ALCOHOROSCOPES

GEMINI Drinking style

Gemini's can drink without changing their behavior much-- they're so naturally chatty and short-attention-spanned that it's just hard to tell sometimes. They can amaze you by conversing with finesse and allusion, then doing something to belie an extremely advanced state of intoxication, like puking in your shoe. Gemini's possess the magic ability to flirt successfully (and uninfuriatingly, which is very tricky) with several people at once. They like to order different cocktails every round -- repetition is boring -- and may create a theme (like yellow drinks: beer, sauvignon blanc and limoncello) for their own amusement.

Quite true I must say. Except the flirting part ;-)

Note to self: Sleep properly before an exam. Especially an econometrics exam.

Energy: The Politics and Economics of

This post couldn't have come at a more opportune time. With Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make the world aware about global warming it time we start talking about energy and the powers that govern them.

Most of the unwarranted politics in the world is around one of two things arms and oil. Oil primarily. One who has control of the oil well controls the way the world goes around. The developed world is so dependent on gasoline, aviation fuel and what not that it shudders to think of a day when people turn up to the gas station and the pumps have run dry. Especially the US. Hence its ever increasing desire to control the oil supplies in the world, by money or by force as witnessed by the recent wars (on terrorism ??). A lot of strife in the world is perpetuated by this fight for oil. The Al Kahida hates the US and the US hates their guts and both of them engage in mindless bloodshed that hurts the world at large. It divides people, us versus them. And I think most of it goes back to this fight for Oil.

Now why am I talking about oil politics? I think we have depended on this fossil fuel for a long enough time and definitely the debates show that this mechanism is not sustainable. We should look for alternate sources of energy. That has been common knowledge for years. But I believe asking the developed nations to lead the way would not help. Their switching costs are too high and most of the people in power want the monopoly of oil to continue. It fills up their coffers. An average American can't even imagine a day when there would be no oil left such is the dependence. Its very unlikely that they will make the switch.

This offers the developing nations a big incentive to explore new and sustainable energy sources. They have not made extensive investments for exploiting these fossil fuels and most probably they will not have a say in the allocation when OPEC decides the quota. I think it offers then an excellent opportunity to do extensive research and develop alternate forms of energy.

If they were successful this would definitely make them a more independent and prosperous as a country. It will also make the human race more sustainable and maybe the world a more peaceful place to live in.

Fall Break is here. YAY !!

Have a great fall break guys !!!

Life as a grad student

Life has strange ways of playing tricks with you. At times it puts you through really hard times, and yet you feel happy about it. I don't think I would have worked as hard ever in my life before, not even for the JEE. I guess that was a piece of cake compared to the effort I am putting in now. Some of that is definitely due to the fact that I have been away from student life for a long time, but most of it just because grad students in the US are expected to work a lot, especially here at Wharton. And I am doing mostly economics and statistics courses this semester dosent help things a lot, they being almost new topics for me. Add to that the fact that I am considerably underpaid compared to my last job [ boohoo :'( ], I am away from my friends and family and do not have the material luxuries that I was used to in my earlier life.

Even after having said all this, I somehow like this life. I like working till 2AM only to get back to my office around 9 in the morning. I think thats because I really love my department and the people around, it just has this energetic vibes. Like one of my friends said, "We have the coolest profs ever in our department. They are much cooler than the students". I don't think that speaks too much about the doctoral students here but I think she is absolutely right :-) Most of them bike to school, have a couple of startups/companies to their name and are real fun people to hang out with. And YEAH they are very well respected academically.

The only thing that worries me is I need to get into a routine soon and take out some time for myself, for my photography, travel and having fun. Or I just might die of boredom. But now I must head back to my books :-)

PS: I think I'll update my blog more frequently

Mindstorm NXT

Something that I conceptualized 5 years back comes to life. WOW !!! I feel accomplished, though I am still a poor grad student :-)

I pushed so hard for this distributed architecture to be adopted while I was interning at LEGO in the summer of 2002. Though I worked closely with the Mindstorm team for well over a year I am not sure that they still remember me. I guess I would have been lost in the mound of paperwork and office politics. But I feel really glad to see that my baby finally materialized into a product :D

WOW !!

If any of the LEGO guys are reading this PLEASE SEND ME A COMPLIMENTARY KIT :D

The Doors of Perception

“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.”

