New paper cricket called Twenty-Twenty !

My friend said it correctly it is indeed like paper cricket and in that name they have really spoiled the class of the game. Twenty-Twenty was started with the only purpose to attract more people to the already dying County Cricket in England. When it first came into the scene no one expected this to have made such a mark, well the Aussies and then the South Africans recognizing it just did it for the game. The pitches in One-dayers these days are already tailor-made for the batsmen, in this form of the game it is even worse. It is like playing on a concrete floor nothing that the bowlers can do. Like my friend and I were discussing there needs to be few modifications to the game to make it better. One of them could be making only 6-8 batsmen bat and not all the 11. My friend went to an extent of saying one beamer per over (Although I still think that can be very dangerous). There should be no field restrictions at all, like test matches. From the first over place the fielders where ever you want. Finally play on green tops just to test the batsmen really. These changes makes Twenty-Twenty much more fun than just a mere turn the page and add whatever you get there, Oh My God it is so inane.

Yellow Paper communication.

I found out that the pot in my loo had blocked and I had put 2 post-it(s) on the door of the bathroom saying "The flush does not work so please use the other loo". The sub-roomie of mine had to hurry that day and ran into the loo without reading the post-it and of course had the bathroom flooded. After he comes out he has this tone where he has made a mistake and we had this conversation

he - "The bathroom is not working I think there is some problem."
me - "I had put the post-it there didnt you read it?"
he - "Oh the yellow Paper??"

There ends the conversation. I was speechless. I for a moment feel that it is my fault as I should have woken him in the night to tell him that the loo will flood if u flush it. So much for my very formal way to communicate with him.

Blank....

For the past few days I have nothing to say and do. I am doing my research as though it is mundane. Well I am actually bored and the best part of being bored is that you can keep saying you are bored. I hate saying it but never else can you actually say bored. At the moment my mind is blank as blank as it can get and today onwards I am going to be reading random stuff to see what I can be doing... suggestions invited.

Oooops....

Sometimes you feel you just cant change a few things in you. Well I talk way too much, I just cant change on that front. I have tried it has never happened, I have even wondered why I cant change, I guess that is the way certain things are and that is why I guess I am going to start a new series called "Everybody hates ME...." Trust me it may just be really funny because one I would just be blabering my life out and everyone would hate one thing and it would be a real awesome thing like one of those videogames where one thing is hit everytime and there will be million others laughing looking at that. I wish I get a golden globe for that. Ooops I am talking a lot... I shuts :|

2 done hopefully just 1 more to go.

I am officially done with 2 semesters. I had decent grades, decent enough to be calling it so. I will have one more semester of classes and hopefully I can finish my research in the same time as well. Lets see how time moves as I have too many things to do in very little time. More updates to follow.....

I so wanted to be there...

For once i wanted to have fun, I just couldnt, don't know what held me back, must be the guilt of not spending time on work, but I am feeling terrible about not being there.

Badly want to go back to Bangalore.

All I was doing this afternoon was looking at images of Bangalore. The place may be crowded, it may be choked to the limit, it may be dying, it may be smelling, it may be less safer these days - it is still Paradise for many including me. I am really waiting to go back home and one of the main reasons that is driving me to do so in the place. Today has been unusally the most nostalgic day after I came here. Now that I don't have an internship here as yet. I am actually thinking of applying in Bangalore for one. It is just a tradeoff between money and people/place. I think people are more important and I am going to concentrate on internship options in Bangalore. Interviews back in Bangalore are not new to me at all. So Companies in Bangalore here I come !!!

The smell of fresh grass...

This is my first spring in the US of A. After a very very bad winter the smell of fresh grass feels great. It is 19 degree celsius. Back home I would have worn a sweater and 2 layers under that, here 19 degrees is like summer. Everyone here comes in shorts for this weather and rightly so. Trust me all of us here needed this change in this weather which just makes all of us feel great.

Current thought: I am looking for a bicycle to ride from home to campus.

Lost one hour of sleep.

The clock showed 2:30 am and my laptop showed 3:30 am, there was nothing wrong with either of them, just that the day light saving started today or simply the summer clock. I really dont understand the logic behind this, all I know is in March I am going to hate it as I lose one hour sleep and in October love it when I get one more hour to sleep. I dont see any psychological change because of this, there should be more logic to this for me to appreciate it.

