Have taken a long break from blogging..........been a while since i updated.......spent the last few days relaxing ...spring break tha na......thoda thoda kam and bahut sara relaxation....slept a lot and saw lots and lots of movies....some seen before and some new ones........had never gotten around to seeing X MEN....and now that X2 is coming out real soon....i had to see the first part......a list of the movies i saw
-Half Ticket
-Hera Pheri
-Andaaz Apna Apna
-Best of Johnny Lever
-X Men
-Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
-Raiders of the Lost Ark
-Fight Club
All this in a span of 4 days...not to mention the ones i saw last weekend......... have become a major junkie......i can feel the pinch now when i sit to work on assignments i need to submit tomorrow morning.........and the devil on my shoulder goes mwwwhahahhahahahahaha.....and the angel has that " I told u so " look on his face......back to work now......

This week i ended up watching two Quentin Tarantino movies on two consecutive days..'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservior Dogs'.......which according to me also happen to be two of the classiest movies made in the genre of Gangster Movies......I have always been fascinated by the lives of these gangsters...the crimes they commit...the heists the pull off.....the flair and panache with which they do things and the "dhande ke usool (ethics)".........

Ohhh and i also like 'Satya' and 'Company'........though i prefer Company to Satya....much to the ire of most people.....apne ko malik bhai aur chandu ka ishtyle jyada pasand hain kya.......if i ever get the chance to be a bhai....i wanna be like Malik Bhai.......

chalo apan jata hain....apna company tayyar karna hian.....

Jo hua so hua........India played well in the World Cup but Australia played even better.......

Inspite of that........ My Country is the 'Bestest'.........

Kya kare......Phir Bhi Dil Hain Hindustani..........

the world cup fever has caught on to such an extent.....today at our factory my dad gave the 1st shift people a half day and the 2nd shift people a 'chutti'.......sahi hain...i wish such things happen here.....my advisor giving us a chutti....:(.....only if)

my parents went to watch Maid in Manhattan the other day....dad says ma was all 'senti' during the movie..crying and the works........he says he did not where to look .......but then if thats what made her enjoy the movie...then he does not mind.......

whereas ma says she tried not to show dad she was crying.....she acted like she had a cold......i was smiling all the while while listening to them give their versions........they are soooo sweet.....

ok now i better start preparing for the match....need to get my lucky t-shirt and track pants ready......good luck and godspeed INDIA

Update on my weekend......

1) grocery done
2) cleaned my room...i.e. layers of dust on my table
3) helped adi make some kick ass pasta with sauteed mushrooms and green peppers with herb seasoning....got the pasta sauce from the store though....not bad anyways
4) did not sleep.....:(

and its only friday nite.......whats happening to me........baccha bighad gaya

Things on the agenda for the weekend.........

1) sleep....as usual....
2) laundry.....pehelo fold clothes washed last week and then wash other stuff....
3) clean kitchen.....along with adi...
4) study for midterm after spring break so i can enjoy my spring break,,,,( wierd??)
5) do some work w.r.t research....been a while since i did anything
6) go grocery shopping....
7) if possible clean room ( akin to spring cleaning)...those layers of dust keep increasing...thank god i dont have dust allergies or suffer from asthama.....

wait a minute......aren't we supposed to enjoy on weekends......none of the above other than sleeping seem like things i would enjoy

an after thought..kick myself for that...how can i forget....india is in the finals you @#$$%%!!!! and what about the malaysian grand prix just before the finals????.....ok...so its settled....i will be enjoying this weekend.......but then i cant enjoy and do all the things listed above....lets crop the 'to-do' list

revised list is as follows
1) sleep
2) grocery shopping this evening ( khana zaroori hain)
3) toss up between research and study for that midterm......we (me ...the angel on my left shoulder and devil on my right shoulder) shall decide later....cross the bridges when you come to them ...
4) kitchen cleaning......lets see if its negotiable with adi (my roomie)
5) spring has just begun...spring cleaning can wait
6) laundary needs to be done...nahi to no clothes to take places i go to for spring break....

so now that its all settled....i think i better get a head start to my busy weekend by rushing home and taking a quick nap......important things first.......
ciao people.....jettega bhai jeetega .... INDIA JEETEGA .....

