Sade Teen Sec

After the previous skid incident (click the link if u have not read it) and couple of good advises from my well wishers & advisers I began driving carefully and more importantly started following all the traffic rule in the rules book. I began to slow down on yellow signal (my friend told me that Yellow means slow down, I thought it was speed up & pass before it turns red) . Now I come to stand still at the stop signal, look at all three mirrors before making turns etc etc. The rule book also said that on "FREE ways" one needs to maintain 3 sec distance from the car ahead of you. I being extra cautious keep 3.5 sec gap. If you keep 4 sec or more gap then some else would sneak into the gap. So you go to be optimal.

Just like dual nature of light wave and particle I-101 FREE way exhibits "particle" nature in off peak hrs and "wave" nature in peek hrs. You actually move like a wave during 8 - 9 am. Some times you wonder whether it's a moving parking lot or what.

One fine day I started at 9 am just to beat the traffic, slowed on the ramp, and merged onto the FREE way. It felt so good driving on 101 after 9 am, experiencing the "particle" nature, constantly hitting 70 miles, keeping 3.5 sec gap. After 9 am car pool lane rule no longer exist, I moved to it, driving on smooth car pool lanes in Camry makes it a touch smoother.

There was this Accord car traveling ahead which stopped suddenly, yea I mean sudden stop for some reason (I remembered similar situation with my friend) . I was at 70 mph applied sudden breaks, 3.5 sec gap rule worked wonders for me as I ended 6 feet away from the car. Bang the car make to stand still, I had cricket bat, cereals bars, soda cans etc in my trunk which hit each other and there was a bang sound. Seat belts made sure that I didn't crash onto the glass.

Just before I recovered from this mentally, I heard another bang sound. And this time I moved towards the steering almost my head hitting the glass. Just came out to see an accord car bumped onto my car. Apparently he hadn't kept 3 sec gap and on top of it was phoning. Out he came sorry with his hands folded "I am from Japan I am sorry I am sorry". He was a 5 ft guy looked like a 10 std guy. I saw his front bumper in really bad shape. Just saw my rear bumper, little bit of scratch and bit of silver paint stuck on it. Still wondering was it a miracle or some thing (Yea I am still wondering). Fortunately nothing serious had happened, after settling matter with him (you know what I mean) I resumed listening to song from the movie Lakshya wowing that I will never drive on 101 again.

Haan yehi rasta hai tera, tune ab jaana hai

    Haan yehi sapna hai tera, tune pehchaana hai

Mushkil koyi, aajaaye toh, parbat koyi, takraaye toh

 Kya dooriyaan kya faasle, manzil lage aake gale

Lakshya toh har haal mein paana hai
This song made me feel better.
Ever since before breaking I look once in the rear mirrors and pray god that
the person behind me keeps 3 sec gap.

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Skid Skad Skud

My friend PK mentioned about 3 inevitable things in life -- Tax, Traffic and Death. After volunteering for the first two, I twice came close to volunteering the third.

There is a saying in kannada "mutti noda beda, Illa nekki nodtini". Which translates to Wise men listen to what people say, but wiser people experience it. Pass me a comment if u didn't get it.

Finally it began to rain in bay area when it was snowing in most part of North US. As usual I started my car towards office, I remembered reading in the DMV book that roads would slippery after the first rain, but when I began driving it seemed fine. I told myself these American's are always too over cautious unnecessarily. When the signal turned Red to Green I accelerated along with a Benz, and a Porsche car. Both over took me cutting my way into the ramp towards the "freeway". I followed them into the ramp making a right turn at good pace.

No sooner I entered the ramp I saw a pile of cars, backed up all the way from highway. Benz and the Porsche were standing ahead of me. Since the inner side of the ramp had cement plastering, when I applied breaks to avoid bumping into Porsche, wheels lost grip on the road and skid skad skud. Yea u read it right "skid skad skud" car turned right and another right.

When finally the car stopped it found myself in the car U turned "actual U" standing on the mud on the side. Just peeped over to my left saw a rift of 10 feet below. Those 3 - 4 secs my mind was blocked, heart was beating at may be 150 or 200. I fews secs didn't know what to do. Then finally put myself on the ramp making another U turn and drove towards the office.

While driving I remembered my friend giving me positive comment "maga ninu U turn sakkatagi togontiya " (man you take good U turns). To which I had replied "In life U turn is the easiest man and I always love it". Well this was the best U turn of my life.


to be continued.....

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Thank God Its Black Friday ---

The term "Black Friday" originally was named because of the heavy traffic on that day. Its a day when most of the shops open at 5 am (thrusday all the shops are closed) and people (Desis, Chinki, Caucasians, Afro etc), all ages from 5 to 75 stand rather sleep(with sleeping bags) in the queue from 7 pm previous night (yea 10 hrs ahead 0f opening time). The reason is that stores would have some item sold at half price with limited quantity 10 or 20. Its all the supply Demand bull. It's on this day people have no time for sorry n please n appreciate. You might be wondering whats so special of this TG day shopping, well U can' get a (Wireless Mouse, Blue Tooth head set, Creative Noise Canceling head set, 2 Gb SD card all for Free of Cost yea I mean 0$ after filling the laborious PIA rebates) on other days. The best part is that if you miss out or fill in the wrong info on rebate forms then the shopkeepers would say thanks for giving .

Well this was how we (Saurab,Sunder,Vinit n Myself ) started our thanks giving shopping last year. 11 pm to 2 am repairing vinit's car (fixing his head light), Half went to Best Buy n Half went to Circuit City and remaining to CompUSA (Sholay's Asrani stlye) . It was relatively warm that day - 2 C (yea when it was -13 C some days back), and standing the queue for 3 hrs was not that easy. (Yea just remembered previous thanks giving it was -17 C).

5 am was when our dreams turned tangible, door opened and bang 500 people jumped into the shop. Got the flier and quickly headed towards the items. Just like "Maine Pyar Kiya"s dialog -- "No sorry No thank you " was our policy. Because if u utter sorry then next sec you would feel sorry for missing an item. Just put your head down and grab the items. At times grabbed items from some one else hand. Darwin would be proud that his theory "Survival of Fittest works here". In next 1 hr we were filling our shopping carts and headed towards what was called Moksha -- yea billing. Another 30 and we were out, feeling on top of the world. I felt one step above that because-- the billing guy had forgotten to bill one of my items. woooppeee.

Finally at 11 am when we were done with phase 2 and 3 of shopping we headed towards the bed. My roomie had just woken up, told Good Morning and slept. Next 1 week all we were doing was filling rebates and rebates. The real PIA. (Pain In Ass)

This Thanks Giving Shopping was rather non existential, no motivation and as no company to shop. Yea forgot I was in office and blogging this blog.

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Picture Abhi Baaki Hai doston............

What's common between Deepika Padukone, Richard Illingworth(Eng), Nilesh Kulkarni(IND)--- they all have one of the greatest Debut any one can ever dream off. Yup Wicket on the first ball.

I have not seen a better actor (female) who having a better debut than namma (our) Mount Caramel Deepika, n boy she is one of those actors(female) who looks fabulousness and acts great is an understatement.

OK OK - OK is OK ..... let me come back to the movie-- U guessed it OOOM SHANTI OOM. This Deepaavali I wanted to do some thing really memorable, what better can it be watching OSO n blogging about it. So at 5 pm got the tickets(Online), and was on I-101 "freeway" at 5:15 in the carpool lane along with my colleague. They say "Agar dil sey chaho to Khuda bhi milajata hai, freeway to use bahut maamuli hai". They say Friday 5 - 7 pm never travel on I-101, i just took the challenge. For the next 1 hr I was traveling, driving aka breaking and reached Century theaters at 6:35 (yup only 1 hr for 22 miles). To be frank its one of the worst theaters that I have ever visited, dirty seats, bad seating arrangements, horrible sounds, blore's Urvashi theater was 10 times better.

The movie through out was like a photo slide shows, there was no smooth transition between scenes, but each slides were good. The movie lacked richness n intensity n class, the sets looked very cheap, Deepika appeared top heroine only from SRK point of view. Even the filmfare scene looked like a 2nd degree set and felt like people were actually acting. It looked like "Diwali's Ram Leela", but full points to execution of the scene. Gosh getting over 30 actors all well dressed on one stage is amazing. Akshay Kumar's cameo was the best.