Super South Indian Sambar.

I made some real good sambar yesterday. I guess I would hav made my mom really proud of myself. I was really awestuck by my cooking skills, I can indeed cook. On that very optimistic note I have lots of work to do. Theoritically I have 9-day break, but got just too much work to even think about any break.

I hate behavioral Interviews.

I had another interview in which I was rejected. This makes it 3 after I came to the US. They ask so little technical questions and base the entire interview on behavioral questions. They psyche me out. All the questions were like "Give an instance where you did this... Give an instance where you did that....” I prefer 10 questions on linked list and answering 8 of them and then getting rejected, at least that makes more sense. Now I feel that I need to prepare for these questions, but it will be evident that I am cooking up answers more than anything. Feel slightly awful because this reminds me of days after my undergrad I had lot of interviews and converted very few. But those days it was because of my technical skills. Now it is because of questions which I actually don’t have answers for.

Assignments are back.

My semester started last month and I am pounded with assignments after assignments. There are too many of them. They never seem to end. But eventually I am learning something in each of them. I am currently stuck with three on my head (:D).

I watched Manhattan last week. I am seeing it after 5 years almost. Brilliant movie, if anyone wants to know who Woody Allen is and what he is capable of. It is a must see !!

Another one down...

I didnt make it through another interview. This time around it was really shocking, as I had done really good. The tough ones are when you do well and cant figure out where you have gone wrong. Well there are few things I will try different next time around like the shirt I wear, the way I sit and definetly the way I talk, till then.... Cheers ( In a very very sober tone... on a gloomy day...) !!!

Reading research papers

I am busy of late reading research papers. There are so many papers I am reading I cant remember what they have after sometime. But like people say this is part of the "Graduate Student" life and I am living it.

More update later, when I am done with the work I am currently into.

The Last King of Scotland.

Now we all know what Idi Amin did in Uganda. A movie that reminds us what Uganda went through during the bad days. This movie was given "8 *s" in "imdb" and deservingly so. The movie had appropriate casting and of course Forrest Whitaker did pull it off. The additional complexion added to him did make him resemble Idi Amin. I have never seen or heard Idi Amin but it did help me imagine how he would have behaved and spoken. James McAvoy is really impressive, I saw him last in the Chronicles of Narnia and a great performance here.

Overall good direction and editing, a movie one can surely watch. Finally cheers to the director for finishing it all with the Entebbe incident !!!

Alone....

It has been six months since I left Bangalore for Ames to do my Masters. Well in all these 6 months the only thing that I have realized in all these days is how to be alone. There have been times when you feel that there is a clout around you but moments later you there again "ALONE", all by yourself. One thing this does helps me learn a lot and gives me that toughness, don't know how many of my friends in Bangalore will agree with that!! For a person who has never stayed away from home, all of sudden this change is good, it does teach one a lot... and I am learning !!!

People who made difference to India.

A week before the 57th Republic day, I was thinking of all the people who have made a difference to India in the last couple of decades and these are the names that came to my mind. These are the few people I think who will be awarded the Bharat Ratna at some point of time or those who deserve it as they have already been awarded with it.

* Abdul Kalam - Truly inspiring President, in his words and works.
* Verghese Kurien - Man who made milk cost cheaper than water. Operation flood was the biggest success stories ever.
* M S Swaminathan - Swaminathan's contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement.
* Sam Pitroda - C-DOT wouldnt have been without him and of course all the telecom companies owe it to him.
* Ratan Tata - Man who along with other industrialists responds to the cries of unemployment.
* M S Subhalakshmi - The lady who made the world listen to carnatic music.
* Azim Premji and Narayan Murthy - Two men who brought the world of technology home. (Well in some form).
* Amartya Sen - Brought home the Nobel and with it a series of economic reforms, wish all of them can be followed.
* Sachin Tendulkar - Well, it is strange a sportsperson features in this list, but indeed it is true that he has made a world of difference to the cricket scene in India.
* A R Rahman - If MS made the world listen to Indian Music, this man made us listen to world music.

