Cynical Bystander

Popfly and surface ...

2007-05-31T12:02:00.000+05:30

Using Microsoft PopFly and showcasing Microsoft Surface... this is really amazing and easy to do

Wanna email your letter?

2007-04-18T12:58:00.000+05:30

Check this out http://www.indiapost.gov.in/IndiaPost-E-Post.html.

This is really the new india, integrating the new technology and the old-age. Awesome!!

A new year ... beckons

2007-01-31T10:56:00.000+05:30

Well, isn't it too late - you may ask?
Hmm ... not really. well to begin with,

we are still in the first month of the year.
I just started tearing the pages on our new a page a day calendar.
I got time to write this just now

Happy?

Plus of course, a fellow blogger's post just made me realize that I havent written anything in the new year.

2006 was an average year, with me settling down in my new roles as husband at home. Its really strange how comfortable I have become with that word. I actually like being called Gunjan's husband, there you go my first confession.

Work wise, its been not too bad - with couple of trips to Seattle - though long separation from the wife, and home. At the end, I am glad that I got those opportunities - to learn and experience new things.

We moved into our new house, we spent so much time settling down, buying stuff to fill up our little place - [its not completely done yet]. I actually enjoyed the small arguments whether we should buy red runners or bamboo ones - no prizes on guessing who won?

So whats in store for the new year, I wonder?

.. and I really think that this is going to be THE year.. if you know what I mean. many exciting happenings, new friendships and bondings, new things, changes all around, something that I am really looking forward to.

So here's a toast -- Hope that this year brings all the lovely and good things to everyone.

"May we all live in exciting times" -- Amen!!

Driving in US

2006-12-31T01:29:00.000+05:30

One of the good things that happens when you travel to Redmond on business trip is the car rental. Compared to cars in India, there are so many firms, models and varieties. I have had a chance to drive around 7 cars in the two trips that I made in the past 6 months. So I thought I should list down which ones are my favourites.

Ford Mustang
a nice, really quick, two door convertible. Thanks to my friend Varun, who allowed me to drive this for a while. It has a meaty sound, and is awesome for summer time.

Ford Focus

This is a 4 door car with very little power, and very average drive feel. Its probably my worst experience, right next to the outlander( mentioned below)

Chrysler Sebring Touring
This is definitely one of my favourite cars, a nice two door convertible, not as meaty as the mustang, but very elegant, and drives comfortably. The low seats do give you the feel of the power of the engine, every time you hit the freeway.

Ford 500

This is without any argument my favourite car of all. A nice big car, which is at least 1 feet longer that most full-sized cars, very comfortable, and this baby purrs even at free way speeds. A very comfortable family car and great handling. I miss it :(

Mitsubhi Outlander

Worst car, IMO. Even though its in SUV class, its very uncomfortable, less spacey (seating max 4 people) and with very less boot space. Very ill-designed, and makes driving around in curves a highly uncomfortable experience

I actually gave it up within a week, as the particular one that I had was warning for engine service from the day I rented.

Chevrolet Monte-Carlo

A 2-door car, with a really long tail, great boot space, very comfortable drive, has a sporty feel to it.

and finally, the one that I am driving now.
Chrysler 300M

This is an awesome full-sized car, very comfortable, huge, has a nice beefy look to it, ideal for long drives and family outings. Like the 500, it is silent but effective, ideal for long freeway drives.

You still reading... ?Well thank you. :)

My private space ...

2006-12-28T04:42:00.000+05:30

Its funny, how much things are different in US, when compared to India. In India, if one has to see a movie on a weekend, then at least by wed/Thurs he would have to start hunting the online URLs for some movie, otherwise it is assured that there would not be any seats available. In US, I have never seen such a situation, even if you make it the last moment, you still get tickets. Just the difference in population, I guess ... :(

During the Christmas week end, I had a chance to watch couple of English movies, Apocalpyto and The Good Shepherd, both of which are ok movies, nothing great to write home about, but that is not what this blog entry is about. It is about the concept of space.

For Apocalypto, we reached the theater on a cold 24Th night (Christmas eve), and as expected there were hardly any people for it, so we ( a group of 4) sat right in the middle of the hall, and watched the movie together. There were hardly 10 more people, in that hall beside us.