The movie was more like a Buffet lunch in bay area, the best thing you can get for 10 bucks, n items packaged into one component. Individually you wouldn't have liked each item, but the end of day it would fill your mind n stomach. The one thing that movie lacked is intensity what Chak De INDIA had & it would be SRK top performance till date. OSO was more quantity rather that quality, but in today's zaalim world we prefer quantity over quality. You would have a Buffet over single custom menu meal-- Don't you think so?

I just loved the ending for the movie rather that showing "THE END " or some fundu shayeri, all the people associated with OSO both onscreen n offscreen did a final ramp. The technicians must have felt on top of the world. The best part of our theater was the at 10:12 the next show guyz started to pour in before people of our shows had left. At one point we had like 2 batch of people, felt so much like INDIA, the crowd, yelling, shouting we couldn't go out they couldn't come in.

All I felt was "Picture Abhi Baaki Hai doston............"........

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Quit INDIA wih MOMENTUM part 1

Its not a spelling mistake -- its momentum ; mass * velocity.

The memories of 8 th Aug 2005, the day I left INDIA to pursue my master's in U S is still fresh in my mind. I had a 3 am AI 127 flight to Chicago via Mumbai Frankfurt, reached airport at 11 pm. My parents sister and my 2 uncles plus family had come to see me off. Before which I had "aathi " , "pooja" and teeka as well. I felt as if I leaving for KARGIL. After the initial rooha dhoona (my sister especially) went in and checked in my luggage(s). I just had 3 - 32 kilos suitcases, & a 15 kilo carry bag with me (80 kilos).

By then I had met this guy lets call him Dr Sanjeev, who had 3 - 32 kilos suitcase + 15 kilo carry bag + 5 kg leather jacket + 3 big medical books trying to find some one to carry his extra luggages. I was successful in avoiding him. Cleared the security n went into the lounge. At 2 am came in the announcement AI 127 is delayed by 2 hrs. For the next 2 hrs we 5 students had a good time chatting and eating. Finally 5 am we boarded the flight. These was this guy with long beard n cap (got the picture :)) who scared me a lot.

Sitting in my first international flight trying to stay calm n compose, beside me was this interesting fellow student. She had some weird n scary n irritating questions to me. We exchanged names. She began
She: "You know this is my first international flight" ,
me : so is mine
"First time I am leaving my parents you know",
me : so am I
She: "What if our luggages get lost ",
me: may be baggage claim.
" Did u read about the rains in Mumbai rains ?",
me :Ya hope the flight doesn't skid. -- she got a bit scared.
Are we going via london or germany.
me : Frankfurt didn't you see the itinerary,
That bearded guy was sitting adjacent to me. She was irritating, he was scaring me.
Finally the flight took off, she got so scared that see stopped speaking for next hr. I was relieved.

We then boarded at Mumbai, my first impression was "Airport or Railway station". It reminded me of CST (VT) station. Due to mumbai rains, the flight was delayed by 2 more hrs. I told that female "MATCH DELAYED DUE TO WET OUT FIELD". Seriously she had no clue what I spoke. We were then given a complementary breakfast at airport which we call called Passage to U S food. Good thing about AI is that food deterioration is gradual. Its like tunnel worse worser worsest (hahhaha).

Finally the flight took from Mumbai at 10 am with MOMENTUM i.e. mass * velocity. So it was a true QUIT INDIA with MOMENTUM.

to be continued ...

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Profession Caste

Caste system in Hinduism is based on what hi/her ancestor were working as.
If they were Pujari's then they would end up being Brahman. If they were warrior then they would be kshatrias, if they were land lords then they would be Gowdas .. so and so forth.

But with the advent of technology moreover software boom catching up, time would arise when we could have castes based on Profession, rather software profession. Then we would have only castes based on software technologies. Like J2ee,Dot Net, Databases, Networks, System Engineering, QA etc.We would have Traditionalist (traditional programming like C, Cobol) and Modernist (Object Programming c++,java etc), with each opposing others. With two main religions Open Source Platform(OSP) and Microsoft Platform(MSP), each opposing other. With people in one religion hating other & all marriages should happen in same religion.

Then we would have festivals like Database day, Network day, System day, QA day, and one particular day java day would be celebrated by both the Open source and Microsoft religions as java works on both the platforms.

When it would come to marriage parents would oppose saying "Woh hamari technology ke nahi hai ", "Woh loog Open Source ke loog hai, proprietary naam ka cheez hi nahi hai ". "Product nahi Khareed te, sirf servcie khareed te hai". If a Microsoft Platform guys wants to marry a Open Source Platform guy then he would have to give up his religion and take up OSP, and he would be forced to take a oath saying that he would henceforth use only open source tools and will contribute to the society.

On a date boy would ask the girl, do u know struts, AJAX, how much do u know about Liferay. Girl would respond I am comfortable with app server and MS Sql server, liferay is good.
Then final verdict would be I think we both have some common things and some differences, we can make a good pair. (FYI these are all the tools that I use at E*TRADE for my project).

Imagine this happens then life would be so hilarious n fun. Hope U have enjoyed. Sorry I went too technical.

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100* n.o.

Its 100 days since I left the holy city of Indianapolis, IN , worked for 100 days at E*TRADE and completed 100 days of stay in heaven on earth or so called the bay area. A lot has happened in these 100 days, some good, some bad things, missed many things, relished every moment.

Exactly 1 year 11 months at Indy was the best part of my life so far & I miss every moment of it. I miss Indy, its serenity, Canal Square Apts and junkta there, the indoor cricket at 131, chatting and eating at 443, kritika's songs, lavanya's chettinad chicken, the swimming pool, the lounge of canal square. Miss the night walk on canal, or the steak n shake late night desert or the 12 am birthday party cakes. Mandar's Tabla, Prashant's computer game, saurab's rebate tips , sundar's shud hindi (swayam and meej), damru's advice. Badly miss the law school cricket, finding trouble gathering 5 people to play cricket, mandar's comments--" arree shot laga hai re " , sundar's nakhre "mamu kaam hai", saurab's "Gajab hoo gaya ", sanjeev's hot chilli avalaki. Omkar's ALu matti. Gokul's pav bhaji,

Badly miss the U C coffee machine where sri, me and saurab would go to have French vanilla. The Gym of canal sq where I started my weight loss prg. Miss the 112 lab where we used to spend hrs chatting and eating subways or saurab and me playing bowling practice in 112 during winter. Also miss Pavatra Ji's houle and potte hindi, Ashwin's Aaaja Aaaja scenes, Sai's Mysore Bonda. I miss pradeep's wide/no ball appeals. Can forget the nights before the exams where we used to night out n try to study.

Also the mass ALGO assignments, copying it from the grader n giving it back to her. What I badly miss is the grocery shopping at Meijer n Patel brother's bringing new items each time, carrying the grocery all the way to apt from the car, if luck drop the grocery to 443. 5 am Purdue trips in snow. I miss a lot more things which can't be put in this blog.

When I remember these things it makes my eyes moist, Hope i can get my student life back, my INDY life , Golden life indeed.

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Pati Patni aur Woh

This post is not about KANK, or Infidelity or Extra Martial affairs, but my notion of the current OS's Windows Linux and Mac. Off late I have been blogging (or bogging) too much about cricket (rather INDIAN cricket). So its time for some DESIGIRI, A bit of comparisons and bit of humor, and I expect it to be taken in the right spirit. Readers should not have any vulgarities in mind. At any point if you feel offended you may close your browser.

It has been a long time since I was introduced to LINUX in 4th sem BE, and my search for Optimal or THE OS has not ended, and the IDEAL OS doesn't exist in my perspective. Windows is definitely not the best OS but you can’t live without it. Linux is quite promising but you can’t survive only with it.

I came up with a silly n stupid comparison just bring out humor. Windows is like one's wife friendly, highly respectable in the family and society. Nobody will have problems interacting with it, quite homely and friendly. On the other hand Linux is like u r GF, whole society and family will have objection to it, and not many people will have GF, just like they don’t have Linux. But some people will have both the OS; I don’t know what that means.

Just like ones wife nags मे मैके चली जाऊगी (I will go to my father's house back) Windows always nags you with "Do you want to send the error to you Microsoft?", "Do you want to restart?" and similar bugging questions. Linux never really does that, probably its open source and nobody owns it.

Windows (one's wife) mostly comes in single distribution & you are always bound to it. Where as Linux (one's GF) comes in different varieties and different distribution, always replaceable with different & better versions of your choice or even remove & throw it out. You can customize it the way you want.

