Bath from the bucket!!!

What a strange title right! In the middle of nowhere, somebody talks about buckets and bath. Yep, I am watching the Karachi match, and unfortunately after Ganguly's dismissal, and a mini collapse triggered almost everytime you see the Indian batting, I thought I will try to complete my blog entry which I have been thinking of for quite some time.

As I entered into the bathroom yet another time, my frustrations were gradually increasing. The confined space within the bath tub was troubling me like hell. The 2 feet by 6 feet bathtub with an overhanging shower is such a pain. One gets the feel of skiing in the bathroom. The luxury of space in Indian bathrooms is such a treat. Filling up the bucket with hot water and splashing it on your body with that little mug is something I really miss here. The typical sound of glug-glug of the mug hitting the water, without worrying about the water going out of the bathtub (there is no such concept there anyway) and splashing the water in any direction is something people do not realise here. I really don't understand why bathrooms are so confined here? Rather, why are the bathtubs reduced to miniscule particles! That's when I was thinking, just imagine a person coming from the village who takes his daily bath by the Cauvery, and has to take bath in bathrooms in cities. I can really put myself in his place, except that I am in the second degree of elevation.

Never realised that one day I would be writing a blog on Indian bathrooms and a bucketful of water will gain such prominence in my life!

Mechanics Rolling

Back from holidays where I did nothing to school, where I am doing nothing. I think the best thing to do these days is to spend as less a time as possible in front of the computer. Obviously, what would anybody do as soon as he boots the system:

• Open the list of email applications where he has registered
• Since there are N email applications, sometimes it so happens that not all of them have the same password
• Take up the challenge of answering the hint questions - its not easy you see
• One has to find out what is happening around the world - Come on! you can't be doing research all the time
• One has to be upto date with sports, how else will you find out how many more runs did India and pakistan score more than 600 runs in a Test match
• Crib about the lifeless quality of pitches in Pakistan as if that's the only concern on your head right now
• Entertainment is a key to happiness! Rang De Basanti has to be found out through reviews!
• With a painstakingly high resolve, click on that orange icon on the desktop (Thank God, its on the desktop) to open the Matlab Editor that stutters its way amidst a lot of obstacles
• Open Google to find something which you don't understand and then suddenly realise that you forgot to respond to your friend's mail
• If all this is not enough, your stomach too doesn't realise the situation and goes empty
• You run home to grab a quick meal and run back as if you are running short of time
• Even Einstein will get a complex to see you running back like a hare
• Your research work commenes!!!

Finally, you realise that you are not getting the right results and I don't blame anybody for it!!!

A Blog on C

Quite some time did I write something on my page. What do you feel about the two fellas in the picture with the happy faces? Things are not as rosy as the picture suggests. It is the story of two brave individuals, who defied all odds and took up Linear Control Systems. But the odds had to catch up with them as a grade of C resulted at the end of the course. It is pretty disappointing and frustrating to get that grade after putting maximum efforts in that course. But then life takes its course and we just have to toe its line. Praveen and Pravin cannot get anymore luckier with the choiciest selection of the toughest course!! Pravin was shattered a day before me. Obviously! Who in the world asked him to go and check up the scores so soon. But the worst part was, he spoilt my happiness. Because, I knew that if he got that grade, I had no chance in the world to better his performance. Both of us were sailing in the same rudderless boat in a turbulent sea and in the midst of a storm you see. The next day, It was my turn to feel the low and you should have seen the other fool (I am refering to Pravin) consoling me as if he was the topper in the subject. I didn't understand the logic. Both of us had got a C, but why was he consoling me? Then came the good samaritan, Yadunandana Yellambalase with his newly bought HP camera (now in the docks), cheerfully patting my back and telling me "Maga, don't worry! Worse things than this can happen in life". Was he consoling me? What are the other possible things that can happen was weighing on my mind? And then, he told us to give a pose after our accomplishment. So, here you are seeing.....

Staring at the oblivion - Life of a...

