Indian Ameri

Whizzed! And there went the same girl in front of her. Strangely, she slowed again and disappeared into thin ground. A couple of dashes later, once again little miss Mbowa noticed through the corner of her eye, the image of the black girl who swiped past her in a jiffy. Yet again she vanished. “Daddy says I’m first if I’m fast”, words ran in her mind as she neared the finish line.

The Kenyan marathon winner clenched his wine glass in disbelief as he saw his 4 year old daughter margining the distance between her and the second place by more than 40 yards. “That’s it Mbowa! That’s the spirit”, he yelled on top of his voice avoiding all conversations he had with the celebrating group. Everyone’s eyes turned to the race.

“What’s she looking at on her side every now and then? Why is she running faster intermittently?” thought Younootto. The curve ended and Mbowa won the challenge. She started crying. Younootto ran from his party stand and hugged his daughter.

“Sorry pappa. She… faster” panting for air she cried.
“No sweetheart. You came first. See everybody is chubby caking your victory”, assured Younootto.
“But…. But…. That girl? Came behind…. Faster…. Disappeared…..” Mbowa gave a confused look.
“Come on it’s getting late. I need to tuck you into your bed”, he dragged Mbowa along.

All the while Mbowa was complaining about the dark image she saw beating her every now and then and vanishing in the ground. Younootto considered it as her imagination and assured her that there was none.

Mbowa walked head down to the door with her confused mind and as she crossed her garden light, she noticed her competitor again. She pointed her finger at her and called her dad. “Pappa. Pappa. Look… She again….”

Younootto walked fast towards her and saw what she was pointing at. He laughed at his imagination. Bent down on his knees and caught Mbowa by her shoulders and said,

“That’s your shadow sweetheart”


Life in a box: Had a tummy laugh watching Fox channel legal advisors fighting on the debate concerning the Best Buy former employee suing his company for. Lived two days on liquid diet. And the liquid is only milk. Got no energy to shift my apt. A lot of small things very much important to my life and future came up and am getting screwed up taking care of everything. Been hearing this anonymous 1 min musical composition and am desperate to find who the composer is. My nephew got day care finally and so no more baby sitting in the evenings (gud / bad news?).

Song of the day: Kahan ho Tum from U Bomsi N Me, Aao Milo Chalein from Jab We Met (I like this more than Tum Se Hi), of course the 1 minute musical composition, Cleopatra Stratan’s cute Ghita.

Working through the set of equations, he stopped with a frown as he faced the final step of his modelling equation. He set aside his pen, and looked out through the window of the restaurant. The sun seemed as a supernova, the light turned as energy equations, people walking by resembled Schrodingers theory. Everything he noticed seemed to be giving him concepts on his theory. But none revealed the answer.

"Coffee Dr. Reid?", sweet voice of Stephanie questioned.

"Sure dear", replied Mark still having his glare at the outside world.

"Your wife called. She said she would be late by an hour. Do you need anything till then?", asked Stephanie.

The frown turned to concern and he smiled at her and said, "Then..... I'll have a muffin"

Stephanie responded with a warmer smile and walked away from him.

Her smile seemed like a silver lining. He dug into his notes and scratched his chin for the missing piece of the puzzle. An hour later, his pupil constricted, goosebumps hit him, muscles hardened and there he rose from his chair with a shock and yelled, "Eureka! Eureka! I've found the solution"

Stephanie calmed the only other customer sitting on the other side of the restaurant. Seconds later, Mrs Reid walked in, waved a hand at Mark and smiled at Stephanie. Minutes later, old Mrs. Reid, took her husband Mark who was singing equations to the oldsmobile which they shared for years.

Stephanie told the other customer, "Dr Reid lost his marbles while he was working as a proff. Anyway... Do you need cream with your coffee?"

As the mid 30's customer walked out of the restaurant swivel door, Stephanie noticed that he had the notes of Dr. Reid tucked in his leather jacket. Two days later, Stephanie read the headlines of the paper "Lyndon, a 37 year old stockbroker shocks the mathematics world with his solution". She dropped the maple syrup bottle when she recognized the face in the photograph.

Yo Yo Yo Yo YO YOOOOO! Two weeks of misery finally ended tonight. Been reading this review paper by a young faculty from Wisconsin for tomorrows [actually todays :-) seminar] and luckily, I've tree'ed myself into a network of (or should I look at the dying toner and say a pile of) papers which seem to have generated a zillion ideas and concepts in me all of a sudden. The best (and of course the worst) thing was to see a Nature paper having the same idea as mine. I just wish the new chemical (Yipee again coz I got a final go to synthesize myself), turns out to be good enough to start showing me some productive results. Ideas are pouring in like a deluge with my conecptual and theoretical back ground improving the moment. I am so filled with ideas that all I've done so far is write my ideas in a file and saving 'em (after every five seconds). Got completely off track the seminar paper. I'm going home and gonna take a nap (Its 4:30 a.m already) and lets see how pathetic I perform tomorrow.

Other research related things: Just saw a resume of a good friend and found out that he had 12 papers (5 first authors) published in 4 years. Instead of being scared or dejected, it turned out to be a boost

My advisor just promised me that, if I get a nature or science paper accepted, he would give me a test drive on his Lexus. Kewl!! More energy input

Outside Research: How come all of a sudden, everyone I know turned so nostalgic. How come I'm the only person, who doesn't feel anything regarding my past memories?

Spent yesterday night hours to get a perfect picture for the HR dept photo contest and at the last minute, after watching the 'so-called masterpieces' I decided not to submit coz the theme was "What makes you happy and healthy" and all the images seemed not even close to the theme.