Windows needs an anti-virus, meaning you need to protect it from external world, just like the way you protect your wife. But LINUX doesn't need one, U never need to protect your GF.

Well Mac (OS X) comes close to integrating the best of the two, it has good UI and great stability but its tooo expensive. I haven't found any sort of comparison for Mac in real word, if you find one do drop a comment. By the way comments are free of cost.

If this post did bring a smile on your face then my blogging was worth, else I would have to try harder.

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Practical Joke or Poor Joke

Laughter is the best medicine-- everyone knows this but how many of follow it. Well we all know exercise is good for health, how many of us follow it???
So PJ are the best ways to bring out laughter, if it comes out well it would be a Practical Joke or else would end up being a poor joke. In either case it would bring a smile atleast which is good for health. So I decided to scratch some of the PJ's that I have cracked. Its upto you to decide what kind of PJ you would call it.

Once ex-my roommate (vinit) had cooked chicken and daal (for veg guyz). After seeing it I told my other roommates that vinit had cooked Daal for every one. Vinit got furious that I didn't mention about his chicken. I said "ghar ki murgi daal bara-bar !!!!! " We all had a good laugh after that.

At one point in our house we had 6 - 7 types of pickles & it would be spread all over the table. Once I got so frustrated about it and told my roomie इतने सारे आचार का आचार डालेगा क्या, we all had a big laugh.

Another incident was when Mandar(old roomie) and myself were separately watching t2o wc matches, when suddenly he called me and said "that he was getting some c++ error in winamp", I replied back I am not getting the error may be because I am a Software Eng.

Other incident was in office when one of my colleague told that our Eye insurance covers only for the lenses and not for the frame. I replied back then get a frame less glasses instead. From his reaction I realized that he didn't enjoy it much.

More coming up some time later. Now its its your turn to turn in some PJ's.

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Blog Action Day -- परीसर

Today 15th Oct is Blog action day, its a days where all the blogger in world would blog about "Environment". So its day where you can get different perspectives of the same thing. Some serious, some hilarious, some very painful issues, based on the type of blogger.

Whenever I think of Environment all I remember is tiring boring Environment Pollution essays that we had in our school days, in Eng, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit. We had this knack of writing the same contents in different languages. We would write about causes for these water air noise pollutions, effects and finally remedy. For a person from Bhadravati, Karnataka, where we had Iron, Steel , Paper, Cement, Sugar factories pollution was part and parcel of life. All these factories would pollute air & water so much that I never really new what pure air was. When I collected rain water in bucket it would have iron deposits at the bottom. When we approached bhadravati just sensing the fowl smell in air would tell us we have approached bhadravati.

Its seemed that air and water pollution had no effect on me. When I moved to blore I realized what sound pollution. And smoke from vehicles had a different kind of air pollution, no smell this time. Thanks to million trees in blore, or else the pollution would have reached zenith by now.

We all know the causes, effect and even the solution for these pollutions. There is no point just million people blogging about it, and just talking about it. Unless we take some simple steps all the efforts of this so called blog action day would in vain. We all would have read this "Keep the you surrounding clean". How many of us actually throw the waste paper, banana leaf, in the dustbin. Lets think the last time when we actually found a close by dustbin to dump the wastes. How many of us throw or dump garbage behind our houses(applicable mostly in INDIA).

There is nothing wrong if we clean our own mess, don't think what people think about it. Just do it. Lets set the tone. People here in U S are so conscious about the environment, I remember an elderly gentleman cleaning the table on which he had eaten saying, "I have messed its my duty to clean it". Dog owners carry plastic bags to clean the dogs shit. Its a bit different in US, the govt and people here take more care in protecting the environment. This is one thing U S has taught me and I am proud of it.

Lets make our environment a better place, lets enjoy our rights and enjoy our duties, not merely performing it.

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5 / 5 for a movie called T20 World Cup Final

As they call it Fact is stranger than Fiction, T20 W C Final was no more than a Fiction -- a super hit movie in the making. It was one like the Truman’s Show or reality show as we call it.

Sept 24 Monday 12 GMT a low budget movie without stars "Sachin Rahul Saurav" called “T20 W C Final “released. The movie had huge promotion n publicity as it was INDIA vs. PAK. Directed by the umpires. scripted by “the rules of game”, well narrated by some good commentary team (without sivaramkrishnan and ranjit fernando ) comprising of 13 (11 + 2 ) character performing at a time on what is called cricket ground. The movie *ing Sreesanth, Yuvraj, Bhajji,Afridi, as the lead roles (crowd pullers). These really are characters "नमूना" as they call so because they are attention seekers. The best part is hero and villain is chosen after the movie ends.

Movie had all the ingredients of a hit movie great script, great characters, item numbers i.e. dancers and even SRK (with 6 packs abs) as Special Appearance.

INDIA vs. PAKISTAN is always nail biting, exciting & pressure matches as we have just over half a billion people watching it as David Lloyd commented. Its a movie with lot of viewers. It’s said that in a final both the teams are at par, it’s only the team holds their never wins. It just Pakistan didn't held its nerve. It was ages since we had a seen a fighting final, generally it would be AUS thrashing the opposition. But this one was amazing because as it was decided in the 3rd ball of last over. It had best twists n turns much more than any Bollywood (if it has) or Hollywood movie had the best climax that wasn’t even scripted and couldn't be fixed by human. Only the almighty could have done this.

I am proud of watching this movie right from 5 am EST all the way till 9 EST, as another IND PAK W C final would be like Amir Khan movie once in blue moon. For both reaching final again, it means either defeating AUS ( SA and N Z will lose by themselves, they don't believe in finals) might happen in next century.

Started with Dhoni winning toss and rightly electing to bat, it’s the same old Wanderer’s Stadium where J Srinath played his last ODI and INDIA got thrashed, yea WC 2003 Final AUS 359. And S A chased 443 (50) creating history. Small boundaries 60 - meters and fairly flat pitch makes it a batting paradise. But it turned out to be a different pitch bit slow. INDIA started a final without 3 pillars S R S & on top shewag injured. Openers went off to a decent start, you could see pressure in the batsman’s face and their shots played. Quickly two down, and UV the start performer, great batsman, more importantly great entertainer comes. Amidst of all these action “Gambhir” was performing like a junior artist who gets paid hourly and not sure whether he would be picked for next movie. Yuvraj already had 2 Oscar nominee performances and got a Porsche 911 for his Full Monty. 6 sixes in 6 balls, (not sure whether some one had told him about the prize before). So it wasn't fair on his part to perform today. He ended skying the ball to Gul. Dhoni the next performer walks in.

Gul starts with beamer bouncer yorker and eliminates Dhoni. INDIA deep in trouble 4 down, left with Gambhir and Rohit in middle. The duo play decent cricketing shots and got a commanding total, well shot of the expectation. sharma Ji acted well like a new actor establishing himself, just like Shreyas Talpade. And score reached 157. This is first time INDIA have played well in a FINAL. Generally they mess it up, I reckon succumb to pressure or fear of not performing. PERFORMANCE is like a cycle you don't perform well because of the fear of not performing well.

R P bowled as he as done before and removed Md Hafeez, Momentum towards INDIA. Sreesanth made sure that movie cruises well, twists and turns happening, keeping the crowd interested, giving 21 in over and maiden the next. Sri Sri Sri Agarkar's absence wasn't felt Momentum pak. R P removed Akmal, suddenly Momentum towards INDIA.It was INDIA on top for a while and all of a sudden it was PAK top, shifting gears so fast. Much like the fights in old movies, first hero hits and then villain hits back both taking bit of pause and giving a stare. Hope you got the picture.

I Pathan picks up Yunis and afridi plays like a artist who hasn't be paid for a while and throws his wicket. Later 104 / 7 and momentum clearly towards INDIA. Dhoni already preparing the victory speech. Was about to leave thinking its the end of the movie. But first of the multiple climax starts, bhajji gets smacked for 3 sixes. Equation changes quickly momentum pak next over 2 more sixes from Tanvir. Star performer Sreesanth comes to rescue & picks Tanvir, & RP picks Gul, 9 down INDIA gain momentum.

Last over 13 required and jogi Ji comes to bowl, thinks of showing his acting skills, bowls a wide, & next full toss goes for a 6. Match & Momentum PAKISTAN. Malik now memorizing the victory speech. Sharma Ji bowls a short pitch to which Misbah tries to scoop it over fine leg. But due to lack of pace it just carries to Sreesanth who takes a clean catch to complete this movie.

