2nd Nov 2006 in India

One of my very close friends is getting married - how I wish I could be there with her :(

hey wassup

A typical conversation:
"hey dude - Wassup"
"hey - Wassup"
(And no matter how much you are tempted to answer - "the ceiling" - you end the conversation there)
Well not very long ago - actually a year ago when I was new in US - I didnt know the right answer to this question - So used to say what I thought was the right answer. So a typical answer from my end was:
"You know I am looking for an apartment but I am not sure where to look and do you leave in east side and I want an apartment that is close by so that I can go easy on buying a car for myself so soon .."
and by that time the person would have either completely gone bored or disappeared. And then I would wonder - why are they asking me wassup if they really don't wanna know wassup!
And then I was told (by my inner voice) - "You know what - no one really cares about what your problems in life are because that's what they precisely are- your problems" - so next time when people asked "Wassup" I would say - "Its a beautiful day and the sun is bright".
And the other guy would go - "yeah and I went with my wife for fishing and the fish in that pond was x kgs heavy" (awright- he said x pounds)
And I would go "he he he he he he, he he he he he he" (this is called a fake laughter)(Just an unwanted tip - if you dunno what to say - just laugh - no wonder why I laugh so much - what did you say - he he he he he he, he he he he he he- okay got it ;) ).
So anyway as the days passed by - my inner voice had another suggestion for me - "You know what before the person asks wassup and you start wasting your creative juices on how to describe the weekend weather - you ask wassup first". So now the tables were turned:
The first person I saw, I said - "Hey" and he said "hey" and before that completed I said wassup and guess what he replied as - "wassup"! and from there evolved the most efficient protocol of greeting people :
"Wassup"
"Wassup"
God knows what happened to our simple old fashioned "Hi".

socha na tha ...

A movie that came and went but got noticed - at least by me for being so sweet cute and dealing with psychology of a innocent mind in a very fun and cute way ...
I also love all the songs of this movie -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63_xVnMvmpk&mode=related&search=

question

should i move out or should I stay put?

Addendum -
I was doing apartment search when I wrote this found hampton is 1000 (but it is not my fav - to be polite) and parks is 995 (again not my fav) - so was thinking should I stick to my current apartment adagio or move out.

this post

is dedicated to all those who forgot their lunch at home and couldn't find any decent company to have lunch with and are struggling with their slippery pasta on their desk..

happy diwali

Nothing can beat the excitement of getting a call from the relatives and talking to people ranging in age from 5 to 65. Though - conversation with everyone is limited to 4 sentences:
"Happy diwaali"
"Kya kar rahee hai"
"India Kab aa rahee hai"
"Le mausi(badee maami/mama/choti maami/chiku/chutki/...) se baat kar"
The call demonstrates round robin scheduling in its full glory. I also love the fact that everyone talks real loud - coz we have called america - and the excitement is infectious and so I talk back pretty loudly as well (which I do in normal case too but well).
Today the best question came from my 5 year old cousin(girl) who asked in the cutest voice ever - "wahaan raat ho rahee hai kya abhi?"

Has it ever happened that a phone call has taken you to a place where you have been before - and you are reminded about everything - people - the house - the color of the tubelight - the same dining table - the smell of the kitchen - tv playing somewhere -the sound of the cooler ...Calls like these just get me in touch with so much innocence and love - a full family about whom I almost forget about in my day-to-day life...

Feedback on my blog

So the reviews are out ...I scanned through all my mails that talked about my blog. Here are some of the comments that have made long lasting impression either because of the content or because of the commentator him/herself.

Asim - Don't think so much. I am getting worried
JK - Nice blog
Saurabh - You have a blog?
Kamra - tera blog ek dum timepass ho gaya hai aajkal :-) ..
D - Like arati I don't think too much in life.
K - Interesting stuff in your blog.
Asim - Stop writing your blog - stay away from your computer if you have no work.
Saurabh (after reading it) - Isko kaam do re koi.
Kamra - (second thoughts) (am making that out from ur blogs, u sound angry/frustated/cross/unhappy/ or what not over something) - followed by his advice -"you should get married"
V - My life is so hopeless I am reading your blogs
Asim- Ok, atleast stop writing you blog for next 20 days.

Every word mentioned above is true.

Fall colors ...

10th Oct 2006

2 teams
****** LOC
****** emails
****** useless emails
** useful emails
1 * **** *****
1 *********
* night outs
** slacking days
** weekends in office
*** coffees

1 year in MS

simple mantra of happy living

Give you best. Never expect!

people and web pages

Disclaimer 1- Digressing from usual topics
Disclaimer 2 - One of my sunday night (impending monday morning) insanities...

Just was thinking about web pages was wondering if the same equations come into play while assigning authority to a page as they come while we assign authority to a person in our society..Let's think about it:
1) Sphere of influence - People who have larger sphere of influence (a successful social worker (Mother Teresa) or an successful enterpreneur- Ambanis) - are the people who are weigthed higher. You know them because they are the people who matter to a lot of people - Similarly web pages who are being linked to from lots of pages are perceived to be important by page rank algorithm.

2) "Known to be good" - At some point these people had earned name and the brand name is continuing - especially true in India where a well-known family is always a well-known family. It is easy to know who they are as we always knew who they are (example - We always knew Princess Diana). Similarly we have known good web pages - wikipedia, microsoft.com etc

3) Junk - Though every person is useful for atleast one person (dude - himself, dudette - herself) - they are the set of the people whom the remaining other set detest - these could be chors, roberrers or beggars (believe it or not in today's world poverty is sin) - while it is easy to identify the last category, it is difficult to identify the conmens. And yes these category of people map to our junk pages - some of them harmful, some of them them useless. Some easily identifiable - some you will never identify.

4) Middle class - This is my kinda category - these are the people - not exactly junk (they believe so) and definitely not the most influential people in the society (and they know so). They might/might not be important for the small set of people who know them. What elevates them from junk - we don't know - is it the fact that they are good( 2 am friends) or is it a larger sphere of influence (big gangs), or is it some latent attribute we are unaware of. Are they still junk - we don't know that too. And that is the category where most of the web pages fall- middle class.

And there lies the challenge of a good ranking algorithm - how do we order all these middle class pages...tough job if you ask me.

6th Oct 2006 -

1 car - 3 scratches
9 cuisines - 1 takila shot
1 India trip - 2 solo journeys ..
2 teams - 1 big project
4 skirts - 2 tank tops
10 lipsticks - 1 DKNY watch
0 affairs - 0 scandals

1 year in US ..

The pleasure of having a free coffee ...

..and the guilt of it ... jogged for 45 mins in gym today...

Ate in a chinese buffet today in the afternoon (with A-B-Y - 3 diff pple from 3 different countries - Russia, US, China resp)- unlike in Indian buffet they come and serve you on your table and note the dishes you are taking so that you are charged accordingly...messed up with chopsticks - sushi is fine with chopsticks but not these huge stuff.
Right now eating kesar pista icecream that I got from Indian store.

Wow I am sleepy.

line of the day

A(angry mode) to S- I am too good for my own good
S to A- take copyright of that line better still write in your blog

3 golden rules of giving a good presentation

1) The audience should be convinced that you are a good authority on the topic you are presenting. They should believe that you know more than them.
2) The audience should understand what you are talking about.
3) You can sacrifice 2 for the sake of 1.

happy dussera

:).Invitation by bama for dussera dinner tonight - she has made kheer :).
and I have also got pooran poli (http://www.surfindia.com/recipes/pooran-poli.html) for lunch (just co-incidence).
Addemdum - today is gandhi jayanti also...