Lance Armstrong

JACK
I'm in pain.

INTERN
(facetious)
You want to see pain? Swing by First
Methodist Tuesday nights. See the
guys with testicular cancer. That's
pain.

Well this snippet is from one of my favorite movies, fightclub.

Speaking of cancer, one has to really admire Lance Armstrong. Not only does he have the sheer willpower to triumph over cancer, but he has the focus in his work.

Just checkout this link, which speaks about this.

Get Proposals by email ?

As I open my rediffmail account a popup appears on the screen which says "Get Marriage Proposals by Email".

I mean, What the *beep* ?

I wonder,do people like getting marriage proposals by email ?

If yes, soon we may have an advertisement which says "Exhange vows by email.Vows are Secured and powered with SSL,CC-ed to a poojary-bot who automatically mails an instant mantra and the girl/boy with all the relatives put in CC."

If no, Do people like getting registered in marriage portals ?

Most of us guys are frustrated some or the other time because of the thought arranged marriage is the only hope for me .And ads and sites like these add a little mirch to the frustration.What are your likes ? What do you like in a girl/boy?

And mind you, the girl shown in the matrimonial ad advertisement looks like Gayathri Joshi or someone with a bindi and long flowing flawless hair like the Fair and Lovely ad models (after applying fair and lovely for seven weeks)

And the guy.Looky! Oh my !!! He is straight from heaven.
He is a green card holder or an NRI.
He looks like Milind Soman or Arjun Rampal.

We are all perfect people.
We dance like Shahrukh Khan singing "Mehndi laga ke rakhna".
We have catapaults and aim the bums of shapely women and make them sing "Didi tera devar deewana".

Ironic.

Everything is so dumb & cliched.God must be having a good laugh , looking at us buffoons trying all sorts of stunts to find our mate.

Reminds me of the bloohound gang song :-

You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals
So let’s do it like they do on the discovery channel


Another site offers to talk on the online chat client shit they have , so that the hero and heroine can get to know each other.

How will a typical chat conversation look like? I am really curious abt this ?

It definitely wont start with "ASL ?".hahaha...

One catchall question may be, the age-old cliched question,
"What are your interests?Soccer? Bharathanatyam?Books?Mills and Boon?TV Sitcoms like Friends?Cartoon Network?Rock Music?"

The first thing which strikes to anybody is the phrase "Alliance Invited".I havent seen matrimonial ads of any other country, but I have seen many ads in message boards of IT companies.So the ad talks about an ALLIANCE which clearly indicates 2 parties are forming an Alliance.

There was no aim/intention for this post.I dont fully endorse or support any of these views.Just a flow of thoughts , as my IT-OPS guy removes the sun blade hard-disk to get things working.

Chocolates at my desk !

Please have it !!

Whatever.

Work has not yet started here....Many things to be configured and a brand new sun blade workstation awaits me at sasken, from which I can browse code and web pages.

no mp3 :-(

WB ..

Welcome back Papanna ... Waiting to hear your Paris escapades.
Lets meet over the weekend ??? or would you be busy signing autographs to the innumerable relatives who would hawk your place.

Make time to meet me and dear old Richie.

Wanna join Samarthanam ?

Still pondering over GMAT dates. Now the gambit, is to inlcude institutions like ISB, INSEAD, IMD, GSOM, Queen's, PGPX - IIM-A etc etc etc .........anything between 1 to 1.5 years

Anyone game? the game might not even kick-off with GD being the partner :D ..

CAT looks like a mammoth effort, stress and no results. It's not for the brawny ...

Have to have Appam (actually Gundupongalu)for breakfast today.
bartini ..
papanna weekend maribeda .. gimme your home number ..

Paris Au revoir

My stay is coming to an end. Tomorrow at 3:30 , I leave for India and I reach Bombay on Sunday.
It's been around fifty days at Paris.Just three or four days after my sister's wedding, I was asked to go to Paris and the rest is history.

It was professionally a good learning experience.

I will definitely miss Versailles and Chateaufort, more than Paris.

I loved these two places for the sheer natural beauty and the woods at Chateaufort looked very beautiful today morning.

Sunday , I land on Mumbhaai..I think it is too short to be called a visit.Nonetheless , IIT Bombay is going to be a good visit !

EDIT :- I will be at teju's room.

Monday , I go home...to namma bangalore....to my car (i dunno in what state it will be now...lol)...and indiranagar office at Sasken...and food cribs will stop and road and infrastructure cribs will continue as usual here on this blog :)))


If anyone who reads this blog has an idea to go Paris (officially or unofficially) , do get in touch with me....I will be more than happy to tell you whatever I know, and probably direct you to people for whatever I dunno.

