Exodus of the duo !!

Two weeks back, the first roomie (Aditya) left for good and last week the second guy (Varun) also left for his internship. Aditya and I came to school together in August 2006 and we first met in May 2006. The first time we met we decided that we will be room mates and I remember the first things that we ever spoke about at Barista on St. Marks Road were about the hot women we have heard of or knew from our college days. From then onwards these small talks about women never stopped. I saw him go through one of the worst moments in the first semester. He came through that and the way he got his funding is still one of the best anecdotes that has happened to him in his stay here. Speaking of anecdotes none of us here can forget the way he got a ride from the airport to school when he had gone to DC for a conference. Here is a man who is new to the country and stands up in the flight just after it lands at the airport and shouts out - "Is there anyone going towards Ames, I need a ride till there." Eventually he did find some lady who dropped him, but we back home were all awestuck by his guts. That incident just simply defines Adi. The first year was a very "quiet" period for Adi and me. We had to work on our assignments in a very quiet and whispering atmosphere, and of course the silent F & B words let out in frustration against a certain someone. We still carry "OREY" and "DEFARTMENT" in our dictionary and I guess they will never go off it. I have griped a lot to him and he knows what I go through most of the times. I should be grateful to this dude always :).

After a year and the exit of "OREY" came another super replacement and I should say by far the entity that brought Adi and me close. Adi and I were looking for our third room mate and decided on Varun and thought that he cannot be really bad as a room mate, and it turned out that he was a really good fit in our place. Like the old "OREY" saying goes - "OREY HOW WILL HE BE WITHOUT US NEXT SEM ONWARDS ???". Honestly, he will be happier with less farts and burps to hear from Adi and me. Varun is a very smart guy and is very level headed and of course has a very "DONT KNOW DONT CARE" attitude. Personally for me he has been one of the most helpful people when I was a little "MIND F***ED". He saw things happen to me and is always encouraging.

The last 1 year three of us have spent some amazing time together. The great times drinking at Cafe B and Welch Ave with Adi throwing up and singing in the bus and Varun and I dancing with random people. None of us can forget Varun spending for some random hot girl at Welch Ave and things that followed it. Adi and I have been thrashed for burping and farting and of course using a loud speaker for to amplify the noises. To counter that Varun also started burping with a "BBBBBBUUUURRRRWWWWWAAAAAAH". I think ours is the only house in Ames where cricket is played on a regular basis and with serious scores to boast about. Aaloo 2.5, Long Island Ice Tea, Puliyogare, Cricket, Cafe B, Atanasoff, Thai Kitchen, Ayride, Water Spray, True TV, Javagal Shetty, 612, Free Pizza, Chocolate, the list is never ending.

Guys you made my stay at Ames the best and wish that this period can be repeated at some point later !!!

Great people even the "greatest" have the worst of Luck !!!

My friend’s company's stock was hovering at about $33-$34 over the last 3 months. He had given instructions to the broker to sell it when it hits $37. Seeing that it wasn't going to happen, he reduced it to $36 and then further down to $35.5

Today, when the market opened, the stock started off at $34.76, went up & up & up and hit $35.5!! (He was jumping as though he bought the Royal Challengers!!!)

But the happiness was short-lived. The stock continued to rise and hit a maximum of $37.26 and then settled down at $37.

So basically, my friend lost out about $684! God-damned Murphy I'm sure is looking up and laughing at him this very moment and so am I :D

Back to griping...

I was once told "Lets see if you can clear one interview first".

Somehow I think that is going to be true. (You can imagine my expression)

3 brothers and many lions.

Craziest thing I've done is I ran in front of LIONS..........You guys wondering what I'm blabbering???

Story goes this way......went to the Banaraghatta Zoo at the age of 26.... like a 6 year old with 2 other fools(My friends).

We went on a safari in a "SO CALLED BUS" which was a 40 seater with 50 people in it (Most of them stinking).

We stopped near all the stupid looking animals and took pictures with our dumb camera phone. My phone made a Tiger look like a Monkey

FINALLY the LIONS come.....Every one exited.....The bus stops and every one pulls their cameras out and the lions pose for us..CLICK CLICK CLICK......Every one is happy.

Now the bus driver tries to start the bus. GUESS WHAT???? THE BUS DOES NOT START.

OK.... I think they have a wireless communicating device..........NAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!..The bus doesn't even have a dash board. No mobile signal also......KAYOS every where. People loosing it....Shouting at the poor driver and cleaner.

One guy he was getting a heart attack......the others decide to release foul smelling gas from their body. My idiot friend mistook the smell to FRESH BIRYANI.

One of my idiot friend tries settle things down in the bus...So he gives a speech in English but apparently NO ONE KNEW ENGLISH!!!!!!!!! However he managed to shut them up with his UGLY FACE.

The idiot friend made a monkey face at the lion..... YA........The lion did get ticked off.......And when the lion replied back to him with a ROAR (Trust me, a real scary one).. His face got stuck that way and he still walks around with that face..

Finally another bus arrives........So we could Communicate.HOW?????
We shouted for our lives.

Another empty bus arrives.....I tell my idiot friend, "DUDE,I THINK THEY WILL SHOOT THE LIONS WITH A TRANQUILIZER AND TAKE US OUT...BLAH BLAH. "Guess what happened.

A Fat guy got off the bus, scratching in such a place where only MICHAEL JACKSON has done in public till date. He picks up a small pebble and throws at the lion..Guess what happened???????

The lions ran for their lives.......and sat about 20 meters away from the bus...The fat man (STILL SCRATCHING THERE) opens the bus door and I was first to greet my SAVIOUR (STILL SCRATCHING THERE)

He asks me to go to the next bus and I had to take a walk to the next but which was 10meters away from the bus..

For once I was good with my numbers..The lions were 20 meters away and the bus was 10 meters away, towards the lions.....So technically I'm going 10 meters closer to the lions.....WOW..now I feel like a fool...

I got off the bus first and next thing I know , I was in the other bus......I don't remember what happened in between..

Every one followed.

Every one happy.

Every one shook hands with the fat guy for saving us but I still remember where he scratched, hence decided not to shake anything which belongs to him.

We felt like 3 stooges on the way back home...

Story By: Karthikeyan

Being Unemployed...

I am almost nearing the end of my Master's. I still don't have a job, and just realized that I am one amongst the 186 million in this world. Phew !!!

That is some sad statistic and I hate to be part of this group. I still havent graduated but the future doesn't look any brighter. I am in one of those most negative frame of mind. It would take me a long time to set myself straight on track.

Tamil Movies and the new genre....

I have been watching a lot of Tamil movies off late, which is not new. But here are the new things about these movies, none of them have a super hero or a great actor in it nor is it directed by a famous director. There have been at least a dozen movies that I have seen with good plot and different stories. The ones that stood out were Mozhi, Kaloori and Anjathey.

Well one may argue that Mozhi had Jyotika and Prkash Raj, but honestly it was a great movie where one single actor did not stand out, but the entire team had to be lauded. Kaloori was very serious and tragic movie but the director actually made real amateurs act. That movie had at least 5-6 people in front of camera for the first time and with all probability acting for the first time as well. Anjathey was a very decent movie with a relatively amateur cast and for sure a strong script.

If Tamil cinema is moving, one should say that it really moving strong. A lot has to be told about the producers who are prepared to give these directors the chance to make movies which has low investment but high risk as well. Coming from an industry which has always thrived because of its super stars, this is surely a welcome change.

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.