Footprints in the Sands of Time

Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa

2006-05-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Vimal:

The next day meeting her in the bus and not breaking down was one of the hardest things I ever did. College was a nightmare, and I came home early that afternoon. I decided that I would travel by bike to college hence forth, until I was strong enough to see her again.

Nivedita:

Two days later I did not see him on the bus, and I wondered what was happening, I figured he was avoiding me.... well it was natural. if only he had not asked me and if only I had said NO to begin with.

Vimal:

College was good and in a moment of josh I decided to speak to her in the evening, I invited her to come with me on the bike and suprisingly she assented.

Nivedita:

He asked me to go back home with him, I was relieved he was able to speak to me and I readily assented.

Vimal:

In retrospect, speaking to her that day must surely rank among one of the dumbest things I did. And then began the real life version of Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na

The day after

2006-05-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

Vimal:
News takes time to sink in: good news or bad news .. things did not sink the evening of the phone call. I do not remember if I slept well that night, I do remember that the next day was horrible. I really thought I could not go lower than the previous night, I was WRONG !!

I decided that the only way to get over things was to concentrate on work ... that resolution lasted for 30 minutes... finally, decided to escape my parents suspicions by driving to my friend's house. Let us call him Anand.

An aside: one of the best support groups I have in life is this close set of friends .. around four of them... we are really close and would do anything to help the other person ..

And now I went to Anand's place. It was a 3 hour long talk, interspersed with a lot of crying, when I did drive back, I was far better ... strong enough to face college the subsequent day, strong enough to see her in the bus stop the next day, strong enough to travel in the same bus the next day ..

far stronger........

Click!!

2006-05-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

Nivedita:

He called me and there was palpable tension as he spoke....it was 2 horrible hours on the phone, with him pleading that the relation should continue and it would be unethical to terminate it.

"That's unfair.. you can not do this to me!!"

"I am a very bad person, I am sorry."

Vimal:

It is so easy to bad mouth yourself and get away from a commitment, is it not ?

When I realised the pleading and blaming would not work, I lost it .. wild claims of having lost the will to live, etc... you get it .... the ramblings of a spurned lover.

Nivedita:

When he spoke about never being able to forget it , I was getting a bit freaked. I did realise that it was just ramblings, not dissimilar to a drunken man.

"Okk, I guess this is the end, I am dissapointed."

Vimal:

That was a final ditch effort to cause guilt.

Nivedita:

A wave of guilt washed over me. I kept firm. My future was more important than his short term emotions.

"I am sorry, Best of luck with your future."

Click.

Vimal:
And that was the first among the many breakups in the on and off relation.

The First breakup

2006-05-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

Nivedita:

I had told him that I would speak to my sister and call him later in the day, I kept waiting for him to call me, I knew it was going to be one emotional breakup, but it was something I had to do.... I mean I could find better, and it was better to break early than later in the relation. I was expecting it to be bad, I never realised how bad it would be.

Vimal:

I kept waiting for her call.. it never happened, late that night I called her... I aldready knew what she was going to say....I prepared myself to be strong... I still could not believe that she was paying so much attention to her sister's "advice".. litte did I know, that the sister story was a gentle way of telling you that you were not good enough.. people learn... I learnt it the hard way

Part 3: The one where the break up began

2006-05-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

Nivedita:

Once I had agreed to his proposal, I told a couple of close friends about this, and they both felt that I could have got a better guy. This started me of on a chain of thoughts and I tentatively decided to break things up a bit... maybe I was too young for this, however I did not want to be blunt about it... so I mentioned that I would speak to my sister and decided that I would use her words as a reason. The previous night, as we were chatting I was really sweet to him to reduce and prepare him for the hurt.

Vimal:

Everything was so great, until the day she started talking about postponing dating since it may attract the wrong kind of attention. I was vaguely worried, but I guess I trusted her .. little was I to know how things would change dramatically the next day. Do you notice the last conversation before a break is always extra nice and special ?

Part 2: The question

2006-05-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

Nivedita:
When I woke up that morning, things were different, he was in love with me, now I had to decide. Thinking back, what happened was avoidable. Off course one is always wiser in hindsight.
We ended up meeting in a park outside M G Road.

"So, you are serious right about this entire thing?"

Vimal:
That was one of the longest nights. I was hoping against hope that she would agree, maybe it would have been better if she had said no to begin with..

"Off course I am serious, you know me well enough, I hardly interact that much with girls, and I definetly do not play about with people's emotions. Trust me I am serious. I love you and no one else."

Nivedita:
We spoke for a long time. In essence I agreed to the concept of us. It was a lovely feeling, to think in terms of "us" rather than me.

Yet I had this gnawing doubt, I mean I could have done better than him. A lot of people are politically righteous, when they claim that external appearances do not matter yada yada yada, but well all of us are tiny hypocrites on the inside.

Vimal:
There seemed to be this restraint about her. She did not seem incredibly happy. I was not sure if she was always restrained in expressing emotions or whether there was something wrong.

"What's wrong, you seem unhappy.. is there something on your mind?"
"Oh no!, I am fine, I am so happy!!!"

Nivedita:
And that was the first lie

Vimal:
Looking back,that was the first lie

Nivedita:
I said Yes, the delight on his face was incredidble. We drove back home, looking forward to a nice future together, yet there was this small doubt in my mind

Vimal:
It was the happiest day ever, she said yes, she said yes.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was no longer single. Thats right, I was committed.
The next day morning, I was speculating that it really was not tht difficult to get into a relationship.

Famous last words

To be continued..

Part 1: The beginning

2006-05-14T23:22:00.000-07:00

Nivedita:

It had began 2 years ago, I had known him before that for quite some time. A friendship blossomed which turned into something more. One day he popped the question rather unconventionally over the phone .... I was not averse to the idea, but ... My sister had once been in a similar situation and her love was not well received by my parents. Also I did like Vimal, he was nice to hang about with...but did I love him?
I asked him for a days time and settled upon a rendezvous the next morning in a park....

Vimal

I asked her!!!!.. I asked her at last!!!. She seemed positive, but was reffering to some earlier incident in her house... Still she asked me to meet up in a park in true filmi style. All I could think of today is whether she would say yes on the morrow.

To be continued

"How much do you want?"

2006-05-12T01:39:00.000-07:00

Nivedita:

"How much do you want?", I screamed over the phone.
His constant whining had pushed me over the edge. I wanted to end it with him, then and there.
"How much money do you want?", I repeated.
There was no answer from the other end. I think that brought out the animal in him, for the first time he shouted back at me.

Vimal:

"How much do you want?", she screamed.
My knees became weak. I just stood there, unable to answer, blinking uncomprehendingly. " Had I even heard right ?", a voice screamed into my head.
"How much money do you want?", she repeated.
I had heard right !! I could not believe my ears. This was not a cheesy Hindi movie with the heroine's father trying to buy the hero's love. This was real life.
I think that was the beginning of the end. A white rage built in me. Yes that was the beginning of the end.