Hippy !

Well yesterday at a metro station, they announced something. I knew it meant trouble. I could see people cursing and getting down the metro and I did the same, but in a different language.

One guy , in his late 40s or 50s but dressed in a suit and tie and cleanly shaved, looks at me and asked "Indian?"

I said "Yes"

He introduces himself as Sebastian and says that there was a defect in one of the metro lines and we have to walk one station;

We get into a converstaion.

He said he has been to India 3 times in early 80s...and I asked him what are the places he saw there...He said he had been to Varnasi, Himalayas , Badri.

He said he was deeply influenzed by Indian Philosophy of Hare Rama and Hare Krishna movement.

I realised he had been a hippy that time !
If you see him now , you CANNOT IMAGINE him being a hippy.
Pinstripe suit and a plain shiny blue tie.

And then he said, "We lead a nomadic life in India and believed in Free Love!";
Free love ..... LOL
Richard Stallman could start FLF !

And he added , "In India everything is good, but it is illegal to smoke Hashish".

Varnasi-Hashish-Himalaya-India !

Wah wah wah !!!

Managed to psychee

Not Dawood Ibrahim, but our good friend Sudeep. He was gullible once again.
Nortel employees and contractors have an intra-network and Manja, sudeepa Harsha Goudru use this dedicated n/w for discussion ( plain Harte). So I thot of using a part of this bandwidth.

The security guard in the Nortel bldng is very khadoos, he said Nortel employees only. So had to call papanna from the reception phone. Instead of exchanging plesantaries(ignore the word), I acted as if I am the accounts head of Infosys, and demanded from Sudeep 27,343 Rs, stating that it was an amount is excess that Sudeep had managed to wrestle from Infy. Sudeep sounded uncool (if not tensed) and stammerred a 'But But ..' .. , then I had to utter 'Nimm Ajji' and Sudeep responded 'Yaaru Yaaru' .. Damn, he still doesnt identify my borring voice. :-( Its been 10 years of acquaintance now.

Sudeepa no Striking back .. You can be very deadly

I dont know much French ..
adios

Africa lives on the BBC

is the name of the campaign and Ive seen a LOT of TV about that on the BBC.With the G8 summit and all that.

They have covered virtually every country except for the richer ones like SAfrica and Egypt.

One program called Nollywood explores the Nigerian film industry (which may have 2 or 3 producers ).And the adventures of an American scriptwriter who wants to produce this Nigerian film with Nigerian values.

The best program,is "Geldof in Africa."

One of the most interesting facts which was shown in the program was the theory of human migration.

ALL the people of the world , could be traced to 20 pairs(twenty Adam and Eves)

And these people migrated from Africa in search of water, because Africa was a desert or a
grassland.

The people of the whole world are the descendents of these twenty people who took a decision to cross the sea from Africa to Asia.

More details about the migration here

H.P

I was a victim of the hype. Bought book 6 the last saturday, and managed to finish it with great difficulty over the weekend. The good part of the series is that it will get over by the next book. The average part of the book is most of it; lots of fluff, and I could skip tens of pages, and regain the thread of the plot quite easily. Books 2 & 3 imho, were the best, taut and to the point. The bad part being the end, where my favorite character dies.
Next book to wait for would be George R.R Martin's Feast of Crows,or R.J's book.

My team mates have left the vital , pivotal team player (me).
And my flight ticket has become elusive , I use my blog to vent my frustration.

Metro stations at Paris are doing security checks suspecting godammn suicide bombers
And trains everywhere are delayed.

The police men here can become models....
Most of them resemble hunks from the movie Top Gun.
On a side note, the movie Top gun was Top crap imho.

The song below is Depp's anthem as he munches petité frite (finger chips) prepared at LeBig-Mac
(Mc Donald's...Pulp Fiction rocks!)

--------------------------------
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

--------------------------------

And I change the channel when this song comes......
Au revoir for today betans

Julliet 14th - Indepedence day of France

And I had been to Champs-Elysées which is very near to my apartment here to watch the parades and soldiers and the delightful 6foot+ female blonde soldiers.

I forgot to mention that Champs-Elysées is the happening place of Paris. But it looks empty(very few people) for Bangalore, MGRoad, Forum standards.And when there is no commotion and everything is perfect, we need the imperfection and chaos.

And here at office today, people seem to have taken the word "Independence" very seriously.I am the only BUM in the whole second floor and nobody is around.

I wonder if the English have an Independence Day like many other countries.
If they dont, I can give them a suggestion. Once they get tired of allocating Independence days to other countries , they can celebrate their Independence day.

