Pursuit of Happyness

It was April, 2016 when we finally took the plunge. Everyone was excited, yet a little scared. It was big leap and we were signing up for several years of EMIs. To be honest, we were booking a house slightly beyond my reach. Based on some overly simplistic calculations in my excel sheet, I was confident I could achieve the goal. All it needed was some good planning, that could go hand in hand with the calculations. I only missed one little detail - all the planning (with buffers) goes for a toss when you get hit with uncontrollable variables. In your face.

After ages and ages of waiting for our building to completed, we tried to sneak into our still under construction flat. Nirzari was all excited and even did the 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' sequence once we entered the half complete flat. I too was very excited as this was going to be our future home, after all. Unfortunately, our happiness was short lived. As soon as I entered the kitchen, my heart broke. It was complete darkness. Even after spending hours to choose the ideal unit, we had chosen the worst possible flat on the brochure. There is little you can do in an under construction property and to some extent its pure luck on how your flat would turn out to be. And boy, were we unlucky?! Just when we thought our ideal home was about to be completed, we were given this shock.

I was in no mood to accept this flat. After all, that brilliant sales man had managed to sell us the worst unit after all promises of "plenty of light and ventilation'. He had very smartly diverted us from the best unit (in terms of light, ventilation, view etc) and restricted our options on the bad ones. We fell for it. Anyway, the damage was done. After this started my long battle to change my unit. The sales team knew that selling this unit again would be very hard. And hence started the excuses like 'we don't change our unit, its not our policy'. After months long of escalation and what not, I finally got approval to change my unit as "an exception". This time magically, we only had option on higher floors in the direction that we wanted (no surprises, another tactic from sales). However, this time I was actually ok with it due to the brilliant view it may provide. But I didn't want to take any chances this time. So, we climbed the staircases. One by one, all the way to 28th floor. By the time we reached, both me and Nirzari were completely exhausted. And was it worth it?

There are some things that just click. We follow this simple rule while buying. If something instantly clicks for both of us, we dont think further. Else, we dont buy. And this was one such case. The moment we entered the flat, I just knew this was mine. The view, the light, the breeze - everything was just perfect and how I wanted my dream house to be. We went back to the office and told that this was the unit of our choice - 13281. The guy promised the change and that price would be only on floor rise. Naive mistake number two from me. I believed him.

For several more months, the process to change the flat happened. Meanwhile, we had started working on our interiors way back - right on the earlier unit. The interior designer was patient enough to wait for all this mess to go and was waiting for the key to our house. It was clear that it's going to be another few months before we can get the flat. Finally, after several more follow ups and escalation, the flat change was done. And then, I got the horror when I was sent the revised agreement copy. They had added HUGE amount in the difference of price of flat. When I contested, they asked for proof of promised difference of amount to be just on floor rise and nothing more. Gotcha! I didn't have any written proof as the sales guy mentioned to me it was a standard process! Well, here began my one more long journey of getting this amount reduced. After a LOT of emails, calls (and call recordings), I proved to them (will skip the details) that the promised price of flat was much lower. And then we finally settled on an amount to close it.

I knew buying a house is painful. However, to actually experience the pain is something else. Not everyone perhaps would go through all the troubles that we went through, but I'm sure everyone has their share. We atleast got a beautiful house of our dreams at the end. Luckily, the interior process was very smooth for us ... till Corona struck!

Only 10 days of work was pending and the apartment decided to disallow all interior works. It's like seeing the finish line from a feet away and stopping there. Now started yet another battle of resuming the interior works. I made a group of owners stuck in similar situation and we fought this battle together. After couple of weeks, the apartment finally gave in and allowed us the works (again will skip details).

Well, just a tiny flash back. Just before the interiors were stopped - finally the day of registration of flat arrived. Everything was smooth, except the next day I was gifted Conjunctivitis. Though I recovered from Conjunctivitis soon, I suffered from dry eyes for quite some time. Till today, I'm not sure if it was normal infection or... you guessed right.