Musics all gone classics in my mind. Am listening to songs as old as 1930's

Famous quote which I accidentally tripped upon (which I liked instantaneously): The life of the flesh is in the blood - Levictus (Taken literally life doesn't begin when the sperm meets the egg, but 18 days later when the embryo infuses with blood) Science refutes Theology =))

Silently he crept behind the Panzers and reached the bombed wall. He jumped to the basement, and with and unexplainable dexterity he managed to stitch the back wound inflicted by the ricochet of a sniper bullet. After a series of planning and technical implimentation he saved seven of his close friends from the ruthless colonel.

Three years later, both end up facing each other in a deadly combat in the woods of the smokies. With the general turned colonel, standing on the top of the chimney tops, it was evident that he had the upper hand over the inexperienced enemy he has a shot at. With just the short range Magnum, he wasn't the same confident hero who he was during his first encounter. With every bullet path tracing close to his barrier, the 'once' hero, started to lose hope. All plans of evading the enemy and going for a counter attack turned to be futile because the general somehow seemed to know an equally smart counterplan.

With minutes turning into hours and the distance shrinking between the two, he started to have visions, of old times, of nostalgia and finally, of his dream.

"Click!" The general pointing his Walther at the young enemy.

Visions blurred to the muzzle of the pointed gun. Arms raised, he closed his eyes for a last minute prayer. The trigger was activated and a sudden splash of blood hit his face.

He opened his eyes to see that the gun had jammed and backfired at the general. A sense of blankness filled his mind as he saw his enemy, the general choking and gushing blood of his holed throat. Holding hard to the wound with his left hand, the general used his other hand to delve through his shirt pocket.

The general showed the front side of the photo to the 'once again' hero.

It was a picture of the general's daughter. A picture of someone 'I' knew.

And I woke up from the dream turned nightmare. It's been around four hours and I remember everything about the dream except the face on the photo.

Life track: Ended up on a tightrope walk between friends, family and future during the weekend and because of it and several other reasons, had a walk, long enough, that I realized, I've been watching the pavement all the while. Made a trip to farmington hills to drop a friend and return journey was uniquely blank for the first time in years. My mind seems flushed of everything and I feel retired from this world

Chartbuster: Yaaron Dosti from Rockford and O re piya from Aaja Nachle

Quote of the moment: Unlike my past, it is the future I am changing with my present state

The original post is deleted just to avoid any more problems. The only two lines I keep from the original post are "Finally after years, dad yelled at me as a cold hearted, lazy, selfish, over confident and the worst of all - irresponsible guy" and blah blah blah "Guess dad was true as always"

"A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch and a miserable dinner" - Francis Bacon (Bacon? coincidental it seems)
What better ways can you express color to the blind than to use the sense of taste? - H2S (hehehehehe)

Nway coming to the post, this is for those critics who gave me a tough time calling me an amateur spark. Well eat this (breakfast words I guess)! No SLR, yet digital. With a SLR you guys captured the rising drop of a ripple, whereas I used a simple 5 MP cam over jello - water mixture. As for the pixels in the pic, I like it this way. Looks more like a work of a painter rather than a photographer.

What would you call, if you found a dollar bill lying on the floor of that basement entrance, which only a handful of people know about? Good fortune may be. But here is the real deal; what would you call if you found another dollar bill, near the emergency fire exit where usually a handful of the handful I mentioned, go for smoking? “Man, it’s your lucky day”

A penny on the road may be considered a trifle in the modern carefree world. But luckily I found in addition to two Washingtons, a few quarters dropped near the bus stop. Strangely, now instead of being fortunate, I became spooked and confused. I checked my field of view for any possible pranks and found nothing. With no candid specials showing up, I decided to share the incident to a friend of mine (Let us call him Hansel) and his suggestion was to use the money to buy large fries of Arbys. As usual, our friend (Gretel of course) came a little late and once we gave her the background on the free money, she went furious over the fact that we are going to use someone’s hard earned money to surfeit ourselves.

I don’t know why we do it, but we like to tease her a lot and ended up giving her points on why her idea was wrong. We gave her BS like, ‘It ain’t Christmas to donate money to Salvation Army’, ‘No one’s interested in taking a donation for $2.75 as a big deal’, ‘I can’t throw it to some beggar coz we see none what so ever’, and etc. But finally the point what Hansel dropped on her was, ‘You think Arby’s large fries is going to fulfill our hunger?’

Instantly I felt, ‘Oh oh! Time to expect a backfire’
The frown of disbelief came in her forehead and there she yelled, ‘It might not fulfill yours, but it definitely would fill someone who is really in need of food. ANY food’

Hansel went mute and sorry for his actions, while Gretel ended up folding her arms and walking off. It’s always good to be the giver or the receiver, but the median is always risky. I just prayed that I won’t be pulled into this fight and thanks to whatever, Hansel just walked towards Gretel and started convincing her. Slowly their physiques grew smaller and smaller until they were consumed by the traffic. Just picked up the two green bills and the three quarters and walked into Arbys. Ordered a glass for water (and obviously, just for water they charged me 25 cents which I paid of my pocket). I dropped the fortune money into the tip jar and walked off with the icy water.

Guess too much fortune is also dangerous. Today has been a completely strange day. Meeting Dr R, talking about songs to a stranger, working several hours coz of responsibility of title, teaching post docs on safety issues and now two dollar bills and 75 cents in coins. To end it up, I landed hard on the slippery ice floor of banana leaf while holding my nephew on my right arm. As a kid always laughs for no reason, he laughed on my pain and I returned a wide smile with pain.