Whatever.

Probability problem

There are 3 doors, and you have a car behind one of the doors, and nothing behind the other 2.You choose a door(say door 1), and a person who is aware of what is behind all three doors, opens one of doors 2 or 3 showing an empty door.
Now you are given a choice of switching, from door 1 to the other unopened door. Would you choose to switch, and why?

Formula 1

After almost 2 years, I saw more than half a Formula 1 race. I am no longer a fan of the sport, I don't give a damn now. But still, there is an element of nostalgia regarding the sport. Here are my most memorable Formula 1 moments.

1 - Brazil 1999 - My first race. Mika Hakkinen wins using some clever pit stop strategy. This is when I became his fan, and am still one.

2 - Britain 1999 - Schumacher crashes out. Naga is crushed. And so is GD. And so are the rest of the Tifosi.

3 - Austria 1999 - Hakkinen is bumped at the beginning, and catches up from 20th to 3rd. I had a great time watching this race.

4 - Suzuka 1999 - Watched the race with GR Pradeep at his place cuz I didn't have power at my place. Boring race, but for Hakkinen lifting the championship. I had a great day.

5 - Belgium 2000 - The best overtaking moment in my Formula 1 memory. Schumacher has bad tyres, is cooling them off each time on the Radillion straight after Eau Rouge. Hakkinen is catching up, and there are 5 more laps to go. Schumacher goes past the hapless backmarker Zonta from the left, Hakkinen goes past Zonta from the right, and emerges ahead of Schumacher with 4 laps to go. Brilliant stuff shot from the end of Radillion straight. I went up in ecstasy, and my mom also clapped. I remember it being listed as one of the 10 most exciting moments in Formula 1 history till then.

6 - Spain 2001 - Hakkinen retires on the last lap. I am crushed. My worst Formula 1 moment.

7 - Imola qualifying 2000 or 2001, I am not sure of the year. Schumacher has just set the fastest lap. Hakkinen starts his last qualifying run just before the session ends, is behind Schumacher in terms of time after the first two speed traps. Drives like a maniac through the last third, and beats Schumiboy by 1 thousandth of a second. Naga and I saw this together (we made it a point never to be together for any Formula 1 event - exception being this and the first US GP) and it was a moment to cherish for us both, for the sheer thrill of the old format qualifying.

There are a zillion memories attached with Formula 1. The post race press conference couldn't stand up to our own post race gloating/analysis sessions. Formula 1 still holds a special place in my heart. But with Hakkinen and Naga gone, its just not the same anymore.

Highlights!

Well I made bhendi masala today. I overboiled it and the bhendi masala had become a paste.The bhendi was dissolved and it was nowhere to be seen.Nonetheless, it tasted pretty cool.
I have used the word bhendi because it had a very north indian taste to it.

As a few people leave today I get a lion's share of their groceries like ghee and puliyogre powder.Something which I had not brought from India.And we discovered a shop selling the indian riz(rice)at Versailles, a town very near to Paris. Versailles is a better place than Paris, for me because it has small sized shops where you can shop peacefully.

Sidenote #1 :- cd .. is used to go one level higher, a unix command as old as the hills.
The french pronounce the word "point" as "palm".The frenchmen read the command aloud as "cd palm palm".

Sidenote #2 :- It is perfectly okay to blow out a running nose LOUDLY (i mean really very very
loudly ) here. The women also compete fiercely with the men in this regard.You can hear the snotgreen flow when the blow their nose !

hahaha

Friends

What is it about Friends that makes it so popular. Is it the can
relate to it, and so appeals to me. Could be; Sudeeps old home, was
the adda where we (pesit) friends used to meet, during exams, free time between classes, Anand's juice shop, can't say that I have drunk more than 10 banana juice, but according to popular folklore one friend, now a bouncer, maintained a running account with him.

No, this isn't about 'the adda', that shall be the subject of another post. Rather , how the newer seasons of friends, pale in comparison with the older. The jokes got trite, and the interactions between the characters predictable, the only surprise being who sleeps with who, at the end of the season. This makes you notice the other gripe-worthy things in Friends, like the canned laughter. According
to NBC, people can't recognise humour or an emotional scene if it isn't accompanied by HaHaHa or Oooo. Although true of quite a few folks, including yours truly, after a while, I prefer the laughter to be muted, or banished all together.

Now Jerry Seinfeld, the show shows a lot of promise, have zipped through four seasons, and I am impressed by Kramer's humour(totally whacky ideas - is he a genious or mad, or the obvious mad genious), or Jerry's curious observations at the beginning of the episode, and the aha insight, if I do get the thread of logic which connects the entire episode with the observation. Hope the rest of the 10+ seasons have kept the novelty feature going, and not fallen like the once mighty Friends.

