I am back in US after a month long visit to India. It was a very fulfilling visit. Met a lot of old friends and talked (over phone) with a lot more. Had the oppurtunity to be with my niece (50 days old now). So on the whole it was a refreshing experience. Initially felt a little out of it, but soon the old instincts returned. As they say:
"You can take the Desi out of Desh, but you cannot take the Desh out of Desi"
While returning had a mini adventure. I left my wallet at home and traveled around the world with zero dollars. Thankfully, I didnt have any very long stopovers. So managed quite comfortably in the end. Still awaiting my wallet thru DHL though.

***********************************************************************

Was very happy to watch a lot of cricket in India. The AUS-SA test matches were exciting. The IND-PAK test matches were a big bore. During the first test match there were a lot of segements of "straight drive" (with Imran Khan, Naseer Hussain and Sanjay Manjrekar) since majority of the last three days of the match was lost to badlight. Couple of those segments were entertaining and enlightening. Michael Holding clearly pointed out the flaw on Pathan's grip (this seems to be hampering his pace). Imran Khan was very insightful with his remarks about the bowling grip. He also reminisced about a test match in Pakistan (against West Indies) when he asked the curator for a turning wicket. The curator proceeded to under-prepare the wicket. The move backfired since the pitch ended up having unpredictable bounce which Andy Roberts and co. took full advantage of. So preparing pitches for home advantage itself seems to be a science. There was another segment with tips on running between the wickets with Dean Jones. This was all great for person who doesnt get to watch cricket shows here in US. At the most I can only hope to watch the matches. So I lapped up any oppurtunity to watch some good cricket based shows.

It has been more than a year since I have updated this blog. Obviously a lot has happened since then. Will try to keep this thing updated as much as possible. I think my main problem with updating this space is that I am not much of a writer. Moreover, the fact that I have not read anything decent in the last one year makes it virtually impossible for me to write anything.So if anyone has any suggestions on what to read please tell me.

It has been quite some time since I last updated my journal. Quite a few things have happened in the meanwhile. Watched a presidential debate live for the first time. Have to say, even though I am a cynic, the candidates seemed to believe in what they were saying. Hope to see something like this in India. They should atleast let the candidates debate at lower levels like the city council and such. It might be too much to expect a dignified debate without the cliches and redundant rhetorics at the upper levels of Indian politics. I have also been following the baseball scores. I still can not watch a baseball game. You have to hand it to the sportwriters of USA, they can make anything interesting. Especially, ESPN creates a lot of hype for even regular games. The funny part is these people call themselves the world champs after winning the professional leagues even though they do not have any basis for it except for may be football (the american version). They also are quite fixated with the stats. Something or other keeps happening which has not happened in the past 2 years are some such crap.
BTW the test at chennai had a pretty tame ending. The fifth day would have been a cracker. Chennai tests have always been interesting till the last day of play. I still remember the first game I watched live at chepauk. It was India's opening game of Reliance Cup (world cup 1987). It was a thrilling game till the last over. India lost by a run and the Australian score had been increased by 2 during lunch when a shot which had been initially declared as a boundary was updated to a sixer by the officials and Kapil Dev maganimously accepted it!! That reminds me, there seems to be a recent spate of batsmen walking without waiting for the umpire's decision. There have been quite a few columns online critizing it. I do not see any problem in that. The main point against it being that such actions might infuence the umpire in future when he starts believing a player and the player abuses such trust. I think thats total rubbish since umpire has to be objective and he should not take into account his opinion of a player when making decisions. Also some say that a batsman walking can be constituted as dissent. This argument was shot down by David shepherd himself.
During my period of inactivity Rajnikanth has announced his next film "Chandramukhi". It will be a remake of "Manichitratazhi". Eagerly awaiting it!!!

