probably all that I can do! I'm feeling sick to my stomach!
are these people even sane? don't they have daughters or wives or sisters? If I was a woman in Pakistan I would just leave ... or if nothing else have a few of these MMA folks, nevermind that they are mostly men, raped ... and then left to heal ... and then raped some more ... and then produce 3 witnesses - not 4 - at the Sharia courts ... lets see how that feels ... to be slammed for adultery on top of everything else that happened!!
I'm sorry - I know that was an extreme thing to say ... even inappropriate ... but thats exactly how I am feeling right now!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

tell me I'm missing something and I've got all of this wrong ... please please please

one serving of culture please ...

Was reading Charu's post on why sex is evil in India and from there hopped onto Harini's post that Charu referenced and there I read this comment which is so simple yet so profound
Sriram says -
"What i am amazed by is how people so surely and so exactly know what is their culture. When did the last edition of my culture come out? Are they selling it at Crosswords?"

I could never have put it so well.
Seriously! whats all the fuss about our culture ... unfortunately (and fortunately) - this loosely defined word is probably the only reason why we are still a country while being the reason for many of our problems today!

the best Actor

This is always been a tough call where we grew up … India i.e. – if we were to go by popularity then it would be a close call between the ever-balding, Veerappan loving and “If you come today” crooning Rajkumar (that’s Dr. Rajkumar to a lot) and the rang-gaya-to-paisa-waapis, once a conductor (always a conductor … in buses i.e.), cigarette smoking, and tamilicizing every language Rajnikath (that’s Rajjini to many). Hey - lets not forget tathaiyya tathaiyaa Himmatwala, the haklya or running-over-people Khan and the rishte mein to Baap Big B.
OK Strike that … of all the above mentioned, Big B has always been the best … nevermind the Toofan’s, Ajooba’s or the recent abyssmal Mohabattein with Black and Karan johar sob storys! Amitabh was always one of the finest actors in India …
Of course when it really came to acting there was always Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Kamal Hasan although the latter is kinda sliding down a self-obsessed patha – still that does not take away any credit from his acting talents.

But the point I am trying hard to get at(about time) is that I think (or "I feel" for some of u out there :P) that the best actor in modern Hindi cinema is Boman Irani. Yes u heard that right … he is by far the best actor in India … in the true sense of the word.

Have been watching a lot of cinema of late (and even before) and this chap has never ceased to impress. There was a brief period when Boman promised to disappear as the next comic Anupam Kher, but then he bounced back with a wonderful myriad of roles – positive, negative, funny, sad, evil, lively … the list goes on. For the uninitiated - Being Cyrus, Let’s talk, Khosla ka Ghosla are some of his not so popular films – but he has shined nevertheless.
Coming to think of it – that has always been a problem with Indians … and Indian Cinema – Brilliant movies like Main Azaad Hoon, Guna(Tamil), Aakrosh and many others - never make it big – and then “stars” have to come back to making the same run-of-the-mill tune mere baap ko maara main tera khooon pee jaoonga and two babes, which one to choose types stuff!

Still … in recent times, and even after Don, I have to say that Boman Irani is the best actor in India right now. u could not possibly agree more!

nothing to write

yet so much to say ...
am not feeling the urge to brain dump all the posts in my head.
Watched Borat. Splurged on NFS Carbon and Half Life 2 - have been playing for the past week now - more than worth the money. Watched "Bombay Calling" - nice documentary on the call centers in Bombay. Have been keeping up with BG Season 3 and after last week's stunning episode we watched the BG Miniseries all over again! Awesome. Have been Orkutting on and off ... discovered some more arty-farty pics of mine - will post some other time ... and hey - I think I finally figured out how to fly a kite - at least @the beach!

NH & Boston - Oct4-8 2006

Had always wanted to see the famous fall colors @New Hampshire - so off we sailed away on Continental airlines to Manchester, NH. Slight mistake there ... it was supposed to Northwest ... but then due to bad weather on a sunny day in Houston, we were re-routed via continental and then re-re-routed to Delta ... nevertheless we finally made it to Manchester on time ... and about 7 hours late :) The rest of the trip was fun ... even the rental car was nice ... a Pontiac G6 GTP

The first moring we promptly woke up early and left the hotel by 10:00 am. Our first stop was the Lost River gorge ... nature at one of its surviving best ... not sure if it is apparent from the following pics but, the plants here grow on rock!!! or rather on the lichen that grow on the rock! Naturally such trees are not very tall ... but trees nevertheless ... nice!

Spent a lot of time driving @NH ... pulling off the highway for scenic views etc. - very very pretty landscape - although you kinda get used to it after a few hours ... kinda take all the vibrant colors for granted - duh!

That evening D had booked front seats to the BlueMan group show "How to be a Megastar 2.0" at Manchester - but that is another post altogether - to summarize ... the show was AWESOME! Thank You D :)

Next morning was @the Kancagamus highway which cuts across some of the most breathtaking views of the mountains ... we stopped for a few hours at the Flume Gorge ...amazing what all transpired during the ice-age!




We then took the Cannon Aerial Tramway which takes you up the mountains for some more colorful views ... this picture was my favorite - the tower on top of the mountain was frozen in parts and I thought this was the stairway to heaven ... of sorts :)

The evening was spent @the Conway Scenic Railroad which pretty much took us up and down the same road that we drove by!! quite a scam I must say ... but it was fun riding a train ... nevermind the fact that I could have run faster :)






Picked up Shaibal from the airport that night and moved to a motel closer to Boston. The next day was spent walking the freedom trail in Boston - now thats a city ... its got a pretty downtown and so much history unlike the oil riches & concrete in Houston ... we just loved walking around the city ...




