Camping at Mt. Lemon

Fire ball emerging from the shadows

I want to float between these clouds!

The enormous !

Grim Wise Forest

The campers

Bare mountains wearing a veil of clouds

The golden rays

Walk of life

I walked alone, O' I walked alone
Alone on the streets of life
Sometimes they're dark sometimes bright
Like a lone ranger, I climbed the heights

Roads of different kinds
Narrow winding roads merging into highways
Uphill climbs and smooth downhill slopes
Taking me nowhere and everywhere

Come O' my love, join me in my journey
You and me together, hand in hand
Careless of the world around us
We walk alone, O' we walk alone

Ratan Tata with Karan Thapar

There there - Radiohead

Radiohead's music is always so enigmatic and abstruse. It takes one in a different world of darkness with faint traces of sun-light. It is depressing but elevating at the same time. Look at the last line of this lyrics. "We are accidents waiting to happen!" ....
Or may be the accident has happened.....

In pitch dark I go walking in your landscape
Broken branches trip me as I speak
Just cos you feel it doesn't mean it's there
Just cos you feel it doesn't mean it's there
There's always a siren singing you to shipwreck (don't reach out, don't reach out [x2])
Stay away from these rocks we'd be a walking disaster (don't reach out, don't reach out [x2])
Just cos you feel it doesn't mean it's there (there's someone on your shoulder [x2])
Just coz you feel it doesn't mean it's there (there's someone on your shoulder [x2])
There there...
Why so green
And lonely [x3]
Heaven sent you
To me [x3]
We are accidents waiting
Waiting to happen
We are accidents waiting
Waiting to happen

Executive Dinner in Manhattan

I had the costliest dinner of my life today in a restaurant in Manhattan, NY. The name is 'Dawat Indian Cuisine', located on 58th St. and 3rd Ave.

I paid $35 for a 'Vegetarian Thali' !! My friend Shashvat and I had decided to treat each other as both of us had got full funding for next semester and it was the penultimate day of my internship at Bloomberg. A treat to a wonderful summer in NY !

Photography in Boston

Here are some nice pics I clicked during my trip to Boston

Java Everywhere

My unending love for Java is well known among my friends and colleagues. Here's a cool video promoting Java. Found it on Youtube. Enjoy :)

One Year

Today is a special day. I completed one year in US. It was 28th July last year I had landed in San Francisco.

It's been a long journey. It really doesn't feel like one year. It feels much more. Like eternity. So many varied experiences. So many changes in life. So much learning.

Some memories .... fond or otherwise...

- Staying in the computer lab whole nights for 2 days straight, finishing the project.
- Snow in Tucson
- Struggle for getting funding in the first semester and failing
- First birthday in US
- Completing a project which was supposedly a half-semester project in only 3 days with Karthik
- Christmas with sister and brother in law in Sacramento
- Buying first iPod and Lord of The Rings complete 12 DVD set
- Getting TA in the department
- Giving a presentation to Undergraduate Students in Software Engineering Class
- Reaching last round of interviews at Microsoft for internship and failing
- Getting through Cerner Corp's interviews and first offer of internship
- Visiting NY for the first time for Morgan Stanley's interview. Failure in the end
- A surprise internship offer from Bloomberg, NY
- Spring break at sister's place
- Nominated for Best TA (But not getting it)
- Topping the second mid-term of Compiler subject. A huge surprise
- Summer in NY city in Bloomberg
- Meeting old friends - Nehal, Prachi, Ruchir and Taral
- Visits to Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlantic City, Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco
- Successful completion of assigned work in Bloomberg. Praise from Manager
- 100+ hours of finance training in Bloomberg
- Daily commuting of three hours in total from New Jersey to New York

It sure was a hell of an eventful year!

A Day

6:30 AM - Buzzzz ... Alarm goes off. [Damn... I wanna go back to school]

6:45 AM - Selecting the coat and dressing up in crisp clothes pressed last night.... Admiring my dressing sense [Not doing it everyday though!! Only when I am really impressed by my choice of clothing]

6:55 AM - Boiling milk for Wagh-Bakri tea

7:05 AM - Walking towards railway station with tea in hand. Admiring green nature's beauty in surrounding areas. Listening to Pink Floyd/Radiohead/Cold Play

7:13 AM - On board express train to NY Penn Station. Standing near the door because of no seats left.

7:35 AM - Finally get a seat when train comes to Newark.

7:45 AM - Dozing off on seat.

8:00 AM - Arriving NY Penn Station. Wake up. [Damn... I wanna go back to school] Run to catch the subway train. Pass near the repulsively smelly Pretzel stall.

8:05 AM - On Subway train. Trying to avoid being a sandwich. [Too many people. But I like it! It feels like home. It feels like Mumbai locals or Chennai buses.]

8:15 AM - Walking towards office on Lexington Ave. Looking at the board of TGIF restaurant (Thank God It is Friday) And counting remaining week days.

8:30 AM - Breakfast time ! Bread, Sinful amount of cream cheese and juice

8:45 AM - Surfing News, Checking mail

9:00 AM - Work starts finally. [Come on. Stop being lazy now and start working]

10:00 AM - Juice time. [This will keep repeating throughout the day almost every one and a half hours]

12:30 PM - Lunch time. [(curse...) I am hungry. Tired of eating same food - pizza, subway... Forget it .. Will skip again... Let me get a cup of soup]
-
-
-
4:00 PM - [Excitement... Day coming to end] Fill the time sheet. Fill Programmer Notes.