Now its upto you to decide whose the hero and whose the villain.

Even Rajiv Masand (IBNLIVE critic) would have given a 5 / 5 to this movie and would have been INDIA's pick to Oscar instead of Ekalavya.

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Second the biggest loser not really.

I am known to be punctual (not boasting it though) who doesn’t believe in stretchable time much. People who know me will agree with that and I make a point to not lose it.

On Wed 19th Sept we (NCA) had our flight to Atlanta from SFO at 8 am. So we decided to met at OFFICE at 6 am and then car pool to SFO airport. So I got up at 5 am (don’t remember last time when I woke up so early) and started by 5:30 as I decided not take the freeway (highway) which I was advised. My route to office 12.4 mile starts with a 25, 35, 45, 50, 35, 25, 20, and 30 as the respective speed limits on different roads. Ofcourse with 35 traffic signal on the way taking it 35 – 40 min. It is difficult to reduce speed quickly and yet not being hit by person behind you.

I was on 50 speed limit when I my friend called me about my status, told him 15 more mins at max. I had to speed up to reach in 15 min and at the same time the speed limit reached 35. Since it was quite dark, and not many on the road I decided to over speed and reach office, I had to maintain my punctual image. There was a Honda Accord guy who has similar plans. I was trying to match with him, it was camry behind accord all ways. It was NASSCAR or F1 race both going 45 – 50 on a 35 speed limit street, bumpy and curly roads reminded me Blore. At each signal owing to Accord’s instant pickup he would overtake me. I felt bad at each time, but was happy with smoothness of Camry (poor man’s Mercedes Benz).

Suddenly I saw a lot of flashing lights from behind, was still in sleepy mood, it took me a min to realize cops behind. Duck was the first word that occurred, then all 1,800 Gods order of remembrance, Allah and Jesus as well. “sankat mey Venkatraman“ was aptly applicable. As per the subhashitani “sam prapte sanhite kale nahi nahi rakshati dunkrai karne” good that java c++. Eclipse, JPS, AJAX, portlet didn’t popup from my mouth.

Getting a speeding ticket in less than 3 months of license meant nothing but increase in insurance premium plus couple of 100 $ loss and all the hassle. Just to compound that I still have INDIANA license even after 2 months of CA stay. All these leading to BIG trouble may be missing the flight to start with. I had remember Saurabh, Mandar,Vinit, and Pradeep all getting tickets. I thought its my turn now.

COP approached closer, light and sound right behind me. Suddenly my phone starts ringing and I answered C U in 10 mins. Taking on phone and driving in CA also leads to ticket, realized that soon, heart beating loud, 100 mph and sweating in AC. Just signal right and was about to pulled over to a safe street.

COP over took me and caught the Accord guy ahead of me.

Who says SECOND is the biggest loser.

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Off the mark and Twently20 Cricket

Whenever we take a fresh guard i.e. start something we all start with "ॐ गणेशाय नामः ".

Back in INDIA we all hope that the festivals would be on weekdays preferably Fridays or Mondays so that we can make full use of so called long weekends. Things change a bit when we are in US; we hope that all the festivals are in weekends so that we can celebrate by going to temple or meeting friends.

My stint with tennis ball league started well on Ganesh's Birthday. I was called up for the match at 8 am which actually started by 9 (IST zindabad) a 20 over match, we put the opposition into bat. I always remember Sriram's dialog, "Manish 2 is less than 4". From that day I made a point to stand in close as my miss field would not cost more (2 < 4). But to my miss fortune captain placed me at the most important position on cricket here deep midwicket (as opposed to point in international cricket). So every time the bowler bowls short or down the leg side (which is quiet common as we come from Land of Prasad n Agarkar , we believe in bowling one side of the wicket and its leg side) my heart would beat faster. On one occasion the ball went high in the air and I shouted mine and ran towards the ball, kept my eyes focused on the ball and held on to one my best catches (some would claim "The only catch"). With the momentum taking me forward and dew not helping me either, I slipped and rolled on the ground but made sure that the ball was firmly held. We were given a total of 85 to chase in 20 overs. With the twenty20 fever catching up and the amount of runs they score making a mockery of run rates, it seemed like a simple task. But its not that easy here in tennis ball league , softball grounds would have mud and sand with in the 30 yards and huge grass covering in the rest of the field. Its like playing in overcast condition, with a seaming pitch, lots of cracks, and having a wet, soggy out field. If you manage to negotiate the movement and hit hard the light ball would not travel much and once it hits the ground it does not more forward. So its all about ones and twos and a rare boundary. So much in contrast with Twenty20. In the 15Th over I came to bat, my very first ball was short outside offstump, rocked back and played my favorite shot (Pradeep would claim " The only shot ") placed it past point for a single. Off the mark I was and looked towards heavens and thanked Lord Ganesh. Now I know what is getting off the mark is. I played a bit of pull , drives and nudges, and we had to accelerate our run rate, for some reason I remembered the slog sweep played by Steve Waugh. I was clean bowled playing across the line. Probably due to the slowness of the pitch or my wrong or no foot work. Finally we ended up losing the match by 9 runs.

In contrast; In twenty20 its the same 20 overs but you see radically different style of batting. With big hitting and frequent boundaries make a mockery of run rate. Harsh Bhogle had commented "redefine boundary". So what and why did twenty20 come to picture. In a ODI we enjoy only the first and last 10 overs. So why not make an event out if it, 3 matches a day, 3 hrs, 3 times more money without doing any thing.

Generally in ODI off the 10 over a bowler bowls he would have produced around 20 good balls. So its matter of producing those 24 bowls in a match nonstop. Its a testing time for bowlers and batsman as they have to give their best shot every time without respite. If you see the statistics its the good bowlers and good batsman that are more successful. So twenty20 is good in the interest of the game, just that is fast. People (bowlers) might claim that its too harsh of bowler (free hit rule) , almost flat tracks, fast outfields etc. But let me tell you cricket is a batsman's game,(ज़लीम दुनीया. ) nobody comes to see bowler bowl, they all enjoy batting and huge hitting. Tell me how many of us enjoy a low scoring match? or how many like a bowler rattling the top order? How many of switch off the T V when we see a score like 50/5 or 90/7 ? We start yelling at the batsman, not appreciating the bowlers!!

To succeed in twenty20 cricket one also need sound technique. Sloggers would be successful ones in a while, but its the technically sound batsman and quality bowlers who are willing to adjust survive and succeed . Its the same cricket but you don't respect some balls which you would have in ODI. Twenty20 is like driving on a highway, lot of fun, less time spent, more enjoyment. Good value for money, compounded with lot of risk (reaction time is less at high speeds) its all about comfort level. Sachin Saurav, Rahul didn't find it comfortable, neither am I finding it on freeways.

To drive in a freeways you need to be perfect in local roads, and by traveling in highways it wont affect your local road drive. Its all about willingness to adapt. So either you adapt and drive on highway or grumble and be rigid and drive like me on local roads.

What an analogy !!!!! what do u think?

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Iss Raat Ki Subah नही -- इस रातकी सुबह नही

This post is not about the movie (Iss Raat Ki Subah नही )but an incident that will be remember for the next One Hundred Years. 15 th Jan 2007, the day I left INDIA after one month of vacation.

My फ्लिघ्त (British Airways) was at 6 am IST from Bangalore to Chicago via London. Reached Chicago at 6:30 Pm CST passing the security and immigration, picking my baggage I ran towards American Airline counter as it was my connecting flight to Indy. To my bad luck the flight got postponed from 7:30 to 8:15. I realized that I had to inform Pradeep about the flight delay. (He was supposed to pick me up from the airport, provided I get him a pack of Mysore Pak). I searched my pockets and carry bag to realize that I had no cell phone with me, it was packed with all the electronic item. Luckily I had some quarters (25 cent coins) in my bag and headed towards the phone booth. But alas didn't remember the phone numbers. Since I alway has cell phone with me, I never had to remember any numbers. (I felt like Ali Baba's brother who had forgotten the key word sesame). I remembered Sundar's phone number, and then got Pradeep's number. Told him that I might arrive Indy at 10:15 pm EST. [He was like are the Mysore Pak there ??].