While watching TGS, we reached just 5 mins before the show began, and to my surprise, I saw that even though the hall had at least 20% free seats, there was not even one place, where 2 people could sit together. This is mainly because of two things - no seat reservation, and the concept of private space in US.

Can you imagine that in India? I am amazed at the inefficient packing mechanism that theaters have employed. In such a scenario, what would one do in India?
1. Go back and start whining to the theater mgr?
2. Talk to people to shift so that they could sit together?

But in US, I saw that the concept of space is so highly (often over-rated) concept, that they want to maintain distance from the next group of people watching the same movie. People were actually willing to sit separately, and watch the movie, instead of taking the pains to get some re-arrangement done.

The reason I think is that, in India, movies are also a social thing, people sit together, talk, laugh, cry together, and this makes almost every movie worth it, whereas in US, I actually saw many persons coming just alone to watch a movie. Have you ever watched a movie alone? At least not me, of all the people I know, I just know one person who did this in his college days in India.

So coming back to the TGS show, it so happened that there I was sitting alone next to a young couple, who looked pissed that I was encroaching into their private space; and that pretty much made the movie even worse.

It will be an interesting exercise to see what would be the human behaviour in
1. India, without any seat reservations - I believe there are some theaters like this.
2. US, with seat reservations :)

Any one listening?

Little pleasures in life

2006-12-18T07:31:00.000+05:30

How much would you pay for hot shower?

What about a small candle or a torch light?

What about a really hot cup of coffee?

What about a nice dish of hot chicken tikka masala or a dal fry?

I have started appreciating these small things in life, thanks to the really bad weather here in seattle. On thursday, night we had heavy winds of upto 100 miles/hr, that hit the entire north-west coast and rendered most parts of WA, Oregon - powerless.

In my hotel room,heres no power for the past 3 days, and in US, that translates to - no heating, no cooking, no hot water, and of course no light

In these times, I was willing to give anything for a really hot cup of coffee, or nice bowl of hot soup. (and I still am). The situation is getting better, as most parts of town are getting back on line, but unfortunately my hotel still remains in darkness (and thats from 4:00PM to 7 AM, this is something thats very strange to me, but entirely different topic- something that i intend to write about some time)

Thanks to my office building being nearby, I was able to charge my cell, and have a great cup of coffee, which was a gift from GOD. A nice hot shower - thanks to one of my fortunate friends, was another big thing to me. A nice hot dinner with chicken tikka masala, dal and lamb, with naan in a small indian hotel was like amazing. It was totally worth the 20 mile drive :)

So people out there, start appreciating the simple things in life, coz the day things fall apart, these would be the things that really matter!!

my first hollywood celebrity ...

2006-12-08T23:51:00.000+05:30

Well, after a long flight of 12 hours from Hong Kong, when I landed in LA, I didn't really think I would be able to do anything. I had around 4 hours to kill, and initially though I thought that I will take a quick tour of the city, I reneged.

So there I was in the terminal with lots of time to spare( as my flight was further delayed). I visited all the shops, doing window shopping. Somehow this time, I had a sense of home-coming, all the brands seemed so used to, the trail-mix, and candy bars, the magazines, and stuff... I kind of enjoyed the re-union of sorts.

So there I was in a star-bucks cum burger king joint, happy with a double whopper and cappuccino, when I saw my first Hollywood celebrity. OK, so hes not that big as a Brad Pitt, or Tom Cruise, but he was..

Ray Liota (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000501/)

OK since most of you might not know him ... check the above link...

See, that's a problem (or a gift) with me, I remember faces... I mean .. once seen I remember a face for my entire life, and that has put me into lots of awkward situations, but then that's a different story altogether.

Anyway ... here's to Ray.. my first Hollywood celebrity meeting.

FYI: I didn't talk to him, or get his autograph or shake hands. I was very busy with my burger and cappuccino :)

I am back!!

2006-12-08T08:30:00.000+05:30

ok, this has multiple meanings.

Last time around, there was a flurry of activity on my blog (most of it from me :)) when I came to US, and after a long hiatus of around 4 months I am back to blogging, the reason or the impetus being the same - being in US of A.

