Reflections

Commitment

2010-08-29T00:01:00.015+05:30

Thyself, pure and true
Thyself, everyday
Thyself, when it gets tough
Thyself, when the money, the luck, the looks, the energy and the last breath is gone
Thyself, and all that it is and all that it will be and always and forever, Thyself.

Hypocrisy

2010-08-19T12:55:00.000+05:30

He says, "My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.", and then he kicks the dog where it hurts the most.

Kanchee

2010-08-13T13:49:00.000+05:30

Officially Kancheepuram.

My previous visit to Kanchee was as a teenager. The plan for the big family outing was to give us a spiritual treat in the city of thousand temples. The intention backfired for the few of us due to the very obvious reason of too much too early ;). In the evening I never really got it straight the numerous deities names and their significance that I had visited. The only highlight that I could recollect was a very delicious simple lunch (yea.. grub always comes first) in one of the kanchee mutts.

The visit last weekend was in direct contrast. The aim was only shopping! :D. Having been ignorant of the myriad intricacies of saree shopping (even in its basic and simplistic form) for most part of my life, the hunt for silk sarees could be called an "educational" experience.

If its major shopping, its always best to plan the number and the budget (I know.. it would hardly be shopping then ;)). But our sales man was good. Really good!. He patiently showed all the different designs in our price range and slowly his assistant will bring in another set of sarees in a slightly higher range. You would obviously like the higher priced design, shine etc. The strategy continues till you end up comparing a 5K saree with a 55k one in a matter of 2 hours. The experience!.. you get totally pulled into the magic he weaves if you are not careful :D.. Unfortunately he underestimated the eccentricity level of our family. We discussed, commented and majorly enjoyed looking through all the designs. In between Dad would comment to salesman, "You are doing a very good job. We would buy this (pointing to a 25K one) just to make you happy". Finally we wrapped up the drama as we were getting hungry. Paid for the 4 sarees we initially selected in the first half-an hour of shopping. [Evil Grin :D].

We also visited a family who have been into hand weaving for the past four generations. Had a demo and some insight into their lives about following the traditional approach these many years. The saree I bought there gets to the pooja room of the family. Home ministry prays and puts aashirwad on it. Blesses and gives me the saree. [Grass itching :D]

Learnt...

You have original zari silk sarees costing from 10K. The sellers are very open about whether it is original or not.
Any saree can be tested for its original zari for 50Rs. (Testing my fav :D)
Trend for buying the original hand weaved ones have reduced. Not much talent either to take forward the traditional methods.
The artistic you can buy a silk and put your own design in them. Back bending work on the design gets done in 15 days by 2 people on an average.
Technical terms for buying.. hand loom, printed, crepe, tussar silks, silk cotton, Samudrika, Parampara, Vastrakala blah blah blah.. As I said earlier I got educated ;)

PS: Pictures.. ahem.. yes.. soon :D

Quarter Life

2010-03-25T19:42:00.000+05:30

Not that I am expecting to live for one hundred years :D.. But it does have a nice ring to the 25 years of living that I had completed this past week ;). The year has been my quarter life crisis.. Friends would know my craziness and philo level has reached a new high.. with major shift in priorities and perceptions :D..

Lets get back to why am I putting it in writing.. the resolution of the year.. becoming a Banglorean

StumbleUpon

2010-03-13T12:43:00.000+05:30

http://www.stumbleupon.com/aboutus/
A Firefox Addon
Useful when you don't want to pain or get pained
If you are already into arbit browsing, you will love this

Toothbrush

2010-03-01T09:47:00.002+05:30

I found the tooth brush where the gas lighter is supposed to be in the kitchen. Now I cannot for the life of me remember where I can find the gas lighter.

Alone

2010-03-01T09:45:00.002+05:30

Dharma is at his best and worst when he is alone. His best and worst forms both comes out of what his thoughts are in exclusion to all the other talks going around him. Worst is when he overanalyses a simple bad incident and overblows it to the tragedy of his life. Best is when he gets glimpses of his inner person that he really is or really pictures himself to be.

Wondering, should he stay alone?