Spent the next 30 min roaming in the airport and wondering when I would sleep peacefully on the bed. Suddenly my attention turned towards the TV showing the weather new there. Alert "Heavy snow storm in Chicago and Midwest". No sooner realized that my flight had been delayed by 30 more mins. So again called up Pradeep and he told that it was snowing in Indy as well. Then I just peeped through the airport window to see nothing but snow all around the airport. I had forgotten that it was Mid Jan and I was in countries most windy & snowy city. Another update flight delayed by 45 mins, would depart at 10:00 CST. Did not bother to call Pradeep this time.

By Gods grace 9:45 the boarding began, and at 9:55 all passengers were seated. I was so tired by then that I just slept in the flight even before the flight took off. 10:30 I suddenly woke up and heard the air hostess announcing that since there was heavy snow and storm, they were waiting for weather to get better. I fell asleep again.

Roughly 2 hrs later I suddenly got up as people were shouting & taking over the phone. Just peeped out of the window, the scene looked familiar, and more over Indy Airport was not that huge and there were too many lights around. Got kind of scared a bit, was hungry also by now as well as the last food intake was like 6 hrs ago. Weird thought going through my mind. Then heard the golden sweets words "WE REGRET TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO BAD WEATHER " sorry for the inconvenience!!!. It took me 2 mins to realize that the flight had not taken off. We all came back to terminal.

There was a huge queue for rescheduling the flight. I got a 2:40 flight, was so happy that I would fly soon, then saw PM there (2:40 Pm next day afternoon). And since the cancellation was due to weather there would be no refund as well. But they would provide hotel at a discounted rate of $70. I thought rather than staying in Hotel its worth while travel to Indy by greyhound (Sundar's Idea!!!!). But could not make it as it would be too late and importantly it would be too dangerous. I began to feel hungry and felt I hadn't eaten for days. When stomach is empty brain doesn't function well.

Then I met a couple with a 2 yr old kid, Incidentally they flew with me from Bangalore. Then we decided to rent a car and drive back to Indy and the husband said he would drive the car. We came out of the airport to headed towards the rental shuttle, came the gusting wind at -20 C making me realize what winter was. It was 20C when I had left B,lore. Lucky for due to my shabby packing I had accidentally packed small winter jacket (enough to keep me alive) in my cabin bag. At 3 am we got the rental car and our journey to Indy (180 mile) began. I asked how comfortable was he driving in U S after driving in INDIA for a month. He said lets see while we drive. He had better sense of humor than me

2 hr later 5 am CST after we crossed Gary, IN we found a McDonald's ( it was 6 am in EST we had changed timezones) which had early morning breakfasts. We just gobbled couple of burgers, I felt like getting a second life. Driving was tuff as it was snowing heavily, reached home at 8:30 am. Ran towards to my bed and slept as if I had never slept before.

Got up at 1 pm and realized that my Two Checkin baggage were missing and my cell phone was in that as well. After contacting the baggage claim and giving the confirmation number got my 1st bag (which had Pradeep's Mysore Pak) the next day & after 2 days got the 2nd bag(which had my cell phone). From that day I make sure my cell phone is my pocket no matter where I go.

वाकई इस रातकी सुबह नही

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Cricketing the Labour Day Week End

Long weekend (its either a Thursday - Friday or Monday holiday along with Sat and Sun) in U S are like Diwali and Dussera in INDIA, they are like festivals that people remember them more than they remember birthday. And the two mosts events associated with these are Sales and Travel. People plan a months in advance for these long weekends. As a long week approaches typical discussion topic would be what’s plans for long week end

I generally don't like traveling much (Believe me I haven't been to San Francisco yet which is 40 Miles from my place). I generally do shopping on these Week Ends. So I decided to at stay home and lazy around.

I wonder why people bring Lunch on Fridays; they are all off by 3 pm anyways and start talking about the week end from Noon. Well when it’s a Long week end it starts from 2pm. I generally have deadly Fridays, I always get some work around 4 pm which takes like couple of hrs.

It was 5 pm Friday evening as serene as a grave yard in my office. I was typically on headphone & doing some programming stuffs, suddenly I overheard the divine term "CRICKET" in my office for the first time in 8 week. I couldn't resist myself and actually ran towards it. Two Desi's were discussing about it and I unceremoniously interrupted them and asked whether there any cricket club around. To my fortune I was talking to the Vice Captain of the team SyndicateCC playing for cricbay league (www.cricbay.com hard tennis ball game). On his guidance I registered to the team and by 8 Pm captain gave me a call for a practice match before the winter season begins. It was more satisfying than getting a call for the National Squad.

On saturday 8 pm (7:30 was the scheduled time IST applies even in U S) 5 player assembled at the Cupertino Middle School ground (Baseball ground), It was SyndicateCC 's home ground as they call it. Typically cricket is played in Baseball grounds with the muddy area serving the Pitch and 30 yard circle. The nice part of these grounds is that they are not similar in structure or shape. Some have long Leg sides and some have no offsides, some have shorter straight boundaries, some have huge grass overing and some have mud every where. So home advantage is always there so much like the International grounds. So you got to adjust your game very quickly.

I introduced myself to the team and was told that I was the youngest member in the team. (They expected me to agile and nimble footed). Typically 3 stumps at one end were pitched and before I took 22 foot steps, out came the measuring tape (after all professional cricket). It was more net practice for the next 90 mins. No sooner I realized that it’s a different ball game when playing in muddy surfaces, ball skids, bounces, cuts, spins a lot more than you expect. Having played in flat batting beauties (Law School Ground and Library/Physics grounds) adjusting to this conditions was a bit tuff initially. Realized why INDIA fails miserably overseas. For the first time in my life I enjoyed bowling more that batting. Got used to what is called rough outside off /leg stump, realized what footwork is all about, and the importance of taking singles. Because we have long boundaries, wind factor and thick out field.

Another team who wanted to play a friendly match with us came in. Typical introduction Mahesh Oracle, Rajesh Deloitte, blab blah, and again I was the youngest player. Match started and typical gully cricket rules, non-strike/keeper will be the umpires. There was lot of heated debates on wides and over the shoulder's no balls. Typically claims "It’s on borderline not a wide" by the bowler. "You stepped out so no no-ball". On couple of occasions it reminded me Pradeep's famous arguments "Its wok Its wok Its not wide" when was in bowling team. Even though these people are in mid 30's and are all s/w professionals they all have josh or spirit of a teenager. My captain in pursuit of quick single run himself out, later he said "Manish our mind is in 20's but body's in 30's. And when the bowler over steps (no ball) the captain comes to rescue, "We did not give it when you were bowling! so no overstep no-balls". I wondered why he used measuring tape in the first place.

Finally I was asked to bowl that last over with 17 required, golden memories of Munaf, Agarkar, haunted me; by God's grace it we won by 14 runs. There came the suggestion from the captain "Manish try bowling some yorkers in the next match. No sooner the match ended they began to get calls from their Home Ministers they all were jealous that I was single.

For the next 3 days I was nursing my body pains sleeping and taking painkillers, seemed like I had inherited all the injuries player suffer, shoulder, ankle , heel, back, hamstring, calf , thigh, groin etc. Now I have a reason to exercise and stay fit, "Keep my position in the team"

This was my best long week so far enjoyed it my way.

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First Meeting with the Manager

After the 2 weeks of class room training we had to schedule and meeting (it was called interview with Manager). This is how it goes. Friday 4 Pm.
Me and Manager and Mr X:
Manager: Hi :This is Manish from Purdue.
Me :Hi
Mr X :Hi
Manager: Here is the FRD got from the BRD, Its required to develop a portlet having AJAX capability for searching and sorting using RICO's LiveGrid. It would be Struts portlet, rather than JSP as it has MVC will be running a Tomcat instance.
Manager: We will not have hibernate facility for this. It will be hosted on my lxdm14545 box. So configure your port with the help of Mr X and may be from Monday you can start coding. Once you have tested it in DIT we will do a SIT bild and after UAT the business will test it and push it to PRD.

I remembered pk's post about Jargoneese, it was quite similar but didn't see the point why he was trying to confuse me. I was busy writing the key words so that I could do a Google search later on. It seemed like I had entered the wrong meeting room, but the room and people were familiar. I was all confused seeing stars all around.
Manger : RTFM more details. Read The Fine Manual (I was thinking of some thing else de missed something) and smiled. Realized later on why he smiled. I didn't want to show my ignorance so just nodded my head. My 6 years of study in Computers left me with only Java and Linux as my weapon. Felt like I was in a wrong company. Was I in coma when these technologies were developed? How did they hire me in the first place!!!!!