5:00 PM - Hurray ... Day over!

5:30 PM - Finance class starts... 3 very interesting hours about to start [When was the last time I eagerly waited for a class like this? I can't remember in my 17 years of academic life!]

8:30 PM - Class over. Walk towards subway. Look at the brightly lit streets with skyscrapers at both sides and fall in love with the city all over again. And again.

8:42 PM - Arriving NY Penn Station. Run for NJ transit. [Literally. Run. Otherwise will miss it by a few seconds]

9:00 PM - On board NJ Transit. Dozing on the seat.

10:00 PM - Walking back home on dark streets.

10:05 PM - Microwave frozen food. [God bless these frozen food makers.]

10:30 PM - Chat/Talk/Surf

11:00 PM - Reluctantly set the alarm for next morning.

11:10 PM - Deep sleep after a long tiring day.

Silence - Language of Love

I don't listen to love songs. They are just too mushy and maudlin for me. I rather prefer the haunting and melancholy songs by Pink Floyd or Radiohead etc. But this song is an exception. Listening to it is a beautiful experience. Ronan has done a wonderful job.

The lyrics remarkably make sense. "You say it best, when you say nothing at all". How true! Silence is indeed the language of love.


Lyrics:
It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I can never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

The smile on your face let's me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best, when you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking out loud (oh…)
But when you hold me near (oh, hold me near)
You drown out the crowd (drown out crowd)
Try as they may, they can never defy
What's been said between your heart and mine

The smile on your face let me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best, when you say nothing at all…oh

Oh, the smile on your face let's I know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best, when you say nothing at all

You say it best, when you say nothing at all
You say it best, when you say nothing at all
(The smile on your face)
You say it best, when you say nothing at all
(The truth in your eyes)
(The touch of your hand)
You say it best, when you say nothing at all
(Let me know that you need me)
You say it best, when you say nothing at all (nothing at all)
You say it best, when you say nothing at all (nothing at all)
You say it best, when you say nothing at all (nothing at all)

Gray

Gray color is normally not many people's favorite color. Neither is it mine in normal circumstances. Yet I consider that color to be special in many ways.

Today I woke up to a gray morning. It had been raining since night and the dawn was very different from the usual day breaks. It was covered in the gray colored cloak of mist. My fascination for such weather is not unknown. Such days, which many people call 'Depressing', never fail to elevate my soul.

I am writing this sitting besides a window on the train to NY. Tiny rain drops are splashing the window glass and making beautiful music. Gray hills, gray woods, small gray houses and semi transparent gray fog. The lack of clarity makes trees at a distance look like small hills. As if the trees are pretending to be more mature like hills. Just like small kids would wear a fake mustaches and long coats to pretend to be an adult.

I am passing over the calm waters of a river. The fog seems to gel well with the surface the water. The river is so motionless that the fog seems to rest on the water. Calm and beautiful. I always quote Oscar Wilde when it comes to describing the magic of unclarity. He says clarity kills the fun. It ruins the beauty. A rose covered with mist is always more beautiful.

Imagine taking a walk on a morning which has bathed in the night rain. The streets are wet and that unique wet earth's smell fills the air. The fog wraps around everything. Acting like a comforter or a rug. Protecting you temporarily from the harsh world surrounding you. Would you rather take a walk on such a morning or on a morning brightly lit by the summer sun? I would rather prefer the cool beads of mist than sweat dripping off my forehead.

Gray is the color of uncertainty. Don't we say 'It looks gray to me'. And isn't it also true that such uncertainty makes life much more exciting and interesting? That's why gray holds a special place in the spectrum of colors in my opinion.

Now the gray color around me has vanished into the thin air and it is replaced by thick black color of darkness. The train has just entered the tunnel approaching NY Penn Station. It has indeed put a stop to the train of my thoughts now.

Signing off....
Gandalf

Elements

Anger

Agility

Innocence

Hope

Sadness

PeaceJoyLovePassion

WisdomYouth

[Image sources: various]

Shadows

I was walking home on NJ streets tonight back from the NJ Transit station. My only companions were my shadows. Here the streets are well lit unlike some of the Tucson streets where there is hardly any light. The shadows were rising and falling as I moved away from one light and went closer to the next one. A consistent theme of rise and fall of shadows.

I felt that the shadow was like our own ego and the lights were like knowledge. As you move closer to the light, the shadow diminishes. Just like as you move closer to knowledge, the brilliance of knowledge lessens the ego and makes you more humble. The more you move away from light, the more the shadow grows and becomes menacingly tall. Just like you move away from knowledge, into the darkness of ignorance, and your ego starts to inflate and become bigger and fatter.

Let there be light. Let there be knowledge.

Atlantic City - A City of Pleasure

I am a very quiet and peace loving person. Which, in common language, is translated as 'I am quite a boring person' because I do not go to pubs or clubs etc and I find pleasure in the pages of my favorite books. This time when my friends here decided to go to Atlantic City which is a miniature version of Las Vegas in terms of Casinos and night life, I was highly skeptical of joining them.

