Time is an illusion hair growth/loss time doubly so !

This to took 1 year

This to took 10 minutes

GHome !

I am already starting to love it.



The move option for sections is simply brilliant, this is truely AJAX at its best. The bookmark facility can be improved by having a better interface and labelling scheme, would be great if it is searchable. A searchable scratchpad would be awesome.

Google personalized homepage simply rocks !

Irony !

If you happen to fly over India using GoogleEarth you will notice that the only place that has very high resolution satellite image is the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. This area has an high resolution image up to the altitude of 1800 feet. Surprisingly, no other place has such high resolution image, the best image for other places is at 40,000 feet. What is ironical is that, the White House has been intentionally blured and does not have a high resolution image. Isn't there a law governing remote sensing over India ? shouldn't civilian and commercial use of remote sensing data be regulated ? It seems like it's properly reviewed and regulated in the US but they don't seem to care much about the third world nations. In a way this also suggests something about US' foriegn policy and attitude towards India when it comes to national security.

Velacheri from 40,00 feet above

See that dark blue patch in the middle, that's Velacheri lake. Incidentally this is my 101st post, didn't expect to come this far :-)

Click on the photo for a larger view

picture courtesy GoogleEarth

Contact from Alma Mater

I couldn't make it to the commencement in 2003, I couldn't make it to the campus when I visited Chicago last November however, on Tuesday there was something interesting waiting in my email box. An invitation to CS/ECE Alumni reception at Hyatt Regency, Bellevue. I was really excited and decided not miss it at any cost. Unfortunately my car was not road worthy due to a coolant leak and I couldn't get a ride from anyone, either. By 4:00 pm I had pretty much given up all hope. Casually looked up the local transit routes and schedule and bingo ! found a bus that left from cascadia college to Bellevue transit center. One of my friend offered me ride till cascadia college which is about 3 miles from work. I took the bus and reached Bellevue transit center at 5:20, briskly walked to Hyatt regency and got to the Regency Ballroom.

I expected some kind of public meeting like setup but to my surprise, it looked like a wedding reception party. BTW, Hyatt has a 4 star rating, an Alumni meeting in a 4 star hotel ? I'd never heard of anything even close to that. I got introduced to Tammy (Associate Director of Development), it took a while for her to understand how I was really associated with UIUC, I kind of don't enjoy saying that I was an IMCS student, which basically means that I did the course over the internet. I gently hinted that I did the course from India and that Prof. Harandi was heading the initiative. Then with a bright smile she acknowledged that I was an I2CS student, whatever !

I happened to be the first guy to reach the venue bang on time at 5:30. Slowly some crowd started trickling in, I met this other guy from ECE who graduated in 2003. I had to strike a conversation with this guy for Tammy got busy with arranging the t-shirts and other give-aways for the occasion. This guy worked for Boeing in the Avionics division and was new to Seattle. I thought I should talk about something that he doesn't know so it started with the weather in Seattle and about the kind of food on the plate for the evening. Tammy dropped couple of drink coupons with us to start off; I was a little worried at this point. I don't drink so, with all hesitation I approached the bar and asked for some coke, the guy with a snicker handed me a glass of very little coke and a lot of ice cubes, perhaps was too used to making those cocktails on the rocks. That makes me comment on the whole drinking phenomenon, why should everyone drink ? I've taken some of my friends on the wrong side because of this but, I can't help it. Anyways, by this time there was a sizeable crowd forming their own little groups and we were like 4 people chatting, incidentally all 3 worked for Boeing. I was the odd man out, infact very odd that I walked straight out of work so was wearing a formal shirt, trouser and shoes while the others were hopelessly informally dressed. I didn't divulge into much details into how I was actually associated with UIUC until this chinky guy started asking me questions. I explained to them that I did the course from India over the internet, then this guy suddenly shot a comment "That's cheating". WTF, I was completely taken aback on hearing that comment; I felt like retorting in an equally putrid fashion but the pacifist in me stopped me and put an end to it with a repartee: "really, at least that doesn't make me the fool".