Now the brilliance of a Desi Mr X saves me, exactly read my face the judged that I understood nothing. So went to the cubicle to decode what was told by my manager and also to link my key words. Mr X: See Struts in a Nut Shell is a framework, Alfresco is a CMS ....JSP gets compiled to a servelet blah blah blah...

Later I Googled out the terms and wrote the definitions n after couple of hours I figured out "Port is a Linux box", Portlet is a small component that appears on a website, FRD is Functional Requirement Document. Business is the one who requested this feature. Struts-Liferay is where you write the logic using JSP and JavaScript (web programming languages).

Its true as they say "GOOGLE is YOUR FRIEND" ask him before you ask any one else.
At end of the day I got the bigger picture "Pull the data from Database n display it on Web and push it back to the database", its just more complicated, sophisticated 6th sem website project.

Now 4 Weeks have passed and I was talking to Mr X that the project is ready as per the FRD and business is ready to test it, If OK it will be pushed to PRD. My Manager overheard the discussion and had a smile on his face seeing me use the Jargons. Well

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication -- Leonardo da Vinci
Not true with S/W I guess

My friend Saurab always says working in s/w company is like Cricket Captain managing his team, knowing where to place the field and whom to bowl.
Just an addition to it , its exactly like SRK managing the women hockey in Chak De INDIA.

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Aug 24th The day to remember

Aug 24th 1972, was day when first ODI Century was scored by D L Amiss exactly 35 years later Sachin missed his ton. It’s a day Sachin (rather his fans) would like to forget, Dravid and INDIA will remember,its the 2nd ODI INDIA Vs ENG, Bristol. Highlights of the day: INDIA amassed 329 and as expected won it, but by 9 runs thanks to Munaf, just gave 20 instead of 30. Sachin missed his century by 1 run (courtesy poor umpiring) and Dravid scored 92 (63 balls), Chawla beautifully bowled (KP and Collingwood). Well we have had last over histories (Chetan Sharma (Gold Medal sixer), Sri Sri Sri Agarkar (Silver Medal four), Nehra(missed Gold) and Munaf (missed both).

Harsha Bhogle once in his commentary had mentioned about "Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory"; it’s so true with this INDIAN team. These games are like one of those street fights where a "star player" intentionally takes the beating for a period of time and pretends to be down and under until the betting ratio increases and finally when instructions come in he over powers the opponent. I don't see any difference the way INDIA plays when they defend huge scores. May be just to increase the TRP rating (who knows) or keep the crowd on their toes, after all its entertainment business. I followed first 10 overs of ENG chase where Sri Sri Sri Agarkar was doing his job as per script giving runs (run daata).

Couple of hrs later 30 ball 60 runs required and 7 wickets down situation and Sri Sri Sri comes to bowl, ideal situation for him to display his talent. On a given day he can play for either team, such is his talent, he tried his best. Last over 30 runs required and munaf just gave 20. Probably Dravid knows his bowlers’ well that explains his 63 ball 92 knock.

It’s tough to believe it’s the same Dravid who scored 12 (96 ball) in the 3rd Test.

I sometimes believe that Dravid has schizophrenia, or split personality as it’s commonly called. More “filmy” its Vikram's Anniyan(tamil) or Aparachitidu (telgu) or Devgan's Deewangee. Thats my perspective (which only brings humor), in CRICKET world its called class or playing according to the condition. But the 12 (96) innings was a PITA (Pain In The Ass) innings. I was like adding salt (rather chili powder) on ENG's newly wounds. My friend Mandar mentioned that police rather than using 3rd degree on prisoners (to confess or extract some information) they should repeatedly show the Dravid's PITA innings.

But I liked Dravid's focus (series win imp 1-0 or 2-0 doesn't really matter) simple and effective strategy. More time the INDIANS play, less time the ENG will get to play, which would lead to a draw and thats what INDIA needed to seal the series. "Na bache ga time Na Phisle ga match" is apt I guess. Because he knows the INDIAN team like back of hand {rather back of his left shoulder, donno why he keeps looking there}. Because INDIAN batsman think that 2nd innings is not their's. [check out their 1st , 2nd innings average if you don't believe me], How many times INDIA have chased 150 and lost 5 or 6 wickets[check out the 2nd test match], or even some times failed to chase bigger scores[ Madras test match cachin 136 and saqlain 5 wickets]. That justifies Dravid's decision of not offering follow on and his PITA innings.

Well a good captain is one who knows the talent in his team and never underestimates them.

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Chak De Week End

I have always confronted with a Typical question every Friday "whats up for the weekend ?", and my obvious answer would be "nothing, lazying around at home". Well thats what I have been doing for past 5 weekends now. Actually realized what weekend is when I started to work. Typically or traditionally have lunch with my roomy at one of many INDIAN restaurants and end the weekend with a big sleep. My friend in INDIA Sandeep had suggested me to watch to "Chak De INDIA" in theater.

Got a call from a friend of mine to watch CDI, at Naz theater Fremont. I was eager to see Fremont (Punjab of Bay area) more than SRK. Reached around 8:30, met couple of IUPUI seniors who for a change happened to be kannadigas. Its rare occasion when kannadigas meet in U S. The movie started at 9 am, houseful as expected (SRK movie), Movie opening was good, actually bored of seeing SRK as soccer player, for a change was a Hockey Player. Typical opening, hero misses the goal at the crucial moment, he actually beckhamed and crowd getting angry and all "bull" of match fixing thing. Hard to digest fixing in Hockey!!!!!, the incident was modeled on cricket I bet. And then labeling SRK " Gaddar " was all crap, -- give me a break, may be WC and Dhoni's home incident effect.

The best scene of the movie -- SRK is being interviewed for "Coach of Womens Hockey Team", and even before committee decides SRK says "To may Nokri Pakki samjhu , aur koye to hai nahi aap ke pass". Wish I had the same thing in my E*TRADE interviews. (Exactly opposite to Graham Ford incident). The best dialogue of the movie -- "mujhe states ke naam sunte nahi, sir INDIA suniye deta hai".

One Hr into the movie, Hindi movie and no kids that can't be. We had some amazing background music from the kids, may be they heard the team spirit stuff from SRK. No sooner followed the impatient crowd, "aree bache ko chup karao ", "we did not pay for this" "why don't you bring a nanny" etc. Now they began to show some unity and integrity, shouting more than the kids. And the child's mother obviously embarrassed had to go out with the child. Now parents had to concentrate more on their kids than the movie.

I enjoyed all the three Movie, children's crying sound and parents yelling, felt so much like INDIA. Close to 3 hr SRK movie with just one song (must be a record) got over, I came out of the theater in a good mood after a long time. For the first time I was associating myself with a game other than cricket, nice for a change. Reached home at 1 am.

Next day I decided to test my car on the highway, so set out to Great Mall, Milpitas. Used to only 45 - 50 MPH, 60, 65 seemed to be fast & uncontrollable, well its 100 kph. Realized how smooth and responsive my Camry was. With Gods grace and google map reached Mall. A Typical mall with tons of people, felt like "Kumbh ka mela". After a bit of shopping I decided to find my CAR. Hmm finding my Camry in Mall parking lot in bay area seemed to be a NP hard problem. It seemed like Fractals the car patterns, occurring again and again. Scorching sun added to my agony. Out of the no where came a gentleman, I am hari from AP.

Donno why I replied Manish, INDIA (Chak de effect i guess), suddenly I corrected from Bangalore.

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WHAT IFFFFF...

"Mazzak mazzak me 4 posts hogaya ". Its always easy to bowl with a new ball and your strike blower on song. The real challenge is when ball stops swinging batsman start to get settled. Thats true with every aspect of life in Kannada we call it "Aramabhika Shoora". When it doesn't swing they bowlers start shinning the ball, ball some cutters, slower ones. Captain starts shuffling his field etc. You can see restlessness in the field.

We all think and follow the normal way, the traditional swing. In cricket When it doesn't swing we try the other way, the reverse swing. Lets think the other way "what if it has happened other way" or Yuh Hoota To Kaisa Hoota (naseerudin shah's directorial flop). And it would sound really funny and makes us feel good when we think about these matters. This though has came to Saurabh's (my M S friend) my mind sometime so thought of sharing it.

"Just imagine" as said in KMG.