At the end, after all the struggle and financial planning for every stage, I feel not accepting the earlier flat was the best decision ever. Hard earned peace is extremely satisfying after four years of booking the flat :P

Except for one tiny detail. Nirzari and Anika (our 6 month baby) are still stuck in Maharashtra due to COVID. Now the last leg of battle remains - to bring them back safely :-)

Flashes of Life

Rarely do times like these dawn upon the world. And though one might think we will have stories to tell once the dust settles, the truth is rather bitter. The best story tellers in the world are at risk. If the virus was an intelligent being, one would think the strategy to be to eliminate all the wisdom from the world by attacking the elderly. As of today, nearly 6.5 lac cases have been reported worldwide and over 30,000 are dead because of COVID-19 virus. 

Yet, there is hope. History tells us that during the worst times for the world is when the best inventions were made, including penicillin. And we are already starting to witness breakthroughs from the top brains in the medical world. However, we know there is still uncertainty around when a cure will be established scientifically. It may be long before a vaccine is available to public. Meanwhile, we know thousands more will die. It is inevitable. 

In such gloomy times, even the most optimistic folks are hard hit mentally. It is hard to not think about life in such times. Ponder about the things you have accomplished and those that you couldn't. All the happy (or sad) times you had with family. Old memories come to life and one gets lost in the merry times to get some respite from the reality. 

It is funny that I can't really tell what my oldest memory is. Can you? I have vague memories of early childhood - mostly beating the hell out of a soft toy and launching it over our gate outside. Of course, there are other memories captured in pictures - but I can't really remember any of those. As I grew older, me and my brother Abhijeet had some weird tactics to keep ourselves busy. Of course, this is when he wasn't troubling me. Mostly it was playing cricket inside our house compound. But I clearly remember one of our devilish "ideas" was to come up with a chemical formula to kill red ants - because those are bad ants! And our genius invention was to mix whatever chemicals were available at home - and mix them up and test it on the poor ants. Mostly the poor creatures died from drowning in water than from our genius solutions. In an another unrelated incident, I had killed a black ant. And my brother convinced me that the ant's ghost will haunt me tonight. 

But I also liked to play alone. I remember I had a yellow plastic box (some discarded box from my dad's automobile shop) where I kept all my toys. Cars and action figures! And like any other kid, I used to cook up stories and play with the toys. Until one day, when my brother hid one of my cars. Hell ensued. I had a Yankee Doodle sticker on my small wardrobe. And my brother said he hid the car BEHIND the sticker. I can't believe how stupid I was. I actually TORE the sticker to find the car while in parallel crying the hell out. My brother on the other hand was laughing his ass out on his idiot sibling. Post that it was WAR. I took one of his car, went to the terrace and threw it over from there. After that it was parental intervention that caused the ceasefire. But there were peaceful times as well. We did not stop from playing cricket inside the house. There was one small room which was never used by anyone - and was typically our playing area. I clearly remember playing with a steel rod and plastic ball. We used to 'swing' the plastic ball and hit with the rod so hard that at times we could see sparks flying from the tiles. I remember both of us looking at each other stunned when we saw the sparks. 

Summer holidays were obviously the best. We usually went to our uncle's place in Mumbai. Of course I was always given some maniac holiday homework. I distinctly remember writing tables from 1 to 20 some 20 times! I can't believe I actually completed that work. Cruel. However, I did get time to play cricket with the kids in the apartment. We did break a few windows and ran away frequently. When not in Mumbai, we used to play some stupid games like creating a garage from old school book cardboards. Or creating some 'homes' in the terrace under the coconut tree leaves. It's hard to believe that we were once so dumb and innocent at the same time. 

As we got little older, we graduated to colony level cricket AND video game! I remember shopping for 64 bit cassette games in Manish Market in Mumbai. Those typical 999 games in 1, out of which we played 9. Duck hunt, Mario, Contra, Circus and so many more. I was amazed (and still am) that I could shoot down a duck with a gun pointed at TV screen. Well, we also graduated from running around everywhere to getting cycles. That led us to go to cycling on most evenings. And I clearly recall once we went into an adventure to go cycling into some weird farm with a really old structure. We were clearly lost and it was getting dark. To top that, we saw bats in the structure. Hell. We just cycled like crazy from that farm till we finally reached the road. What a nightmare. Of course, when we got home we got some nice shouting from mom.