To be continued..........

life is a stage

2006-05-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

life is definitely one big theater ... everyone acts ... even some of my lovely "friends" .. one learns as you go through life ... One thing I learnt recently ... there are a lot of people waiting to spit on you when you go down ...

"I think the word is schadenfreude" ;)

PS: the joke is that this statement is lifted of from the Harvard newspaper in an article related to Kaavya Viswanath ... in an article about plagiarism :)

footprints in the sands of time

2006-04-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

So we have plans of hitting Teotihuacan this May ... the excitement reached a peak and led to us losing our minds ...

trawling through wiki

2006-04-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

I was reading some Islam-Hindu conflict articles on wikipedia, the edit wars just confirm that there is a low probability of the two communities actually reconciling.

There will always be this layer of mistrust between them

Time for change

2006-04-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

Enough is enough .. got sick of being submissive . i am going to decide my own future, if others want to be a part of it professionally, fine ... else I can chart my own future ... and I will come out on tops.

Fernando ...

2006-04-15T02:17:00.000-07:00

Some songs haunt .. this is one of them .... drove Vinay crazy singing it non stop 3 hours :)

Can you hear the drums fernando?
I remember long ago another starry night like this
In the firelight fernando
You were humming to yourself and softly strumming your guitar
I could hear the distant drums
And sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar

They were closer now fernando
Every hour every minute seemed to last eternally
I was so afraid fernando
We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die
And I’m not ashamed to say
The roar of guns and cannons almost made me cry

There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, fernando
Though I never thought that we could lose
There’s no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, fernando

Now we’re old and grey fernando
And since many years I haven’t seen a rifle in your hand
Can you hear the drums fernando?
Do you still recall the frightful night we crossed the rio grande?
I can see it in your eyes
How proud you were to fight for freedom in this land

There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, fernando
Though I never thought that we could lose
There’s no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, fernando

There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, fernando
Though I never thought that we could lose
There’s no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, fernando
Yes, if I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, fernando...

of Google Pack and ICPADS

2006-04-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Been playing with Google Desktop, Google Pack and Picassa.....

Revisited some old snaps from Bangalore Trip 2004.

In other news my Bayesian Net paper got accepted by IEEE, International Conference of Parallel and Distributed Systems.... my first IEEE paper.... yaay !!

2006-01-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

THE ISSUE: The Bush administration wants Google to turn over material from its databases.
WHAT GOOGLE SAYS: It opposes releasing the information, saying it would violate users' privacy and reveal trade secrets.
WHAT'S AT STAKE: Privacy advocates are concerned that the vast amount of information Google and other search engines know about their users could be thrown open to anyone with a court order.
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“Censorship and the concept of the government as a big brother, seems to exist in every country, no matter how “democratic”. In the United States, any criticism of the government, and they come after you. In India, any deviation from the rigid social fabric, and people and the self appointed cultural police come after you. Heck in some “free: countries, religious freedom is limited. All said and done, the grounds on which the offense is taken differs, the proactive section which comes after you varies.” - anomalizer

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All this was food for thought, in the last few weeks, I have been contemplating on a ideal setting to settle down in post education, so far the concept of direct democracy practiced in Switzerland beckoned. Once again the question to be answered is how important are these issues say 10 years down the line, as of now I feel these are very crucial issues. Yet once one “settles” down, there may be other priorities and the aforementioned privacy and freedom issues may pale in comparison. Maybe we all get caught in daily life so much, that we do not pause to think where we are heading, maybe life becomes mechanized.

a rare beauty ...

2005-12-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

A rare beauty in the North.
She's the finest lady on earth.
A glance from her, the whole city goes down.
A second glance leaves the nation in ruins.
There exists no city or nation that has been more cherished than a beauty like this.

The House of Flying Daggers ---- 'Nough Said!!

Undernet

2005-12-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

41 servers, 13 countries, 100,000 clients at any time

Welcome to the Undernet

Lately been spending a lot of time in the trivia channels. Met some nice people and managed to grab a third spot on #Trivia-World, in the process answering 1008 questions in 6 days. ^_^

Also haunt the #bookz channel - nice place to share e-books ^_^

Some good trivia joints to hang out
#Trivia
#Trivia-World
#Zindagi
Ping me if you reach there ^_^

My Avatar -> ny_soc
irc Client -> mIRC
irc Server -> Oslo1.NO.EU.undernet.org

a zombie mindset

2005-12-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

The incident in Meerut was well covered by media -- enough said .... but the problem is inherently deeper The Indian mindset has degenerated into a zombie mindset since the "golden" Vedic age......

They had the open mindedness to come up with new philosophies, new ideas, new systems to help structure society.....

We on the other hand --- seem to have been stuck in a rut, where we blindly accept what out forefathers have to say without questioning or adapting systems to reflect newer times ..... And we are probably going to enforce our same out-dated & unquestioned philosphies on the next generation as well .. brutally stamping out any attempt to go against it ....

PS : many people have questioned the aim of my periodic ranting .... there are 2 reasons -- one if my outlook is incorrect , and some one does provide rational arguments , I would change my perspective ...... second if my outlook is correct ... even if one reader ... questions his beliefs in a rational manner, my objective is achieved ....

ladies and gentlemen welcome to india

2005-12-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

A melting pot of double standards and pseudo morality, a throwback to colonial times where "foreign"( read white) is still revered, a blinkered view akin to the English ladies of Jane Austen........the ability to justify anything no matter how irrational as tradition or cluture..... ladies and gentlemen welcome to India.

I expect a lot of abuses for this email . I remember once debating with ex classmates in MVIT and when I mentioned (what is only a fact) that India is a developing country, people made a big noise about me not being patriotic since I study here, blah blah blah

the point of the mail, to correct any flawed system, one needs to recognize the flaws and go about working to remove them , interestingly most of urban India hates it if some one points that there may be a flaw in the system

Anyways here goes .....

Take a sampling of some recent news breakers in the past few months.

* Sania Mirza preaches safe procreation. -
Huge protests from various sections of the population. O my God... good Indian girls are never so foul-mouthed and blasphemous. Result - Mirza backs down, apologizing for voicing her public opinion on the prevention of AIDS - this people is pseudo morality

* Smoking ban in movies
Ah the intellegentsia of India believe that banning Shah Rukh Khan from smoking on the 70 mm screen is more important than banning the practice in real life. Bravo Lok Sabha, you guys crack me -

* Belgaum controversy
Shiv Sena chief Thackeray threatens harming of Kannadigas in Mumbai if anything happens to Belgaum. This genius is a respected politician in Maharashtra

* Ganguly - ah my favourite rant
Steve Waugh sledges, Ganguly sledges - Steve Waugh is great, Ganguly is arrogant
Flintoff removes shirt, Ganguly removes shirt - Ganguly is irresponsible
Chappell claims 'A', Ganguly claims 'B' - India except Bengal will believe Chappell
They accussed Ganguly of politics, yesterday's selection seemed to stink of the same politics, only now in the hands of a different ruler.