Niki, a friend of mine always says you should try new things and experience different worlds, other than your own. This time I thought, 'Not a bad idea!'. And thus I made up my mind to go to Atlantic City which I call A city of Pleasure.

It is about 100 miles from the place where I live in New Jersey. We started the drive at about 6 in the evening and were there by 8. We visited a few places in which prominent ones were Trump Taj Mahal, Balley's Casino and Kasbah Night Club.

Kasbah - The place where even the inanimate would spring to life and dance

This was my first experience in any kind of discotheque/nigh-club/dance-floor. My decision to go to this place in Atlantic City was partly out of curiosity and partly out of the fact that I had nothing else to do at night and nowhere to stay. So I decided to join the band-wagon and went to the place with my friends.

The moment I stepped into the place, I felt an acoustic attack on my ears by the loudest possible music playing on the dance floor. The whole place was dimly lit or not lit at all with dizzying lights flashing over my head. For those who are familiar with dance floors, this might be a usual setup for you but it was a first such real world experience for me as till now I had only seen such places in movies and on television. Initially the place was quite empty and not many people ventured to the center stage where the show was about to begin! There were 3-4 dance girls showing some amazing dance steps from their specially built stage.

As the hour hand of the clock neared 12-12.30, people started stepping into the dance floor with their dance partners or in groups and set the floor rocking by their steps and movements of their bodies. We were a group of boys and unfortunate enough not to have any dance partners. So after initial few minutes, I grew tired of dancing alone and took a seat at some distance from the floor and started observing people (Ofcourse from a journalistic point of view!!)

The place was oozing euphoria, like any dance club would do. People would get drunk, move away from reality for a few hours and dance till their feet ache. Here there is no sadness. If world was to comprise of such people, you would think that we have achieved eradication of sadness and problems from the society. Everyone is in a sheer bliss. The alcohol has taken over the mind. If not, it is the music which does that job with equal efficiency.

I wonder what energizes people and enables them to keep dancing for hours together. Is it the magic of alcohol? Or it is the magic of the atmosphere as a whole. Whether it is the head-banging beats of Linkin Park or wine like smooth hip-hop of Akon, the music sets the mood for dancing. Smiles all around. Laughs here and there. Corners filled with private meetings. Center stage filled with euphoric youth. Alcohol flowing everywhere. Is this heaven? Where people, at least temporarily, forget their problems and difficulties of life and shake their bodies to the beats of music.

I see people of every age, class and region of the world. Young ones who have just got a permission to enter this place as they have turned 21. More mature players who frequent clubs weekly or even more. Middle aged people who are still young at heart. People who come from the class of financially creamy. Salaried people who work for hours during the weekdays and earn a lot to spend during the weekends. People like me who are there for no good reason. Asians, Americans, Chinese and others.


Every person has a story behind him. An Indian couple where the lady is extremely uncomfortable with this whole concept and is there just because the cosmopolitan husband asked her to come there. A Mexican couple where the lady is very enthusiastic and dancing with amazing grace but the husband has absolutely no interest in the activity. A group of young girls who have drunk to the limits and are posing for photographs in not-so-decent poses. There are heavily built security personnel who are dressed in absolute black with ear phones and wireless instruments with them. Their job, to keep the trouble makers out. I witnessed one such ugly incident of one person going out of control and 6-7 such security personnel grabbed the man and threw him out of the club. The main attraction was a 4.5 feet tall chinese/nepalese fellow of age at least more than 50 who danced like a pro and was immediately adored by the girls!

People somehow love to move away from reality and lose self control. Getting high is fashionable and fun. One fellow was not even able to stand on his feet when he entered the place. I am sure he will be the one taking least effort to dance. His brain cells are going haywire anyway! He will just dance to the tunes of stars in front of his eyes.

Along with pleasure, there is beauty every where here. Where ever you turn your head, you will see personification of beauty. Beautiful girls in black dresses. Handsome young men in party coats. Even if you have not been blessed by the nature with a beautiful face, the cosmetics will do the job. America has everything to offer to everyone. Weight control pills for the horizontally challenged, body building capsules for the weak, tonnes of make up chemicals for not-so-beautiful people and so on. You have to name it and America will give it to you.

Finally at about 3 o'clock at night, we came out of the Kasbah. Moving from sheer ecstasy to the real world. My friends who danced to the most of their capacity stuttered with their legs shaky, head jittery and ears playing the tunes of violin. Though my body did not have to go through what theirs had to while dancing, my ears were definitely ringing. They had grown comfortable in that loud noise burst. They were demanding for more. Like a drug addict would demand for his stuff.

Late night errands for finding a room to stay

When we came out of the club finally, it was almost 3.30 at night. It was a big mistake not to pay attention to the need of booking a room earlier. Therefore the victims of our own foolishness, there we were, wandering on strange and unsafe streets of Atlantic City at the darkest hours!