Life was good till this point. Then came the serious phase of 7/8th standard when I somehow got hooked on to studies. I used to consistently rank beyond 13th in my class before this. Somehow, the graph went up after that and I fell under the trap of "high scoring" and tuitions and what not. Basically the rat race. A group of us even went to Kota post 10th for ambitious IIT coaching. This HAS to be the worst phase of my life. I hated that place to the core. I struggled with the way things were taught and executed there. Plus we were staying away from family for the very first time. I didn't have time to cope up with the immense pressure. I was just lost in another rat race, and I wasn't winning this one - I wasn't even close. I was never the one with immense self belief - inspite of doing well in schools I always doubted my ability. Before every exam in school, my typical note to mom was 'Im going to fail tomorrow'. When I came back from Kota, all I had was a huge relief. It was not a place meant for me and I was happy to be out of there. Yet, it did give me a life time of lessons.

Life at the moment is pretty much like Kota (ok way better than it, but you get the point). We are all stuck in this situation that no one wants to be part of. Its not a place meant for us - yet it will give the entire world lessons that we will never forget. And we will survive this - just need to keep looking back on the good times for relief and humour!

Sometimes you meet someone who leaves an everlasting impact on your mind. It does not matter if that person is far away or even if you never meet that person again. What matters is that when you think of that someone, you feel happy.

Lessons Learnt

1. Try to resolve doubts and questions yourself first. In most cases you already know the answer.

2. Best ideas come from fundamental questions, and not from applications.

3. Brain works with full efficiency when it's fresh and when thoughts are penned down.

4. Quality of work is more important than the quantity.

5. Mechanics first, details later.

6. Read ! Read ! Read !

7. Implement.

8. Faintest doubts can disrupt any base of understanding. Clear them all.

9. Never force a solution on a problem without exploring alternatives.

10. Solutions which "surprisingly" work are most likely to be wrong.

Milestones

Scribbling in this digital diary after a long time. The 100th ton was yet again snatched away from the little master today. A bit more wait for this(probably) never again to be trespassed feat. Wonder if milestones should be so keenly expected (at least from ourselves), or just accepted as they come by?

The later may seem reasonable and rather cushioning at first read. One is bent to be cautious about self and not perform as usual with feats at the back of the head. In contrast, unless we push ourselves with expectations, we won't achieve by just sitting and saying to self "yeah, I'll just wait and milestones will follow". Probably they won't. I think it's a perfect blend of expectations, ambitions and clearing head of self awareness which marks the trademark recipe of success.

What US taught me

It’s been quite an experience in the US. When I came here, I was fresh out of undergraduate school. Two years back, I vividly remember the confusion in mind. When you get an offer letter for a job for the first time in life, it seems to be the best achievement. Turning that offer down and instead going ahead to study during the looming times of recession was quite a decision to make for the several others freshly graduated just like me. Forums on the internet were full of debates whether to take up education at this point in the US or to have some job in hand and play it safe. Today, I feel happy to have made a decision to come here. And the reason is far from just academic.

Many people have asked me, “Is MS worth all the expense?” I have no good answer for this question. It all depends on what you expect from it. Everyone has different goals and what’s diamond for one might look like a coal to other. For me, it was worth both the time and effort spent in these two years. I learnt about things I had never heard about. And it may be that someone knowledgeable might have known it all before taking up the course. I am not among those people who can claim they learnt very little in MS because quite honestly, I had far limited knowledge of any specific course in my domain. If anything, I feel sorry for those who couldn’t learn much, either because they already knew stuff or because they took too easy classes to boost their grades. In the later case, I believe they shouldn’t complain about not learning much. Having said that, after the horrible nightmarish first semester, I understood not to be overambitious either! I had taken the most difficult courses, which combined with the first ever part time job experience, was near choking, with things like ‘two tough exams on a single day’ or ‘submission of two projects in two days’ quite common. And I was struggling to cope up. Experiences like these are really good, but I hope I don't get one of those again ;)

I do not know how true of a claim it will be if I suggest that the educational system here is far better than that in India. And no, this is not driven by the usual prejudiced negative remarks about the education system in India; this is driven by my own experience. I don’t know about others, but my own way of thinking has changed quite a bit during these two years. And I refer to thinking in general, not from just academic problem solving point of view.