Kutchu's Rubber Band

2010-03-01T09:43:00.000+05:30

While preparing tea, Kutchu was trying to multi-task by packing the tea packet with a rubber band. He remembers going to the hall to get the rubber band. But coming back to the kitchen to make sure the milk for the tea is not pongi-fying, he realizes the rubber band had disappeared. Kept it on the shelf? No. Fell down somewhere? No.

Muttering to himself, he goes back, gets another one, packs the tea packet. While doing that, he sees the rubber band number one is safely tied around is right hand.

Towards Sanyaasam... Part I

2010-01-24T23:43:00.000+05:30

Central to Jungian psychology is the concept of “individuation,” the process whereby a person discovers and evolves his Self, as opposed to his ego. The ego is a persona, a mask created and demanded by everyday social interaction, and, as such, it constitutes the center of our conscious life, our understanding of ourselves through the eyes of others. The Self, on the other hand, is our true center, our awareness of ourselves without outside interference, and it is developed by bringing the conscious and unconscious parts of our minds into harmony.

- Morris Berman

TODO list

2010-01-20T11:48:00.004+05:30

Are you one of those people you always have lot of things that are to be done and more often than not forget what the thing is! Recently, I was so packed that I wanted to do choose one good ToDo List available online. I wanted it online so that I get a mail reminding me not to forget :D. Yes! The only thing that I can surely say I do not forget is to check mails. Getting back, here are the few ToDo lists I came across.

Ta-da List - Very simple and straight forward. You can get going in a click!
Remember The Milk - Has loadz of features to get started. The lists can be published, shared etc. A total mico-management geek would love this!
Organize ToDo - This is in the middle ground between 1 and 2 with respect to the features that the tool offers. And I like the look of it! :D..

My choice is Organize ToDo. It was a not an in-depth objective choice :). Definitely not as popular as the other two ToDo lists. But who cares!

The best thing I like about ToDo list - I am the ultimate God when I do the strikethrough of the things I finished in the list :D

Obssessed with M.S.S

2010-01-18T03:10:00.002+05:30

Doesnt matter how or when it started. I have kept hearing these all day/night for more than a week. And sometimes I hear them in my head like FM!

Kurai Ondrum Illai.. humbles you
Bhaja Govindam.. proper bhakti if you understand the lyrics
Jagadodharana.. stealthily steals your senses
Dolayam.. makes you dance with the music
Shreeman Narayana.. has an ultimate finish :D
Madhuraashtakam.. reaches the madness in you
Bhavayami Gopala Balam.. no words!

... to be Continued

Math Tools Are Sooo Not Creative!

2010-01-16T00:28:00.003+05:30

The tool perfectly understands integrals and my crooked as, gs. I guess I am bad enough to test the artistic nature of a logical tool!

Courtesy: My cousin's Dell Studio 14

Law and Order - SVU

2009-12-09T23:36:00.001+05:30

... Addictive.

Lost in Austen - mini review

2009-12-09T23:00:00.006+05:30

Amanda swaps place with Miss.Elizabeth Bennet in this time travel series. Those who are familiar with Pride and Prejudice, here goes the spoilers..

Bingley is drawn to Amanda, not Jane
Collins marries Jane, not Lucas
Wickham is a do-gooder, not a cad
Caroline also confesses to be drawn to Amanda, not Darcy [Ahem]
Lydia runs off with Bingley, not Wickam
Inspite of all these mess ups, Mr. Darcy always always gets the heroine

There are lot of screw-ups, glaring mistakes, plus the final part was too rushed with several loose ends [personally Wickham was wasted]. If you can forget logistics, you can watch the series for a good laugh and some really good digs on old English ways.

Verdict- One time CATCH-IT

Heartthorb

2009-11-16T14:43:00.002+05:30

I was casually walking through the corridor when I saw him coming from the opposite side and my heart skipped a beat, legs skipped a step [you get the general drift!]. He gave a smug smile and a side-ways look. OMG! Its not that I was waiting for him to pounce on me anytime. Okay! It was a definite possibility and it can happen so fast that I was not ready to risk it. I had to keep my eyes on him all the time until we were completely out of sight. In the meantime, I could feel my pulse rate increasing and started sweating [unromantic huh?!]. He finally passed me by and I kept looking back at him while walking faster when he suddenly turned back. Thats it!.. I reached for the nearest door, got inside real fast, banged it shut. Then leaned against it and slowly took a deep breath.