Last night was the first time in three weeks that i had no work to be done....felt sooo awesome.....was working on this paper for a conferrence......and had gone through 5-6 drafts............got most of it done yesterday and then my advisor decided that the he would make the remaing changes to the paper , that is if i did not mind him making certain changes to the paper....talk about height of polite 'giri'....lai cute hain apna boss...finally got it done this afternoon and submitted.......have been surfing the net endlessly for the past 2 hours...now that work is done.....and the weather outside is so awesome.....forecast for rain this evening...all i wanna do now is go home...make myself a nice cuppa chai and sit on my porch like there is no tomorrow.....ahh but then the mundane things come to light again...my turn to cook tonite....laundary needs to be done....washed clothes need to be folded.....blah blah...blah!!!! and the list continues........in spite of that i refuse to be reminded of all the work hat needs to be done....for the moment i am homeward bound as my porch beckons me and i all i can think is a nice cuppa chai.....so long people......

godspeed

New York, New York

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York
These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York


I want to wake up in a city
That doesn't sleep
And find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap


These little town blues
Are melting away
I'm gonna make
A brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
II'll make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York


New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city
That never sleeps
To find I'm a number one
Head of the list
Cream of the crop
At the top of the heap


These little town blues
Are melting away
I'm gonna make
A brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'm can make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York
New York

Frank Sinatra

New York or the ' city' as most people say.....when u say city...it better be new york you are referring to.......fell in love with the place the first time i saw it and thats how it stand to this date......been there more than half a dozen times in the little time i have been here in amrika.......and i dont know how many more trips i will make...............

For all you 'grad' students out there...........enjoy

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 is it about?"

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

Fox: "That's ridiculous! Any fool knows that rabbits don't eat foxes!"

Rabbit: "Come with me and I'll show you!"

They both disappear into the rabbit's burrow. After few minutes, gnawing on a fox bone, the rabbit returns to his typewriter and resumes typing.Soon a wolf comes along and stops to watch the hardworking rabbit.

Wolf: "What's that you are writing?"

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

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. Finally a bear comes along and asks, "What are you doing?

Rabbit: "I'm doing a thesis on how rabbits eat bears."

Bear: "Well that's absurd!

Rabbit: "Come into my home and I'll show you"

As they enter the burrow, the rabbit introduces the bear to the lion.


Moral: IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW SILLY YOUR THESIS TOPIC IS.WHAT MATTERS IS WHO YOUR ADVISOR IS.....

considering the ever changing fickle weather...lack of sleep......work load......song for the moment...slightly rephrased though

"sab thanda hain aur ganda hain yeh"

we are....we are...youth of the nation...really???

There is this feeling you i get when i am very tired and just cannot get enough rest to regain energy....this week has been kinda like this.....the last weekend did not help much since i was working both days....and since monday i have been putting in a sizable amount of time in school with not more than 5 hours of sleep every night....ok so back to this feeling.....its like i have no idea at times that someone is talking to me and i just phase out and am totally in my own world...partly because i am tired and partly because i am quite preoccupied with what work......all activity in the brain is just catered towards work and nothing else....people come and talk to me and i reply to their questions or maybe discuss things...who knows .............cause after they have left i have no idea what i said or did........i'm serious...i laugh at the silliest of things..stuff which is not funny to others is funny to me.......satire and cynicism is at its peak......and best of all music seems like the sweetest nectar.....listening to music has never felt better.........this rocks......

its 1.00 in the night and i have been in school all day ...came to school at 10.00 in the morning......i wanna go home..........

if only it was this simple......till laters then ......

plus this headache wont go.....