* Delhi Police
These geniuses have a knack for being over zealous in any high profile case, read S African cricketers - Gibbs and Boje, Baazee.com CEO.
Infact when i was discussing this with a couple of undergrad classmates about the unfairness of the Baazee CEO judgement, one classmate believed that I was supporting this, since I am a potential expatriate. O my... what a repartee

Wrapping up, I definetly do not propose that US is a better country, no ways, but what is alarming in urban India is the reluctance to admit there are problems in the system, and labelling any attempt to do so as unpatriotic

Ace-King is Anna Kournikova

2005-11-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Poker players have a lot of different names for a lot of different cards but the latest one for Ace-King is Anna Kournikova: it looks really good but never ever wins...
-- Norman Chad during the 2005 World Series of Poker

Rest in Peace -- Delhi Bomb Blasts 29 October

2005-10-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Imagine waking up on a fine saturday morning in anticipation of the festivities ( Id and Diwali ) ahead .....

Imagine promising your kids shiny new things for the upcoming festivals ......

Imagine that air of celebration, and relaxation which fills you ( a break at last ) .....

Imagine taking your kids to the shopping bazaars, to buy those new toys, clothes and crackers .....

Imagine never coming back or worse.......................................

coming back with no children........

Rest in Peace -- 55 victims of Delhi Bomb Blasts 29 October

Not normal way Vasanth sahib, the English way

2005-10-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Setting -- Electrical Enginerring Block 242, Pakistani ex classmate comes into my office to clear some doubts he had regarding an Altera interview, the tech being done away with we move on to other trivialities

He: So, Vasanth, nice name --- what does it mean ?

Me: Oh spring season, is that not a hindi word ?

He: Oh yea……., how do you write it?

* I write my name in English *

He: So how is it read, right to left or left to right ?

Me: (Without thinking) the normal way

He: Not normal way Vasanth sahib, the English way

* I apologize and laugh *

---- End of conv -- laughter followed by uncomfortable silence prevails ---------- we move on

Realization of the Day – He was right, nothing is normal/abnormal…need to do some soul searching on my opinions

to live on the edge

2005-10-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

To play with fire
and live life on the edge
To be alive, not 'alive'
To 'die' every day.....
yet wake up the next....

To redefine
and invent
To be a bit crazy
To shock.....
yet awe.....

the 10 best things

2005-10-23T23:44:00.000-07:00

The 10 best things in my life in no particular order

FRIENDS SEASON 1 ......................FRIENDS SEASON 6
FRIENDS SEASON 2 ......................FRIENDS SEASON 7
FRIENDS SEASON 3 ......................FRIENDS SEASON 8
FRIENDS SEASON 4 ......................FRIENDS SEASON 9
FRIENDS SEASON 5 ......................FRIENDS SEASON 10

Gyan of the week ----- bwahahahaha -- my life SUCKS ...

SATC

2005-10-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

* 4 women -- Check
* Aritificial (?) elitist women -- Check
* Socially relevant topics -- Check
* Women's standing in society issues -- Check
* A lot of bit**ing -- Check
* Profound endings which are supposed to make u go hmm and aah -- Check

Your vote -- Sex and the City --
Female Lib / Feminist Crib (sour grapes) -- Leave a vote --
anonymous is fine

Thanks
NuttySocrates
PS: Blatant & shameless publicizing of blog -- Check

It was the best of times

2005-10-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times in his life.. the day after the CAT exam, he had got a mind blowing score..... dinner together in a dreamy restaurant.....
It was the best of times in India, Team India coming back strongly in the World Cup 2003

She ventured ... " So now things are settling, are you not happy now?" .

" No, yea this feels good, but this is not good enough. Getting a good CAT percentile is like India defeating Pakistan, winning the world cup would be like marrying you...... "

India never won the world cup...

They never did marry....

u dont get laid

2005-10-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

X: go on
Y: i am a very frank person apparently
Y: and also i do not attempt to be politically correct
X: so?
Y: as in i say wat i believe
X: u dont get laid
X: besides that what else?

conversation between 2, 24 yr old male IT engineers .... any comments ? The conversation implying that you need to be diplomatic and not blunt to be in any relation .......

Any comments ?

the Matrix does not exist

2005-10-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yaaay it is confirmed --- we do not live in the Matrix ---

ever since I saw the movie I have pondered --- what if the matrix did exist ..... etc etc

all about blogs

2005-10-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

So I have been surfing a lot of blogs recently and I realised there are some distinct categories blogs fall into --

1) Terse blogs -- full of logical and rational statements -- example - Arvind

2) Hmm blogs -- very profound blogs -- the one s which make u go hmm and aaah -- example - Vikram, Java and i recently stumbled across Sayesha

3) Uproariously funny blogs -- not suitable for politically correct people - example The Matrix Warrior

4) News blogs -- comments about happening events -- Op-Ed style -- example Animesh

any more you people can think of :-?

30 things to do before 30

2005-10-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

30 things to do before 30
So I was thinking i turned 24 3 months ago, O MY GOD I am that old damn ... damn 10 more years I ll be old enough to be a grandpa .....

Neyways I was wondering 30 things I wud luv to experience bfor 30 so here is my list no order ... just random .......

1) Fall in Love again, not scared about being hurt
2) Get married on the banks of Lake Mansarovar in the Himalayas [free pullovers for guests, I wud imagine it ll be cold :)]
3) Have 2 kids and adopt one
4 ) Make a movie about some serious social issue
5) Take an extended sabbatical ( like my b in law who took a paternity leave ) when I have kids, and spend awesome time with them :)
6) Go to an island for a vacation
7) Be the only one on the island with Amisha Patel :)
8) Start a Cupid Consultancy -- you know -- joining 2 fluttering hearts, etc ;)
9) Travel around the world once a year every year ( like this year, like a satellite, exactly one rotation )
10) Play cricket in Bangalore at 2 am in the night {done volleyball at 2 am 2 weeks ago :D}
11) Buy the crystal chess board from Swarovski at Forum, Koramangala
12) Play volleyball in Infosys under floodlights
13) Become a guru in Bayesian Networks / Smart Devices
14) Buy a farmhouse in Kodaikanal/Coorg like a summer retreat
15) Have tea with the Queen of Great Britain
16) Buy an Aibo for Tarun, my nephew
17) Take an advanced course in Sanskrit
18) Learn ball room dancing
19) Be a playback singer for some Bollywood movie
20) Travel on the roof of a train
21) Take a course in photography
22) Learn to speak Bengali/Malayalam ( arguably the 2 toughest Indian languages)
23) Join the Mercedes/McLaren F1 team as a design engineer
24) Have a private jet
25) Become a politician
26) Come up with a world famous theory
27) Win a prize for my world famous theory
28) Buy a piano even if I don't learn it
29) Be the first person to land on Mars
30) Make such a list every year :)

*********************************************************
Vasanth Krishna

The End ..............

2005-10-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

"Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light"

It has been a long time since I felt saddened over the "demise" of some one great -- I think it was El Aynaoui's 4-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, 21-19 loss to Andy Roddick in the Australian Open 2003, or during that last test when Steve Waugh retired....... and now it is Ganguly .......