Well I was just listening to hindi songs on raaga.com and just missed India and everything back home so much, that I just had to put my thoughts in some place.

Man, its a big wonder, how much a hindi song, or a old hindi classic or a hindi tv program can make so much difference, when one is living outside of the country.

Kudos to Bollywood and the television world. Hats off!! You deserve the dollars that you rake!!

2 down, 3 more to go

2006-08-07T11:04:00.000+05:30

[update: Posted some more snaps from the trip]

Last weekend, my friends and I planned to take an alternate location for hiking. Once we all got ready, we received news that there were chances of rain and hiking in a somewhat mountaineous terrain, would be dangerous. So, we just changed our plans to go further south into Oregon, and go to Cannon Beach. Now we estimated that because it was around 200 miles drive, it should take us around 3 hours, and we still had many hours of sunlight. So off we went in my car, 6 people in one car [ now this was slightly uncomfortable for the guys sitting in the back, but really better than having two cars and losing each other; also because all of us were in the same car, we had lots more of fun, and joking around]

As soon as we started, we realised that we were hungry and should stop over at some place to grab a brunch. Once we passed a sign-board of hooters, there was a unanimous decision of the restaurant where we should stop. [Hooters is ok food, especially if one is a veg, and girls are ok]

After some time itself, there were some voices of enquiry: -

How is the beach?
Is it worth the drive?
Would there be a girls there ? :) etc. etc...

These thoughts were put to rest by one single statement.

"Dont expect anything there, try to enjoy the drive as much as possible"

So, once everyone had decided that they needed to make the most of the drive itself, things got much better, with the usual people getting pulled on usual topics, stuff that is not much worth blogging about.

Anyway close to 3 hours on the road, we could see the shore next to us, this instantlyput all of us in better mood of anticipation. The weather was nice and sunny, with the ocean shores very scenic. As we rode over some of the biggest bridges that I have seen - which seperates Oregon and Washington, we could see signs "1 Mile to beach - Left".

Even though we hadnt actually reached cannon beach, we couldnt stop ourselves, and we drive towards it. The first sight of the beach was amazing, with really huge waves and less people. All of us quickly changed into whatever beach wear we had, and rushed towards the water, except Nakul - who became the official photographer.

I should tell you at this point, that I have had the priveledge of seeing Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, seperately as well together at Kanyakumari. Its an amazing sight. and that explains the title of this entry.

But this visit to the Pacific ocean was different, the beach was shallow, but the waves were huge. This allowed us to venture deeper into the ocean than I have ever been. I must tell you that that particular 45 minutes of time spent in the ocean water was the absolutely the best time I had in this trip. The drive was worth it. It was really amazing how easily grown-ups people in their mid-twenties could easily become kids there. After having had a blast of a time, we changed back into our clothes and drove to cannon beach.

Cannon beach was quite beautiful, with these huge mounds of stone[ some people prefer to call it hills] right on the beach. With the sunset on the anvil, and these hills the beach looked very beautiful.

I can assure you that the colors that I saw on the horizon that day, were simply amazing.

After spending close to an hour there, and playing around with shells, small turtles/crabs and guys running races, I went back towards the car, with a great sadness, that I would be missing the ocean for some time.

We started back around 8:30 in the night, only to stop over at pizza hut for dinner and finally reached home around 1:30 am or so, all exhausted, but happy to have made this trip.

Now there are pictures available of this trip, some of which will be posted here, after suitable censorship :). So do poll in some times.

Tuc-Tuc and Karma Kabs

2006-07-30T10:49:00.000+05:30

Now this is really interesting piece of news I heard yesterday. Check this out, Can you guess what are the new modes of transport in London... please take a guess..!!

Check this out
http://www.karmakabs.com/
http://www.tuctuc.co.uk/press.html

..
..
..
It seems that India is actually exporting autorickshaws and recently has around 12 of them running on roads in London. In addition Karma kabs is .. nothing but an ambassador taxi..

Hmm .... India is giving UK a dose of its own medicine ;) As Jack sparrow would put it ... Savvy,are we?