Staring at what? Before we get into a complex array of thoughts, let me make things clear! I am talking about the world of computers. A cold stare at the computer screen can evoke a lot of memories. A lot of ideas spring forth, but nothing remotely related to what you are staring at. I opened my IE browser to a page filled with mathematical equations and my mind filled with equally challenging problems but none related to Maths. I have had the (dis)pleasure of having experienced two worlds - academic and professional. In today's world, computers form the crux of not just your career but your life. I can clearly differentiate my thought process in the two roles. As a professional, even the remote thoughts are cluttered and disoriented.

I remember my two years of work vividly. A day's work along with my thoughts led me to new dimensions. The mind can be transformed and tuned to different situations with ease. The colourful Eclipse Editor for my Java and J2EE Applications did not drive me crazy as I got immuned to the thousands of lines of code being churned daily from my other-thoughts driven crazy mind. My mind's eye has viewed a lot of movies (sometimes created at that instant), attended late night parties, recollecting the silly jokes of college - silly because such jokes can be created only when the lecturer is right in front of you and you are almost ROFL and you realise it is no more joke when you are treated like a football after that(obviously now you are out of the class), weekend plans for the trip, feeling like an ass for not having visited places like Kemmanagundi and Wayanad before, how to break the knuckles of certain people (Cmon, I am not naming them- my blog can definitely not hold the names of these unwanted guys), recollecting the school fights, anticipating the result of tomorrow's India-Pakistan match and what not! I really thank my job for that. It helped me recollect my good 'le days and exposed me to the new frontiers.

It always beats me as to how mind can take on the job of a nomad. It nudges and reaches the nook and corner of your life with ease. After all this, if my Project Manager comes and tells me that there is a bug in my program, I tell her a simple solution - Come on, it works on my computer, It was working last night (so that it conveys a message too that I was working late night), There is something wrong with the network (What network, which network!!!), or the best one, maybe the compiler is screwed up!!! Luckily she used to put up with all these things and finally say - But I want this working. I used to curse my fate which held me to the confines of a single blood sucking line of code. I remember the other occasions where the bug used to be a well kept secret. The bug, as well as the solution, never saw the light of the day, thanks to me!!! If people could not find the bug, what's the point in finding a solution. I had a bagful of such bugs. Just imagine what would happen to me if I let my little(literally) secrets out. There were some situations where I had to take the decisions. Obviously I am the developer right. I have discovered a bug - What is it? A problem in the server where the application is deployed. The solution to this problem would be really simple if nobody was around. Why? I used to change it directly on the server. Nobody would get to know a word about this. But what IF my boss is around. The whole mind boggling process of the most atrocious and complicated software engineering cycle would start off with development, testing, versioning and what not for a single line of code. Yes, a single line of code! Poor me! I have done this too many times!

To reiterate that the life of a software engineer is not easy, the day starts with Microsoft's most favoured application - Microsoft Outlook. It really makes my day to see the bold fonts on the left hand side of the application that signifies the unread mails. If not, I get mentally disturbed. I am really filled with agony when there are no new mails. There are also times when everything gets boring and you are waiting for any old forward. An old forward is better than no mail. The furious pace of your fingers hitting F9 for new mails is repeated at an alarmingly high rate. This gives us the option of exploring a one-finger typist job even if there is a pink slip. Now you are tired. It is no joke to check mails regularly. It can tire you easily. That gives you more than enough reasons to take a tea break. Another half an hour of sledge hammering the keyboard and half an hour of typing meeting request mails is enough to whet your appetite. A long walk to the canteen with a bunch of other so-called developers leads you to yet another oily plate of I don't want to eat this stuff.

I wouldn't want to tell you anything about the post lunch activities. That would be the best time to have a group meeting! At the end of the day, you are tired for no reason. Home is the best place to settle early, but how can you when you have to travel from Bommanahalli to Malleswaram at 7PM in the evening. That is enough to turn you off. It is better to leave late and reach late, rather than leave early and reach late. Finally, you have all the time in the world to go home and sleep and get up early the next day to start off another fascinating and fun-filled day of progress and hope.