Thinking about what I said on mrsgollum's blog, I remembered when I was young I was quite interested in Mathematics. There used to be this fad that eating ladies finger/okra based food items develops one's mathematical ability. This was the reason I started eating vendaikai curry even though I hated it. The fact author of a mathematics book that my elder(by 8 yrs) sister was using was my namesake with a PhD tag further stimulated my interest. I used to try and come up with my own theorems. Some where basically extensions of the number theorems that I knew of. There was this one theorem that I was particularly proud of, it goes like:
Pythagorian Triplet*:
Take any odd number and square it. Now take the square and split it into two consecutive numbers such that sum of these numbers is the square. Now, these two numbers and the original odd number form a pythagorian triplet.

(e.g.)
Take 3, square = 9
split 9 into 4,5 (4+5 = 9)
now 3,4,5 form a pythagorian triplet i.e. 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2

(e.g.)
Take 75, square = 7225
7225 = 3612.5
Hence 75,3612,3613 form a pythagorian triplet
This took me like 2 seconds to come up with. Follow the postscript for squaring numbers

Here is something I came across when I was reading articles on the New Jersey governor Mcgreevey's revelation.

Too many of us increasingly live our lives according to some external narrative that we think represents "success" or "acceptance" but has little to do with who we really are

It used to be that only people in professions like politics, show business and sales dealt with scores of people each day. Now anyone with e-mail does. And because Americans frequently change jobs, they are constantly selling themselves—just like politicians. And undergoing image makeovers—just like politicians. Much of this outer direction is fine; the coiled ambition helps productivity and brings at least some people the sense of connection they crave in their lives. But these are different lives than led by earlier generations—stretched thin between outer and inner selves, self-absorbed without being self-knowing. The search for spirituality and meaning now underway in so many places must be some reaction against the soullessness of the backslap and the speed dial, the impossibility of "multitasking" what really matters.

New Jersey's history of corruption has been rivaled by no other state, with the possible exceptions of Illinois and Louisiana. McGreevey embraced New Jersey's tradition of shameless patronage. Elected in November 2001, shortly after 9/11, he made Cipel (who was referred to by a state trooper familiar with McGreevey's security detail as "the governor's little friend") his adviser for homeland security. This despite the fact that Cipel, an Israeli citizen, had no security clearance and thus could not attend FBI meetings on terrorism.

A former altar boy and son of a Marine drill sergeant, McGreevey joined a long line of New Jersey politicians who promised to clean up politics in Trenton, the state capital, and ended up practicing what they once preached against. McGreevey's fall from grace was almost immediate. His first chief of staff and chief counsel were forced out amid vague allegations that they had misused their offices. His state police director was pushed aside after charges that he interfered with his own background check. One of his nominees for the state Supreme Court had to withdraw because she drove to her background check with a suspended driver's license (she had an unpaid traffic ticket).

McGreevey's biggest campaign contributor, Charles Kushner, a superrich real-estate developer, became the target of the state's aggressive U.S. attorney, Christopher Christie. The Kushner family had given nearly $450,000 to McGreevey in his various races to become a state legislator, mayor of the town of Woodbridge and governor. Kushner recently made headlines when he was charged with hiring prostitutes and using videotapes to try to entrap his brother-in-law to stop him from cooperating with the Feds. ("You can't make this stuff up," says one politically prominent New Jersey lawyer, Lawrence Bathgate.)

The fund-raising probe came uncomfortably close to the governor's office when another big McGreevey donor, trash hauler David D'Amiano, was charged on July 6 with shaking down a local landowner, Mark Halper, for $40,000 in cash and contributions. According to the indictment, D'Amiano arranged to have the landowner meet with Governor McGreevey to be reassured that he would get his end of the deal, a larger tax write-off. If McGreevey referred to "Machiavelli," landowner Halper was told, then he would know the deal was on. Halper had gone to the Feds, complaining of extortion, and the FBI put a secret wire on Halper for his meeting with the governor. Sure enough, during their conversation, McGreevey volunteered that he understood that Halper "was reading 'The Prince' by Machiavelli" to learn how to deal with state officials in land disputes. McGreevey, who was mentioned 83 times in the D'Amiano indictment, later insisted that he was making a "literary reference," not blessing a crooked deal in code. (Lawyers for Kushner, D'Amiano and McGreevey all deny wrongdoing.)