Panacea for all worries, loneliness

2006-07-27T23:47:00.000+05:30

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. - Bob Marley

The best medicine for loneliness, nostalgia, is music.... Over the past few weeks, I have started missing home more, perhaps its the mere thought of a close return journey date, that makes it so. I kind of started feeling more lonely, and not having enough focus on the job, and generally feeling bored with everything.

Yesterday, I found the solution to this state of mine - I got head phones from the admin here. I went to www.raaga.com to begin with, and listened to, in full blast awesome hindi numbers. and then moved to some of the local online fm stations and had an amazing time. To tell you the truth, I was already feeling a whole lot better after that, and that really perked me up.

So, my suggestion is that if you guys are having a bad day, just tune into some great music, turn up the volume. and let your sorrows and worries melt...

WTF Mate...

2006-07-20T03:56:00.000+05:30

Check this out, Its a really humorous piece of flash animation that takes a look at the current situation on earth :)

http://endofworld.net/

(Warning: head phones would be better)

Learn from the tube

2006-07-08T12:03:00.000+05:30

If you are like most of the people out there in the world, who remain hooked to the tube all day long, [that partly includes me, ask my wife], there is a new channel TLC [The Learning Channel] that might actually teach in addition to actually entertaining you.

Though they are mostly reality shows, some of them are really interesting.

1. What not to wear -- well for total fashion disasters like me, with totally out of shape bodies, it gives a good idea of what not to wear ... [before you go all metrosexual on me, I accept it, so chuck it]

2. Take home chef -- one person gets a celebrity chef to come to his/her house and cook a special meal for the family...

3. Honey we are killing the kids -- How the eating habits and sedentary lifestyle of the modern American generation is killing them

4. Flip that house -- the latest thing in town, buy a old and in bad-shape house, put in some money, renovate it and earn rich profits on it

5. Overhaulin -- Take a classic car, [again] in bad shape, renovate it, pimp it a bit, and give it back to the owner, all without his knowledge.

6. While you were out -- Renovation of a room within a small period of time, when the people living there are out on a vacation.

Well, now I know you guys must be thinking, he really watches too much TV... Well yeah it has increased a bit now that am in US, but some of these things are really interesting

PS: I just bought a house, and was trying to help my wife furnish it and get the interior work done and "while you were out" gave some nice ideas [PS: Mrs Cynic - if you are reading this, I know I didn't do much. Thanks for taking care of it all While I was out 'pun intended'].

My idiosyncrasies- Trying to find a commonality with my readers

2006-07-07T05:04:00.000+05:30

I was tagged by one of my friends some time back. At first I thought that I was a very normal person. I do not have my quirky behavioral issues. I am as normal and straight forward as the next man on the road.

But today, I just realized one of my really irritating quirkiness... -- I should mention irritating to me atleast. So I thought I should write about it, as and when I remember them. So here it goes.

PS: You are welcome to comment/share your thoughts on it. If you share one with me, please let me know. I would be happy to be generalized

Weird Fact 1:

I cannot handle not completing a book that I am reading, even if it is really pathetic. I am currently reading this book by Robin Cook, "BlindSight". Now Robin Cook has had some really good ones, like Coma, Vital Signs to list a few. But BlindSight is absolutely pathetic. After the first few pages I felt a sense of dejavu every 20 pages. Its like the main character does the same thing over and over again- Talk to A, Talk to B, Talk to C, Everybody refuses to understand her. Nothing changes. Talk to A, Talk to C, Talk to B, Everybody refuses to do anything and tells her, why there should be more evidence, and it goes on...

Its like Cook got stuck in this big swirl of thoughts, where he would just end up using the same plot over and over again.

That all said, the thing is that I cant just throw away the book forever. I have to finish it. Its not just the money, its my GUILT. I would feel so bad, if I have a book that I haven't finished reading.

I am weird, I know. Thanks for thinking about me. Yesterday I sat in front of the TV for more than 3 hours, with the book in my hand, and not even reading it more than 5 pages.

I am sick, Please help me

I hate Pop up Blockers ...

2006-06-22T12:12:00.000+05:30

Ok, So it took like 20 minutes for me to write down a blog entry, and when I decided to do spell check, there was pop-up blocker.