All the places had 'No Vacancy' boards put up outside. The car was also parked at a far distance and thus we kept on walking. The streets and alleys were full of loafer type guys and girls. Many of them high on something much more powerful than alcohol. Men gathered around nude dance clubs. People stoned and lying on footpath. A girl comes to us and offers a room and tries to make 'an indecent proposal' too. We swiftly move ahead and luckily spotted a motel which looked pretty decent. The guy at the reception was an Indian. Initially quite stubborn, he finally gave in and agreed to give us a two-bed room. Finally the hunt ended and we slumped on beds and without realizing, drifted to sleep in a moment.

Bally's Casino - Try your luck, but I will make sure you never win

The wise have said. An average man never walks out of a casino with more money than he entered. Chances of coming out with same amount of money are as slim. We entered this Bally's casino. What we see defies imagination. Extravagantly ornate halls. Multitudes of Slot machines. Hundreds of tables of Poker, Blackjack, Roulette and Wheel of Fortune and so on. We see happy faces and sad faces. Some tables have roars of the victorious. Some have low moans of the loser.

Gambling is an art. It's not about how well you play. It's about when you stop playing. Because in the long run, almost everyone ends up losing. One friend who was with us had a very nice explanation. It's very simple. The more you risk the more your chances of winning big. The casinos have unlimited supply of money. We do not. They are willing to risk what we can not even imagine. Therefore if you continue to play at some table, even if you are riding high on your luck initially, you will end up losing at some point of time. And that blow will be a lot heavier than what you have earned.

I didn't want to try anything heavy. I have full confidence on my luck. It does not click when expected. Thus I tried something simple and with low bets. I put my money on Wheel of Fortune. It follows the 'Bell curve'. My money grows, reaches highest point and I start loosing. The bell curve is not satisfied at touching the horizontal axes. It dips even further. I lose all my money. Plain and simple rule. You win, win, win and lose everything. I am glad I restricted myself to a very small amount and considered it not as a gamble but more like a game fee. (I know it is euphemism! But it doesn't pain much to say you paid entry fee for some game as it does to say you lost in gambling.) I also tried my hand with a few dollars at a game called Keno. We Indians call it Housey. The numbers which claimed to be my friends, all my lucky numbers turned hostile and I lost money there too. My loss of 17 dollars in total looked minuscule in comparison to other guys who lost in three figure numbers.

The run to hunt down luck ended in a while and we finally exited the casino before further damage to our pockets.

I can't help become a little philosophical at the end. Why don't people ever think that a 25 dollar minimum bet at Roulette can buy a day's meal for a hungry family. A 100 dollar bet on a Poker table can save someone's life in an emergency room. There are people who have more than they can spend. There are people on the other extreme of the economical spectrum who can hardly save for their second meal of the day. But honestly I also didn't have this conscientious thought while I put my money on a wheel of fortune. Can I blame other people? Aren't we all the same?

P.S.
I have not taken any of these photographs. And they are just here to visually enhance my post!

[Image sources:
http://www.my-discount-hotels.com/images/cheap-atlantic-city-hotel-discount-deals1.jpg
http://www.atlantic-city-casino.com/atlantic-city-casinos-hotels-2.jpg
http://www.miami-realestate.net/images/listing_photos/21_nightclub.jpg
http://www.achotelexperts.com/photos/casinos/ballys/image6.jpg
http://www.theatlanticcitycasinos.com/ballylob.jpg
]

An eventful day

Yesterday was a little better than usual days in terms of feeding me some excitement and momentary stimulus of adrenalin.

It was a little incident on the train which became one of the marking events of the day. I was traveling from NJ to NY as usual on NJ Transit train. And as usual the stations passed one by one. All of a sudden, while the train had stopped on one of the stations, there was some disturbance and movement in the passageway between cabins. And in the blink of an eye, some 4-5 cops entered the cabin from both the doors and shouted at us to get out of the train right then. I could not figure out what the situation was but no sooner had the cops entered than we got down the train and luckily there was another train on the other end of the platform which we could take and safely reach NY. Some action to start the day with!

In the evening, I had my team dinner which was at a steakhouse. One of my team members had organized the event and he was feeling quite uncomfortable when I told him that I do not even eat eggs. He specially asked the hotel manager to arrange for some vegetarian dish for me. We reached there and the restaurant was a very posh setup on 46th street of downtown New York.

The menu had only two types of items mainly. 2 pages full of wine varieties. And one page full of beef varieties. The price range of wine was astonishing and was suitable to people from most varied financial backgrounds. The range started from somewhere around $40 a bottle to the maximum which I could locate - $2000 a bottle. Such luxury and class.

My stubborn intolerance and dislike for alcoholic beverages prevented me from tasting the delicious looking drink which was smoothly making its way from the bottle to the glasses like a creek of divine liquid. Enticing and luscious.

And that 'special' vegetarian food item which was brought to me is beyond description. It was a mixture of various vegetables, some hardly recognizable by an average Indian, all of them in their most raw forms.

The funniest looked potatoes. It was called mashed potatoes. And the item was made out of one potato. Without exaggeration, it was literally plain boiled potato, and that too with the skin intact. Without any alternatives, I tried to eat something called asparagus and broccoli. The other half of the plate had mushrooms which I dislike from the bottom of my heart, spinach leaves and a few unknown (wild looking) vegetables.