Guess, this is how Juliet felt everytime she looked at Romeo. Although she had a better taste in picking up a homosapien whereas I ended up picking its far away ancestor a.k.a monkey to give me a heart-attack

Mosquito Trap [Bat]

2009-11-11T03:03:00.002+05:30

Instead of mosquitoes buzzing around us, we run behind the mosquitoes.

Hail our modern warriors.

Placements I

2009-11-07T23:23:00.003+05:30

White collar is going to be interviewed in another month. He got himself registered. He is preparing his resumes wondering why his records are not crossing even a page. He sits for pre-placement talks. Sleeps through the presentation. Wakes up when compensation is mentioned. Imagines all the things that he will accomplish with 8.5 lacs + benefits + stocks + etc.
White collar does not want to think about how he has to slog to earn that money. It goes right off his head when a pseud company guy says you passionately work 48hrs and then sleep 48hrs. Mad or what?

Reflections - Season 2

2009-11-07T04:08:00.000+05:30

Attempting to make the blog active again :D.

Why?
There might be a lot to talk/pour/crib about. I am at the beginning of the finish of my MS (Master of Science by Research for the uninitiated) at IIT-Madras. And I am bored of repeatedly answering junta about what, when, how and whys of my life.

Why today?
The first draft of the thesis with 90 pages is ready. [claps]

The blog-
Translated as "Morning Netherlands". It started out as a travel blog during my visit to the country. Probably will put my experiences now (after 10 months :D) that I am back home in India. (yup.. thats the lazy me for you)

Cheers to mirror-cracking writing!

Rain

2009-11-07T03:44:00.000+05:30

time- 6am
place- department corridor waiting for the rain to stop along with few drenched crows

She thinks she does not want to get archanai when she reaches home looking like these wet crows. But she anyway drives her champ gleefully through the heavy rain.

time-6pm
place-apartment parking lot convincing amma with usual illogical reasoning that I do not need a rain coat

She again gets herself wet by the time she reaches the lab. Sits in the AC for the whole night.

Verdict- She has a temporary rain-obsessive disorder thats giving her a headache, probable fever and is immensely content with the day :)

The Fascinating "Paper"

2009-11-01T04:37:00.000+05:30

Time - early morning after a night out
Situation - sitting alone with a comp in front, nobody online to chat with and any body around is asleep
State - you will understand by the end of this blog

Who claims that scientifically we use only a teeeeny bit of our brain in the whole span of our lifetime? I would ask him to write a bleedy research paper!. Excuse my language at 5 in the morning.

Technically I am capable of talking 100 words per minute [or at least make it sound that way] and I have been trained to learn new words, make it into gazillions of sentences from the minute I was put in school. So, why does writing a paper drains out all those out of your head?

Simplifying, the things that you accomplish by publishing your "idea" as a research paper
- you are a truckload of information about how bad other's "ideas" are
- subtley put, even if your brand new "idea" is 10 years old, you are always the proud owner of highly efficient, highly effective, highly innovative, profound "idea" [you catch on all the adjectives by ofcourse reading other papers]
- nobody, absolutely nobody, can question the logic/legitemacy of your experimental results. C'mon, your idea!, your experiment!, your result!.. how dare others doubt any of it.

The enlightened call IT a journey, large number of mortals complain IT as the biggest pain and an average like me has mood swings as an enlightened one and as a mortal. Guess who did the talking above ??

PS: This blog has a title, abstract, motivation, intro, explanation, conclusion in the justified format, a natural by-product of paper writing :D

Moment of Epiphany

2009-04-22T13:01:00.000+05:30

What I am is the confused product of a semi puritanical upbringing and a liberal education. Which means that I think it's wrong for me to do anything, but I think it's perfectly all right for other people to do whatever they want. Does that make sense ?
- Anon

Your Attention Please!