Blogging is quite addictive....and more and more people seem to get hooked on to this 'nasha'...as my sister says on her ( recently published) blog...

after cricket mania...its blog-o-mania...;)

Look forward to hearing more from her

Summer.....naaaaaaaaaaa not yet

Saturday...day temperature ..........55 F

Sunday....day temperature...forecast.... 25 F


fickle weather or what???????

Dominatrix

Mclaren Mercedes won the opening round of Formula 1 in Australia.......well some facts that come to my mind after this win.....

1) Its the first time since September 2001( U.S. Grand Prix ) that anyone other than Michael Schumacher has been in the lead in the World Championship in Formula 1..........

2) Its the first time since the European Grand Prix of 1999 that a Ferrari driver has not been on the podium............

3) Its the first time since April 2001 that Michael Schumacher has not been on the podium................


says a lot about the man and his team!!!!!!!!!!

Formula 1 back....with(out) a Bang???

Formula 1 season is back.......world cup absolutely takes a back seat for this weekend and whenever race timings clash with cricket matches......there was all this speculation....... that the new format for qualifying wherein each driver would be allowed to put in one lap on friday and one lap on saturday would take away any advantage that ferrari had and in addition make Formula 1 more exciting......i think the results speak for themselves......Michael Schumacher on pole position and Rubens Barrichello on P2....i think we might just get to see another magical year of ferrari domination all over again......

The new format specifies that each car will run one qualifying lap on friday and one on saturday as compared to the 12 laps each driver was allowed in one hour of qualifying on saturday in the 2002 season....this has made qualifying pretty boring...no more cat-mouse games between Schumacher and Montoya.....no last minute changes to the positons for next day racing...no last minute tweaking by the enginners to get the most out of the car ........however in this lacklustre period one event which did make headlines and pointed out a flaw in the new system has been reproduced below from an article i came across

Before Saturday's final qualifying session, all the talk was of the smaller teams running low fuel loads to improve their qualifying position. Minardi however turned the new qualifying system on its head by pulling both its drivers into the pits without setting a qualifying time.

The tactic employed by Paul Stoddart's team means that the Minardi cars will not go into parc ferme over night and the team is therefore free to work on them before the race. As part of the new rules, all cars which qualify for the race must stay in parc ferme over night and may not be refuelled or modified by the teams. This rule was introduced to stop teams developing special light cars for the qualifying session.

Minardi has had very little pre-season testing and has employed this tactic in order to give the team more time to prepare for Sunday's race. Team boss Paul Stoddart confirmed this saying, "We needed to work on these cars tonight."

As for the 107% rule, because no time was set today, the Minardi drivers will be attributed the times they set in yesterday's qualifying session which were both within the limit. Certainly this was the understanding of Paul Stoddart who revealed he had sought clarification that his tactics were legitimate before the qualifying session began.

Sabse Bada Kela



April 15th is the deadline to fill out the tax forms for federal tax , state tax and city tax...... Now while doing this job, one is prone to make mistakes since it gets quite boring and if you are a newbie then you really dont know what to fill in where.... ...This is something however all 'desi' students look forward to.......Let me explain......when we get our paychecks from the University they come to us with the tax cut out of it...Lekin..parantu ...but.... Due to a treaty between the Indian and US governments we 'desi' students on F-1 visas can claim a part of the tax we have already paid taking into account certain standardized deductions........... With high hopes and expectaions of getting a decent amount back , Phani ( my groupmate here in the department) and me made the trip to Carrol Hall , on campus, where twice a week we have volunteers come and help people fill out their taxes.

I had dreams....some big some small....just like Teja from 'Andaz Apna Apna' wherein he has his dreams about what he would do once he gets the diamonds from his twin brother...poultry farm and bread factory et alll...bread ka baadshah aur amlet ka raja....teja.....