So it is official -- Ganguly India s most succesful captain gets axed - Dravid a great player in his own right is in the hot seat ...... inspite of all the criticism Ganguly has faced, I yet believe that his agression was what has brought Indian cricket to what it is -- something which the Gavaskars, Tendulkars and Azhars of the past, great players though they were , were not able to do ........

In some ways it is a blessing .... atleast the Ganguly bashing which was extreme in some cases will stop ...... but knowing the average Indian mind, it is just a matter of time before the Dravid bashing starts .............

Here is wishing the best for the new captain ........

and I hope Ganguly, who has done for Indian cricket what no one has done before, will be shown due respect for his efforts ...

will this be the decline, after a golden run, or will this be a better era...... only time will tell .....
after all when Rome assasinated Caesar, for the "betterment" of the empire, in hind sight no one was able to equal him , ever again ................

and regarding the loneliest man in cricket today -- rest assured that he will always remain the inspiration for atleast a few Indians ......

even if his career ends right here at 33, in my humble opinion, he will be one of the all time greats ............

Amen .............

as good as it gets :)

2005-10-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Woke up Sunday morning to my first copy of New York Times , ( I do not like Los Angeles Times too much since it is too gossipy )

10 sections
- 432 pages
-- pure bliss

the book review magazine included in the section was great, and the editorials were as good as you can get ..........

ah good news reporting at last ---

why new york times rocks ? try this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some rants - any answers?

2005-10-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

SC order --- so now the SC rules that the Bihar dissolution is unconstitutional. Manmohan Singh had actively endorsed it earlier..... goes to prove no matter how scruplous you are, party politics will force you to compromise...... result - kalam and manmohan singh descend one step from their lofty perch of righteousness ?

Ganguly elbow -- so Ganguly's elbow injury is confirmed, Chappell's email had mentioned that he was faking that injury, and there was large scale criticism of Ganguly faking injuries.... now what .. apparently Chappell had lied/exaggerrated .......

off course most of India would not find fault with that, would they ?

10 year old tortured -Bangalore - so in Bangalore this domestic help, a 10 year old girl, is scorched with iron and starved, on suspicion that she had stole some earrings. as usual our brilliant police force are not able to arrest the lady who had inflicted this torture . does a law against domestic underage help sound good ? or perhaps against domestic help ?

of Gold Digging ants

2005-10-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

so I had been reading Megasthenes' ( the Greek historian at the court of Chandragupta Maurya I , 300 BC ) Indica, a fascinating account of India in those ages and had come across this fascinating para about gold digging ants --- ( excerpt at end of the post ) ...

Anyways suprise --

A team of explorers say they have solved the puzzle. The explorers believe they have pinpointed the land of the legendary gold-digging ants and the people who profited in one of the most inaccessible regions of the Himalayas along the upper Indus River.
They say the outsize furry "ants," are in fact big marmots. These creatures -- Megasthenes calls them "bigger than a fox, though not so big as a dog" -- are still throwing up gold-bearing soil from deep underground as they dig their burrows. Most important, the explorers say they have found indigenous people on the same high plateau who say that for generations they have collected gold dust from the marmots' work

Howzaat !!!

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Excerpt from Indica : Project Gutenberg :

They get the gold from ants. These creatures are larger than foxes, but are in other respects like the ants of our own country. They dig holes in the earth like other ants. The heap which they throw up consists of gold the purest and brightest in all the world. The mounds are piled up close to each other in regular order like hillocks of gold dust, whereby all the plain is made effulgent. It is difficult, therefore, to look towards the sun, and many who have attempted to do this have thereby destroyed their eyesight. The people who are next neighbours to the ants, with a view to plunder these heaps, cross the intervening desert, which is of no great extent, mounted on wagons to which they have yoked their swiftest h6rses. They arrive at noon, a time when the ants have gone underground, and at once seizing the booty make off at full speed. The ants, on learning what has been done, pursue the fugitives, and overtaking them fight with them till they conquer or die, for of all animals they are the most courageous. It hence appears that they understand the worth of gold, and that they will sacrifice their lives rather than part with it.

kashmir beckons

2005-10-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

so Jumboo and I were conversing and are tentatively considering srinagar ang gulmarg this december ....... lets see how it turns out... anyone willing to join us ... please come along

Utopia thy name is sleep

2005-10-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sleep -- divine, fabulous, fantastic, glorious, marvelous, sensational........................

unfortunately in my life in the past two years

Sleep -- unattainable, unrealizable, unthinkable, unapproachable .....................

You ask why --- well ever since I was comfortable sleeping on my own, I used to sleep in my own room , have the door locked, silence and peace used to reign in my bedroom, a very conducive environment for a perfect slumber ..... that was paradise

And after 10 years of that, I land up in Los Angeles ..... paradise lost....

initially I did not have time to sleep for long stretches and now even if I have the time, since I share my apartment, and we have different sleep cycles, I end up sleeping in the glow of a 100 watt lamp, steadily accompanied by the tap of a key board.......
admittedly better than 6 months ago when my dear roomie insisted on smoking ever so often in the bedroom , along with his killer snores ............... yet .....

result : never get more than 4 hours of quality sleep a day .........and now I feel wretched ....... irritable .... perpetually tired ......... unfocussed at times ......

by God when I marry, if my lovely wife wants to play Age of Empires(AoE) on her laptop at 3 am, I am going to ask her to continue the lovely game in the living room ........ off course, on second thought, if I do see her playing, pretty high odds that I wold want to play multiplayer AoE ( lovely game that one by Microsoft ) but that is a different story ................................

Surrogacy

2005-10-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

A single father ---through surrogacy ----- Kolkata

You can read about it here

Incredible isn't it ----

It apparently leads to a lot of legal / ethics issues --- as of now single single men are not allowed to adopt in India -- so with such a break through, single men can enjoy parent hood --- will conservative India be able to absorb this -- or will there be the expected opposition .......

Some points to ponder........
Dear readers what are your opinions ............

Single fatherhood would also mean that women do not always get to keep the child, men many get a fighting chance as well during nasty divorce proceedings ? { Convention has it that single men will not be able to take care of children ...........}

Single fatherhood would mean single men would be able to adopt unlike the myopic and discriminatory couples and single women only ?

in search of that spark

2005-10-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

there are times when you need inspiration -- that elusive spark --- a spark which can ignite your passions, a spark which can whet your appetite for success, a spark which makes you realise how less you have achieved and how much more there is to do .........

over the weekend I found the spark --- in the writings of an ancient historian from Roman times -- Plutarch --- specifically his Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans ---- {a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. The surviving Parallel Lives, as they are more properly and commonly known, contain twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair contains one Greek and one Roman .}

ended with 4 lovely classics from amazon

Plutarch's Lives Volume 1 - Author: Plutarch
Plutarch's Lives Volume 2 - Author: Plutarch
Caesar: The Gallic War - Author: Julius Caesar
Cicero on Oratory and Orators - Author: Cicero

a mockery of justice

2005-09-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

so here we have the poster child of abu ghraib -
Lyndie England --- and after all she has done -- she
is given a token imprisonment of 3 years

apparently the "honourable" court felt an "apology", a
reprimand and 3 years will suffice --- this from  a
country which apparently "upholds" human rights and
the Geneva Convention

agnostic i may be, but i really hope there is some
higher justice and she and the rest of her ilk pay for
their crimes

the geniuses at

2005-09-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

What can I say --- the Indian government seems to be full of mentally deprived individuals. They will not stop people from smoking in every day life, but will try to enforce "idiot rules" in filmdom... beautiful

*******************************************************
In an unexpected move, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has proposed adult certification for films with smoking scenes, a move that might not find favour with the Health Ministry, which is keen on banning scenes that show actors smoking.