Vinod and Roshni joined us in the evening and we had a nice dinner @Lil Italy in Boston and then talked about everything and nothing into the night.

Woke up early (again) for breakfast at 9am :) Vinod and Roshni unfortunatley had to leave shortly after ... so it was Shaibal, D and I who set out towards MIT and Harvard

Something inside me never liked Harvard for some reason ... we wont go into that right now ... but I was so sad to see that MIT had a boring campus while Harvard was a lot like Berkely ... everything was on the street - of course we were extremely lucky to bump into the Oktoberfest and we enjoyed walking around listening to live performances, eating samosas (on yes there's hajaar indian joints around Harvard - go figure) , and even having Kashmiri tea ... very very nice. This lady Mieka Pauley, is an cool singer ... stood there listening to her for a while ... will upload her live performance some other time ...

Memory Dump

Lots of things ... been wanting to say some for a while now ... in no specific order

1. Battlestar Galactica is one of the best TV series ever ... scratch that - it is THE BEST TV series ever! Now I'm not really a "TV" watcher but I generally get to see the good ones and this series tops it all. Have seen the first 4 episodes of the 3rd season and OMG these guys are more than awesome ... nuff said - go watch it.

2. Golmaal (2006) was a really funny movie. I don't remember the last time that I watched a movie 3 times in 3 weeks! Funny thing is that I missed a lot of one-liners the first time around ... caught them with subtitles - LOL

3. Vishal Shekhar are superb musicians ... I would watch out for the "theme" songs in each movie album - they kinda freak out on those songs. "Get into my car" from Dus and "Golmaal Theme" are my recent favorites.

4. I'm stuck at one point in Prince Of Persia - The Warrior Within, and its frustrating that the Dahaka gets me for no fault of mine ... have tried everything ... except one move - will try that ASAP!

5. Need to pick up my Guitar more often - last night I played "Aadat" by Jal for some time ... love the song ... and really easy chords too - Cm Bb A Bb ... nice

6. Zubeen Garg has a very nice voice and makes good music too. Music for "Strings - Bound by faith" is superb ... his vocals on other soundtracks too is neat.

7. Got myself a 300GB HDD ... feels odd to have 100GB free space :)

8. Helped build a Childrens playgroud last Friday - along with 60 odd colleagues from work ... was a lot of fun ... lot of engineering ... and even more hard-work ... proud of myself. Discovered a few things ... mixing cement by hand is a hard task, a pitch-fork picks up more mulch in each scoop than a shovel does!

9. I still can't understand Iron Maiden - heard their latest album three times ... and I can't remember even one tune - Sorry Dr. J - either they're awfully monotonous or I'm Iron Maiden deficient ... I think I know your answer!

10 . Pyaar Ke Side Effects is a very nice movie ... unconventional but extremely funny ... mostly observational humor ... nice. I really like Rahul Bose but for me to rate him out there I would like to see him carry off a "gaon walla" role ...

11. Don ... why why why Shah Rukh Khan? Did he steal Farhan Akhtar's favorite chair? And I met like 3 people who adore SRK ... seriously - WHO are his fans?

12. Batman - Child Of Dreams was a nice book. The first half was superb ... the second kinda failed to keep the tempo tight.

13. Wolverine remembers everything now. Oh wait I think I already wrote about that earlier.

14. Ramayan Reborn is actually set in 3392 A.D. - the first book was very tight - loved it - read it three times already ... can't wait fot the next issue - and they even threw in a 12" x 30" poster inside the book - SWEEEEEEEEEEEET.

15. I worked out 12 times in the last 4 weeks (I was on vacation for one) - not bad me thinks.

16. Have been ignoring Fruity Loops for a while now ... need to pick up on that - or stop talking about it!

17. Have been Orkutting for the past couple of weeks ... kinda responsible for the time away from the blog ... interesting to find more of us (old old agnelites) out there ... but don't have access to Orkut from work ... can't decide if that is good or bad!

18. I think I finally know how it feels to fall out of a friendship ... can't say if it is because of the fact that we became friends fairly recently ... still ... I thot we were good friends (still think so) ... still hurts a lot. Have been wanting to dedicate a long post for all my friends ... some of whom I know for 22 years now ... will definitely do so soon. Just know that I love all you folks out there.

***end of memory dump***

Season's Greetings

Happy Season to everyone ... I know I haven't been able to call/e-mail you ... but know that I thought of you :)



This awesome pic I got from Brij's post.

Map My India

A Big thanks to Vipul for sending me the link to MapMyIndia

Yep, as the name suggests, its an online Map of the roads in India ... and a detailed one at that too. I've been playing around the website and the tool looks promising. A far cry from the measly bangalore map CD that we bought for 200 rupees!

Few quick comment
- the Maps looks very nice
- The Accuracy is not pin-point but it gets you in the vicinity
- The maps also include Landmarks and important-places - very handy
- Apparently online maps for India have been around for 2 years now!!! hmm ...
- Names of roads need to be consoidated - At many places two names appear ... hope this will kick-off some related and overdue activities as well
- The service is integrating (or already has) with other services as well - Mobile, GPS, etc.
- Thank You CE Info Systems (press release) This compay seems to be doing a lot of good work.
- Thank You Rohan Verma - the 21-year old Stanford student - who conceived this.

Nice ... Very Very nice.