Pizzas and French Fries

Skiing is not an easy sport. No wonder people claim(claim?...it is!) it to be adventurous. Obviously, you need guts to keep getting up after falling regularly! As a part of the winter break, we went to Wooster in Ohio. It took us about 11 hours to reach Ohio from Rolla. So what may be the distance from Rolla to Ohio? People may presume it to be around 400-500 kilometers considering the travel back home. But to my surprise, we had covered 700 miles or rather 1100 kms in eleven hours. The roads are a revelation here. People back good roads with excellent road sense. I could never hear anybody honking off to glory under any circumstances. Coupled with that, there are four lane roads, two lanes in either direction. Off the two lanes, one is meant to be exclusively for overtaking. At any given instant, it is tempting to rip at more than the normal speed. No big deal about that if you are willing to pay 200$ regularly to the traffic cops.

Five of us to Ohio : Pankaj (The Initiator), Pravin (The PJ killer), Amol (The silent satan), Amit(The stiff dancer) and me(in the wild)!!
Car : Kia
Start Time : 8:30 am from Rolla

We set forth with last minute checkup of everything and packing off things that were required. We did the packing just half an hour before we left. Thank God! We do not spend much time in front of the mirror and wondering what we have to stuff in our bags. Everything is decided in a split second. The car sped along easily on the smooth I44 interstate highway, first to St. Louis. The one and a half hour journey was followed by a drive to Indianapolis(yup! The same thing! F1) and then to Columbus and finally to Wooster. Five of us in the car, four of them are Marathi speaking guys and one of them(unfortunately me!!) knew Kannada and Tamil but not Marathi. You can imagine my plight in such a situtation. My ears used to spring forth in attention as soon as I used to hear something in Hindi or English which were countable occasions. No wonder you realise why I was left in the wild. Our lunch or brunch was stuck to the confines of the highway dhabas (relax!!), which were the Taco Bells(Hell!!!), subways(bus bus!!!), Mac Donalds (quack quack) and Burger Kings(burgers.....grrr!!).

We reached Wooster in the night. Thanks to the time difference, we were one hour late. Pankaj's cousin, Kishore (remember he is Pankaj's cousin, so he too knew Marathi...booo hoooo!) welcomed us in a plush, clean and comfortable apartment. It was a revelation to see such a place after our lovely homes back in Rolla! He had prepared Chole, which was gulped with bread and some rice. A late night show of Munna Bhai MBBS and we were snoring after a really tiring journey. Oooops! I missed out on a very important info! Pankaj was fined by the cops for not obeying Ohio state traffice rules. What is that? If a cop is behind you, you got to stick to the next lane on your left. But unfortunately, we turned right and the cops had their final say and we had to pay!! 99$ is no joke!!! Imagine paying five thousand bucks to cops back in India. It will be a lifetime membership to break traffic rules then. But then, it does not work that way here!

We got up early the next morning. 10:30 is early here in the US to sleeping thugs like us. Any destination within the US is never complete without the aid of google maps and mapquest. They provide information about the various highways and exits. We reached our skiing spot by 1 PM I guess (I am not aware of the exact time). Each of us registered for a beginner's lesson for 29$ inclusive of the skiiware. I didn't understand why we had to go for a beginner's lesson. I thought we could have jumped in directly for the advanced step (just kidding!!).


We never knew of the number of falls we had in store for the rest of the day. We started with some lessons. Lauren(how can I forget her name!) could easily manipulate her way in the slopes. She taught us about Pizzas and French fries. French fries to keep the skiis in parallel to accelerate your movement down the slopes, while pizzas are created by forming wedges to create a braking action. She did it with ease and easy it is which is what we thought. And then the drama of the day started. Each of us fell, fell and only fell. Of course later in the day, Pravin and Kishore made up for some fine skiing. I still remember Pravin skiing down from the top, breaking the nets, reaching the concrete flooring with a thud that no one of us will ever forget. That was damage at its best! I too had my share of moments. I collided with Pravin when he was a solitary soul in the entire area and I just couldn't change my direction. Amit was learning and learning and learning. His slow paced skiing was taking place in intermediate steps. He would get stuck to a spot before taking the mentally strong decision to ski again. He too suffered my wrath, as I almost collided with him.