When I clicked on the IE pop-up blocker to temporarily allow popups, it just simpy refreshed everything, and I lost the entire entry that I had typed.

I hate Pop-up blockers. Why was a Refresh needed in order to temporarily allow pop-ups?

Rang de basanti in a convertible ...

2006-06-21T12:33:00.000+05:30

So imagine this, a convertible with its top down, and with Rang De Basanti theme song playing full blast, at 9:30 in the morning.

This was what I was doing, driving off to work, nice sunny day - perfect for a drive in the car(albeit a small 10 mins one). I had this new cd, from Guru, which has really nice new hindi songs. And when the Rang De Basanti (sung by Daler Mehndi) song came, I increased the volume. I was feeling great, listening to a hindi song, which I really liked, in US.

On the way, I was waiting for the signal, gladly shaking my head to the beats and lyrics, when I just realized that the guy next to me( a long haired white guy, driving a pick-up truck) was looking at me with amazement.

I kind of blushed and acknowledged him, and to my total surprise, he started SHAKING his head in rhythm too. So much for stereotyping.

And I smirked to myself, when I realised that at that exact time, the lyrics being sung were

angrez mere sab kuchh rang de
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara

Fitness at young age?

2006-06-20T10:11:00.000+05:30

Its really amazing, how at young age, so many american kids are into outdoor activities. Whenever I have gone to the lake sammamish, near to our office, I have seen so many kids hanging out running around in the water, fishing or plain just swimming in the water.

How many young kids in India have you seen just enjoy nature at its best?

Last weekend, we went out on a hike to West Tiger mountain, a drive of around half an hour from our place of stay. Now tiger mountain is a favorite amongst the localites for hiking purposes. There are a number of interesting trails, some of them very steep a climb of 2948 ft in around 2.5 miles to some of around 6 miles which take you to a height of 1500 ft. Anyway inspite of this being my first hike out here, I was convinced into taking the cable trail, (a trail that is not maintained, but was meant originally for laying cables upto the top of the hill).

Well, after the first 20 minutes or so, when I was the last person in the 4 man squad, huffing and puffing with my legs really hurting, I sat on a rock to take a break, near an intersection with the other trails. I look up and see a lady with her two sons, no more than 8 years old, coming down my way. I look at them with total amazement, at how these kids are handling this. Even though it was a normal trail, it is longer that ours (almost twice). This was not the only case where I saw kids, on my way up the trail, I noticed atleast 3 more families complete with kids ranging from 4- 12 years old or so.

No wonder, americans are fit. If you start of at such an early age, and enjoy the nature, you are bound to be like that. In addition to their love for the nature,given that there is only close to 3 months of actual sun out here, its not really surprising that they try to make the most of it during that period.

Well in short, I was happy to reach the top, and just stood there, chatting with another couple, and looked around me and it was such a beautiful sight. Well it was worth it. The image here, i just borrowed from images.google.com.

Anyway we are planning to make this a weekly thing and start timing ourselves. lets see how it goes

Next Generation arrives

2006-06-17T22:37:00.000+05:30

Well, I am a happy man today. As of 1:25 PM IST on 17th, June, the next generation in my family started.

My bhabhi gave birth to a daughter, Navya. Both the baby and mother are fine.

Congrats Bro, Bhabhi. Hope she brings all the luck and happiness in the world.

and congrats to me too... I am officially a Chacha (well not the dance, but the relationship :))

Restaurant in Kirkland

2006-06-16T11:36:00.000+05:30

As per one of my earlier postings about the acquaintence of mine, who didnt wash his hands, after you know 'what'. Anyway so this is what I saw today, in a restaurant loo in Kirkland...

"Employees are reminded to wash their hands thoroughly before leaving"

- The mgmt

Hmm ... do I want to really eat there?
Go figure!!

Old lady in maroon...

2006-06-10T07:54:00.000+05:30

I was late. I got up late, I spent too much time in front of the laptop. I had a longer bath. Boy, Was I late or what? It was close to 10:30 am in the middle of a week, and in US, thats unheard of.I skipped breakfast, and put on the first pair of clothes that I could see, gathered my stuff which sprawled all over the table, and rushed out, pulling the door of my room shut on the way.