How Geeky Can you get ....

2005-08-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

So the high speed internet has not yet been installed in the new place and hence I bike over to the office anytime to check emails -- anyways was having a nice afternoon nap and wake up to see Vikram all worked up --- the genius has not had dinner but he is more intent on coming to my office to check email --
quote unquote - I have not checked email for the entire day man ...

:) oh well ..

Tiring Day

2005-08-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Slept : 4 am
Got Up : 8 am
Tele COnference : 10 am
Found House and signed lease : 10 30 am
Started Packing : 11 30 am
Showed Face at Gokul s Birthday : 3 pm
Rented Truck for moving stuff: 4 pm
Started Moving all the furniture and my belongings: 5 pm
Turned in keys for old house : 5 pm
Finished Moving : 7 30 pm
Basic Unpacking : 8 pm
Quick Shower and back to my office : 8 30 pm
Long Night Ahead

video games can kill ;)

2005-08-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

so i was surfing about reuters -- the oddly enough section and got this

A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.

Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.

After he failed to return home, Lee's mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

He died a few minutes later, it said.

South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, has a large and highly developed game industry.

do your eyes pop out when you sneeze

2005-08-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

so I was treversing through Y! ask a question and got this awesome post

Why is it impossible to sneeze with your eyes open?

The received wisdom states that if you don't blink when you sneeze, your eyes will fly out of your head. Thankfully, as is often the case with urban legends, this theory is a load of hooey. Your eyeballs are safe and sound in their sockets. For a funny pictorial representation of this hypothetical scenario, check out this urban myth page from MTV.

In reality, a sneeze is simply an involuntary nervous response to nasal irritation. According to this nifty science blog entry, the sneeze impulse affects a variety of body parts, including the abdomen, chest, neck, and face. During a sneeze, the impulses that travel through your face cause your eyelids to blink. This response is entirely automatic. There's nothing you can do about it. Sneezing puts a lot of pressure on your head and respiratory system, so blinking is probably a protective mechanism.

The point is that all of these responses (the abdominal contraction, the sharp burst of air out of your lungs, the general lunging movement) are intertwined. When you sneeze, you can't do one without the other.

Of 33 percent and other weird policies.

2005-08-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

Of 33 percent and other weird policies.

Call me a MCP, yet I stand by my beliefs. I have never believed in the quota system and never will. India’s Reservation Raj began with independence with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes having the benefit of reservations. It slowly spread into reservations for other sections of the society and now the concept of General Merit is really a standing joke accounting for less than 15 percent in some cases.

Apologists for this system claim that this would be the only way to bring all sections of the society on equal footing.

Well perhaps that is true theoretically, however the practical implementation of the concept is atrocious. We have people who are less talented leading better people all because of the stupid reservation system. The system is misused by a lot of people and the members of these so called ”backward classes” who are in real need are not benefited too much by this system.

And now we go a step further and the government wants a 33 percent reservation for women in the parliament and other legislative bodies. And to complicate it further some parties want a quota within the quota for scheduled caste and tribal women.

Off course most people wanting to be “politically correct” would “support” this system.

I believe in the concept of survival of the fittest, if you are good you do well, else you do not. That is how the world works and we just need to deal with it.

Women are equally good and better in any field as compared to men and this system will not benefit the talented ones.

It will only benefit the mediocre section of people – the wannabes – and to imagine some one mediocre could reach some place in preference to some one better only on the basis of caste and gender is downright crap.

Obviously Shoba De and gang would label any one opposed to this system as a MCP, but that once again is a label which really means nothing , a label which in today’s world is used freely to brand anyone you do not like or views you do not share.

My 2 cents – if you are good and you work hard, you will reach places, else you will not, that is evolution, that is what breeds excellence, that is what the world works on and that is how we progress. Reservation in any form {caste, creed, religion, gender} is a joke which encourages laziness and ineptitude – “Hey forget dude.. anyways I have a quota … no problems” , etc…

Vasanth Krishna Namasivayam

mixed grain cereal

2005-06-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

I used to eat a lot of Kellogs, however since I came across the origin of Kellogs in Wiki, I decided to boycott it as a protest.

Anyways partly due to fear and partly due to indignation I decided to stop Kellogs Corn Flakes

Anyways since then have decided to shift to Gerber Mixed Grain Cereal for Babies ... the way I had figured it out --- since babies need all that nutrition that food has to be good for health --

on the downside it is very bland taste wise -- how do babies eat this stuff????

so people tip for the day --- go baby cereal :)

bubble baths !!

2005-06-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

people i discovered paradise
more commonly known as a bubble bath
try it out -- it rocks !!!

http://www.ehow.com/how_3615_bubble-bath.html

How to Take a Bubble Bath




	Steps:
1.	Unplug the phone.

2.	Lock the door to prevent intruders like kids and spouses.

3.	Stop the drain in the tub.

4.	Light aromatherapy candles. Choose lavender to relieve stress and sandalwood to relax.

5.	Turn on the water and adjust the temperature to your liking.

6.	Pour a small amount of bubble bath ' or the amount recommended on the bottle label - into the running water.

7.	Allow the bathtub to fill with water and suds. If you are not satisfied with the amount of suds in the water, add more bubble bath into the running water.

8.	Turn off the water when the tub has filled. Replenish hot water as needed.

9.	Slowly enter the bath water, feet first.

10.	Breathe deeply and relax.

Does Friends freak you out

2005-06-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

So I was watching some episodes of Friends along with my room mate. He is from Spain and we had this interesting conversation

Juan : How do you relate to this serial? Don't you get freaked out watching this stuff?
Me: Why? I think it is cool !!
Juan: Well considering there is so much poverty in India, how do you relate to this serial which is all about rich people
Me: Hmm

Well that seems to be a pretty standard view -- India is still the land of rope climbers for most westerners. Pretty pathetic. People we need some image builders for the country......

reservation politics in India

2005-06-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

So Andhra Pradesh becomes the first state to incorporate a 5 percent reservation for muslims in the educational and job sector

Read more - > http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1145517.cms

Have always been against all forms of reservation be it SC/ST/etc and am oppossed to this as well -- I do not consider this to be secular

This is cheap communal politics played by the AP Government

of shaking projectors and earhquake proof buildings

2005-06-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

So today we had a 5.3 scale earthquale hitting Southern California and Los Angeles .....

could not make out too much other than some shaking overhead projectors ....which got us on to whether the buildings @ USC are earthquake proof......