I had heard more negative than positive remarks about the culture here. After staying two years here, I’m glad the equation has flipped, at least in my mind. One cannot make statements about any culture without experiencing it and understanding it. I found it very weird when I just landed here to get a casual “hi” from a stranger walking across the street. There are some things which you have to experience to reason them out. Understanding culture is one of them. “So…” I curiously asked to my American co-worker at my on campus part time job. “I heard a lot of parents kick out their kids at small age, is that really true?” He thought for a bit and replied, “About five percent of the families do that.” I was really surprised. That guy has paid for both his daughters’ education. “It’s all worth it when you look at them standing with the graduation cap.” It was good enough to silence my doubts.

Thinking about the part time job always brings a chuckle. Back in India, I wouldn’t have imagined working as a cleaner at some dorm. Here, I was forced to give up the discrimination of work. All work is treated with almost equal respect here. I vividly remember the first day at work- ever. Here I was, with a broom in one hand and the dust pan in other, waiting for my supervisor to give instructions. One cannot escape the thought at this point of having turned down a rather comfortable job in India and having signed up for something like this. I had heard a lot about how the managers at on campus jobs are strict and how students are exploited. So I was a bit paranoid about it. But when I talked to Michelle, my supervisor and Lisa, my co-worker at work who trained me on the first day, I felt like I was talking to my friends. I could not help thinking of how disrespectfully most cleaners back home are treated. The people at Governors’ (the university residential hall where I still work) are the most amazing people you can find! I am dearly going to miss them.
Having said that, US is like any other place with respect to how people are. Some are good, some are not so good. I know many of my friends here who have had horrible experiences with their managers at their part time work. You cannot judge a nation based on the small sample of people you meet, but in my experience, I met more good people than of the other kind. And the Jerry Springer show kind of people, well I am happy not to have met any of them.

Even with the much better system, and friendly attitude of people here, something always seems missing. It feels like a flavor rich American delicacy, but with lack of spice in it. No old friends, no roadside chat with a ‘chaat’, no roaming on the roads, and no sitting on the bench by the road side with friends talking the most non-sense things ever.

And as I approach the last week of my masters, I can’t wait to go back home.

Chasing your dreams

Life is ever changing. You make all the plans you want, but there will always be loopholes in them that life exploits. There are so many possible situations that you can't possibly plan each case to perfection. And this is where the unpredictability of life comes in. Well, if everything was predictable life would be boring.

Having said that, one can't really be too excited when plans go wrong- especially when they relate to your ambitions. Until recently I used to think (quite illogically) that people never get something when they get too excited about it. To put it in other words, things which they crave for the most are quite unreachable. But giving it more thought, it seems that people remember only those things which they wanted badly and didn't achieve it. There are so many rejections which we get in daily life and we hardly remember most of them. Why? Because we were not very excited about them in first place!

It pretty much is a challenge to chase our ambitions. How many people do we know who are actually pursuing what they really want to do? How many people do we hear daily telling us "Oh I actually wanted to be X, but now I got into Y. Life is all about compromises."

There is no universe conspiring for or against you. Its just you and the infinite situations that can happen with you. Some plans will work, others wont. One can't plan for all possible cases. And it is these very loopholes, which we call problems that we fall into and give up. Then we compromise and accept whatever comes our way.

Life is not a compromise, its just a measure of how far we are willing to go to achieve what we really want from it.

Glory.