'Malazan Empire' continues

That is the name of the latest Fiction Fantasy book that I could get
my hands on. It falls into the sub-genre of High-FF, where magic is
closely entwined in the world that the author describes, part of the norm.

Back to the book, has a bunch of characters, who fall into neither the class of good nor bad, but rather in the infinite classes between. The one thing that I dislike about FF, or Sci-Fi books, are where a book spans generations.It is difficult to break the mould of the characters that the author casts on the readers. Just when you begin to like a certain character, boom, the author decides, that it is time for the character to move on, and replaced by the younger, better,superior generation. {If some of you s/w pros perceive irony in this, I blame you
and your perception, for such ignoble thoughts :) }.
Case in point being the series Foundation - Isaac Asimov, Dune - Frank Herbert. I guess the author's point is that the story doesn't revolve around the characters, but has a life of its own, independent of them. Luckily Steven Erikson ( author ) does believe the characters form the story, and the story chugs along at a fairly even pace.

Another thing that I have observed after reading fiction
fantasy series' (reminds me of the need to check the plural of series), is that I don't know what comes after a trilogy. I mean
according to HGTG, a four volume book,is still a trilogy in 4 parts, but shouldn't there be a word for that, polyogy or something similar? So someone who knows, enlighten me.

cakes

As the people slog here and Depp has finished one big chunk of training, Depp is relatively free.
And one guy walks upto Depp and says in a strong accent "There are cakes at my desk".

The Depp full in anticipation walks to take the cakes , but he finds buns !
Depp is disappointed.

Depp initiates a conversation with the guy.

Depp :- We call these as buns in India.It is called as "cream buns".Cakes are different in India.

The Guy :- No, cakes are the same everywhere...I dunno what they call these in English, so I said cakes.But these are not exactly buns. Buns dont have cream.

Now, Depp cracks the french revolution quote , "If you dont have bread, eat cakes".Nobody gets the joke.

Laugh, and the world thinks that you are an idiot.

Incidentally, July 14th is a holiday here.
Depp is gonna be,watching TV like a bum

After shaking hands wirth almost 35 people everymorning , everyday at office and saying "Bon Jour", I am in high spirits as I sit in my cube...but today I am bored.

No hosh. No josh to work.

Remember the Vicks Action 500 ad.

Someone :- Kelsa idya
Me :- houdu
Someone :- Bejaan Idya ?
Me :- houdu
Someone :- Tumba idya ?
Me :- HOUDU HOUDU HOUDU
Someone :- Nimage beku Vicks action 500

Wonderful blog.

Journalist ge blog aa ?
Something like Conductor ge ticket aa ?

If you are an MBA aspirant, you will know abt Rashmi Bansal.
She used to write articles on rediff regarding MBA courses etc.

Check out her blog here :-

details abt the sat nite :)

AFter BV commenting abt tandoori chicken i will post abt what the guys ate this sat nite.
Nobody spoke abt the pakodas (see mail below).

It was horrible.

PS:- I ate pakodas , sambar, rice, chapathi and gravy.

Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:02:11 +0530
From: Milan Jain
To: Sudeep , pankajks, viswanath,Raghavendra MK,Vardhan, bmangala, Sreenivas G
Subject: Enjoy your Party tonite...

So, there is a huge party planned tonite...Hmmmm.

Let me guess...

Raghavendra will prepare his very own unique concoction of "Peas pulav" and "Tomato rice". Sudeep will help out along with his favourite onion pakoda.

Sreeni will prepare the best puliogare / bisibelebath in town !

Mangala will say 5 min...actually take 50 min., but at the end, will prepare amazing sambar and rice.

Vardhan sahaab only believes in FISHHHHHHHHH ! Chicken sucks, rice sucks, daal sucks, sabji sucks...only fish and tons of red wine (along with Pankaj sahaab) !

Visu had started preparing really good chappatis, with some careful tutoring by Pankaj. So, I'm sure he will be the 'chapatti' man.

And finally, the chief chef: Pankaj. I think you must be dying for some good non-veg food. So, the topping of the meal with be some chicken gravy dish. Along with that on one fire, he will preapare some good sabji (curry) on the other fire.

Don't forget to complement all this food with a lot of fun ! And please, NO discussions on "System vs People" to solve India's problems.

Cool guys. Have a GREAT time. These are some of the best times of onsite travel: the fun, bonding and camaraderie of eating and living together. This is your last weekend together...so have a blast ! I will genuinely miss this...

Cheers,
Milan.