Status: Fortunate to be lucky or Lucky to be fortunate – Both fail in the eyes of hard fought responsibility

Songs of the day: Neele Neele Ambar Pe, Vandha naal mudhal, Santorini and Morning Raaga

Terrible start is what I would call the way things turned up in the morning. Learnt from SAB that, the photo contest needs photo files which have to be at least 250 dpi so that they can take a print out on a canvas sized paper. Checked online and found out that even the EOS doesn’t give 250 by 250 in both the resolutions. Thanks to this crap, I didn’t even miss my lifeless camera. If this was a bad start then, what happened in the Pneumatics lab was horrible. I hate it, when people use the term responsibility of title. Being the safety officer, I had to direct two post docs in another shut downed lab for hours. Had one glove and all I had, were bio reagents and acids. Ended up postponing my experiment and analysis of the day coz I have just half an hour before I run home to baby sit my sick nephew.

With all this in my mind, I walked haste to collect a friends I 20 from International affairs. And on the way, I saw Dr. R walking towards me, whom I met early in 2006. As he passed, I said, ‘Hi Dr. R. Long time, no see. How you’ve been doing?’
“I’m doing good. You…. You are…. Harry”, he replied after walking a couple of steps
“Hiiii!!!! Between now and then, have you ever thought about buying a coat? I just watched you walking and you just have a sweater?”
I smiled, ‘Got accustomed to the weather’
“Here have this coffee. It’s warm” and he handed his Starbucks to me. (Yes it was really surprising to see an American offering his coffee even as a joke)
“Hey, now I remember. Your favorite is vanilla bean frap. You hate chocolate and mocha”
I was dumbstruck on his memory. We met just once, and he remembered our previous meeting. And continued on with some more things we missed in action.

Later I continued to the international affairs building and, when I introduced myself to the lady in charge of I 20’s and that I’m picking up a friends I 20, she replied, ‘It is always good to have friends’
“Am also the official postman to her”, I retorted.
“A friendly postman, it is then”, she smiled back. “Have you ever listened to ‘Please Mr. Postman’?” she questioned.
Puzzled on what made her ask me about a song, I replied, “By the carpenters?”
“Carpenters it is” and she smiled me the way out after handing over the I 20.

The sun just gave away its shift to the three quartered moon. The winter wind just picked up some more chill and the temperature dropped to 16 Fahrenheit. A feeling of fright gave me the goose bumps as I just escaped the iron pillar by inches skiing at near 40 mph. But the next micro second continued to give me more goose bumps, as I realized that, now I am flying as I just came off the iron pillars foundation pit at the same 40 mph. The flight made me land hard on my left heel, and the momentum shook me off balance and after nearly swirling three times on the ground, I came to a stop. Ouch! Ouch ouch ouch, murmured my mouth covered with snow. The snow patrol expert just came to me and apologized, ‘Sorry son. Didn’t see you coming. Good that you shouted and avoided the clash’ and then after a momentary pause, ‘You OK son?’
‘Yes sir’, with pain I muzzled out the words. And then he left to continue with his work.
With all my senses coming back to me, I started again to test more extremes and while I searched for my friend, I noticed this father and son pair having a bonding conversation. What I heard through my thick skin of two sweatshirts was
‘You can never get up of the snow like that. ‘Use your poles. Keep them on the uphill side and try getting up perpendicular to the slope’, said the father in a concerned tone.
‘Hmmmpff! Hmmmmmm! Ummmmmm! Aaaaaaa! Nope’, gave up the kid
‘Keep your legs wide apart and then try it’, suggested the dad.
The kid did the same and tried once more and yet he managed not to raise even a couple of inches. The dad just rose up and bent down to his son and offered his hand and said, ‘Here. Hold my hands. Let’s do it on a flatter bed’
The small kid replied, ‘No dad! I’ll do it here’ and he put his head down towards the pole and held it firm with both his hands, and tried with all his strength to get up. The father instead of withdrawing his hand now brought his other hand too, in a shape where he can catch his son, if by chance he falls again. With some more huff and puff, the kid started to stand off the ground. His ski slid again, but this time his dad caught him. He asked his son if he is fine.
I smiled at the dad and said, ‘How you doing sir?’ and his reply, ‘Wonderful!!!’
I stuck both my poles firm on the snow and gave a push, and in seconds reached my friend waiting to sit back in the sky lift. As we were sky lifted to the top, I saw the pair again, with the son catching his dad’s poles (which the dad held horizontal) and they both made small and simple turns on a steep. I just showed them to my friend and both of us saw them cruising below our sky lift cushion.

Other than this, I ended up doing 4 hours of snowboarding managing to master the toe side sharp turn and stop, while my heel side turn ended up in cramping up my right calf muscle. Yet did the extreme sports hop using the board and crash landed on my senseless butt. Switched to skis and managed to go to the level where I learnt to do the sudden stops by bringing both feet close to each other. Got close to death not once, not twice, but thrice. Still searching for the online version of the ‘Lays Manicure’ and ‘Welch grapes Monster in the closet’ cute ads.

Been listening to Jodhaa all the time for 3 days non stop. The only other song I’ve listened to is Stevie Wonders’ A place in the sun.
Status: When it rains good, it just pours. But when it rains bad, it just turns into a tornado.