It’s one of those days when you cannot think of anything else but victory. Indian cricket fans of around my age have been waiting all their lives for this one moment – when India lifted the World Cup. And more than anyone else, the little master has been in patient hunt of the most valued prize in world cricket. Years of thirst for holding the cup that matters was finally quenched yesterday, and now he can proudly set out for his final stage of a career that most probably would never be matched. Talk about greed, fans want more! We all are waiting for just one more feat from the master- the 100th hundred. And that day, Sachin fans throughout the world will experience “Moksha”.

I have no doubt that Indian cricket lovers over the world wished they could be in India for celebrating this indeed special moment which will be etched in sports history. I miss the fireworks and the massive celebrations back home. But it gives sweet joy and misty eyes when I see the numerous videos of celebration. No other religion than cricket itself can unite over a billion people, celebrating their nation’s triumph on the greatest stage of their most beloved sport. It was great to see Indians all over the world exchanging pride and joy. Undoubtedly, this will stay with us for a very very long time.

A slight thought passes through the mind though. They have done their jobs, but have we done ours?

The war for freedom

This year clearly stands out as the year of modern freedom struggles. It all started with the Tunisian revolution in December last year, which provided the spark to Egyptian protests. The success was an inspiration to other countries denied of democracy, even as we witness the uprising in Libya as I write this. One can imagine the extreme hunger for power of the dictators when they don’t budge to international political pressure, even knowing the outcome.

We have the privilege of being born in a “free” country. On paper, India is free and the largest democracy. But how much of that is true in reality? The recent Wiki-leaks article gave one more reason for Indians to be ashamed of their “leaders”. It’s an established empirical fact that an average Indian takes freedom for granted, but it’s an even greater truth that Indians are showed the rosy picture of democracy when the reality is harsh. When votes themselves go for sale, the entire system of democracy is a big failure. How many of us really think that they have a say in the government? And that their views and opinions are well “represented” in the parliament by some minister?

We say “there is no other country which allows you greater freedom than India. You can do anything you want”. Is that really what freedom is? As far as free will is concerned, it might be true. It’s not clear though if it’s really “freedom” or just lack of imposing laws which gives us the freedom of doing “ANYTHING”. Will you call carelessly throwing garbage on roads as freedom or as lack of imposing rules? Will you call driving by wrong side of road as freedom? Even worse, what about being politically free? We are heavily influenced by government policies at each and every stage of life, and most of this goes in background without making any noise or concern. Even after knowing the evil plans of politicians, we continue to largely ignore the issue saying “we cannot do anything about it”. And the reason is valid, because most of the people who are in Indian politics at present don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Obviously India is hugely capable of producing gems of politicians and it is well known that they refrain from joining politics because they do not want to get involved in the "dirty business". Is this freedom? When you live in awe of joining politics, the very basis of a country, how can one claim to be in a free country? When we allow a bunch of dictators to "govern" in the political system, how can we call ourselves democratic?

The true freedom movement is hugely due in India. And with time the revolution will well explode, all it needs is a little spark.

Explaining colors to the blind

I come across this apparently absurd phrase often. The first time I heard about this was during my undergraduate days at Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune. Well, there was this funny "Mr. and Mrs. Sinhgad" competition where the judges asked questions to the contenders in one of the rounds. And one of the questions which was asked to a guy was "how will you describe a rainbow to a blind person?" . The question immediately appealed to me and I lost myself into thoughts. I thought of the obvious answers- about describing the colors by relating to nature, but could not find a satisfactory answer. Today I joined Twitter(out of boredom) and accidentally came across page of Kate Moss. She had tweeted "Trying to explain why I love you is like explaining colors to a blind person." Immediately I lost myself into thoughts, just like before.

What if the person is blind since birth? Imagine you have never seen colors- ever. Forget colors, you haven't seen anything. Is it possible to make a imagery so strong that you can draw colorful paintings in a blind person's brain by just making him hear the words? Probably not. But here is my attempt to do so, just for silencing this old thought at the back of my mind:

Red- The boldest and hottest of all. You feel it when you stand under the scorching sun. You feel it when you are with your love. You feel it when your hand feels the beat of your heart. You feel it when you are tensed.