Giby's 2 cents --- the buuldings are earthquake proof to the extent that it would collapse straight and not hit other buildings

What a relief ;) !!!!!

the emergence of India

2005-06-15T01:33:00.000-07:00

Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"

Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man

2005-06-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

Che Guevara -- I first came across this name about 2 weeks ago, when Gokul was wearing a T with his picture on it ... never paid too much attention. Late yesterday night Gokul mentioned the movie The Motorcycle Diaries and Che Guevara again...so I read a bit about him last night
and wow I was floored...

Che Guevara --- a man who figured in the Time's 100 Most influential people list along with the likes of Gandhi and Einstein.

Che Guevara did have some last words before his death; he allegedly said to his executioner, "I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man".

Read about him if you can ........ here is one leader who lived and died for his ideals ....... not like todays netas who change their principles ever so often.... or like how the RSS chief would crudely describe - "Like a prostitute who keeps changing her form, politics also keeps changing its appearance. There is no permanent element in politics"

In other news .... got involved with CRY ... was euphoric :)

On the lighter side -- came across this on a bulletin board in school

Thesis

SCENE: It’s a fine sunny day in the forest, and a rabbit is sitting outside his burrow, tippy-tapping on his typewriter.

Along comes a fox, out for a walk.

Fox: What are you working on?

Rabbit: My thesis.

Fox: Hmm. What’s it about?

Rabbit: Oh, I’m writing about how rabbits eat foxes.

(incredulous pause)

Fox: That’s ridiculous! Any fool knows that rabbits don’t eat foxes.

Rabbit: Sure they do, and I can prove it. Come with me.

They both disappear into the rabbit’s burrow. After a few minutes, the rabbit returns, alone, to his typewriter and resumes typing.

Soon, a wolf comes along and stops to watch the hardworking rabbit.

Wolf: What’s that you’re writing?

Rabbit: I’m doing a thesis on how rabbits eat wolves.

(loud guffaws)

Wolf: You don’t expect to get such rubbish published, do you?

Rabbit: No problem. Do you want to see why?

The rabbit and the wolf go into the burrow, and again the rabbit returns by himself, after a few minutes, and goes back to typing.

SCENE: Inside the rabbit’s burrow. In one corner, there is a pile of fox bones. In another corner, a pile of wolf bones. On the other side of the room a huge lion is belching and picking his teeth.

(The End)

MORAL: It doesn’t matter what you choose for a thesis subject.

It doesn’t matter what you use for data.

What does matter is who you have for a thesis advisor.

interesting ......

2005-06-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

With all the controversy about Jinnah and the 2 nation theory - I was wondering if there were Indian supporters of this theory
Apparently Yes --

The following extract is from Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's notes.

"I had gone to Delhi to attend the meeting of the Congress Working Committee. It was the meeting at which partition of the country was discussed. Gandhiji and I were against the partition. I cannot say what the other members felt about it, because I had not talked to them yet. But Sardar Patel and Rajagopalachari were in favor of partition and they were putting pressure on others. The question of a referendum in the North-West frontier Province was also discussed. Gandhiji and I were against the referendum too. I said there was no need at all for a referendum. Less than a year ago, the election in the province had been fought on the issue of India or Pakistan. We had won with a large majority and the Muslim League had lost , it was as simple as that. Sardar Patel did not see eye to eye with us and they put a lot pressure on the Working Committee and argued about the desirability of referendum at great length. Finally the Working Committee agreed with them and voted in favor of both partition of the country and the referendum.

On this occasion I told the Working Committee and Gandhiji that we Pathans were standing side by side with them in the struggle for the freedom of India and that we had made great sacrifices for the cause. "But you are deserting us now, I told them and throwing us to the wolves." Is there any doubt about what the Pathans wanted? That was one reason we do not want the referendum. And another reason is that India has left us in the lurch. So why should we have to have referendum over India or Pakistan?" Whereas everywhere in India the representative Assemblies had been asked to decide whether they wanted to remain in India or go over to Pakistan, the North West Frontier Assembly had not been given this right to choose. This was an insult to the whole nation of Pashtuns, which we could not tolerate.

Under these circumstances and after such treatment by the Congress, the question whether I wanted to remain in India or Pakistan is not only unnecessary, but improper, because the Congress, which was the representative body in India, not only deserted us but delivered us into the hands of our enemies. To meet them now is like killing all my Pathan self respect, ethics and traditions. That is why we said that if there was to be a referendum at all, it should be on the question of Pakhtunistan or Pakistan.

But nobody listened to me and the referendum was forced upon us.
As we refused to take part in this referendum the way was clear for the Muslim league, and they used all the cunning, deceit and force they could command."

breaking in is tough

2005-06-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

so this happened abt an hour ago

I had been out in the apt complex to do my laundary and I forget to take my keys
result -> I am stuck out at 12 in the night in the apartment cmplx with no keys -- 2 roomies are out the third is sleeping
try to wake third roomie -- - No response ... he is deep asleep

also I can not get out of the apt ccmlpx to make a call since I have no cash my wallet being inside .....

so after abt 10 mins of ranting and raving I go around and come to the back of our apt .... so here we have a grilled door followed by a sliding glass door -- so I could put my hands through the grilled door .. however the keys on the couch was too far ...

went abt srching for a long stick ..
found a pair of crutches ... got them and tried to get the keys
again too far ...

all hope gone now
and after another 15 mins my roomie comes back and lets me in

thank god for small mercies

Un Nouveau Commencement

2005-06-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

New Bike - Check
New ID Card - Check
New BackPack - Check
New Fitness Regime - Check

Last but not the least

New Roomie -- Check

Welcome Juan --- a cinematographer from Spain --- my roomie for the next 3 months

Un Nouveau Commencement - A New Beginning ( English to French thanks to Google )

obituary to a good friend ...

2005-06-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

it is with a heavy heart I bid farewell to my dear cycle which was stolen ............

i guess I ll be having to get a new one

In other news lunch for the day -- COmpete Planned Food -- 10 teaspoons of Complan

looong time

2005-06-07T02:34:00.000-07:00

so it has been some time since I posted --- I was really caught up in moving, work, the course and the projects ........

the presentation went good and the project is chugging along smoothly now --- one setback Dharmesh dropped out ...... we are working hard to compensate

So I came across these 2 awesome links ...
chk them out and have fun

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/videos/dancing.wmv

http://dd0s.org/~wooolf/crazyfrog/

D Day

2005-05-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

tommorrow is the big day - D Day

the big presentation ---

hope to God we will manage to impress the professor .....

will be working through the night

wish me luck people !!

will post after the presentation

Time for a pit stop

2005-05-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

The last few days has been extraordinarily hectic --- been working almost 16 hours a day --- either at USC Housing or at EE 560{the course I took this summer}, or at the Directed Research under Professor Prasanna or as grader under Professor Puvvada......

Today quite some work got completed .... yet there is a long way to go .... Friday I have this big presentation coming up and the professor wanted to see some changes ....... so need to rebuild my presentation from ground up in the next 48 hours ......

Anyways I ll rest now for few hours and be back ..... with a new post ....