So I got to Carrol Hall and signed up for the next available slot......... There was the mandatory round of questions wherein country of origin and citizenship were ascertained.........With necessary forms in hand Phani and me sat opposite to this elderly gentleman ( a volunteer) who once upon a time was the Head of the Chemical Engineering Department here at U of Akron............. he said he had been to Pune and Mysore ( thats where Phani is from) in addition to Jaisalmer, Ranthambore National Park, Darjeeling and the list continued......he seemed to be an interesting character....he mentioned that he played a part in the setting up of the Polymer Engineering Department here at U of Akron in 1983.......... .he filled in Pahni's forms and I did the same for my forms ......our incomes being slightly different I did my own additions and subtractions from the figures ( the standard deductions) provided to me by the gentleman....... All this while I was only eager to know how much 'mullah' I was getting back...... Nothing else mattered....... I moved down to blank 25 and entered the figure there......... I thought to myself " only four more blanks to fill......and then it shall all be very clear...
three
two
one
$892"yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....sala main to sahab ban gaya.....control beta control....nahi hota yaar kya karu?"......and then i began to think of all the things i could do with that much money.....not to mention another 60 $ in the form of state tax refund.........maybe buy a zoom lens for the camera.....no not a zoom lens.........a bigggggg zoom lens.....spend a little on my car.......go this summer to florida .............and the list would not stop........saving the money for a rainy day just did not come to my materialistic mind.........in the meantime Phani's thoughts are centered towards just this one thing......EUROPE TRIP this summer.....nothing else.......

I was soooo happy that could have hugged that old man soooo hard that......anways decided against doing that and got up to leave......this other gentleman comes to me and says" sir would you kindly step this way so may re verify your tax forms for you?"...."sure...gladly....go ahead..." i said......he sat down and asked me to sit across from him on his table.....he started checking everything.......and alas it happened....halfway through the whole procedure his expression changed.....he found mistakes....the person who helped me prepare the tax forms had given me the wrong figures for the deductions..........wahhhhhhhhhh...i wanted to shout then and there like they do in hindi films.........."nahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii yeh nahi ho sakta!.......main bekasoor hoon........and whatever else i could if it helped....it could have even been" main tumhare bacche ki ma banane vali hoon"...but none of this would help......so after all the changes the new figure came down to $ 286......892 kidhar and 286 kidhar........now dont get me wrong.....$ 286 is quite a lot of money and I know I should not be cribbing....but at one time it seemed like i would have gotten so much more.......i checked and rechecked and the figure kept coming to 286...not more not less.......so now i need to decide whether I buy the zoom lens OR the trip to florida OR spend a little on my car OR then by an umbrella for a rainy day.......*sniff*

laters

Last night I was at friends place over dinner.....its his wife's birthday today so we kind of hung around till midnight to wish her and cut the cake......there was a sizable crowd ...some knew the birthday girl well.....some were acquaintances........and the remaining were somewhere in between......while the cake was being passed around pree who was sitting next to me tapped me on my shoulder and in her usual way said or rather asked as a matter of fact ..."ek baat bata........why is it so important for us to have people around us in our moments of happiness .......even when we dont know so many of them well enough or probably they dont matter that much".........

i really did not know what to say to her other than some cliched stuff i dont even wanna write about........its something thats been on my mind since last night.....someone told me maybe its because you want to show people that you are so happy....or maybe we want to feel special then and have people shower all their attention on you.....you maybe want to share your happiness ........a common example is 'desi' weddings.......in many cases 500 people from each side attend..........and out of this there are about 50 from each side that really count...why do we have such elaborate guest lists then????.....i guess when i find the answer to this i will throw a party and invite all of akron.....ironic na!!!!!!

India won.....and was pakistan decimated or what.....lots of records set and broken....history created and rewritten....and among other things shahid afridi finally turned 23...........yes the same guy whom Geoffrey Boycott once called the oldest 19 year old he has ever seen...:)

27 hrs without sleep and excitement is so much....cant fall asleep yet....sleep deprivation and the adrenaline rush and excitement...lethal combination .......

Badhai ho Badhai.........