Another year gone by.....2003 the year that ..

1) Saw me graduate with my master's degree..
2) Get a job...
3) Manage a short trip to India ( and attend the bro's wedding)...
4) Buy my first car...
5) Play cricket for Akron Criket Club in the Midwest League...
6) and there could be quite a few significant things that are not coming to my mind as of now....

But as the year draws to an end.....and I look back at the past and look forward to what may come....yes I have achieved all this......

But I still haven't found what I am looking for........

The Perfect Hand

Rusty: Why do this?
Danny: Why not do it?
[Rusty shakes his head]
Danny: Cause yesterday I walked out of the joint after losing four years of my life and you're cold-decking teen beat cover boys.
[pause]
Danny: Cause the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, then you take the house.
Rusty: Been practicing this speech, haven't you?
Danny: Little bit. Did I rush it? Felt I rushed it.
Rusty: No, it was good, I liked it.

Love these lines from Ocean's 11 which is one of my all time favorite movies......can watch it again and again and again......love the part where he is talking about how you take the house.......and thats my point......you wait for that perfect hand to come and u bet big and then wipe the house.....and if my idol Daniel Ocean could do it.....so will I......mera bhi time ayega....and then be smart and walk away.......with the biggest smile on my face..

Two books I am totally into....Wings of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran.........both on the cover seem to be very different but at a level (to me ) they are connected.....

You people have to check this out!!!! Must say its quite funny..:)...Have a good weekend...

Its funny how you are thinking about something during the day and you feel "well maybe I should blog about it"......pretty sure that's happened to most bloogers....and then you go online and think about how to put it down in words.....and then you feel "well lets just read a few blogs now that I am online" and there you have someone from the blogging community who has posted something similar to what was on your mind.....I don't know about you but that kinda makes me feel that I am not alone......there is actually someone out there who has an equally twisted mind like mine...or someone who feels as happy as I do now about something similar...

Its funny how you feel a certain kind of connection with all these people.......some whom who chat with and know decently...some who to you are just a nick on LJ or blurty or blogspot....some whom you will probably never meet or even comment on their blog....but its a good feeling....

Its been close to a year since "Confessions of a Puneri" was born...and though I may post less frequently nowadays I think this blog has become quite important to me...where I can rant away....where I can just post about how my weekend was...and then realize how utterly boring life can be...or simply write about how happy I am.....

All in all...I think I quite enjoy blogging...

Happy Birthday to our dear wooorssssstttttt fellow.....Phani dawg, have an awesome year ahead..

Watching the cricket match on big screen here in the University.....bole to jhakas.....a few of us bought the broadband telecast....I think with the way India is playing....we should be in for some good cricket this Australian summer....

Hopefully should be able to go on a short vacation during Christmas...badly need one...what remains to be seen is whether I will fly or drive to wherever I have to go...guess the decision shall be made tonite or latest by tomorrow evening.....its been a while since I went to the City and partied

Ohhhh and ...Happy Birthday Shash....

Destiny or Choice?

For a long time I have had arguments with people around as well as with the myself....as to whether life is all about choices or is life all about destiny.....

I am a staunch believer in the fact that life is what you make it...its all about choices.....but then there are always some things that you would chose to do or have but it just wont happen.....you do everything possible but finally it may not work in your favor....is there an explanation for this?.....95% hard work some say and 5% luck is what life is all about.....Cant everything in life be achieved with hard work....do we have to rely on luck for even that 5 %?...some may call it luck ...some call it fate...and some call it destiny....and try as much as I want I cant get myself to believe in destiny or whatever you call it....

So the question arises .....what is it that finally influences my life after I have put in all the hard work and made the choices and am ready to do whatever it takes?

We live in a very social environment.....finally it boils down to the fact that I am going to be surrounded by people and what they do will affect the events in my life just like what happens with me would affect their life.....in a manner similar to mine they too take decisions and make choices which I could try and influence or I could try and offer advice when asked.... but finally I have no control over what they do.......and surely it will affect the events in my life....to this I assign the 5%......is this my destiny???....but for someone like me even this is not acceptable....so what do I do???

Which leads me to believe that after you have made your choices and people have made theirs.....there is still something you can do..and that is make a choice as to how much would other peoples choices affect you....so again the 5 % percent uncertainty in your life comes right back under your own control...

Concluding....Life is surely about the choices we make......which accounts for 95 %...and the remaining 5 % ..well its entirely upto me....I can let it remain at the 5 % mark or I can keep working towards reaching that perfect score of 100 and finally when I look back at all the wonderful years of my life sitting on that rocking chair sipping on some scotch and puffing on my pipe I will tell myself..." I did it My Way"...and ol' blue eyes Frank Sinatra will echo my sentiments....

This weather reallly sucks ......snow last week...a bit of sunshine over the weekend.....and then since yesterday its been cloudy and now its raining...and it shall rain tomorrow too....where is the Sun when you need it??????????


Junta janardhan is going to India this December.........funny part though......I don't get the feeling that I wanna be in India too.....kasam se...satkela hain dimag

I could really use some of these buttons in my life to make some difference

1) An F1 button that genuinely understands my problems and gives valuable suggestions

2) Ctrl +Alt+Del

3) Alt+ F4

4) Reset button for the times when the keyboard does not work.

5) And the most sought after one....a button that knows you well enough to make your life exactly the way you want it to be.

6) A button that says...Click to continue to next level

7) A button to turn back time

8) A button which provides me with Scotch and Sutta whenever I wish one......

9) Or then maybe I should just wish for a Genie who will provide me with all the above buttons



Have a good weekend folks.....a crazy fun filled one.......I guess I am gonna havea crazy weekend.....and I shall do my best to seek the fun....So long folks!!!!!!

Thanksgiving weekend is over.....the days passed by even before I realized what was happening.....not that my weekend was full of excitement ...but then all I did was laze around and eat and drink....and when I got back I had this nice little surprise waiting for me in the mail...a little moolah from my advisor for the extra work I did for him after I graduated.....all I can say is can't wait for Christmas break....and then New Year's......

There is this song..."Everywhere you go...always take the weather with you" ...and that's just what I did when I went to South Carolina...took some of that cold windy weather with a dash of rain......and Ohio does not seem to have any dearth of it....well it snowed while I was away....lucky me , I say....poor souls in South Carolina....well if the weather dampened any of your plans you now know who is responsible...

Finally got the number plate on the car......personalized one...and what does it read.....keep in mind the leonine ego and pride and vanity....yep you guessed right...it says MY NAME....or then maybe I should call it a name plate......I think I am sooo much in love with my car and the name plate surely helps....

Busy times ahead with work coming in and new projects to work on.....I think I like it this way.....now if only this nagging back ache would disappear....and I think I know just the right 'dava' for that......but then....

more later