1. Who would you be and why? An experienced cardiologist who performs 3 extraordinary life saving operations in a month (assume he does it for 8 hours on a stretch) for the rest of his career life, in the presence of at least 6 other expert subordinates OR a lonesome research scholar who toils 5 hours on an average, every weekday, for 4 continuous years, hoping to find a better cure for the same disease as treated by the doctor (assume he does rat or rabbit studies, and death of the animal is part of the research). [Clause: Both have passions to work in their respective fields]

2. Who would you choose to be and why not the other guy? An artic geologist sufficiently clothed facing a sub zero artic wind of 40 mph for 5 minutes on the hottest day of the year OR a daily Chicago commuter using a scooter racing to work at 60 mph on the coldest day of the year for 20 minutes. [Clause: Both individuals have the same parameters of life and health coz it is a comparision of you and you only :-)]

3. Who 'should' you be? A gifted fellow, who has the ability to grant unlimited wishes to anyone, who wished from their heart, but cannot wish anything for yourself OR the person who is given just one wish, for yourself which, not necessarily has to be wished from your heart?

Cassey Affleck was nominated for 'Best Actor in Supporting Role'? When did 'he' start acting?

'Juno' din't get any award (Booooooooo Oscars)

and above all the worst Scare - 'How come I missed the Show?' Guess am getting too much into research.

Status: Pragmatism is dreaming reality inspired by improvisation

Songs of the chart: Here without you by 3 Doors Down, Sunday Theme music, Jeena Kya Tere Bina from Kya Love Story Hai, Vandha Naal Mudhal from Paava Mannippu, Pookal Malarkal from Udaya, Jil Jil from Happy Days and Johnny in the House from Johnny Gaddar.

Juno is a true masterpiece, an epitome of perfection from simplicity. Right from the Sunny D animative gif imaged start to the 'Part time lover, full time friend' duet, the movie is uniquely clear cut. Ellen had done a wonder of a job with her acting. Emotions best shown when she fights with Cera with the prom war. Even if you hate Jennifer Garner, I'd admit that she has done an excellent performance showing the true emotion of a much awaiting mother (best scene - painting the room). Though a step mom is assumed to be cocky (Ultrasound scene), Janney made a perfect caring step mom (allergic dog scene). If Janney was impressive, then I'd definitely applaud on Simmons whom I've always considered to be fit only in roles like the Spiderman editor he did. But he made more sense than any other character as the wonderful father of an observantly cynical teen daughter. Jason Bateman was not of the Scrubs type this time and did a good job with his simple day today character.

Though the credit is mostly given to the director Reitman for his second masterpiece next to Thank you for smoking, I'd rather say the true credit has to be given to Diablo Cody the writer. Oh man! Simply superb commonly used American lifed dialogues. Her way of pulling things off the scene in such a complex situation oriented movie made the 'issue of the life' look uniquely acceptable. Hats off to her work. And finally the scores: If I was a flower, I took the Polaroid were just the perfect last pieces of the puzzle. Vampire was fun at the ending.

Overall I give it a perfect 10 for an overall performance. PS Nothing I mentioned above shall ruin you watching the movie. Just go on, put that green paper in the screen and enjoy the simplicity of complex movies. And don’t forget to check the memorable quotes of the movie once you finish seeing it. There is no way you can forget the name Diablo after watching this movie.

Some dialogues to note for:

That ain’t no Etch a Sketch. This is one doodle that can’t be undone Home skillet.

What other kinda shenanigans could I get into?

Woah! Dream Big. Go fly a kite.

I hear they give away babies like free iPods.

Thunder cats are GO.

They can hear us even though it’s all like ten thousand leagues under the sea.

Doctors are like sadists who like to play God and laugh at the lesser peoples pain.

And finally: ‘Ph U K E T, Thailand’

TGIF is never the term that suits my mood. Yet another rotten Friday, dealt with laziness and at most boredom, should have actually paved way for a miserable weekend. But things were different as it struck midnight. Guess my Fairy Godfather (why should it be Godmother all the time), dropped her wand on my head, I ended up going to both the Dame and Saddle Ridge on the same day and dancing for nearly 2 hours in spite of running bizarrely from one end to the other just for the safety of my friend in salwar. Thanks to her enthu, ended up making Bangra with the other 5 members which eventually in addition to turning American heads, made a couple of African Americans dance. A heavy meal followed by some usual chit chat left me deep in sleep.

What I expected to be a peaceful sleep ended up to be a nightmare with the constant noise from the nearby parking construction. After the usual freshen up and lunch, I sat around relaxed for an hour waiting to get the mood to go to lab. In came news 'I have job in 2 hours. I didn't get an off'. The words from my brother brought the 'weekend plans cancelled' frown coz now I need to take care of my nephew. I've somehow managed to baby sit and also work on weekdays, but weekend is different. But fun was balanced with friends

An hour after taking the responsibility, I was all laughing, looking at my state of rain. Till now, I am not sure whether I gave my nephew or he gave me a bath. Thanks to his interests in skating, he purposefully slipped often in the tub leaving me no option but to hold him tight getting all the soap on me. If Hammy and Twitchy squirrels were hyperactive, my nephew is super hyper (guess he got his grandpa's genes). The amount of play I had with him, made me go tired in hours. The only way to make him tire is to dance for some fast beat and he tries to catch you leg. We ended up blowing bubbles in the cold, playing peek-a-boo (he doesn't even know what the game is about), and much more. But the best part is he was very cooperatively naughty. He just jumped all the time over the washing machine while I was dumping more load into the adjacent one. He looked at the dryer standing upside down, pushed my laundry bags from the third to first (man he is strong), helped me clear my trash of bills (who needs a shredder when you have a free one who enjoys shredding paper into infinite pieces), pumped air into my mouth with the cycle pump just coz I acted as if I was asleep (me and my pathetic acting), played with shaving cream, offered me salt and pepper when I was dishwashing, ran and stamped all the roaches wearing his shoes (Yucky is the word he understands as an indication to kill roaches), sat with me in our balcony with both the feet hanging down into the second floor, moved all the couch pillows (forgot the exact word) and showed me which one is all messed up (clearly pointed, 'Hey Unc. No more sleeping on the couch. You'll get back problems'), best of all made me eat healthy food that too on time coz he was hungry at the same time and much more.