In front of me, there was this lady standing in the corridor, with a trolley beside her. She was not too tall, like 5 feet or so, in her late fifties, wearing a maroon trouser and shirt that is so typical of oriental people. As I walked by, she looked at me, as if she recognized me. She paused on her path, and let me walk by. I just rushed down and saw got into my car, gave it a raise and started on my way to office.

I had a long tiring day, came home at around 3 in the morning finally to see that my room had been cleaned up. Of course, it was wednesday, thats the day of the week when they clean up the place.[On a seperate thread, I will describe why it shouldnt be so] Anyway boy, was I glad, had something quick to eat and immediately crashed.

A week passed.
In the morning, I was getting out of the hotel room, and guess who I saw? Of course, the old lady in maroon clothes. She smiled at me and let me pass through to the stairs. Suddenly i felt kind of bad. Man, again my room was a mess ... as in a mess, clothes thrown around carelessly, its impossible to find out whats washed and whats not. The continuous rain over the few days had led to a moist state of all my clothes. Bed not made, Dishes in the sink, books kept all around the place. Man, did I feel bad or what. Anyway I left that day to office.

I came back, and again saw my room all neat and clean. Boy, she did a good job. From that day on .. I resolved a few things

1. Always make the bed in the morning
2. Keep the clothes in the shelf
3. Keep the clothes for laundary in the plastic bags, and give them for washing asap.
4. Wash dishes over night
5. Keep the books I have read in the shelf and book I am currently reading on the table near the bed.

Touch wood, I am following this till now.... Hmm... dont want the old lady to clean up my mess. :)

Redmond Trip - Photos I

2006-06-08T11:22:00.000+05:30

Well I have been asked by many to upload some snaps. So here it goes.

Anyway there are some pics of furniture and stuff, well anyway all these things are me right now. So bear with it

Hope you enjoy it, btw check out the convertible... its my rental :)

Stuck in a digital World...

2006-06-01T10:28:00.000+05:30

Ok, so yeah this blog is turning out to be more about me recently. People have asked me about that. But yeah well, it is so, so *live* with it.
Well, I am surrounded by a plethora of digital devices. Cell phones, laptops, Computers - high end and low end. Cool devices and everything. Now mind you, they are meant to make our lives easier and better.-- better communication, better output in work, more work life balance. But do they really do so?

For instance
1. I wake up, go online on my laptop to chat with my wife, about things, about home, and who do I really end up talking to?
My boss, my teammates, a new joinee, and an *old* pain, couple of friends. Only work no fun

2. I have this great cell, that my company (yohoo, thank you boss) has given me for my use in Redmond. Now its a good phone, mind you - Motorola Razor, super cool, and light-- well if you had seen my current one in India, you would know why I am saying this.Coming to the point, well its great, but there is one small problem.

[As I am typing this, I am already pinged by my team mate. I lead such a sad life :( ]

continuing

Whenever it wants, my cell goes into voice mail, without even ringing. Its almost as if it has a mind of its own. Whenever my wife wants to talk to me, when my boss calls up, when people want to get in touch with me, it knows, it does not ring, and simply goes into voice mail. Now the funny thing is of course, that the people on the other side of the line, don't know this, and they think that I am trying to avoid them.
I have had some tough time explaining to people, why this is happening. Well and of course, I have tried multiple times to just disable voice mail completely, but it does not work. Believe me!!

3. Well it so happens, that I try to pay my bills online most of the time, But people who use http://www.icicibank.com/ know how much down time it has. The #$@#$ site told me twice that payment to my credit card, was not done, as the request had timed out.So, I thought well in the evening, let me try again, and imagine the height of my frustration, when I saw that my account has been debited twice from my account.

In short, this sucks. Wanna stay happy and contented? Stay away from all digital stuff.
Go Neanderthal!!

America- inhabited by cars

2006-05-26T10:56:00.000+05:30

So this is what happened. At around 8 o clock in the night[evening] we realized that we needed a break, perhaps go for a drive down to the town center. It was a week day, but still we thought what the hell, we need a change.