Blue- The coolest of all. You feel it with the breeze and when you breathe. You feel it when you dip your hands in the cold river and wash your face with it. You feel it when you drink water. The color which refreshes you and makes you feel alive.

Green- The most soothing one. You feel it when you smell grass or perhaps flowers. You feel it when you run your hands through the velvet like farms. It is the color which calms your nerves and which makes you serene. Contradictory to Red, this one takes the pressure off.

The street

I remember(if I’m right)
men walked on that street
with head held high
And others-equally righteous,
used to nod and walk without fright

I remember once in awhile
the devils were disdained,
and treated befitting
And those who shammed morality
were put in the same pile

What change the “judiciary” brought
and took away that pride?
The honest disdained,
and the devils hailed
What unfair balance sought?

On the same street now
devils walk with pride
with a smile shunning the righteous
And the "guardian" devils eager
just to take a bow!

A conversation...

“How’s it going?”
“Let’s say I’m still alive. Ha!”
“You and your weird stunts… will you ever change?”
“I don’t think you can change a man’s persona, can you?”
“Err. True that.”
“You tell me, rules keeping you sane and normal?”
“Don’t grin like that you dog. I can read your sarcasm.”
“Ha! C’mon, can’t I ask a normal question now?”
“You will never change. By the way, I am good.”
“Good good.”
-A pause-
“So, how is your latest movie coming along? Hope it’s not as action packed as your last one. I mean you could have died! Oh wait, I know… we have to die someday blah!”
“Well said. Ha!”
“Man, don’t you worry about your family?”
“Well if I didn’t worry about them, I wouldn’t have done that stunt scene in last movie.”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“Forget it.”
“Why? I thought we were...”
“…friends. Huh. You have to know everything don’t you.”
“Yes.”
“Hm. They offered a large sum for that scene. Don’t get mad now. Your face looks like a tomato!”
“You are the biggest ass I’ve known. Why didn’t you ask me if you needed money?”
“What’s the fun in that?”
“You are a jerk. You will risk your family for your own whims and fancies?”
“I like to keep my head up high.”
“So you feel if you ask me for money, your pride will be hurt?”
“C’mon! I thought you know me well!”
“I know. It’s just hard to fathom that you don’t want to cheat with what life has in store for you.”
“You got it right there bud. The real fun in life is to fight it out.”
“I like to be rather…”
“I know…safe and protected. What’s the fun in that?”
“Well, not everything in life is for fun…”
“Oh really? Then what is life for?”
“Don’t even get there. Those conversations are like a circle. You can go on and on and never reach the end, but you will find yourself where you started soon.”
“Doesn’t that happen with all conversations with no solid base of reasoning?”
“Perhaps. But the problem here is that we don’t really know anything. So we try to argue on our beliefs…”
“And beliefs we know, are ambiguous. “
“Right. So we don’t really know what is a fact is and what’s not.”
“Well. For me, I like to face the challenges of life without taking help. Because I feel I am meant to solve them myself. “
“That’s a bit too…”
“I know.”
-A pause-
“Well, I’ve been thinking. “
“Wow! You are?”
“Dog.”
“Okay go on.”
“I’ve been thinking whether I should propose Tanya.”
“Marriage. You already know my take on it.”
“I know. But unlike you, I don’t find it to be a chaos. My mind is not as disturbed as a crazy stuntman!”
“Hey! I’m not disturbed! Just look around and tell me how many…”
“Couples are happy and shit.”
“You are smart.”
“Don’t grin like that dog.”
“Ha!”
“I wonder why even we are friends. You are one weird stuntman. I’m just…”
“A normal boring guy? I know it’s difficult for me.”
“You ass.”
“Well, I guess understanding is much more important in friendship than agreeing on same things.”
“Finally ! I agree with you on something!”