Stay Tuned !!!!

laughing out loud

2005-05-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

so was surfing through some Xanga blogs and got this from a Mumbai guy's blog

His Blog ID is Blatherskite and he is on Xanga ... one thing I can tell about all his posts -- they are always different -- yes they generally are very objectionable and have a lot of racism, chauvanism, jingoism , etc -- but they are different from the normal stuff you read on blogs ...

anyways here is one of them .......

Warning : Risque Content

the entire blog is here

http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=Blatherskite&tab=weblogs&uid=79357341

here is an excerpt

I had a conversation with a friend of mine which went something like this:

Friend - Since you aren't doing anything tomorrow come out with us.

Blatherskite - No. I haven't wanked in a week. I'm wanking tomorrow.

Silence followed by manic laughter.Blatherskite - What? Don't you'll wank?Friend - Yeah, but we don't go around telling everyone when we're gonna wank.

This puzzles me. I guarantee that this friend of mine would be the first to tell me he humped a chick but somehow finds it difficult to say he whacked off. It's disturbing really. Everyone does it, mostly everyone denies it. Hypocrites.

hmm food for thought ----

2005-05-22T12:20:00.000-07:00

so I was voice conferencing with one of my friends @ Infy --- and he felt that I had changed to a certain extent ---

he felt that I try really hard to make sure I have a good rapport with all my acquantainces ---- and that perhaps I get affected when things aren't going smoothly with anyone I know ...

he felt I wasnt so in undergrad ---

hmm not sure myself --

have I changed as compared to undergrad --
also if I have changed is this for the better or the worse ?

something I need to chew on ...

A lot of water has passed under the bridge

2005-05-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

so yes lots of things have happened in the last 24 - 36 hours ---

to start of ---

i spent a huge time --- trying to make calls to India using the Reliance Network --- unfortunately like most networks --- it is performing miserably now that the traffic has grown considerably --- so most calls get dropped, there are cross connections, bad connections, you name it and you will face it ....... kind of frustrating considering that to reach a mobile number in India, I need to dial a 11 digit toll free number -- followed by a 15 digit pin number followed by 2 digit country code and the 10 digit mobile number ...

so well that is 38 button presses to reach one damn number --- and when the call is dropped, you do get a bit irritated ......

anyways ended up calling the reliance support people and they had not much to offer except for "upgrading the network" --- anyways --- this continues for some more time, I am going to switch to Verizon.......

in other news, this lovely person (according to me angel) whom I mentioned in the last few posts seems to be fine with me :) so that is nice ...... how do I put it --- gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you know things are all hunky-dory ...right ? :)

in academic news I enrolled for some directed research under the professor --- in my humble opinion -- he is a fountain of wisdom --- and this is an awesome opportunity to drink at this fountain :)

over the summer, I would be coding the DLX processor, and as Gokul suggested it may be a good idea to put in some ideas for energy optimization and put it all up as open source --- a truly soft processor ---

also got to meet Jingzhou Ou yesterday --- a senior PhD candidate under the professor -- and he gave us some pointers on soft processors -- so will be working on that this weekend --- have a report to submit to the prof by Monday ----

also need to work on the tic tac toe -- some finishing touches and have some ePD stuff to do over the weekend

Finally I need to shift to my new house ....

hectic weekend -- most importantly -- this really important person is fine with me :)

someone up there a.k.a God really seems to be liking me :)

i am at peace .........

first class of summer

2005-05-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

so I had the first class of the summer semester today at 2 pm --- the class is a digital design class which other than covering some issues in design also makes you familiar with the hardware description languages

I was warned in advance that it was a heavy course --the Prof picks out the top 40 students from a previous course over the last 3 semesters and puts them in this class ---
and the class lived up to its reputation ----

first class -- we have 2 homeworks -- 1 lab due within the next 10 days ----
and the speed at which he covered design concepts was incredible ---

all said and done -- this is the kind of stuff i live for ---
immense competetion
awesome subject
chance to prove myself ---

in other news met with another Prof -- to discuss some issues which we will attempt to tackle --- in FPGA devices --- and a vague idea of putting multiple cores on one FPGA ---

so have some work today -- another meeting regarding FPGAs tomm -- need to prepare for that --- also I have to submit some schematics and C code for the intelligent tic tac toe i had made in dec to the prof ---

finally some more packing left ---

maaan i love the speed of the course and the competetion I ll be facing ---
just the things I enjoy the most -- :)

as far as my previous post was concerned -- i hope I just did not hurt/pis of the person totally --- pray for me people

bye
vasanth

of HUGE promises

2005-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

wow

today has been a very heavy day -- very heavy emotionally---
started off with worrying about a very close friend in Infy who apparently had some issues

and went on with somethings more deeper ...........
i laughed
i cried
was euphoric
was down in the dumps

also made a HUGE promise ----- a promise that I will try my level best to keep

it hurts when someone you like aldready has some one else

anyways whatever

time will tell all -----

hmm sometimes I wonder if I am unlucky in love !!!

Yipee New Place

2005-05-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

so I am moving into USC housing -- so a bit tied up ---
here are some snaps of the place --- click on the snap to view a slide show

hmm

2005-05-16T04:13:00.000-07:00

some time since I posted .. waiting for my grades to come out so that I can relax....

so I ll beback soon people :)

people change ---

2005-05-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

people change -- very dramatically over the years -- i had this friend in college -- let me call him Don --- and I always imagined that we were great friends ---- but for some reason he tries his best to avoid me ---

before I came here in 2003 -- I was desparate to meet him and tried my best , offering to meet him at his office premises during lunch --- he declined ---- I tried to meet him when he came here to SFO -- he once again declined --- again this time when I came to Bangalore --- there was this group meet --- he expressed his inability to come since he had to go swimming :(

and yes at every opportunity, he has some cutting remark to make about me --- I really do not understand why he is so antagonistic to me -- and it hurts --- someone whom you were great friends with being so different in a matter of few years ---

i was discussing this with my classmate Vijin --- he had this to offer ---
Nothing in life is permanent. Sometimes you need to lose your friends as well ... .

Current Mood : crushed

my laptop rocks .....

2005-05-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

this goal of this post is strictly bugging some people :) ---

anyways picture this -- here we are at the Von Kleinsmid Center, a day before the finals.... we need to watch some discussions over the net ..... so Vikram and I have both got our laptops ......
unfortunately the staff has disabled all the network jacks -- forcing us to rely on wireless .......

so anyways Pranjals laptop being the "better" laptop we tried enabling the wireless and connecting to the network but :( tussssssssssssssss the damn thing does not connect ---

fast forward in time -- we enable the wireless on my laptop -- supposedly the worse laptop -- and voila we are on the internet superway chugging towards mastery of Switching Theory ..,...

my laptop rocks -- doesent it :)

A friend in need is a friend indeed ..... similarly my laptop worked when we needed it most ....

bye people -- Pranjal any comments ? ;)

atlast

2005-05-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

I ll make this post short -- the exams are round the corner ........

so after 3 months of back breaking work -- this is what we have

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~namasiva/microblaze.pdf

pretty happy with the effort - considering this came on the heels of http://www-scf.usc.edu/~namasiva/554.pdf

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Venkatesh, Jumboo and Paresh .... without you guys sending the software to us this would have not been possible

Thanks guys .........