Somebody had ordered a dish called creamed spinach. It did taste like the curry of our own Paalak Paneer. But by the time it had arrived on our table, I had lost all the enthusiasm to try anything at all. Thus I just had a spoon to make that fellow feel good who had organized this party.

The bill per head was around $150 dollars. I can state with confidence that this is the most expensive place I have eaten at. Or attempted to eat!

While returning it was quite late and people say it is not very safe to travel late in NY subway trains. I took my usual train from 53rd street to Pennsylvania station NY. There were not many people on the train. And once again I found myself in similar but much less thrilling situation like morning. Again the train stopped at a station and I heard the announcement that the train I was on will stop at the next station so whoever wanted to go to Penn Station, would have to change the train from that station. Once again people got down and we had to wait on a very threateningly quiet, small and dingy subway station. Finally I reached home at about 9.30 or so at night and it was the end to a 'not so normal' day.

Questions

You take one step towards future from the present and several things happen. Your present becomes past. The fears of change and future are allayed. The mind is filled with excitement and heart is filled with new memories of something which has just morphed into being the past from present.

Why is it that you always long to go back in time and live the days of past again. When you are in college, you always long to go back to school days. Suddenly the prayer halls which you never liked to attend while you were in school start looking charming, lovely and innocent. Why is it that the school teachers whose lectures were terribly boring, you start missing them? The chirping of students around in the class, playground all looks very rosy and distant.

I miss my school days most. Whenever I try to remember my college days, I never have many memories. It's always studying on those lawns, or those haunting lab assignments or one or two events that I had participated in. But they are all there because they are part of my past. Not because they are special to me. I never feel that thrill or long to re-live them.

And I have this question today that why is it that most of the times you think that you were much happier in the past. You always say 'Good Old Days'. Have you ever heard someone saying 'Good Present Days'? Sounds odd, doesn't it?

The event that instigated this question in my mind is that suddenly I realized, I wanted to go back to UofA! It's been just five days in the industry and I miss a hundred things already from my grad school days. I want to get up at 10 in the morning like old days. I want to be able to go to sleep at 3 at night. I want to go to library in shorts. All of a sudden the formal clothes start feeling clumsy on my body. I would rather go back to my attire of jeans and a T. This really amazes me because I have always loved wearing formal clothes. May be the reason is because I have to press them before wearing and it's such a laborious task.

The most annoying thing in the present is to have to shave alternate days. There was a time during grad school when I used to shave once in a week and could afford that unkempt look. An old T with worn out jeans and carelessly parted hair and grown facial hair. This was the look not very unfamiliar to me in those days.

It is really marvelous to think about this! I could never imagine that I would recall my days at UofA and even more I would even long to re-live them! This really astonishes me.

Is it that we never appreciate the beauty of present because we are too busy dealing with our day to day lives. We are afraid of the future. But when the present becomes past, we are carefree. Because it is never going to affect our lives. Those days, places, events are all past. You don't have to worry about them now. Whereas the present, it is still there. The actions we take are going to decide the future. They are going to make an impact on our tomorrows. That's why we are always very cautious and worrying about what will happen next if I do this or that.

Only if we had the powers to know the future, we might be able to appreciate the beauty of present.

Observations

I've been commuting between NJ and NY for four days now. It's been a very interesting experience! Will jot down some observations.

1. People never rush in and out of trains or on the platform. No matter how crowded the platform is and no matter how quick the train takes off, people will never rush or push aside others. Extremely patient, tolerant and considerate of others. Something of blaring contrast with Indian mentality.

2. Two guys never sit together in the trains even if they know each other well. If you are a man, sitting close to another man is looked upon as suspiciously gay behavior. I have been observing people on the trains. I never saw two guys sitting on a 2-person seat. And when they sit on a 3-person seat, they sit on far corners, trying to maintain as much distance as possible.

3. On the escalators, 2 people can stand side by side like all escalators. But interesting thing is that the left queue always moves. That is if you want to stand on the escalator, you are supposed to stand on the right side. If you want to climb up or down, you are supposed to be on the left queue.

4. On the NJ Transit (NJ to NY) the ticket checker comes to every seat, takes the ticket from you and places a chit (A colored strip of paper with some numbers written on it) with a punch hole on the head of the seat in front of you. There is a leather pocket on the seat in which they slip this piece of paper. And when your destination station is about to come, they come and take this chit back.

5. You can buy ticket on the train also but you need cash. I had a bad experience when I was carrying the pass but the pass was of next month and the conductor said you will have to buy ticket as this pass is not valid in this month. I had to get down at the next station. I did so even if the conductor didn't ask me to. Plain old ego! Lesson learned: Always keep your eyes open, inspect the things you buy and carry some cash in your pocket always.

6. NY people have complete disregard for walk signs on the road. They act just like we do in India. They will look at both the sides for coming vehicles and if there is no vehicle till a reasonable distance, they will cross the street even if the walk-sign is off. How I love this spirit :P

7. Within Bloomberg, the free food is consumed in same quantity as it would have been in India somewhere. People here in US do not feel embarrassed about free food. Even in my school, I hear people mentioning free food every now and then. In the school, we have this custom of having cookies, coffee etc on every special lecture organized by the department every week. And the subject line of the email always reads 'Free food now on the 9th floor atrium !'.