Of course, I had some issues too in baby sitting. The most important rule, Guys, Never ever make a baby sit on your lap when he is hyperactive. Not once, not twice, but three times I was hit hard on my 'not that area' area. After watching JFK and Three Kings (by the way JFK is the best documentary movie you can ever watch. Kevin Costner’s last speech is impeccably awesome. How I wish the 1960's English existed in modern day USA), I went to bed at 5:30 and thanks to my bro's day shift I had to sleep with my nephew on my side. The little rascal pulled my entire bed sheet leaving me shivering in the cold. But he was cute and warm. Woke up at 6:30 (that’s one hour for me) and instead of me getting fuzzy, I was made to enjoy all his smiles and laughter. His styles of brushing teeth - Chew chew chew and moooooo. Made him sit near the stove and gave him the spoon. He scrambled all the eggs as a sport and for me 'delicious scramble'. Gave him my cell phone switched to speaker mode (locked the keypad) and he just walked behind me wherever I worked at (Hey hands free speaker phone). Tore Pillsbury's dough into equal sections (small hands means small pieces) of crescents for some croissants. Next time I am definitely using him for making cookies, the one art I never even qualify for amateur level. His favorite sport - clinging on to my dumbbells when I do exercise for my biceps. A free back masseur (just lie on your tummy and there he stomps your back muscles), and an awesome friend. I always wanted to be a doctor. But only recently I am wearing a doctor’s mask while changing his diapers. An epicurean of seafood (his face can be scaled to 10 for deciding which seafood is the best) and a great entertainer while watching sleepy movies and an awesome critique while watching action movies. The best of all, attracts all the pretty ladies wherever I take him to (of course all I do, is envy him).

A few more days and then he is all in for Day Care whilst his daddy works harder for a better future. Guess my Fairy Godfather just dropped the Prince’s boots on my head to worry about the future. Before I go drooped, updates – well all is fine and fun in the wonderland of RP. Got another 4.8 GB of classic songs from an ug. Been more than a month that my nephew lost my camera charger and am all getting complaints of lost passion. LOG, am still in for post processing. Solvitar – thanks again for the link and cheese, it’s again a long post.

Status: If it’s after 1975 and at least 180 mins long, then am in for the movie. It’s ought to be the best. Wear PPE's before War with Children.

The past few days have been extremely ‘occupied’. Watched a dozen movies of class. To name a few, King of California was sleek, Munich and Rescue Dawn was bloody, Hoodwinked was unbelievably exciting (just like the squirrel), Bucket List and Taare Zameen Par added to my Dr. Hollands Opus Classics, Dee was funny and impressive, revisited children movies Chota Jaadoogar, Anjali and Little Soldiers. Saying all this, I’ve still managed to stick on to my research and other work.

Has been a black week with almost all my close juniors departing for their careers. Extremely apprehensive with the sudden sap of people I am close with. But things worse than this: Pretty much Bad news all the time. Luckily the one good news that made me stay awake is ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is going to visit UK on the March 23rd and 24th’ and am happy to receive the information first hand. Ah! The dual IT days of DBMS, sitting in his class and listening to him. James his TA was anyway the best’est’ of all faculty. How proud should I be, in saying that I was in his class.

Other than that life is pretty deranged and derailed with some nephew, brother and father crisis – all ending up pretty sick. I wish dad’s tractions clears up the question of ‘Is it again a disc slip or is it a tissue growth or is it a bone growth’ Googled a hell lot on his symptoms and I’m worried. Managed to write a crap called Sweet Kisses in less than two minutes. Updated my crazy daily blog with Furtively Funny and Swiper Viper. Controversies are starting to show up research and I’ve got no other option but to recheck my steps. I would say that this week has been the worst of the year so far.

Songs that topped the chart: Minnale Nee Vandhu from AR’s May Madam, Kadal Seidal Paavam from Mounam Pesiyadhe, Aazmaale from Taxi 9211, TZP title and Maa song, Sunday songs, Strings, Dave Mathews Band and Freedom by Tweleve Girls Band

Status: Either you walk in the rain to feel the drops quenching your fervent ambition or you walk in the rain to avoid drenching just your eyes. The difference I noticed in self – You look up in the former and down in the latter. Looking forward for a better week.

“In a world filled with intelligence and improvisation beyond imagination, there is always rules hindering the growth and simplicity of life”

I have no clue of what I just wrote and I don’t care a damn about it. What I experienced today was definitely the height of rules, hindering my life. One simple sample to be scanned with user friendly equipment (in another lab), fitted with 3 simple levers and it took me two hours to persuade a handful of post docs in allowing me to perform the necessary adjustment to get the desired result. I hate to admit this. But Indians who are masters of tweaking instruments to get the best out of a machine are also the most apprehensive when it comes to using an expensive instrument.