The (Un) Forgettable Journey

Ok that (^^) is the official title. The unofficial title to this story is :

SHIT HAPPENS

The day of my departure to US dawned. It was finally time to bid goodbye to my sweet heart homeland. The pain could not have been aggravated by anything other than THE horrendous journey back to US. The flight from Mumbai to Kuwait was smooth sailing (except at the security point, some jackass "somehow" thought my laptop bag to be his and was ready to go until I stopped him). I had a change in flight at Kuwait which went smoothly too. And then, someone in the universe conspired to have a little sadistic pleasure by ruining my day.

After the takeoff, I plugged in the earphones into the system and - TADA! The audio system was not working. The world crashed before my eyes and on the screen in front of me, I tried to imagine myself sitting for 12 hours without entertainment ! Well, flight journey is already boring and this was unbearable! But anyway, I found some relief by talking to my co passengers (one of them had the audio working while the other, like me did not. Kudos Kuwait Airlines!). Still not that bad. I somehow counted the hours and finally landed at NYC after hovering in the air for some time.

The bad news was that flight was delayed by one hour! I had a domestic flight to catch from NYC to Buffalo in about two hours and I had to do immigration, customs and then check in, security for the next flight! Well one might think two hours would still be comfortable. But then the worst part of the journey begins! Long queues at immigration is not a new thing. But its bad when you have a big family standing in front of you right in front of the desk. Still not that bad, the officer took his sweet time doing the formalities, and then when I was just about to put a step forward, he says "I'll be back, please wait" and went away somewhere. I was like "whaaaat?". I looked at the watch and it was not at all a good sight. After five minutes or so the officer returned. I rushed to the desk and immediately told him that I have a flight to catch. He did not waste time and did the finger print and photo formalities quickly. Thanking him, I rushed to claim my baggage.

After failing to spot my bags for ten minutes (!!) I realized I was looking at bags which I had already seen go past before! Disaster! I was about to panic when I thought some jackass may have thought my bag to be his, taken it off and did not care to put it back on the rollers! I was right ! For some unknown reason there was a huge array of bags lined up in other corner and luckily I found my bags there. I had no time to waste. I literally ran with the heavy(what do you expect when returning from India?) bags. JFK is quite huge and I was running all around to find the Jet Blue check in desk. I was wearing a leather jacket because there was no space in the bags! I was sweating like anything and a couple of friendly Americans who saw me rushing asked me if I was okay. Somehow I reached the check in desk. After checking in, I proceeded to the security check.

**TIME FOR FLASHBACK**

It was my last week in Bangalore and some damn guy in our PG gifted me the conjunctivitis virus. And it was really really bad (I still have a scanty red area in my eyes). And till the time of departure I had a substantial redness in eyes.

**BACK TO SECURITY CHECK**

Imagine the condition I was in - totally tired and frustrated with the long journey, completely drenched in sweat, with a leather jacket on, on a rather hot day and with red eyes ! My turn at security comes up and GUESS WHAT? The alarm goes off detecting something in my handbag! I was checked too, with the metal detector and it beeped! It was because of the gold chain that I was wearing around my neck. So I held it in hand and took it a bit higher. The detector still beeped! The officer asks "Do you have a heart pacemaker?" I was like "Hell no !", though my heart was pacing a bit already because of the time all this was taking! All this was enough to take me for a personal security check. There it beeped again! I then decided to take off the chain completely, rather than just holding it high. It worked! After checking me thoroughly with detector 3-4 times, I thought it was over. NO! Because the baggage alarm went off, the officers searched my handbags completely. Then I was questioned about my red eyes and why I was wearing a leather jacket on a hot day."Are you trying to hide something that you are wearing that jacket?" I told them I got hurt while playing cricket (:D) and that I did not have space in my bags for the jacket. Well that wasn't enough. The male officer would not stop asking questions. I had to finally tell them I have a flight to catch in fifteen minutes. Then finally the female officer asked him to quit and finally they thanked me for "my patience". After packing the handbag in anyway I could, I ran like crazy to the boarding gate just in time. No wonder I was the last passenger to board the flight.

Finally I sat in my seat. Ready to take off. And guess what I had in front of me for my one and a half hour journey - a fully functional entertainment system with all TV channels. Taking a deep breath, I purchased a can of coke and tuned into Man vs Wild. And that my friends, is how I survived in the wild ! Phew.