2008-05-07T22:51:00.000+05:30

One fine morning, the fire alarm goes off at office and the instructions start to come in Dutch. I panickingly wait the english translation to follow. The voice asks me to rush to the nearest exit indicated without using the lifts. And the reaction I see to this on the few faces that are present there is an amused smile. The voice keeps repeating the same thing and what the hell no one seems to budge!. At last one of my supervisors comes and tells me that it was told in the beginning of the message not to take the fire alarm sounds seriously. Pity that this particular message was only in
Dutch!

TRAVEL DATE 1

2008-05-03T09:30:00.000+05:30

Madurodam is known as the miniature holland. Worth seeing atleast once. You can plan the tour to cover few other places along with visiting Madurodam.

How to get there ?

From Eindhoven Station, take a train to get down at Den Haag Centraal.
Catch a tram (Number 9) in the direction of Scheveningen Noorderstard.
Get down at Madurodam stop.

Places to Visit close by: Scheveningen Beach, Sea Life Sheveningen, Light House and a Museum
Places at Den Haag if you have time: Panaroma Mesdag, A Communication Museum, World Peace Palace

Scheveningen Beach
Amazing experience!

How to get there ?
Take the same tram (Number 9) in the direction of Scheveningen Noorderstard from Madurodam and get down at the last stop.

Take a walk on the Scheveningen Pier. The Sea-Life Scheveningen is close also by. They have an extensive variety of Sea-Life forms especially one the from Amazon is very impressive.

Scheveningen Museum
Missed this place for want of time :D

Panaroma Mesdag
An enriching place for art-lovers. Its gets more significance when you come to this art-gallery after visiting the scheveningen beach. It gives you a feel of the old Scheningen coast.
They have also tried to capture the modern Schevingen and a hands-on trial over one Microsoft software for sticting digital Pics to get a panaromic view.

There is also a Communication Museum close by. Reached that place only 10 mins before closing time.

How to get there ?
Take a tram (Number 1) from the Den Haag Central and get down at the stop Peace Palace.
Panaroma Mesdag is in 10 mins walk from the Tram stop

Peace Palace
I have only been at the gates of this palace. It took my breath away just standing outside :D.

How to get there ?
Take a tram (Number 1) from the Den Haag Central and get down at the stop Peace Palace.
You can see the Palace near the Tram stop and also a World flame glowing just outside the palace.

The Cook is Born

2008-04-21T07:48:00.000+05:30

For the 23 years of her life..
She feels hungry.
She goes to kitchen.
She fills her plate.
She eats.
She enjoys her idle time. (books/comp with snacks all the time)
She feels hungry.
And the cycle goes on.

One month later...
She feels hungry.
She checks if she had stored anything in the fridge. no
She checks if anything is there in the cub-board. no
She cuts vegetables and her finger sometimes.
She cooks rice.
She fries chicken.
She prepares breakfast, lunch and dinner.
She eats.
She cleans her plate.
She washes the bowls.
She DOESNT want to feel hungry.
But like it or not, The Cook is Born in Nederland

Breakfast at Brussels

2008-04-18T08:22:00.000+05:30

place: Arbit shop at Brussels Airport
time: around 9 am
situation: I am totally hungry

Me (after searching all types of sandwiches and causiously picking one that does not get my stomach upset for my next flight): Hi, I would like to have Salami-Salami
Waitress (with a 100 watt smile): Sure.. 3 Euros
Me: Err.. is this vegetarian ?
Waitress: eh.. What ?
Me (here goes my lingo): Vegetarian you know.
Waitress: ohh.. No.. it has THIS! (pointing to some thing inside the packet without telling what THIS means)
Me (getting hungrier every minute): Can you get me anything thats vegetarian in here.. er.. please ?
Waitress (her face brightens as if she has solved some mystery): You mean cheese ?.. this one.. 3 euros. Anything else ?
Me (duh!): No, thanks

There goes my breakfast outside India :D, whatever it was!