So after googling for the route, and following it to the inch, we reached the place. At first sight it really reminded me of a set that I had seen in Ramoji film city, perfect, clean, all artificial animals and stuff.

We parked our car, and we saw lots of them- cars. In fact, we saw only cars, close to 100 of cars, of all varieties, huge, convertibles, compacts, the beetles to the Grand Cherokees, but no people, Absolutely no people. It was only 15 minutes past 8, and no people, just cars. We looked around and could see atleast a distance of 2 blocks in each direction, and still no person - not even one person

Well, right now am sitting in my room, and I go out of the room, and imagine what I can see. Well only cars parked. Well any guesses what is the only thing I can hear? --- Well again cars. IT so happens that the my place of stay is near the freeway, and I can hear them day in and day out.

America is really a place of wonders. No people, only cars. And imagine this is summer season, it would not take much of thought to even estimate how it would be in winters.

Well, how different is it from India?

Relative frames of reference

2006-05-21T06:13:00.000+05:30

In physics, the subject that I did my graduation in, there is a concept of relative frame of reference. As an example, imagine a person walking on the road. From the person's point of view or frame of reference, the road is moving in relation to him. Vice versa, from the road;s point of reference, the person is moving. The reason for this is the frame of reference can be fixed at the center of mass of the object

If we try to apply the same logic to human behaviour in a slightly modified manner, we can see how different people react to different situations. When I landed in Seattle airport at roughly 11:30 in the night local time, I was absolutely miserable, the cold wind was really creeping in through the various pores in my tshirt, and I was not the enjoying it the least. When I talked about it to my fellow-traveller, he seemed to just shrug it off. He said "No, I am not at all feeling cold, its pleasant".

If we replace the center of mass concept with the complete set of human experiences, then we can really identify how different people behave. This was the first time for me outside of Hyderabad, India in a long time and not in summer months. Whereas, for my companion, he had been to Seattle couple of times earlier, once in the peek of winter.

Isnt it strange, that to the same situation, people think and feel differently, and react differently. Imagine how much enriched our lives would be if someone could just come up with a mechanism of sharing experiences and thoughts. ala Total Recall style

Change in co-ordinates...

2006-05-21T06:10:00.000+05:30

So, finally it happened. After more than 2 years in my company, and atleast couple of chances of flying to United States, it has finally happened. I got a work assignment for atleast couple of months in US, Redmond, WA in particular. Even though the decision to move out of india at this time was tough, given that I just got married recently and bought a house, that needs a lot of my time and attention, I am glad to reach here.

This would be a good exposure for me, an opportunity to see other worlds, as they say :)...

so keep logged in ...

Lets shake hands ...

2006-05-01T14:29:00.000+05:30

Ok, so this is what happened.

I am at office, working hard on my work items. Ok, so not working HARD, but working. I feel this call of the nature ... of the smaller kind. I immediately rush to the office loo on my floor.

I meet this friendly neighbourhood Mr 'X', in the corridor leading to the loo. I say "hey wassup?", shaking his hands. We exchanged pleasantries, and go to our respective booths.

I am taking some time (after all I have been drinking lots of cups of coffee and water), Mr 'X' finishes his work and just goes out, without washing his hands. Did that not sink in? I will repeat.

"HE WALKED OUT WITHOUT WASHING HIS HANDS". Was this better?

Wooaah, am I glad that I shook his hands earlier and not later. Or does it really matter? Hmm.... I spent quite a few drops of liquid soap getting rid of his sin. :(

Believe me, I am going to keep my hands away from his, for the rest of my NATURAL LIFE

Ego-boost!!

2006-04-30T12:21:00.000+05:30

Ok, I got a nice little dilbert for you.... Any guesses why I liked it in particular.

I really wish I had the kind of money my 'name-sake' has around to play with

So what did you plan today?

2006-04-22T20:10:00.000+05:30

When was the last time you planned some thing to the minutest detail only to see things crashing all over the place?

Obstacles comes in various forms
Work
Wife
Maid
Traffic
Car trouble
Friends
I really wish I could just live life in the "right now" frame of mind. No planning. No disappointments, no fights, no tension, no deadlines.... Just life at its purest.