Fortunately after bearing two hours of sheer nonsense from so called expert post docs (to make things worse, I respect their age and hard work and couldn’t communicate my anger about their stupidity), somehow the equipment, though being a machine, understood my brink of temper break and shut downed automatically. The fun thing was in spite of following all the steps as mentioned in the manual, the post docs managed to piss the machine off. Shamefully, I say that the frogs in the well came out of each post doc and just to make my situation better I took their bait of taking the blame just to get the result of the terrible day.

Thanks to their, ‘I didn’t even touch the equipment. It was his sample and he used it’ attitude, I managed to grab a seat and use the equipment. A complete reboot, 2 minutes of manual brushing and presto, all I needed was a 5 x 5 cm area of parafilm to make the equipment start jingling. The results, though a little below my par, turned out to be as expected. And then came the fun part; ‘oh so it works fine now! See, I told you. It is an easy analysis’ (ended up showing my fury inside the lonesome elevator)

Off the havoc: Pretty much am pissed off with society. Why does society expect a reason for everything one does? You watch TZP or any God damn senti movie and expect a hero, a savior to enrich your life. But you see your fellow friend trying to bring some smiles of an unknown human (say even a waiter) and you question him ‘Why do you that? Do you know the waiter?’ Arggggghhhhh! For Pete’s sake. If I’d be knowing the waiter why the hell isn’t he sitting beside me having a friendly snack? Since I came this far in blurting my anger, here is exactly what that pissed me off to write about society.

With so much anger I had with the post docs, I decided to scramble back home and just spend the day baby sitting my nephew. At the busiest four way intersection of the University, there was this Oldsmobile car coughing for life. I watched the car the whole walk from two blocks till I crossed it and then decided to help the driver. With the help of yet another concerned stranger, we managed to push the car of the center of the intersection to a nearby dead lane. Thanks to the pile of friends who coincidentally noticed me, I was given a damn hard time for my actions. I could just continue on giving a zillion examples of the f***ed up society, but let me convey my message in a simple status.

Current Status: If by chance, the society decides to bury me, then bury me with my face down so that if you don’t like me or my actions, then you can kiss my ass.

As for now, I just chewed a bag of popcorn as my dinner and am gonna hit the floor. Need a reason for skipping dinner? I don’t have a f***en reason.

Huh…. Any time now. Should be in a minute. Any time now. (rolling over endlessly). Beep beep beep…. Finally. Finally pushing the alarm off, I sat up from my sleep and waited yet another two minutes for my cell phone alarm to start beeping. Rise and shine written all over the ear to ear smile, I got ready for work at 6 am. Rather startling my department janitors I decided to read a couple of papers at my house desk. 8 and hunger struck and I decided to hit the remote with my favorite cereals. Tell you the truth, the remote would definitely stay at the top of the ‘Inventions that keep you lazy and frustrated’ charts forever. For every bite of cereals, I changed on an average 20 channels of my 60 channel cable just to get a sneak peak of the things going in the television.

Half way on the third round of channel change, I realized that Discovery has been substituted with ‘The God Channel’. No offense Believers, why don’t you substitute E! or MTV for your beliefs. Kept on changing channels just to get some News channel and guess from the absence of any world News channel ‘The world is all good and healthy’. I don’t what you do when you don’t get to see your favorite channels, but I switched to good ol’ cartoon network and started watching ‘Winnie the Pooh’. Don’t laugh. Seriously I learnt a lot of science watching cartoons than I read from books.

Oh! How I wish advertisements came in a separate channel instead of interrupting at the brink of a climax (Still with Winnie :D). Slowly shifted gears to conventional channels and ended up watching FSN. I may be a sports freak, but an early morning sport definitely is not my style of information. Was impressed with the way James played for Cavaliers. As the cereal vanished in my bowl, I switched to my comp for cricinfo and wow about the Indian Aussie Test controversies. Thanks to youtube, ended up wasting 15 minutes of my early office day watching Indian Innovations, movie trailers and side links. Talking about movie trailers, Vantage point seems to be impressive. But still my head list on movies to watch would be Wall-e by Andrew Stanton.

Headed to business news and a standing applause to Altria Groups’ entrepreneurs. I expected the cigarette and alcohol companies to have a drop in the share price. What I thought was true. Marlboro reduced production by 30% two weeks before New Year. Still confused on what the hell I am talking about. Simple. Just walk to your office for the next one month and you shall notice clearly that not much people smoke outside, too many joggers and of course the gyms would be piled with people. New Year resolutions of reduced smoking, increased jogging, etc keeps the day different.

Finally started to the lab at 8:20 and thanks to the heap of mess my nephew created, while I baby sat coz my brothers fever for two days, I can’t locate my parker. A high time 72 F (after a century in winter), Denny’d iced tea on one hand (evidently I’ve shifted to tea instead of milkshake) and ‘Yeh Hai Meri Kahani’ during my walk proved the day to be enjoyed. My post doc in her words ‘Oh You set a new record. So early. 8:30’ made it clear that the lab missed me in the mornings. 3 hrs of non stop work gave an impressive start on my seriousness about research. And now minutes before lunch I took a time off to ramble about the day.

Current Status: It’s light everywhere in the mornings. I am blinded by memories and not by destiny.

After a heavy role of knighthood against the lab issues, I retired to my desk to read something enriching and thanks to you K, I got the link for The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. For those who don't know Dr. Asimov, he is the one who wrote the story of I Robot and he framed the three laws of robotics. Try reading the last question (a short story) even if you don't like science fiction. For a nerd like me who just put 5 hrs of my eyesight behind an optical microscope, guess the million stars in the galaxy was just analogous to the bulk spots of polymer films I just discovered in my samples.