Both of us couldn't do anything as both of us were struggling to change directions. Pankaj and Amol too did not make great headway on the skiing front. We skiied till almost 9:30 PM and none of us wanted to return back. But finally, we did, and ordered pizzas(the real ones!!) on our way back home. But no movies that night as I hit the bed almost immediately. I heard the next day, that the guys were having a hearty laugh about my fall the whole night!!

Our bodies woke up to pains seething through all parts of the body. We had to drive for another eleven hours! We managed to reach Rolla in the night after almost one hour of fighting our way in St Louis. It was a real mess as we missed one of the exits. But then, overall it was great fun with pizzas and french fries. Hopefully we would get to skii more in the future.

Pizzas and French Fries

Skiing is not an easy sport. No wonder people claim(claim?...it is!) it to be adventurous. Obviously, you need guts to keep getting up after falling regularly! As a part of the winter break, we went to Wooster in Ohio. It took us about 11 hours to reach Ohio from Rolla. So what may be the distance from Rolla to Ohio? People may presume it to be around 400-500 kilometers considering the travel back home. But to my surprise, we had covered 700 miles or rather 1100 kms in eleven hours. The roads are a revelation here. People back good roads with excellent road sense. I could never hear anybody honking off to glory under any circumstances. Coupled with that, there are four lane roads, two lanes in either direction. Off the two lanes, one is meant to be exclusively for overtaking. At any given instant, it is tempting to rip at more than the normal speed. No big deal about that if you are willing to pay 200$ regularly to the traffic cops.

Five of us to Ohio : Pankaj (The Initiator), Pravin (The PJ killer), Amol (The silent satan), Amit(The stiff dancer) and me(in the wild)!!
Car : Kia
Start Time : 8:30 am from Rolla

We set forth with last minute checkup of everything and packing off things that were required. We did the packing just half an hour before we left. Thank God! We do not spend much time in front of the mirror and wondering what we have to stuff in our bags. Everything is decided in a split second. The car sped along easily on the smooth I44 interstate highway, first to St. Louis. The one and a half hour journey was followed by a drive to Indianapolis(yup! The same thing! F1) and then to Columbus and finally to Wooster. Five of us in the car, four of them are Marathi speaking guys and one of them(unfortunately me!!) knew Kannada and Tamil but not Marathi. You can imagine my plight in such a situtation. My ears used to spring forth in attention as soon as I used to hear something in Hindi or English which were countable occasions. No wonder you realise why I was left in the wild. Our lunch or brunch was stuck to the confines of the highway dhabas (relax!!), which were the Taco Bells(Hell!!!), subways(bus bus!!!), Mac Donalds (quack quack) and Burger Kings(burgers.....grrr!!).

We reached Wooster in the night. Thanks to the time difference, we were one hour late. Pankaj's cousin, Kishore (remember he is Pankaj's cousin, so he too knew Marathi...booo hoooo!) welcomed us in a plush, clean and comfortable apartment. It was a revelation to see such a place after our lovely homes back in Rolla! He had prepared Chole, which was gulped with bread and some rice. A late night show of Munna Bhai MBBS and we were snoring after a really tiring journey. Oooops! I missed out on a very important info! Pankaj was fined by the cops for not obeying Ohio state traffice rules. What is that? If a cop is behind you, you got to stick to the next lane on your left. But unfortunately, we turned right and the cops had their final say and we had to pay!! 99$ is no joke!!! Imagine paying five thousand bucks to cops back in India. It will be a lifetime membership to break traffic rules then. But then, it does not work that way here!

We got up early the next morning. 10:30 is early here in the US to sleeping thugs like us. Any destination within the US is never complete without the aid of google maps and mapquest. They provide information about the various highways and exits. We reached our skiing spot by 1 PM I guess (I am not aware of the exact time). Each of us registered for a beginner's lesson for 29$ inclusive of the skiiware. I didn't understand why we had to go for a beginner's lesson. I thought we could have jumped in directly for the advanced step (just kidding!!).