Weekend at Amboli

Just had a great weekend at Amboli. For those who have not visited it.. DONT MISS IT!
Its said to be a heaven for amphibians. We went on a trail in the evening.
Darkness, forest, heavy rain, snakes, frogs and leeches! The perfect set up for an exciting trail.

We sighted two pit viper snakes, some frogs and tarantula spiders! Well the leeches feasted on our legs..and trust me, its not a good sight seeing them grow all fat after sucking our blood!

Completely drenched on the trail and hungry, we feasted on the fish and chicken curries. Exhausted, I slept instantly once back to our resort while others were experimenting with Charlie Chaplin and Shivaji Maharaj's spirits attempting planchette. Though it turned out that the answers given by them were wrong ;) , it sure must have been some entertainment! Missed it..duh!

Weekend trips always leave behind a hangover, especially when Monday awaits you !

Rockin' Bangalore !

Hey again! :D

I know, long time since I typed in a blog. Well I have settled in Bangalore finally (that is got a internet connection at my room). The room is not bad either.

The best thing about Bangalore is the weather. Roads are good. But traffic is HORRIBLE! Yeah, note the caps. I thought traffic in Pune is bad, but this is worst!
And if you think rikshaw wallas in Pune are bad, think again. They have far supreme competitors here!

HP Labs is a cool place to work at. I'm working on Video Summarization. Due to confidentiality statement and (now the real reason) because I dont want to bore you with it, I cant disclose about it more :P

Food is good. Especially the Biryanis and Dosas. Yum!

Lovely weather and Exam

Doesnt the title describe it already? Duhhh! Cant really concentrate in this lovely weather. Oh news! We actually played cricket on one of the remote streets :D Hows that? (Yes on full pitch!) We even managed to hit a window on one of the nearby house. Luckily the glass here is strong. LOL. Also baffled a few Americans and their dogs (who were probably wondering what form of Baseball is this).
For the time we played cricket, it felt I was back home!

So its no surprise I havent really studied for the exam on 19th..Hope it wont be a disaster! Enjoy!

Sunshine!

The sun is out! The weather is improving by day. Finally, there are signs that winter might end soon. Trees are eager to get some leaves. And my hands are itching to get hold of my camera which has been dormant because of the snow cover.

It has been gloomy for past 3-4 months and its time to get some cozy sunshine with a hint of breeze. Im fed up of wearing thermals and all that woollen stuffing. It sucks! Time for sunglasses,shorts and flip flops ;)

*Bows to the sun*

Thanks!

Thanks to all who have appreciated my rambling here. But, I'd like to see some comments on here too. Type it out you lazy bums! ;)

Cheers!

Spring Break!!!!!

Yay!! The spring break is here! And yes, today's exam was pretty decent. It was hell lengthy and the professor said "I dont expect you to finish it." The hell? Why did he have to keep it so long if he knew we cant finish it?

Anyway...so I have this week long break. How do I plan to spend it? Well, I will be working and then I have to complete some assignments. Not really a "break". Yeah, thats how it is. I never really had a break in long time, in its true sense. But hopefully that will pay off, dont know when. LOL.

I'm tired right now and probably will call it night. Tc :)

Objective updated : Exam, March 5 11:00 hours

Yeah, one exam is down. It went really well. The next is on 5th. Now you know why I have kept such a wierd title (apart from marketing issues =D).

My next exam is pattern recognition and yeah, the professor is well known to put some nasty problems. That is the 'prior knowledge' I have. Will let you know the details of the massacre on 5th :D

I hope you guys are planning something for summer. Its good to know most of my school friends are posted/learning/wasting time ;) in Pune. No wonder I am missing Pune so much. But not as much as Nagar ...my favourite place on earth!
Yeah yeah, dont smile. Its way better than those crowdy cities and polluted air. And more than all, its better than Buffalo, though we have many buffaloes in Nagar.Lol.

Time to work on my defense for the predicted massacre. Later.