8. Bloomberg has TV screens here and there in the office space. Recently they are showing the photographs of new hires. It was fun to see my photo being displayed across all the floors of the office :)

First day at Bloomberg

Today was the day I would not say I had been waiting for very eagerly, but certainly the day which holds significant importance in my career and my professional life. It was my first day at Bloomberg LP, as my internship commenced today.

I had already visited the place yesterday as part of 'net practice' and so I was quite familiar with the system of the local trains here. I live in Iselin in New Jersey state which is about 30 miles from Manhattan, where my workplace is. So the way I commute is I take a train from New Jersey to New York, Penn Station. And from there I take a local train (NY Subway) to reach office. This total takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

It is just like commuting in Mumbai. The fight to beat the morning rush, mechanically boarding the trains, switching the trains, reading on board to kill an hour of commuting and finally reaching the office in time. Or rather before time.

The Bloomberg LP building is one of the most impressive and massive structures on Lexington Ave. which is the heart of Manhattan, NY. The building is an architectural marvel. It is built in the shape of a hoarse shoe. And the complete structure has glassed outer surface and the exterior walls are slanting, giving it a very creative and modern look.



The training program started right on time at 8 in the morning. There were about 30 other people starting the internship in the same batch. We were given the schedule and on the first look itself we realized that it was going to be a hectic day. The composition of the batch was really impressive. People from UC Berkeley, CMU and other giants formed the part of group which was really cool. It felt good to be working with people from such places. The places which are like pillars of computer science field.

The workspace is really cool. With all the free food and drink stuff like cookies, chips, juices, cold drinks, coffee and so on. Everywhere you go in the building, you will encounter Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio. To the extent that even in the restrooms they have kept TV screens which show Bloomberg TV. All the walls in the office building are made up of glass which they say signifies Bloomberg's open and transparent policy.

The Bloomberg has specialized computers which they call Bloomberg Terminal. They have two monitors which are connected with each other and you can seamlessly work on both with just one mouse. This was my first experience with such terminals! It was fun though. The keyboard are also tailored to the Bloomberg Software.

The training was more or less boring except for the last part which was Introduction to the Basics of Finance. It was by a very cool fellow who taught us as if he was teaching first day class in some MBA school. At the end of the day we were given two free books, one 'Bloomberg by Bloomberg by Mike Bloomberg' and another by that finance guy about basics of finance.

I learned new lesson today about Metro trains that once you swipe your Metro pass, you can not reuse it for another 18 minutes ! I made a goof up of coming out of the exit door immediately after entering and then I tried to re-enter. The gate got locked and the security personnel told me that this is how it works. It blocks for 18 minutes after one use! Crazy american customs!

The difference between NY commuting and Mumbai commuting is huge. Mainly in terms of facilities and infrastructure. Here also you will encounter multitudes of people. All busy and rushing. Ofcourse the number is not comparable in absolute terms with the number of people traveling in Mumbai locals. But the trains are a lot cleaner. They have a/c which goes without saying. And you can easily stand if you don't get to sit. The timing and punctuality of trains is definitely same. Here I can't say NY has and edge over Mumbai as Mumbai locals are also very efficient and punctual. It's just that in Mumbai, the unmanageable number of people turn the whole local commuting into a frenzied walk through a pandemonium.

It so happened that I started reading the book 'Maximum City - Bombai Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta' and couldn't keep myself from comparing the two Cities. The jewel in the crown. Mumbai in India and NY in USA.

The cities which appear to be extremely charming from outside but are hollow from within. The pockets filled with money, mind filled with worries and hearts empty of emotions. Everyone is in the race to outsmart others. The corner cabin in office, a brand new car, branded suit and tie. Status, money and lifestyle. All at the expense of peace of mind. But who cares about peace of mind anyway? All that matters in this rat race is money.

Life is too short. You have to act quick. That goes in harmony with the lifestyle of NY and Mumbai. That's where I would love to belong. People say you wear out after a few years in NY and Mumbai. I say to them, let me have that too. I will feel it myself and then decide whether it is true or not. Let's see how my dreams are fulfilled. Let's see after these three months, where destiny takes me when next year I look forward to start my full time employment.

Down memory lane - First few days in Tucson

It's been almost a month. I have been underground totally. Partly because I did not have time for thinking and writing anything due to my exams. And partly because I actually did not have anything to write about.

Now I am back. I hit upon some writings that I did about 8-9 months ago. It's about my experiences in Tucson and UofA during very initial days. This post will look a little anachronistic but I thought it would be fun to keep it here.

Enjoy ! (If at all anybody is bothering to read my blogs. Of which I am highly skeptical.)
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September 06, 2006

It is a new life out here. Everything has changed around me and here I am typing my story in Tucson during the last one month.

I finished one month in Tucson. And it has been an eventful journey. It is the beginning of a new life. The life of a graduate student and in a broader sense, the life of an independent human being.

I remember landing here one month ago. It was a calm night at Tucson airport which I have realized now to be a typical characteristics of all Tucson nights. Mostly clear skies and favorable temperature. I was loaded with three huge bags. A big blunder immediately followed.