As for Life - After effects of the break proved futile against work environment. Was impressed by Stephen Shapiro's concept on New Year Resolutions that can never fail and decided to continue with some good themes. Seriously I decided to drop all resolutions even before New Year started.

The first movie of 08 had been Tamil MA (Tamil) and man, how grateful am I watching this movie by chance. Though it was a movie on a sociopath, the dialogue delivery was goosebumpy. The best dialogue was when the hero mentions about the importance of Lies in life. Hats off to both Ram and Jeevan for their performances. I'm quite happy that the Indian film industry (at least the south) is doing great. Well it's time to go back to work. Need to sell my results to my proff just to push 'em into my paper so that I can send it to a higher rated journal.

Current Status: I started counting stars. I deliberately skipped the brightest star. But the millionth count confused me and guess what: I came back to the brightest star for reference.

The practice of wishing something once you see a shooting star actually originated from 44 BC, where the star was represented as the blessing of Julius Caesar itself on his pagan empire. Well 20 centuries later, we still have that practice.

When I was 7 years old, one of my uncles asked me a question when we were traveling to Chennai in a train for his son’s marriage. He asked me, ‘What if God came to you and gave you one wish? What would you wish for?’ After heavy thought, I replied, ‘Oh God! I wish that everything I wish happens to me’ Immediately he said, ‘except that one wish’ ‘Okay. I wish that You grant me a thousand wishes’ and the game kept on going.

17 years have passed, and even now I believe in wishing after a shooting star. Today, I jogged all the way from my apartment to the Virginia Bridge, just to see the meteor shower predicted to awe astronomers at 0140 hrs. While I waited to see the majesty of the surrounding sky, I had thoughts of wishes I can ask for while they fall. Now with hopes of expecting a beautiful sky shower, I slanted my neck to the midnight sky and waited for 20 long minutes. As every minute turned out to be a closed curtain, I had this bad feeling of, ‘isn’t it showing up, just coz I’m gonna wish something big or is it light pollution that hinders our eyesight?’ Yes, it was silly for a guy who about a month ago, waited for a black cat to cross, walked under an open ladder, and stepped upon onion peels just to prove that superstitions are superstitious to a religious friend of mine.

With every second marching up to disappointment, I decided to ditch the plan and walk back home. If it was any other normal day, I’d be still standing not quitting on the showers. But today, the single fleece and the skull cap which hardly covered my ears, failed to luke me against the dry cold wind. As I jogged back home, checking every now and then at the starry sky, I felt something. Immediately I stopped instantaneously and looked at the sky. There a second later I saw a shooting star streaking across the light polluted sky. There my heart wished, ‘I wish I never wished for the things I never should have wished for.’ If you are confused on what just happened, well I am also in the same situation. The next 2 minutes of jog to my apartment, all I asked myself was, ‘Where did that wish come from?’

Once I reached home, I remembered a verse from Fyodor’s Crime and Punishment on wishes. I don’t remember the exact verse, but in essence it’s something like, ‘wishes are the means by which we dream, and dreams are the means by which we set goals and goals are the means by which we work hard. And with the same hard work they stop knowing the feeling of dreams and eventually goals end in mere wishes’ why am I implying this? Well that’s what my current status is all about

The greatest winner in life is also the biggest loser. I don't have time to wish for good results in the lab and in life. All I need to do is work for whatever I set goals and I need to sacrifice a lot of habits just to win. Niv as you always say 'there's no realization in winning if you haven't lost anything' The usual knights salute for your wisdom.

Every trip I have made so far in the US has been special; coz there’s always something not so common.

Niagara and Cedar Point – No license, stopped at the middle of the interstate and took pictures crossing the road. I driving 24 hrs non stop and sleeping on a roller coaster when ppl where screaming for their lives.

Texas Ranger – Nobody knew that I went to Texas alone, ended up riding a bull in a city of nowhere.

Smokies – Lost my wallet in a creek after being pushed by 8 guys after heavy resistance.

Smokies again - Climbing Chimney Tops the hard way and ‘wow’ing at the beauty of the world.

DC, NY and Penn – 10 guys, one driver, one minivan, first ticket, car getting towed, 5 hrs of waiting for a restroom to be found, 4 hrs lost to find $3 chicken biryani, 18 hrs of funfilled walk in NY and then driving 14 hrs non stop (totally 39 hrs of driving and 3 hrs of sleep)

Smokies again – Bursted tire on the left lane and managing to avoid all traffic and safely reaching the shoulder. Climbing Chimney tops last section 3 times

Atlanta – Heavy rain at night drive and 1 ft visibility at 85 mph. One hour of 100 mph on Christmas eve.

Smokies – Driving at 70 mph on a 25 mph curvy mountain and dedicating the sunset to those ghastly living passengers and getting a hell lot of nicknames. Reaching to the other side of the mountain after finding the only route that was possible to take.

San Francisco – Singing ‘Pretty Women Walking by the Streets’ in front of around 50 pretty women and getting an all around applause. Watching Lake Tahoe and falling in love with it. Winning smart (a lot of profit) during my first Roulette game

St Louis – Talking about smart driving to my brother and immediately watching the lights of a cop for over speeding and my brother laughing.

Utah – Climbing the top of the tallest mountain and making sure that my act inspired several others to watch the beauty of a setting sun. Making sure that my good friend got the best on his birthday.

Ann Arbor and NY – Going into Canada without a passport and getting a lump loaded for 3 hrs. Drifting for the first time in sleep. Getting a warning even after reckless driving. Most hrs I drove on an average per day for 4 days.

Chicago – Honking hard enough at an SUV guy who almost would have lost his child playing at the rear of his car. Getting free food at a famous restaurant where I met a highly professional doctors who later became good friends.