For example what if we didn't have Himalayas protecting INDIA or INDIA had the same latitude of that of USA, then probably INDIA would end up having a weather similar to that of USA. Northern part would have the snow and 0 F (-16 C to -20 C) winter, with Srinagar submerged in snow like North Dakota. Haryana would be Wisconsin, Punjab would be Minnesota and Chandigarh would be Minneapolis(health care Industry). Allahabad with its triveni sangam (Lake Michigan) would be Chicago (windy city) IIT, Chicago would be Allahabad University.(may be similar in Desi counts). Varanasi would be West Lafayette and Banaras University would be the Great PURDUE ahah.

General Motor's HQ (Detroit) would be represented by Patna and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzzafarpur, Bihar as U Mich (would have made lalu-rabri proud). Moving east Assam and Nagaland would be the Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with snow over one feet all the time. Guwahati being the BOSTON home of MIT, BU,
U Mass (now IIT guwahati will deserves some respect). Kolkata being Washington DC, bit of snow and cold, having good transportation system (metro and tram). Bihar and Jharkand would be the typical midwest, boaring and filled with obese & laid backfolks (quite a bit of similarity). Bhuvaneshwar and Vizag would be the beautiful North and South Carolina, hilly and scenic beauty (again contrast). Hyderabad (famous for Charminar) would be St Louis famous for its arch, a bit of +ve correlation. Agra would be the UTAH mountains with skiing and snow boarding (hope this was true). Coming to central INDIA, Indore would be the beautiful Colarado spings. Goa would be Los Angeles beaches and party all the time. Raipur would be Kansas City bit of cold and hot, both cities being unnoticed. Amritsar and Phagwara would be Seattle and Bellevue the M S HQ would make some Punjabi's happy.

Mumbai would be the San Francisco and Pune (IT and whether wise) would be San Jose, & bay area between them, and I-101 freeway would be pune-bombay expressway. Mountain view being khandala, (then Ghulam song would be "ati kya mountain view") and Sunnyvale (suryanagar as we call it) would be Lonavala (famous for chikki). Temperate climate (55 to 75 F), not much of rain and almost no humidity (now thats a contrast!!!!), people from all over the INDIA would want to reside here (quite true in both cases). IIT Powai would be Stanford and VJTI (number 1 BE college in Mumbai) would be UC Berkley. Now that would make some mumbaikars reading this smile.
Tulzapur (home of Goddess Tuza bhavani ) near Sollapur would be Las Vegas.

Cuddalore(Tsunami hit city) would be New Orleans(Hurricane hit city) Thiruvananthapuram being Miami, Florida famous for beach and tourist place, hot all the time (Mallu's would be happy I guess). Madurai (menakshi temple) temple city would be Orlando famous Walt Disney World (want a contrast), Chennai would be west palm beach[ [what a contrast!!!] and Pondicherry as Ft Lauderdale the exotic cities. Bangalore would be Dallas-Richardson (both have IT and good weather). But DFW airpot is awesome, hope bangalore international airpot would be the same soon, all depends on HD Deve gowda and Sons. PESIT (my BE college) would be UTDallas. And IISc would be the NASA at Houston(Sorry had to fit on IISc some where went too far south). Lakshadweep would be Hawaii islands and Pakistan(previously part of INDIA) would be Alaska the 50 th state of US, (what a contrast!!!!!!!)


In winter people would say we going to Chennai to get some heat, definitely people of Bangalore will not agree with me. They are forced to go to Chennai for VISA.
Hope this simile blog would charge our geography, if I missed out any places please do comment it in pair and I will fix it.

Also do comment which do you think is the most contrasting thing.

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New Ball swing FUNDA -- 2 perspectives

As in Test Cricket they say "As a batsman you got play new ball carefully negotiating the swing" I have been negotiating the first 3 weeks at E*TRADE with ease and confidence without any hiccups and edges.

In the name of training we had each team bombarding technical jargons and abbreviations at us for the first 2 weeks. Starting with Precise Questioning and Answering(P Q & A ), where we are taught how to ask precise question. They asked us to frame one question from each of the 7 categories on every single statement. The good part is that when you ask so many precise questions about one sentence you understand it so well that you have less questions later :) . Its an indirect way of looking at a sentence from all 360 degrees. It really makes sense using these PQA 's in our real life, as our communication eases and each person know what he wants and whats he is expected off. We are asked to frame questions individually, in groups, and in mixed groups. When one does the same task individually and in group he/she realizes what team work is all about. Its a real pain believe. What you think is right some one will object it.

When we were going through these sessions, certain hilarious moments of how Mandar (my X roomie) and I were answering precisely to people came into my mind (People of Canal Square will know that pain that we caused :) ). These sessions had so much impact on me that, when I met the HR she asked me "do u have a SSN ? ", for which I said "yea"!!!!!! Soon realized that she was expecting my ssn no, I tactfully said "effect of PQ sessions". Later on in the week we had "TECH" training, where directors of each team would come in and bombard with abbreviations which they expected us to know!!!!!!! The only precise questions that each of us had were "Where does this fit into E*TRADE architecture ?", each framing in their own ways. Because if we didn't ask questions when all are expecting, it would give a dent feeling. So each one of us were busy preparing questions. And I am famous for asking questions .

Next we had some hands on experiences where we "build and run " (past tense) some code. The best part of E*TRADE is that they use LINUX (RHEL 3), this saves a lot of money. I was really excited to work in LINUX as I hate the "MicroSoft" env. The strange and sad part was that, out of the 13 NCA's only 3 of us knew LINUX and I was a pro and other 2 were supposed to be Network Admin ( so they had to know LINUX ). At last my stint with LINUX in Masters turned fruitful. In the training sessions I realized that good engineers need not be good teachers. The was one person who was reading the slides. I had enough of slide reading in M S and B E. There was one NCA who would sleep and snore, but when he gets up would ask a question to show that he is awake (nice strategy!!!).

The most hilarious part of E*TRADE is that the cubicles have good IP address type numbering system. Say 5.1.438 is my cubicle. ( 5 for Menlo Park (city) , 1 for first floor (ground floor of INDIA) and 438 my cubicle address). The weird part is 438 and 437 might not be adjacent. It took me 30 min to search my managers desk 5.2.105 from 5.2,104 . So each person has his own way of identification, some use printer room or some use rest room as their reference point. And we have DNS in the name of receptionist who would give the layout of when asked. Other day I was chatting with a co-worker regarding some issue. He asked my cubicle reference point I said 1 floor coffee machine. He later messaged me saying that he was waiting there for like 20 min. I soon realized that he had recently come from INDIA and was still in ground floor first floor concept. For the first time Emergency assistance number has now changed to 9-911 from 911 !!!!!!!!

The other side of new ball, --the bowler's perspective, after certain overs the bowl doesn't swing, similarly after second week bowl didn't swing for me either. Had meeting and appointment with various managers, got the project requirement, did lot of reading, had to install and configure hell lot of stuffs, all expecting me to be productive now.

Well when it doesn't swing try cutter and slower ones. Or introduce spin (the load takers). Which means time for some hard work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(:(:(:(:(.

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Yet another Camry Hits the road

Well another aspect of DESIGIRI is buying a Honda and Toyota cars, I am a Desi so I began my dream car hunt right from day one. I checked out cars.com and craigslist.org ( be careful while typing it ) for accords and civics. Found a decent one posted by individual sellers who sell it much cheaper than dealers. There is a saying every dollar you save comes with a dollar worth of pain. The biggest problem is contacting the owner and asking for VIN, its like SSN. It would have complete jataka of the car right from day one. Looking for Honda and Toyota cars all u expect is a desi or a chinki seller. I had a hard time as I had only chinki sellers. The communication goes like this "Hello I am interested in buying u r car, can I get the VIN of the car ?". After a brief pause the reply was the paraphrase of what I said, "So you are calling to get the VIN ?". Donno y chinkis always paraphrase before they answer. After checking its carfax I got an appointment for the test drive. I had rented car for the week end. I didn't have much success neither I liked the car nor the price in all the occasions. One the way back along with my friend Yogesh we gave a visit to the Toyota of Steven Creek, fortunately he had some Honda as well. Here I liked the cars but not the prices. We desis always want good things at low price [:)].

The dealer start talking, looking at me realizing that I am a desi ,obviously a software Eng "Which company do u work sir ? ", " I said I work for E*TRADE ", he replies in a tone that would make you feel in satva asman (seventh heaven), "E*TRADE ha big money sir, why do you what to buy a used Honda, go for brand new one , it must me peanuts for your salary" or else U can go for BMW or AUDI. I can get you a good deal on that as well. As if I earn a million a year!!!!!!!!. Finally a found a 2001 Accord Lx with 54 k at 13 grand. And we Desis never fall shot of bargaining and dealers know that. We started "You know I am just out of college and have huge student loans, just came to cali and blah blah ". We started to make the atmosphere bit gloomy by tell out dard and dukhi kahanis.