Date:	2004-08-13 12:29
Subject:	Happy Bday to me
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

So I am 24 today. Looking back I see I havent achieved much till now and dont think I will do something great in the future either. I am destined to be one of the majority whose face dissolves into the common mass. Not feeling too bad about it though. Only a select few are destined for great things.
But I dont know why the world decided to celebrate my Bday by kicking off a sports festival in Greece. Since I can not make it to Athens for that the locals decided to have an air show. How many times will I have to remind these people that I like to keep a low profile.
I remember a chinese former colleague of mine said that in China if your age is a multiple of 12 it is considered to be unlucky. The antidore - wear red underwear. I presume red underears are very popular in China.
In US you are very lucky when you become 25 though. The car insurance rates go down and the rental companies do not have any objections to rent out a car to you.

Date:	2004-08-03 17:22
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

Saw "The Village" over the weekend. It is not as bad as some reviews make it to be. I can see Shymalan getting more and more adept in handling scenes involving emotional drama. I think it is time he breaks his mold of supernatural thrillers and start making films of different genre. I liked William Hurt's performance in particular. He is a great actor who has generally been absent from hollywood screens for the last few years.  The roles of Weaver, Phoenix and Brody were not much to write about. This is one of the reasons which makes the ending seem abrupt, since we are still waiting to find out what were they doing in this movie. On the other hand newcomer Bryce Howard has the main role.

I also saw "Mujse Shaadi Karogi". It was interesting to note that within a span of 2 weeks we had a high budget Hollywood film (Bourne Supremacy) showing Goa when they say Goa and a Hindi film showing Mauritius when it is supposed to be set in Goa. I also found out why the Indian players were so rusty in Lanka they were too tired after giving their whole hearted support to Salman's ques for love :P. It is interesting David Dhawan has chosen the basic plot of a failed tamil movie. I also remember him doing that before in another Salman Khan starrer "Yeh hei Jalwa". Who says only hit films are remade. That reminds me what I read some where, somebody asked "Why is that only successful films are remade,? since they are successful they must have got most of it right.    People should remake bad films with good story. Since a good story deserves a good film" This is in the context of Hollywood though. In India we can always give the reason people who dont know the language of the original movie should also get a chance to aprreciate the film.

Since bollywood also seems to be in mood for making scene by scene copy of hollywood hits, why doesnt somebody remake Pulp fiction? Even a scene by scene remake would require lot of guts from the crew. It is ironic to note that Pulp fiction, Forrest Gump and Shawshank redemption all competed for oscar in the same year. It is such a shame. I am sure if they had been released in different years they would have all got the Best film oscars.

Want to see ur home (if it is in USA) from a birds viewpoint? Try this. It is amazingly clear. I have seen other satellite pictures none as clear as this. The real surprising part is this given away free by Microsoft!!!

Date:	2004-07-26 22:04
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	cynical

Only productive thing I seem to have this month seems to be visiting the beer fests. Organizer for one such fest saw me ion another one and was quite surprised. Now my roommate wants to go to seattle and incidentally there is beer fest over there next week organised by the same grp. Imagine the surprise she will have if I drop by. I have developed a great liking for Belgian beer. Planning to find out where I can get it regularly. BTW are there brewpubs in India? I mean those pubs which have their own brews?
I noticed most of posts have been abt alcohol. This is not because I am an alcoholic. It is because everything else in life seems to be bleak. I dont see a hope for myself anymore. Right now I just want to be a hermit some where (with a lot of Belgian beer ofcourse)

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New - Dating Advice written by YOU!

Date:	2004-07-16 12:42
Subject:	Wisdom
Security:	Public
Mood:	working

From one of the numerous mail groups that I am a member of
---
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint it goes like this:

What Makes 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?
We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give
over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these
questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work
and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there,
it's the Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.

----

Here are a few dialogs from the Asterix comics that I am reading:

------------------------------------------------------------
Centurion Crismus Bonus (to kidnapped getafix, asterix): You have refused to talk druid. Perhaps your friend (asterix) will be more loquacious under torture!