Food was simply not the type I liked, all I could eat there was fruits, salads and ice-cream the rest were all dishes made out of exotic non-vegetarian sea and land life forms. At around 6:25 Prof. Campbell and Prof. Kamin joined, I also managed to meet Raghavendra Prabhu who I vaguely remembered being our TA for 411(Kevin Chang's course). Tammy introduced me to Prof. Campbell and Kamin I displayed my reverence by shaking hands and even bowing involuntarily a couple of times in the Japanese style :-)

I wanted to ask Prof. Campbell few question on GAIA but eventually decided not to for that would have spoilt his evening :-) Prof. Campbell had this knack of completing a 100 slide lecture in 1 hour, he was the best at putting us to sleep within like, 10 minutes. Anyways, all those ridiculing apart, he has been successful in his own right, he has been supporting 2K for a while and seems would pay off in spades. However, GAIA and active spaces didn't take off after all that hype and funding it received. I knew Sam Kamin from the CS321 (Programming Languages & Compilers) course, couldn't see his face throughout the course only showed his hands on the lecture videos. He prefers to use those bulky overhead projectors with those transparent/erasable slides. I really enjoyed the course particularly, the introduction to functional languages like ML/SML, really helped. I am finding it very useful now when I try to understand Haskell. Most part of the course was handled by his R.A. Matt Beckman. I still remember this was one of the courses that we took in the first semester and struggled very badly.

Prof. Campbell and couple of others from ECE department talked about the research that is currently going in the respective departments, most of which went straight on top of my head. Some of the Alumni members talked about future meetings and events. I had already raised the point of off campus students not being able to participate in the campus job fairs, for which Tammy explained that all the job fairs can be attended by off-campus students and that she would help if there is any specific request. We were done with all the talking by about 7:00; it was time to get to some serious eating which I skipped. It was quite an interesting Alumni reception; I even got a complementary CS Dept. t-shirt only sad part was that only on reaching home I realized I was given a size XL. The shirt would fit me with a footfall shoulder pad on.

Enjoying the summer !

Normally I don't workout during the weekends, this Saturday I was so bored that I decided to get into the gym and pump some iron. The swimming pool in our apartment complex is very close to the gym. Every time I go past it I find the place overwhelming with activity. Though I am not claustrophobic I wouldn't want to be amidst 20 middle aged american kids shouting at the top of their voice, involving in vandalism and about 10/20 men/women in their late 40s trying to stay afloat and cherising their childhood memory, perhaps. Me with them ? that too in a swimming pool, no way. To my disappointment it is invariably this kind of crowd that occupies the pool area most of the time. This Saturday strangely there weren't many so I decided to take a plunge.

I quickly went home put on my swimming trunks and got to the pool. It had been a quite while since I took to the swimming pool, should be more than a year. Our apartment pool is a modest 50 by 20 meter one with a maximum depth of 5 feet. I expected the water to be cold but it was a little warm, I was not quite sure of the reason. Though many repulsive thoughts crossed my mind while trying to think of a reason but, eventually convinced myself by thinking that the pool was probably climate controlled.

My myopic vision is another big issue while swimming, anything that's beyond couple of meters from me cannot in anyway get my attention. I took couple of deep breaths and dived into the water. I felt as if I had forgotten how to swim. My swimming action was so exasperated that I was displacing more water than covering distance. I also have this strange style, I do like 4/5 rotations of my arms holding my breath and then get my head out badly gasping for air and go with my mouth wide open in an attempt to fill my lungs with as much air as I can. I don't know how bad it looks from outside, but I simply cannot get the graceful action or breathing style that those Olympic swimmers flaunt. I guess it takes more practice, hope I will get it one day.

Another issue surfaced which I was not used to. It was the ~6 inches long hair that I had grown on my head. As long as I was inside the water I was fine, the hair was just floating around in free motion. When I got up they stuck to my face which was a little messy for every time I got on my foot I had to clear my face off the mess to properly see. This got worse for when I tried to swim I could barely see anything that was in front. It was reminiscent of the sequences in the movie Anniyan where the director hangs strands of hair in front of the camera to give the audience Anniyan's perspective. So much for long hair; that makes me wonder if I should give up my long hair for the pleasure of swimming. Anyways, I don't intend to cut my hair anytime soon. I'll probably try a swimming cap or tie my hair properly before making the plunge.