We never knew of the number of falls we had in store for the rest of the day. We started with some lessons. Lauren(how can I forget her name!) could easily manipulate her way in the slopes. She taught us about Pizzas and French fries. French fries to keep the skiis in parallel to accelerate your movement down the slopes, while pizzas are created by forming wedges to create a braking action. She did it with ease and easy it is which is what we thought. And then the drama of the day started. Each of us fell, fell and only fell. Of course later in the day, Pravin and Kishore made up for some fine skiing. I still remember Pravin skiing down from the top, breaking the nets, reaching the concrete flooring with a thud that no one of us will ever forget. That was damage at its best! I too had my share of moments. I collided with Pravin when he was a solitary soul in the entire area and I just couldn't change my direction. Amit was learning and learning and learning. His slow paced skiing was taking place in intermediate steps. He would get stuck to a spot before taking the mentally strong decision to ski again. He too suffered my wrath, as I almost collided with him.

Both of us couldn't do anything as both of us were struggling to change directions. Pankaj and Amol too did not make great headway on the skiing front. We skiied till almost 9:30 PM and none of us wanted to return back. But finally, we did, and ordered pizzas(the real ones!!) on our way back home. But no movies that night as I hit the bed almost immediately. I heard the next day, that the guys were having a hearty laugh about my fall the whole night!!

Our bodies woke up to pains seething through all parts of the body. We had to drive for another eleven hours! We managed to reach Rolla in the night after almost one hour of fighting our way in St Louis. It was a real mess as we missed one of the exits. But then, overall it was great fun with pizzas and french fries. Hopefully we would get to skii more in the future.

What not?

A lot of things I did this week(of course nothing to do with academics)! I went to Ohio for skiing, watched Munich at St Louis, read One night @ Call Center and saw a Telugu movie (Varsham) for the first time here in Rolla. After all, one can live in Rolla without English but Telugu is a must considering the wonderful Hyderabadi population here. Skiing was a lot of fun and if you love to fall, it is all the more fun. What else can I say after having fallen every other second! New Year's eve was pretty normal. According to me there is not much gloss attached to the event. After all, the next day is just another day, except for the year which changes. I still don't understand the excitement associated with the event. Does it in anyway change your lifestyle? We just live to see another day with hope! The wheels roll to reveal the same old scars in the uneven journey of life(Too poetic, eh?). Just reminds me. Long time since I penned a poem. Wait for one!

Munich...Gripping reality

When Spielberg makes a movie, it creates headlines. But this one was different. Two weeks prior to the release of Munich, Spielberg revealed about such a movie and the reasons are obvious. The movie is about the aftermaths of Black September that hit the 1972 Olympics at Munich where 11 Israeli athletes were brutally murdered after the Palestinians attacked the Olympics village. A sensationally picturised movie of the Israeli intelligence wing, the Mossad, reactivating its assasination wing to eliminate the creators of Black September forms the theme of the year's best movie undoubtedly.

I have no clue of the actors who form the part of this movie. But, almost every unknown name seemed to fit in the role with ease. There are eleven people who plotted the 1972 disaster and there are nine of them whom the Mossad end up eliminating leaving the other two in perpetual fear. The story is about how the people selected for this mission end up killing the plotters and the traumatic experience, each of them undergoes.

Steven Spielberg has taken a neutral stand in this classic. He beautifully has potrayed the ill effects of terrorism, and though the vengeance operation has been carried out, he says that nothing can be done to reduce terrorism. Though people who have plotted the brutality are being killed, new ones are filling the voids in almost the same pace, which ultimately would lead to perpetual killing. The main protagonist of the movie who leads this low key but high profile operation essays the role to perfection as an Israeli agent. His and the team's traumatic experience of the operation is depicted in a way that only Spielberg can do justice. At the end of the day, he loses his entire team in the operation. The story does not end there. The post operations trauma that he suffers is truly a heart wrenching sight. He becomes a victim of his own suspicion and bitterness.

The film not only deals with the Israeli hit back but also what is lost in the entire operation. As I walked out of the theater, I was filled with a sense of uneasiness that gripped me of the terrorism that plagues the society and happiness of having watched another high quality movie from the stable of Steven Spielberg.