Chicago again – Using Iced tea as the windshield fluid and then flushing the whole set up with hot water in the next exit (great improvisation). Helping an old couple changing their wheel and then meeting them again in a Roulette table in a casino and then making them win a lot just like the way I won.

Pittsburgh – Meeting a school mate just by chance, having fun with the parents of my friend, losing my marbles and talking nonsense while driving at night, learning ice skating in less than 5 minutes.

Dayton – Watching just the moon and a couple of stars and taking the city and suburban road with no map or GPS, avoiding the piled up interstate traffic just to make sure that my friend reached the airport on time.

Chicago – Snow storm driving at 30 mph for several hrs, using credit card to clear windshield ice, free hugs to pretty ladies, watching smiley faces in fireworks, and a lot more.

Others – My first ride with Sound to Columbus game, several wonderful moments of glory after cricket games, Chess Organization dinners, a ton of trips to Louisville and Frankfort, dashes to Natural Bridge, etc and a lot more.

Current Status: A small question: ‘Did I lose more than what I ever had won in life?’

For those who are curious abt the way I lost my phone, here is exactly what that happened:

I 70 East, driving at around 9 in the morning back home and I see a truck in front of me speeding. I followed him at 40 mph (Yes, I was driving at 40 and not 90). The snow storm grew stronger. Visibility went to 3 metres and both my roomies were dead asleep (as usual). I am sure that ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ was blaring in my car. But the sleet on the road was so dangerously spread, that I concentrated entirely on sticking on to my lane. An overtake of the truck and a few more vehicles later proved that I was driving great (I was enjoying the thrill).

43 miles before the next exit. I see two cars in front of me “cruising” at 20 mph. Followed them for nearly 20 mins and then decided to take my chance. Drifted to the left lane. Since this was one of those situations, where one needs to be slow and steady I was overtaking the cars at 22 mph. 5 seconds into the process and the car in front of me started gliding out of control to my lane. Some old tricks helped me stick to my lane even after braking and sliding to the left. But when the second car started to skid slightly, I decided to slow down, and presto, at 22 mph, I had no control on my car. Zero acceleration, manual ABS traction and no use. We drifted smoothly into the grass. Shorty gets up and asks, ‘Are we in Columbus?’ A smile from me and we decide to check the 3 ft snow covered buffer road.

A 10 minute toil to clear up the snow in front of the car and that’s when I dropped the phone from my car door (I keep it in the handle zone and while working in the snow, guess I opened the car door fast enough to drop it). A successful ousting from the snow and a cheer up made us go into fast track and there I continued “cruising” at 30 mph. 20 mins on the road and I realized I miss my phone. The last time I saw it was when I spoke to a friend minutes before the glided parking.

Guess now you all have the details of how I lost it. And now I have a new phone from a friend. The no should be the same and should be available in a couple of days.

And for you @#$%* friends of mine, laying stupid in Melbourne, Tokyo, Singapore, Gulf (which country are you at right now? :D), Vienna, Manchester and those in the land where I stay – you had New Year way before I saw the fireworks and don’t put the blame on me losing my phone when you called after 9 am EST on New Year. If I remember and call you at your respective midnights, you should do the same.

And talking about me not attending phone calls, yes I do keep it in ‘Walk’ mode when all I get is missed calls and not even vibrations coz I don’t like getting disturbed while I enjoy my walk. I’ll continue doing the same with the new phone too.

As for New Year, I am very happy by the way things went on. I had full control over my speed temptation when I returned back. But I did reach Chicago in a lil over 4 hrs (Google maps gives it as 6 hrs and 34 mins). Instead of just I, the entire set of friends, started loving the freezing weather instead of cribbing about something which we cant change. One more time I made it sure, that it is not money that is needed to enjoy life to the fullest. Some snow ball fights, free hugs to strangers, dance to the music of the crowd, a few skating attempts on thin sleet, kissing and hugging the bean at -18 degree C, throwing snow at ice skaters, making funny comments in front of a waiter, meeting old friends at random, making sure that we stood on the high ground by piling tons of snow to see the fireworks, holding hands with Africans just to avoid falling down from the snow mountain, cherishing every moment of the fireworks and being among the handful of ppl who really noticed the smileys in the fire works (33000 ppl came to Navy Pier and only a few noticed the smileys – report from the Chicago Herald), yelling great stuff at the top of my voice, imitating funny faces of animals in aquarium, wishing every cop who controlled the traffic on New Year saluting his dedication, improvising by using a simple credit card to scrape ice of the windshield, getting dedications of the final 07 Sunset from far off friends, watching the first sunrise of the year from a Pilot exit when my roomies were fast asleep for the two hours of sunset (all I saw was an orange circle streaking a few rays out through the heavy snow storm), suggesting an idea to keep a beautiful lady who wore a skirt on a chilly day to keep her feet warm (seriously I just helped her with a simple but gentle(man) idea) and getting a warm smile of thanks (which I was not happy about. I expected a warm hug instead of a warm smile), meeting my old friend and his wife and making sure that she never felt lonely in US, having great food, showing the guys that ‘if you use only your lower tongue, you can eat any chilly’, monkeying around the first bowling game just to keep everyone interested and then making sure that I lost just to keep shorty company and then finally nailing the last game with some class – all made my decisions perfect.

For the many people whom I haven’t wished Happy New Year, here’s a sincere statement, ‘I wish you all a life filled with 366 days of happiness in 2008, whereas for New Year, theres always the usual statement – Happy New Year’