No more 419 Scams, hopefully !

We will not get these anymore, because the people responsible have been brought to justice.

Back in ways !

Finally I found some time. Last 3 weeks have been filled with mixed fortunes, I was quite high in spirits late in June for things were looking all bright and encouraging but again some major turn of events and I am back to my pissed-off state of mind. So my stint of mis-fortunate days continue (I can't blame anyone so, I blame my fortune :-) )

I've been playing some cricket of late. I realized one thing, mediocrity has no place on this earth no body feels happy being a mediocre performer and nobody really enjoys their company. I feel really miserable when I see that I cannot perform above average in anything I do. I got into a cricket club here and started playing tennis ball cricket. It is real fun, we have practice session and matches almost every weekend. The team I play for is really good and we really fight it out on all showings. I managed to take 11 wickets in 4 matches, with best figures of 5/9. I was really happy and thought I should get into cricket ball cricket. Soon found my way into a team here.

Some history: I used to bowl orthodox leg spin with a cricket ball at the age of 10. This was the time when I was in the 4th grade and stayed in Mandaveli. School got over at 2:45, I used to walk back home; took like 15 minutes. The routine was something like this, get back home eat some tiffin, most often it was uppuma, either Godhuma Ravai uppuma or plain ravai uppuma (my paatti's favourite) and some tea. Every weekday at 3:30 this guy Ramanan comes to our place for taking paattu class(music lessons) from my paatti. He was the guy I hated the most at that time for that bugger almost always was very prompt, used to come bang on time and was very regularntoo. My paatti always made me sit for the paattu class. I sometimes showed my disinterest by sighing and tried to avoid the class but, most often would end up being embarrassed, sometimes even verbally threatened or intimidated. I would sit down for the lessons with much gnashing and grinding of my teeth. All this fuss because Boskey & co(yes, the jaya tv mottai boskey) would start their cricket practice at P.S.High school at 4:00 and I would be relieved only at 4:30. I used to get really restless if the clock went beyond the 4:00 pm mark. I would make it very obvious by turning back and looking at the clock every minute or two.

It was Shyam my cousin who introduced me to Boskey & co. Shyam also used to bowl leg spin and I simply used to mimic him, but some how I picked up a different action. I simply bowled diagonal around because he did too. Boskey and co were like at their early 20s I guess, then. I used to bowl orthodox leg spin wicket to wicket pretty consistently at an age when I could barely hold the cricket ball comfortably. Boskey liked to play us becuase all our deliveries used to consistently land on line and at good length. We were the perfect bowling machines for him to step down and loft us for towering sixers. Most of the shots would seem like action replays and boskey used to clear P.S.High school ground pretty comfortably despite it being one of the biggest. I still vividly remember once I was on the out field doing the ball boy act. The out field was notoriously hostile. P.S.High school for those who don't know has one of the biggest but worst maintained ground. Particularly, the ground was no good for cricket. The out field was simply sere and dead. In fact the sand used to have stones and even pieces of broken concrete and also uneven, one side of the ground had some grass with some uncontrolled growth of some mysterious flora. Despite being big it would look cramped by 4 pm with around 10 teams of varying ages playing their own instances of the game. In fact it was pretty dangerous for there was a chance to get hit from all directions. So this one time I was trying to stop a ball by using the text book fielding technique of getting on the left knee with both hands together to collect the ball on my left side. Within few seconds I didn't know what happened but all I could feel was a warm gush of something out of my nose, I tried to wipe it out using the sleeve of my shirt and realized it was blood. What happened was that the ball hit a stone bounced right into my nose. I didn't feel the pain, I was pre-occupied with the thought as to how I would look with a flat nose and how my parents would react if they came to know that I played with a cricket ball. Soon someone informed my elder brother who incidentally was also playing with one of those n teams that was in the ground. He quickly grabbed me by the collar and took me to the tap, on our way he verbally abused me for doing something as stupid as playing with a cricket ball. After all those wonderful verbal anointment he helped me wash my nose and somehow got the bleeding to stop and later got some rudimentary medication.