I was standing at the baggage claim and it was the area for some other airline. As such I am quite used to standing for baggage claim for long time because it has always been the case that my baggage takes the maximum possible time. My bags usually enjoy that ride on the luggage belt and that is why I suppose they take long time to come out to me. But this time it was different! As I said, I was standing at the wrong place. And I realized that after almost 15-20 minutes. Having realized that, I went to the actual claim place then and took the bags. Then a bigger problem was facing me.

I could not locate any free trolley to put my luggage on and the trolleys required some coins, I don't remember how many quarters. I did not have the change and thus could not get the trolleys. I was wondering how I would drag the bags away from the claim space. And if this was not enough, I could not locate Somu – the person who was supposed to come and pick me up. I waited for him for 10-15 minutes and was wondering if I should make a call. But again the problem was I did not have coins to operate the public telephone. I realized that it was a grave mistake not to carry change, especially quarters.

Luckily, I spotted him in some time and he was with another guy named Mohan who was the one with a car. So we started towards my first destination. The name of the place is University Gardens and Kishore – India Club president lives there. So he had arranged for a temporary accommodation at his place.

I reached there and saw a flood of people already gathered. All unknown faces. Most uncomfortable situation for me! It is always difficult for me to mix with the people seamlessly in initial meetings and more difficult thing is to remember people’s names and faces after having met them once. So I was sitting there without speaking much when Karthik came forward and started talking with me. And it was the start of a new friendship for me. As I look back over the past one month, I feel that we have been very good friends now.

Then some seniors tried to start the mock ragging but could not convert it to a full scale ragging and thus we were saved a lot of unnecessary stupidity. I escaped further boredom by making an excuse that the flight was tiresome and I needed sleep.

The first morning in Tucson was very eventful. I was sitting in the drawing room of Kishore’s place and I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door and saw one more stranger. I just said ‘Hi’ without much interest and introduced myself. He introduced himself as Vinayak ! He was the one I was going to live with here. He had been in Tucson for a couple of days and so was familiar with places. We went to see the place which was going to be our home in Tucson for at least a year from then. The name of the place is ‘Crossroads Apartment’ which is two blocks away from Kishore’s place – University Gardens.

The apartment looked beautiful even when it was unfurnished at the time we saw it first. It is Ground floor – First floor type of structure. The kitchen and sitting room are on ground floor and the bedroom is on the first floor. It is built in 1950s and is a pretty old type. We have trees in front of the house, tea-tables and swimming pool. It is an ideal quiet place to live in. It included all the amenities like air conditioning, heating, gas, microwave oven, and furniture etc. And the biggest plus point of the place is the free wireless internet! We have been using that heavily since the day we came.

Continued ......

Next few days

Thus after looking at the house, we agreed to sign the lease for a year. The contract is $475 per month and early vacating would result in penalty of $900. The contract would cover furnishing including microwave. After finishing the formalities we went to do the shopping! After all it was like setting up a new home! This was the first such experience for me as I have never been in a hostel.

I remember buying things like dust-bin, pillows, broom, cleaner, detergent powder, oil and what not! I would not say that the experience was exciting because it really was not! But anyway, it had to be done. Gone were the days when I used to enjoy the freedom from going to any grocery store or a mall back in India. Now it had to be done and done by myself. Thus it was a unique experience of shopping for my own house. We finally moved into the Crossroad Apt. that day only and started arranging things.

The memorable experience on the first day in the new house was messing up with air conditioner. I tried to lower the temperature in the AC and it did not like to take orders from its new master. Thus it straightway refused to operate. And there we were. Left in the heat at night. But luckily the there is a fan in the sitting room. So I brought my bed from the bedroom and set it up under the fan.

The responsibilities were many during initial days. Many formalities had to be completed. I remember I had to submit some documents at the college, open a new bank account, apply for electricity transfer on our name, get the keys to our post box, activate the gas connection and many other things. These were my first lessons of an independent life. A unique experience was at post office. We went to that place and did not know what to do. Because there were some numbers being put up on the board and we did not know whether we had to get a number from somewhere. I remember asking an American gentleman and he was kind enough to explain me the system of getting a number from a machine and waiting till the number is called.

I am very impressed by the system here. Most of the people enjoy their work and look happy. At least they look happy which is in sharp contrast from the situation back in India. But I will refrain myself from making comparisons. People here are very patient with everything. They would listen to you carefully and try to help you. Holding the door open for the person behind you is a very normal custom here. I am greeted with a broad smile wherever I go. Even government places like post office or Social Security Office have friendly people. And things move in a very efficient manner. At least till now, I have not encountered any stumbling block in my processes.

I remember my struggle to memorize the roads in and around the University. I am not legendary for my road sense anyway which I confess. The University is huge. It is about 1 square mile in area. And it is so wide that many busy streets pass from within the University area. It is a beautiful place. Full of trees and gardens and fountains. The buildings are very old fashioned with the tallest building being our own Computer Science department building. All the buildings are redbrick type. I have fallen in love with some places like Student Union which where I am sitting right now, writing this. They have benches under the trees where you can sit quietly and do your work. And added advantage is the wireless availability at this place. There are fountains around this place which make beautiful sound of water and reminds me of the days when I used to sit in my balcony back home listening to rain.