Centurion leaves shouting: AUT CAESAR! AUT NIHIL! *
*-> This is Latin grammar

Asterix and Getafix laugh
Asterix: I will be loquacious alright. I will loquace like no one has loquaced before. **
**-> This is bad grammar

--------------------------------------------------------------
Hard to beleive these cartoons are translated versions. If dialogues in the english version are this funny, then I can only imagine how funny the dialogues are in the original version. Just the names of characters us a laugh riot. Right from getafix to cacafonix to vitalstatistix. The best part is each of the cartoons have really good names for the roman soldiers. For example, in this first cartoon we have crismus bonus as the centurion, Marcus Ginantonicus as the trusty(!!) number two and caligulus minus as the spy. We also have those famous quotes(like Et tu Brute) thrown in for good measure.

I remember my former advisor, an Italian, saying that Asterix comics were a French attempt at revenge for being dominated through out ancient history by the romans. A different perspective indeed!!!

BTW does anybody know how to capture the images from the comics on CD

The New York mayor has taken a big liking to Indian fables. He has been talking to dead people. Or is this a M. Night Shyamalan effect ??? But seriously, one would expect mayor of New York to be more careful about his remarks.

While on M. Night Shymalan, wonder why his newest movie The Village is not generating the kind of pre-release hype that Signs did two years back. It is even more curious when you condider the fact that his movie before Signs was Unbreakable which was a flop, while Signs itself was a hit. In fact, it was the biggest hit in Mel Gibson's carrier at that point of time.

Date:	2004-07-10 00:03
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm
Music:	all of the above

Had a shot of chevas regal (12 yrs old) on the rocks and a pint of a local brew beer. While coming back these were the songs that played on classic rock station in the order listed:

Cocaine by Eric Clapton
Smoke on water by Deep Purple
We will rock you by Queen
Us and them by Pink floyd

Ah...lifes little moments

This is the longest ever description on ebay. If u manage to read this entirely, send me the summary will u!!

I found the answer to my previous post. I am not that old ha...ha

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.


How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

Check this out. I am listed as an author (No. 48). Even though that is just my Master's thesis, it is kind of cool to be listed as an author of something at the library. Wonder if I will make it to the bestselling list :P

drank beer, beer and more beer during this weekend. It was not planned. Went to a Indian dhaba in portland on saturday. Nice cheap place reminded me of the Punjabi dhaba from warangal. So I had to drink that day. Went rock creek pub in hillsboro. They brew their one beer and have greatlive music too.
On sunday, went to the Blues festival in Portland and saw the fireworks thereafter. No great shakes. The max rails were crowded while coming back. It was filled with drunken people behaving ... well drunk. I couldnt take it after some time. So, me and my friends decided to spend he night with some beer.
On Monday saw spiderman 2. There were some teens in the movie hall trying to act cool. That sent me thinking. I felt too old compared to those kids and too young for those bums on MAX the day before. So where am I???

Date:	2004-06-29 20:10
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	good
Music:	Mustafa Mustafa - A R Rahman (Kadhal Desam)

Even though what I am going to say is a cliche, I have to say it. Internet is wonderful. I mean I can keep in touch with my old friends without much effort. I remember the RECW alumni meet which was held in campus. I met quite a few alumni from decades back. They all had one thing in common, they all lost touch with their friends from college. They did not know what their closest friends where doing with their life. They wistfully searched around to see if they can find someone they knew from college.

Now even though I might not have seen most of my friends in a long time, I atleast know what they are upto. I was reminded of this because recently I came across a article in a tamil weekly about a drama troupe "viveka fine arts*". The troupe has been around for more than 30 years. It is basically made up of amateurs who met each other either in college or school. This was the last line in the article,
"We consider ourselves lucky, how many get the oppurtunity to interact with their childhood and college friends on a daily basis?".
So even if I can not interact with my friends on a personal basis regularly, I can use the blog forum to keep in touch.

* --> That troupe is headed by 'Cho' Ramaswamy a lawyer/ journalist/ cine artiste/ many more. I have heard some of their dramas through audio cassettes, they are quite thought provoking.I would recommend them to anybody who understands tamil

Note: This blog is partially due to my anxiety to get my 10th post. :P