Name change...

2006-02-26T20:59:00.000+05:30

One of the few people in this world, who have read this blog till now, suggested that I should change the name of the blog to Cynical Bystander from Cynical Viewer, the reason being that viewer sounds damn too technical for one, and second I am not really an active viewer in the proceedings. I am mostly a passer by, a third party, who just happens to witness these things.

Bystander is a better word which denotes my state. Therefore from now on, that is it Cynical Bystander

Haves and Havenots...

2006-02-12T12:31:00.000+05:30

Do you know where your maid lives?
Have you seen the neighborhood where your Dhobi lives?
What about the guy who comes to pick up the garbage at your place; Have you seen his bedroom?

The point that i am trying to make is that -- Its important for the have nots to remain like that in order for the haves to have everything as they want. Have you ever wondered, why it is easier for people in India to afford maids, cleaners as compared to people in say US or any european country. The basic reason is that there are so many people in India willing to work for lesser wages, doing menial jobs, as compared to other countries.

Imagine a situation, where everybody earns more than enough money, doing what they really want to do(right now, am ignoring the education aspect altogether); do you think we will ever find people who would be willing to come over to OUR place, wash OUR dirty dishes, clothes, and clean up OUR place? Well i dont think so

Therefore, next time you comment on how badly your maid servant lives or how shabbily your cleaner dresses, think about how important their current situation is for you?

Little surprises ...

2006-02-09T19:06:00.000+05:30

Its a big wonder, how little things means so much in our lives. Imagine me just sitting at my desk at work, trying to figure what the hell I am going to do next; and then one of my friends calls up, and asks me if i can drop him to the airport. "OKAAY, Lets go"

One hour out of office, and driving a better car than mine, i felt so great about life. I got to see those parts of the town, which i have never seen in day time. Even a parking ticket, a close call with a learning driver, still could not dampen my spirits.

I loved reaching home early, watching TV, surfing and doing something that iI was not supposed to do, when i got up in the morning.

I loved it... Wont you?

Are you nerdier?

2006-01-20T18:02:00.000+05:30

Are you passionate enough?

2005-12-06T12:54:00.000+05:30

I have noticed that there are two kinds of people in this world- those who are passionate and those really dont care. There is nothing like i am *partially* passionate. People who are passionate really go crazy about everything. They live their life in a roller coaster, getting excited about the new place thats opened, the new piece of software code that they wrote, the new gadgets that on the markets right now, the cool new gal that;s joined their work place.... the list goes on

On the other hand, people who live their lives like they are in a big *zombie movie*, simply dont care. Show them a new gadget thats state-of-the-art, and they respond "Duh, so whats different about this?". They seem to have lost all the love in their lives. What is the use of such existence? Are they only here to fulfill the writ of "God". Or do they even believe in "God"?

What kind of person are you? Do you run around in joy, and smell the flowers, and get all excited getting up in the morning, thinking about a whole new day? or do you sulk around and send the day brooding and going through the motions.

think about it...

Designer vs. Implementer

2005-11-22T16:54:00.000+05:30

I have always had this issue in my mind- who is more important- a designer or an implementer. The question that needs to be asnwered is this? - are the ideas more important, or the actual implementation.

I have seen both sides of the coin. I have seen people who are full of ideas, which on the first hearing sound fantastic, but if you put a bit more thought in it, ask them some questions and they flounder. On the other hand, i have seen really great plans being wasted, because the guys doing it messed it up.

The thing is that some ideas are worth not even a paise, but some others are really ground-breaking. The issue is that to actually break that ground one requires some real tough guys who can go and put some hard work on it- the implementers.

I guess on one level, this opinion of mine might have stemmed from the fact that i have seen far too less ideas getting implemented properly. Have you seen any better?

Time to let go ...

2005-11-22T16:34:00.000+05:30

I have always wondered, if i could write, if i wanted to write, if i knew how to write. I read a decent amount of books, on a varied range of topics. some of them are so much full of crap, that i cant even go beyond the first few chapters. I wonder, authors like them can make money by dishing out such stuff, probably i could do it for free.

Hence, stay tuned for my thoughts!!