There are two libraries I visit often. Both have very nice places for studying. Isolated tables and chairs provide a refuge from the busy places of university. The place is full of multicultural people. I remember the first day of International orientation when every one was asked to identify oneself with the country. No wonder we Indians outnumbered every one else. Even China. Indians were the biggest in number. Followed by China. The orientation was not very eventful and was mainly a series of boring lectures.

----------Coming back to the topic of people composition of the University, there are people coming from various parts of the world. And the roads in the University are always full of people during the weekdays. Apart from cars, people use bicycles and skateboards. The roads have restrictions for everything. Some roads you can’t ride your bicycle on, some roads you can’t do skate-boarding and all sorts of rules to make the life of pedestrians easier. One more interesting thing about campus is the UofA anthem playing at 12 noon everyday. It is a very jolly theme and exciting to listen to. They play it from the top of library and graduate college buildings and it creates a very energetic atmosphere.
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It ended here. I think I had got tired of writing. I get bored of things pretty quickly and I am sure I was fed up of this too. So it ended abruptly here! But when I read it now, it feels nice to recollect some of these incidents.

Another day in paradise - Phil Collins

I know this song since I was a kid but today I watched the video and paid attention to the lyrics and they literally gave me goose bumps. The words are so true and sad. And the accompanying video makes it even more tragic. The song is about the poor and homeless in US. But it applies even more accurately to India. How many millions of people live life in real hell everyday. Compare their lives with ours and we realize that "It's just another day for you and me in paradise"

Lyrics:

She calls out to the man on the street
sir, can you help me?
Its cold and Ive nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?

He walks on, doesnt look back
He pretends he cant hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, its another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, its just another day for you,
You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see shes been crying
Shes got blisters on the soles of her feet
Cant walk but shes trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that shes been there
Probably been moved on from every place
cos she didnt fit in there

Oh think twice...

The Devil Programmer

I am self proclaimed devil programmer now ! Look at the following error message which Valgrind (A memory checking tool for C programs) gave me while I was testing one of my programs on it.

==25161== More than 100000 total errors detected. I'm not reporting any more.
==25161== Final error counts will be inaccurate. Go fix your program!
==25161== Rerun with --error-limit=no to disable this cutoff. Note
==25161== that errors may occur in your program without prior warning from
==25161== Valgrind, because errors are no longer being displayed.

Valgrind is definitely not a very amicable tool ;) This message especially is quite hurting to a programmer's false ego !!

I mean can you imagine! Someone can actually write a program with 100000 errors in it ! I have just done it !!!

P.S.
I have yet to find the cause of these problems. I hope I can do that in this birth. Otherwise my soul will wander in eternity, searching for root causes of 100000 errors.

Where are you my friend

One of my naive attempts at writing poetry. Dedicated to one of my best friends.

Where are you my friend

Those days we spent together
Unruffled by the world around
Surfing on the sea of friendship
Caring not for tomorrow to come

The days are gone and the time unknown
All look like a rusty book on a shelf
But it has the smell that haunts me
And I take the book and turn the pages

I see characters all colorful
Each one with a story to tell
All look distant but they are in my eyes
And I feel their beats when I hear my heart

And in one such story i see you
You and i and the beautiful world
The story is of love and friendship
I read it and my heart sings with joy

But the story ends without an end
The characters lost in the oblivion of time
Where are you my friend i am here
Stuck in a moment with you in mind

[Image Source:http://www.bergoiata.org/fe/landscapes2/Landscape%20-%20Green%20Corn%20Field.jpg]

The Good Shepherd

When you sit on the edge of the chair in a movie which has no action, no ghosts, no romance or no thrill then it is the indicator of the fact that the movie is strongly gripping because of its acting, plot and characters.

Similar was the case with The Good Shepherd. Directed by the legendary Robert De Niro, the movie is story revolving around the life of a CIA agent. The plot has two timelines. One during the world war II and the one depicting the events during the political conspiracies in Cuba in early 1960s. It is not a movie which you would want to watch with a flippant mood, a pitcher of coke and popcorn. No, this movie is very serious and it keeps you literally on the edge of your chair.

Although the movie is slow paced, you would not want to miss any series of events in the movie because if you did, you will be cut off from the movie. I had tough time catching all the dialogues and also keeping up with unfolding of the seemingly disconnected events. But it all makes sense in the end when the director starts to put pieces together on the board.

The character of Edward Wilson played by Matt Damon is quite intriguing. His personality is shown to be extremely introvert. He is shown to sacrifice everything he loved for the sake of serving his country yet you will not hear any patriotic belaboring from him. He silently conveys his commitment and dedication to his country through his work. There are some brilliant dialogues in the movie. For example,

"Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish they have the homeland, Jews their tradition;... What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?"

"The United States of America, the rest of you are just visiting."

This dialogue really hits you hard if you are also a 'visitor' of this country like me. But it shows the kind of spirit that an american national has for their home country. Only if we had shown this spirit to all the invaders of our nation, we would have been a different country today.

Angelina Jolie is wasted in the movie. And so is Robert De Niro himself. Matt Damon literally shadows all the other actors in the movie. This movie is definitely a defining role for his acting career.

Watch the movie if you really want to know the other side of CIA story.