That was the gentle introduction that I had to the game of cicket ball criket. After that, I joined my school team and we once beat Vidya Mandir in one of those supposedly friendly match. The next chance I got to play cricket ball cricket was for our Apartment(Anand Apartments). Our apartment big boys formed a team. I was not their age, they were all in their early 20s and I was in 9th grade, I still got to play for I could bowl/field pretty well and bat decently. We played and practiced in tarmani CPT ground, this was during the summer holidays. Another interesting and rather ridiculous (if I think of it now) incident happened. We played a cricket ball bet match, that is, whoever wins the game gets a new ball :-) There was this rowdy team called the Canal bank team with whom we played a cricket-ball-bet match. There were few controversial decisions against the Canal bank team and eventually we won the match. During the match there was some unpleasant verbal exchanges from both side. That evening much like in the movies the canal bank rowdies brought few more real rowdies and beat up couple of out team mates, I clearly remember Mani getting beaten black and blue and few others ended up with broken bones, didn't really know what damage was inflicted to the other team. All this just over a ball and a game of cricket :-)

The third time I got to play cricket ball cricket was when I was studying B.Sc maths at Guru Nanak college. There was this college team selection going on; First year into college I did not know anyone, didn't know the PT which was the minimum requirement even to appear for the selection. One of my class mate and myself, we literally craved to get into the team. Guru Nanak college had one of the best grounds in the city maitained by India Cements. The ground had frequent visitor of likes of Dravid, Sriram and Sharath. Even few Ranji matches were played in our ground. I recall in one of the Ranji matches Atul Bedade if, I remember right, cleared the ground and the road and sent the ball in to Rane madras factory. The ground was fairly small; If I am not wrong was like 40/50 yards to the boundary. It was a blessing to play in such a ground. We all assembled in whites for the selection at 3:00 pm the then PT was a tall, stout, bald headed and dark guy should have been in his early 40s. I was told that he was totally corrupt and would let you into the team if we took care of him. Anyways, I was asked to bowl to one of the existing college team member. I did the bowling at the nets, thank god ! that guy was bashing me all over if not for the nets we would have lost few balls to IITm and Rane Madras. I however didn't bowl wides or any full tosses. For some reasons I couldn't get the ball to turn I was not sure if it was because of the mat. The ball was also a little old but simple refused to turn. However, after bowling like 8 overs to 2 batsmen I was shown the doors. I didn't get to bat I didn't want to for I didn't want borrow cricketing gears from anyone particularly the abdomen gaurd :-) Though I could bat a little I didn’t concentrate on it much for it was an expensive proposition. My dream to play in GNC ground came true when I was selected to play for my department (maths). I consider it as the crowning glory of my cricketing career :-). First match I opened for my team :-) sounds ridiculous now. I was not afraid of facing the new ball while others were, I was not afraid for I had never faced it before and didn't know the danger lurking behind. On our first match which was also our last, I opened and scored 8 runs in 4 balls. 4 4 0 w yeah clean bowled. My bowling figures were good 2/24 in 6 overs. We were all out in 30 overs and set them a target of 128. They reached the target in 25 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. It was a humiliating loss; basically we had a very poor batting line up.

The fourth time is now, the present. I am still having difficulty finding a place in the team when it comes to actual matches. My bowling is very poor when compared to others. I am not getting the line and the length correct consistently. I get like 3 balls right for every 10 balls bowled. There is competition everywhere and only the best survive. I hate loosing no matter what it is, I simply am unable accept defeat. All I want to do is perform to my own satisfaction and that's not happening. But the bitter fact is that I am just another run-of-the-mill guy be it sports, music or my career, what to do? Anyways, that has been my tryst with cricket ball cricket. I don't hope to get into the Indian cricket but in whatever level I play I want to play well. I am planning to follow this one with another "My Tryst with Table Tennis" a sequel :-)