Blah

It took me close to 3 hours to read a 7 page paper written in the 50s.

I feel elated :)

Changing tides...

I was discussing something with Kartik the other day and the new Dean comes in and says hello. After an initial round of introductions this is what the conversation goes like.

D: "Where are you from?"

Moi: "Jamshedpur"
and he is a little confused,

Moi: "Its where the Tata's have most of their production facilities"

D: "Oh yeah, I am going to call up Ratan Tata in a few days to discuss certain things. So are the biggest in India?"

Moi: "No I guess the Reliance guys are."

Kartik: "Their head is an alum of our school."

D: "Yeah I am taking to Anil tomorrow."

Hmmmm...

...and still I can't find a place to stay :-(

Anyways do let me know if you know someone, even if he is your cousin fourth removed, who is looking for a roommate or is looking for a house to share with someone. I'll be extremely obliged.

To be soon homeless in Philly
Vibs

Predicaments...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

At no point in my life did this poem sound more apt than it does now. Giving up a life of certainty, monetary stability (well I am not $RICH$ but still my employers kept me well provided for ;) ) and of course the proximity of loving friends and family seems to be getting to me. But I guess this too shall pass. Will it make all the difference? I do not know...

Updates

This one is for you Meenakshi :-)

I am jobless.

my PowerBook died and since I am jobless I don't have money to get it repaired.

Since I don't have my PowerBook I can't get a job.

Hence the cycle continues....

Hehehe so now my days are spent fighting with the guys at Apple, sleeping endless hours and catching up on some reading. I guess this the most interesting one's life could get :-)

Anyways now that I am on the verge of going back to college, I am getting cold feet. I am handling the situation by not thinking about it at all. I have developed partial amnesia to the fact that I shall be leaving Bangalore soon. I trust people around me to shove me on the the train when the date is due.

AND I have a writer's block...

From a zoom lense...

...everything seems interesting. I have been noticing this for sometime, when ever I change over from a wide angle to a zoom lens things take on a different hue. The crowd changes to a face narrating the story of an individual. seems to get accentuated, the shining eyes, the wisp of hair, the sagging lines on the face. Small insignificant things get a life of their own and appear spectacular. Patterns emerge out of chaos. The other day I was shooting at a temple and I chanced up to an elderly man. Round spectacles, gandhi topi, all dressed in white. His face dark in complexion was packed with dots, wrinkled with age. He seemed to be an anachronism. But I somehow connected to him through the viewfinder of my camera even though he was more than 200 feet away.

Anything and everything is interesting. If we look close enough.

Just what the doc ordered...

The Plan

• Each team consists of two members
• Each person is allowed Rs. 1000 and a back pack.
• Participants are allowed to carry extra money, but are not encouraged to use it unless they are in some deep trouble.
• Remotest village in a state is a must visit.
• Farther the distance of travel from starting point more the fun.

3,166,414 sq. km
500,000 villages approximately
1000 bucks per person
28 states
15 days
10 destinations
2 per team
1 race

Are You Game?

I am thinking I'll take part in this competition, not for the sake of winning but just for the travel. I guess I'll be able to collect lot of material for the book during the race. If you want to pitch in with me drop me comment with your email id/phone no and I shall get back. See you there.

Lonesome Chairs

Locust Walk, Philadelphia

Rapid Fire

YAY I got tagged !! By Anki...

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it.
A slit on my abdomen. Keep guessing how I got it.

2. What is on the walls in your room?
1100 piece jigsaw puzzles and a couple of framed photographs... No more are my walls adorned with scantily clad women.

3. What does your phone look like?
A Remington Typewriter.

4. What music do you listen to?
Rabindra Sangeet.

5. What is your current desktop picture?
Dewdrops...

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
A trip to the Bahamas. Scantily clad women would be the icing on the cake ;-)

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
As long as I am not involved anything is fine. BTW how about group marriages ?

8. What time were you born?
9:30 PM on a Friday. Now you know why I am so chilled out :D

9. Are your parents still together?
No and Yes.

10. What are you listening to?
iTunes Radio.

11. Do you get scared of the dark?
I am scared of light, I think my body will disintegrate when sunlight hits me. So I am dormant during daytime.

12. The last person to make you cry?
Boys dont cry.

13. What is your favorite perfume/cologne?
Deep Blue ;)

14. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?
Black/Blue.