One of the funniest things I have read in sometime...

I read this in my friend's gtalk status :)

Difference between mashed potatoes & pea soup - anybody can mash potatoes

Strange things in different places....

One week after I cut my finger, I had an upset stomach. What is most irritating was the way the nurse in the hospital did not want me to come to the hospital at all. Here is what was my conversation with her

Day 1:

Me: "I have an upset stomach, I threw up thrice and I am not comfortable, I want to come to the hospital."
Nurse: "Gimme your name" Me gave.
Nurse: "Your ISU Number", me gave.
Nurse: "Your phone number", me gave.
Nurse: " Have you registered with us earlier", Me...Grrrrrr.. Answered her.
Nurse: " Are you alergic to any medicines?", Me....(At this point I was really struggling with pain)... Answered her.
Nurse:” So now what are the symptoms that you have?", Me told her everything.
Nurse:” I guess you have de-hydration, drink a lot of fluids and lie down, you will be alright"... cuts the call.

Day 2:

Me: "I had called yesterday and I have an upset stomach, I guess I have developed some infection in my stomach"
Nurse takes all my details, the symptoms, etc. After all that...
Nurse:” I guess you are suffering from a viral infection that many students are catching. You should be alright in a couple of days, just follow a strict diet."
Me: "Can I come to the hospital to get some medicine for the infection?"
Nurse: "No we don’t have any medicines for this. If the situation goes bad get back to us".

I was a little shocked, because back home the first thing the doctor would do is asking me to come and meet him. I am fine now, but I am not sure if it was the right thing for the nurse to do, by asking me not to see the doctor. I have always believed that it would be good for the doctor to see the patient just to make sure what the exact problem is. I don't know how much can be achieved over the phone. Well I guess different places have different policies. (Sigh...)

End of an era.

Mike Gatting on that (Ball of the Century) ball
"I suppose I can say that 'I was there' at the moment he first indicated his potential to the wider world. There or thereabouts, anyway. Thanks to him, there are many more leg-spinners in the game. We may not see his like again."

Indeed, the greatest bowler cricket has ever seen has called it a day. Shane Warne was just not a leg spinner, he was one of the best entertainers. He was in the news for all the good and bad reasons. One could spend hours talking about his achievements on the fields and also about his wrong doings off the field. His action was poetic and the turn was vicious. He had a great variety and like Sachin Tendulkar said "One has to be awake all the time to face Warne". It is very difficult to take him for granted and assume what was going to come next.

Of all the records that was set, I thought Walsh's 519 was the most difficult to break. But Warne broke the record and ended with 708 wickets, which included some great wickets like the one of Mike Gatting and many others of similar genre. Though one cannot classify him as a complete all-rounder, he was a great first slip and a very decent lower order batsmen. All these qualities made him the deserving No. 4 in the Wisden's top 50 players that has ever played the game. Though I havent seen that much of Sir. Gary Sobers and Sir. Don Bradman, I rate Warne way ahead of all of them and would even go on to say Shane Warne is the best player to have played the game of cricket. It is going to be difficult to see a player with abundant talent, great charm and one that had an aura around him never walk on the field again. It is not only a void to Australian cricket but also to the sport in general which will miss one of its most enigmatic personalities.

Back to blogging ways...

After forgetting my password to my previous blog, here I am back to blogging. This time around I am sure I will blog often.

From the previous BLOG........SIX MONTHS LATER.....

I am at Iowa State University, one semester down. Did reasonably well in the first semester. Like I have always thought, coming to new place the first few days is all about surviving. I guess I have survived and done so pretty well. In this time I have made a lot of new friends, seen a few places in the US (Conclusion: BANGALORE IS THE BEST !!). Staying thousands of miles from the people I really love is a bad thing, but I guess I have to live that way for at least a few more months. I am currently working on Sensor Networks, they are pretty cool things. I have a lot to learn and I have to do it fast. I am kind of stuck in a problem, I hope to do better on that in the days to come.

Well, come monday my 2nd Semester starts and I have taken 2 tough courses and I have my research besides that. It is going to be real testing time then. I will try to update every bit of information here henceforth. I just realized blogging afterall is good entertainment for a soul that is "BORED TO DEATH".