He started with 13k we said 11k, as kbb (kelly blue book)of the car is around 10.5 and we liked the car so I didn't mind paying a bit more for it. He said 11.5 would be his final price of the car. I desperately wanted that car for 11k, so I told him will contact my brother and discuss about it. Basically we wanted to buy some time before we made the final decision. He was sharp "Can u call u r brother now ?", i was sharper " he lives in NY and they are 3 hrs ahead of us, so I don't to disturb at this point". It was 8 pm by then on Sunday and obviously we didn't expect any one after that, and people wont come on Mondays, so thought that car would remain there. I drove back peacefully thinking of bargaining for 11.2 or 11.3 and make a deal. I had the most peaceful sleep that night. Next day morning I was so excited and thrilled, called up the bank for loan which was pre-approved. At 2:30 pm I got a call
essa :"Hello Manish how ru ? this is essa from Toyota ", I was so excited .""

essa : I have a bad news for you, the car got sold right after you left, some Indian liked the car and bought it for 11.3k, U know its bay area good deals don't last long!!!"
Probably some other desi would have used a better strategy and purchased it. I was literally into tears, It was the saddest moment of my life. "Delays are dangerous" its true. I called up my friend he could not believe it nor could I for the next 3 days. Every time I saw an accord, my heart missed a beat (even now some times). Then I remembered the munna bhai song, "Agle din aiswarya ayi one"(hospital scene).

Next Saturday I rented a car took a look at Palo Alto Toyota, He had couple of civic and accord which I didn't like. Suddenly a Teal blue color bright glittering 2000 Year Camry caught my eyes, with only 43k mileage (odometer) it was love at first sight. Went for a test drive along with the agent, It drove smooth, good handling, not the kind of pickups accords have though, but decent one. Saw the car fax single owner, but the price was the big barrier 12k, It was 9:15 on Saturday and this had come to deals 2 days ago, and was not posted in any of the ads yet. I told him I will come back tomorrow as I needed to consult my friends. Saw the kbb and rechecked carfax, decided that I would start from 10 k and would endup atmost 10.5 and finish the deal.

Went at 11 am on Sunday , test drove again, AC was good, it had a CD player AM/FM and more imp cassette player. Again the same old bargain shit took place and deal was over with 10.6 K plus 3 months of warranty on the car. The complete set of formalities was over by 2 pm, and on Wed Aug 1 ,after getting insurance from All State drove my Camry back home.

"I am a proud owner of Toyota Camry LE, even though its termed a desi car" after all I am DESI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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First day in OFFICE

Well the day arrived 16 th July my start day of my first job. After a long time ( since early morning PURDUE interview Visits ) I got up at 6 am , left home by 7. Reached the office reception and introduced myself as an NCA ( New College Associate ), came the reply " please take your seat Tech Trainer will meet all the NCA's at 8:30, you are early by 30 min". On my way to the sofa met 4 desis in formal dress with tie and couple of chinkis in full arm shirts and leather shoes and 3 more female NCA's all dressed in formal staring at me wearing a round neck wrangler shirt, trendy painter blue jeans and sandals. Missed a heart beat for a sec, for the first time I looked under dressed or wrongly dressed. Not a nice way to start your first Job . To my agony saw a couple of senior staff dressed as well. 8:30 Tech Trainer dressed in suit boot guided us to the training room. All the time I was guilty of myself in jeans & T shirt, but not any one objecting it.

Tech Trainer introduced himself and asked every one to introduce themselves and what each had a view about company. PURDUE has great respect in my office, so I had my head high as I was from IUPUI under "Purdue School of Science". As the introduction began there were couple of PURDUE students. So when I said I am from Purdue, Master of Science the trainer said you guys must be knowing each other? you would have get time here.

See the way we use Purdue is like how "Yudhistra of Mahabharata used Ashwothama Mritaha". Not actually from Purdue but we dont say that we are from IUPUI. We get the degree from PURDUE though.

So I was caught in a Jinx, didn't want to spell out the bean on the first day in front all NCA's and managers. Used my sixth sense (a thread of Desigiri) both the Purdue folks were Undergrads!!!!

I said "Not really you know how big PURDUE is and there are over 40K grads & undergrads and really difficult to know most of them". One of the PURDUE folk was a desi, he probably understood what I was hiding off . Fortunately for me he kept his mouth shut. Not used getting up early and eating cereals at 6:30 am, I began feeling hungry the session started. Luckily for me the trainer said "lets meet after 10 min when the projector would be fixed, I was the first person to get up and ran towards coffee machine.

Then we were asked to switch on the computer, me being a mozilla freek /quickly installed it. It had been long time now that I hadn't checked my mail (8 hrs). So typed gmail.com , quickly I received a access violation message got really scared. Coincidently the instructor began to explain security features of my company & there were no personal emails and messengers. My heart missed a beat, no messenger got to be kidding. Then he told me "If incidentally someone does that he get a violation message", he showed what the message looked like. Guy beside me whispered "man u r really fast" sarcastically, instructor realized what was going on. I gave a fundoo ans "Know the rules of the game before you play" he was astonished. Imagine the scene in a room where every one wore formal nobody spoke a word, me in fundoo jeans giving dialogs. But the best thing was ORKUT was not blocked, since its "not personal". I have been rigorously using ORKUT before its blocked.

During the training he had a slide that my company has relaxed culture and that there was no restriction on type of clothing, I felt like I passed the test of Day. I thanked my friend had told me that companies in bay area have relaxed culture. At last I felt home.

Then we dispersed for lunch provided by the company, met a lot of Managers Directors and HR. Suddenly from behind some called me "Manish how are you ? you have lost weight and grown long hair. Did u see your cubicle 5-1-438". He was one whom I had spoken about Linux and Ubuntu during my interview. Found out that he was a Principle, Software Eng of the team I was part of. Later of I began speaking couple of other folks whom I met during the lunch at interview. One (PURDUE alumni) of whom said "Its really glad that you accepted this offer". I was like I had no other option so!!!!!! Sometimes talking too much to too many people helps. :). One of my fellow NCA came up to me & asked how did that guy know your name and cubicle ??? I said man PURDUE connection. Thats when I felt 2 years of hardwork and snow shit worked out. Later on I found out that E*TRADE has a heavy PURDUE connection.

Now I regularly( forcibly) meet, chat and discuss with PURDUE alumni. I am one now!.

Bottom line "In a yes/ no question reason for y/n is not asked".

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29 th state of INDIA

I thought a good place to start my blog would be the place where most of the software companies started "the bay area", (I call it the 29th state of INDIA) which is between San Francisco (SFO) & San Jose(SJ). Cost of living increasing from San Jose to San Francisco, so most people(including me ) stay close to SJ and travel towards SFO.

Desis concentrating mostly around SJ area, where you see only Honda n Toyota in comparison to Merc, BMW, Lexus, Ferrari, Porsche etc in SFO area. The weather here varies between 55 F to 75 F (when it varies from -4 F to 100 F in some places), thats a real bonus in US, idea temperature for Desis to expand their empire. For the first time here in US I could hear children cry and yell in shopping malls ( donno why only Desi children cry ). You can see parents and senior citizens walking and shopping with small bag on their shoulder, or going for morning walk in parks. You can see the Desi attitude while they drive and shop here. Let alone the customers ,the sales person in bank, security guards in office, taxi drivers are all Desis. Its good in one way that our feel good factor increases and things go smooth and easy.

Well in Corporate offices its fun you find only Tandoori chicken (Desis) and Chili chickens (Chinkies). And wide variety of Desis, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Assam. And each trying to speak in their own accent, its fun thought listening to it. And here and there you will here the whar ( where ) har ( hair ) , simbly ( simply ) also you hear apadiya, enna solla, cheppu, kai zhala etc in their typical accent, all these make you feel at home. But one thing I must accept that INDIANS clean your doubts in the nicest and most simple way.

Plate meal at "saravana bhavan" and Dosa n Filter coffee "madras coffee " will make you feel heaven on earth making you feel home away from home.

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Well come to my Blog

Well its been 2 years in US and had quite a bit of hilarious moments so far, so thought of spitting out through this blog.

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