15. Do you like pain killers?
Why would I like something that kills me ?

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Actually I am, and I act pricey to hide the fact.

17. Favorite pizza topping?
Lots of veggies and less cheese.

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Ingera and Misr Allecha (Ethopian dishes)

19. Who was the last person you made mad?
I have attained Nirvana. Nothing can make me mad.

20. Is anyone in love with you?
I would LOVE to believe that girls all over the world are drooling over me. Does that answer the question?

Now the important part [wicked grin], I would like to tag Meenakshi, Vyom and Cuckoo. I dont know why someone would like to inflict oneself with the pain willingly, but hey anyone else is welcome if you want to :D

Show me the Money, Honey

Why is money such a bad word in India? If someone were to say "I like money" he is always looked down upon in our society. It has been seen as a vice almost synonymous with sex and all the things considered bad in the Indian value system. Too much money corrupts, we have been taught. Everyone wants money, but no one is ready to accept the fact. Why such hypocracy?

You would have heard lot of managers say you should not be working for money. Now this is one thing I fail to understand. I can always do better work in an academic institution or on my own. I work for a company whose ONLY responsibility is to create wealth for its stakeholder. The only REASON I might be interested in working for a corporate entity is the fact that I WANT MONEY. What is so difficult to comprehend? The whole charade that the HR puts up during recruitment and the managers henceforth is so sickening. I say India, because I am familiar with the recruitment practices elsewhere and almost all employers worldwide are ready to talk about and negotiate the compensation except India.

Lots of people have told me that they want to start companies. They have this great technical idea that would change the lives of millions, they are sick of working for someone else, they want some excitement in their otherwise mundane life. These might be valid reasons for thinking of a startup but if you are not interested in making money you can't be an entrepreneur. Period. I think this conscious aversion about money or talking about it needs to change if a new wave of entrepreneurship has to sweep through India and give rise to the silicon valley. People need to start thinking of money before they get the itch to create great companies.

Lots of money.

Post India

For those of you wondering what is this about, a friend of mine and I am writing a book. You can find more about it here. Put up this poster on your blog, on your office bulletin board, you college gazette and where ever it might catch people's fancy. You can get a high res version of the poster by clicking on the image or here. Any help shall be really appreciated :-)

Virginia Tech Shootout

My heart goes out to the students and faculty members who lost their lives in the massacre. Virginia Tech is supposed to be of the most peaceful college communities and no one would have expected something like this to happen there. The sheer suddenness of the event is shocking and disturbing. Is there a SAFE place left in this world?

Memories

"The Storm". Painting by Francesco Guardi.

A painting very similar to the one about used to hang in my grandfather's studay when I was a kid. There was something so melancholic about the painting that used to indimidate me so much that I woke up at nights in a pool of sweat. The paints was pretty simple, a huge mast ship in the midst of a raging storm. It was not the subject that ailed me but the colors, they seemed to suck out the all the energy from the spectator, putting him in the same despair that people aboard the ship might have been feeling. Thats one of the strongest evidences I have seen of colors being used to convey emotions. Sadly this picture dosen't dosent potray the helpless I felt after seeing the painting that hung on the wall. I have changed a lot since I saw that painting first. I am no longer afraid of water, I can swim pretty well. But even now when I think of the painting on the wall, a shudder passes through me. Just thinking about it transforms me to a state of helplessness and saps aways all my energy and mirth.

Have you ever felt something similar?

Impressive

वाह क्या बात है। अब हिंदी में ब्लॉगर !!

मैं खुश हुआ।

A Potrait of an Young Man as the Photographer

I have always had this fascination for photography, but not until recently since I started some serious photography did I realize it would change me. For Good.

Patience: As a photographer I have developed lot of patience, precariously perched on my haunces, with sweat tricking down my face, waiting for the opportune moment to click the scene. Not to forget the insanely heavy camera and the lense.

Carpe Diem: In photography you need seize the moment. Nothing lasts for more than a second, if you have captured it, its for you to keep or it might have gone forever.

Resilience: You learn to live with your mistakes and evolve with them. At times I have spent the entire day clicking photographs only to realize I didnt choose the correct ISO or I had a greasy lense.

Photography has taught me a lot more than any class or college I ever went to. Long live photography and long live the photographer in me.