PS - one less day I need to stay with my MVIT -CSE roomie --- yippeee -- things are looking up

sleep --- sweet sleep

2005-05-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

As far as I am concerned there is no sharp demarcation between yesterday and today --- I last slept on Tuesday night and it has been one long day ever since ---

Today started of with me working on the ML 310 board remotely ..... I was done with preparing for the presentation at about 8 45 in the morning .... came home for a quick shower .......

9 30 am - I come out of the shower to be greeted by a mail asking me to start the final exam without waiting for him --- so rushed to the university to get the required number of question papers --- loooooooong exam went off without a hitch ---- ended finally at 1 45 pm

2 pm --- had reached the conference hall to present my paper ----- and that went well --- though we have some way to go as far as results goes --- the preofessor was pleased with the kind of efforts we had put in and our comfort with a demon tool Xilinx Embedded Development Kit .....

reached back home at 4 and crashed on the bed --- only to be woken up in those 3 hours by phone calls and then the IDIOT roomie playing some crappy Kannada songs loud enough with the lights on ... whatever -----

anyways now that I am awake albeit with an aching head -- let me get down to my studies and the research work ---- -the professor had quite some suggestions to make regarding some recent technologies --- a shift from FPGAs to FPOAs -- proprietary of MathStar --- he also had some ideas about running hardware RTOS' on soft core processors ----- so this Monday we will have another talk and set up some sort of structure to the work this summer...........................

so now what --- hmm I guess I need to go back to the world of Poisson, Markov and queuing --- it has actually been a long time since I did this stuff -- so a bit slow on the uptake :( .......

if I had to describe the day in one word .......

2005-05-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

If I had to describe the day in one word --- it would be "harried" ..... from the morning, I have had no time for myself to pursue my studies and work......

It all started with my extra office hours ---- tommorrow being the final exam --- which was originally suppossed to be 1 and a half hours but stretched into 5 hours ....... it was a horrible experience .... there were like 6 students in my office at anytime all asking doubts one after the other .... i seriously had no breathing space ..... finally after enduring that for 5 hours I managed to escape for lunch --- my stomach was aldready burning with acidity because of no food since yesterday night ....

Anyways landed at Taco Bell and after a nice Chalupa and Cheesy Fiesta Potato ... joined Dharmesh for running some simulations on the ML 310 Viritex 2 p board ....... took some time on that and proceeded home for a short 2 hour nap .... Now I am up again trying to figure out queuing theory in real time systems ..... after this I have an appointment at 3 30 in the night to work some more on the embedded board and prepare for tommorrows presentation .........

Finally I need to be there at 10 in the university tommorow morning to invigilate the exam .... and as soon as that gets over at 13 45, I have my project presentation at 14 00 .... hmm this is taxing at times ......

In other news .... not many people seem to be realising the importance of RSS feeds in the future of the internet ... so I decided to dedicate some time and prepare some documents and upload all RSS resources at some place ....... hopefully some one will notice them and start making use of this incredibly powerful tool .... ......

The RSS feed for this blog is http://vasanthkrishna.blogspot.com/atom.xml ..... just click the XML button in the left sidebar ....... place it in the FeedReader and voila you get live updates from this site .... ...

anyways I need to get back to M/M/1 queuing .... see you people......

Bad Bad Server !! No Donut for you ........

2005-05-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

So today I received my first scrap on Orkut ............. thanks Supriya ..... so anyways I logged on to Orkut ---

The experience was frustrating ---- it felt more like dial up than Comcast............

Google generally represents good service and I assumed the same would apply to the world's most popular friends network (?) ................

I was unfortunately proven wrong ... most of the links I clicked on landed up in this

and boy was I peeved .....

in the end shut down orkut and went back to Gmail ......

in other news --- sat through this brilliant presentation on detecting ballistic missiles in real time ... and then had a brief chat with the Professor regarding the summer research , with him emphasizing strongly on publishable results ...... ideally we would target the FPL conference ...

other than that ... I need to cram a lot today .. been dozing ...... I guess I ll cram through the night and tommorow ... exams coming on May 9 and 10 ......................

the Result

2005-05-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~namasiva/554.pdf

it never rains it pours ;)

2005-05-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

Yea today was one of those days -- pretty hectic --

so it started of with me having some office hours before the finals to clear students' doubts --- and then I had to do some work on the paper on reconfigurable real time systems ---

Now I started off with customary gusto and about 2 hrs down the line disaster struck-- the damn system crashed and i lost all my work ---- maan with the deadline being tommorow -- that was a scare/frustrating thing to happen---

anyways after blowing out my frustration -- got back to work and managed to finish writing the paper......... still some way to go before the semester ends --- i have another paper presentation on Thurs and exams on Mon and Tue ... so .... also i need to invigilate an exam this thursday ... maan this week is going to be back breaking .....

the silver lining --- for all practical purposes this week will end my masters -- have only 5 units after this out of the 27 ---

hmm tomm office hours again for clearing doubts -- i promised this guy that i ll take him through DMA controllers ---

here we begin

2005-05-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

wow my first post on blogger ....... how do i start.......
hmm ok how abt explaining the weird avatar -- nutty socrates ......

People say that I think a lot .... they also say I get crazy ideas ....... hence the avatar - Nutty Socrates.... pretty presumptuous perhaps ........
I am not new to blogging.... been doing that on Xanga and Live Journal where I use the same name ......... but for some reason I never managed to stick to amyone of them ...... this time I hope I do stick to it.........

so what am I about ....... hmm try this ( link)

so let me see .... here I am nearing my 24 th birthday ....... and I was wondering what I really want to do in the next few years and this is what I came up with ...

Let me list them down in a neat numbered fashion

1) visit a lot of places …. Hmm UK where my sister is …. And then there are the other places …. Canada and Mexico.. pretty close and since I would be visiting UK I can always make a short trip to the rest of the prominent European Nations …. And the next time I am going back to India, I ll make sure I go through Singapore so that I can spend some time with Prajit there and perhaps visit a couple of SE Asian Countries … Thailand, Malayasia ….
2) Ok so I want a decent job paying abt $70 – 80 k per annum … that will suit me fine … I guess I can live of that rather well and also indulge in such travel……
3) Buy a house in Bangalore – yea that is one thing which is definitely needed ….
4) Find some one to marry …. this is a kind of decision which is life changing and permanent ….. so I want to make no hasty decision …. Admittedly I am rather lonely and sometimes have this incredible urge to marry the first girl I meet , I obviously need to be a wee bit less impulsive ………………………
Hmm yea so far this is all that I can think … let us see how it goes from here …..
so i plan to use this blog to document what happens in my life ever day .... I am not sure anyone will ever read this .... and let me see how far I go in achieving what I have set myself to do......I intend this blog to be some kind of reminder to me of my goals and ground reality of what I have actually done in the day .......

ciao people
vasanth krishna namasivayam