A job well done

Usual time to retire to bed in my case would be about 3.00 am..........and i get up quite late.......well on Monday i had to be up by 5.30 a.m...............so miraculously I saw myself retire at 11.00 pm the earlier night........slept well and was up in time to get ready.........had to get up early because I am staying in Berkeley which is a good 35 mins away from downtown San Francisco.....needed to first catch a bus from near Sujit's home to the BART ( Bay Area Rapid Transport) station.....and then had to take a train from there to downtown San Francisco.............all in all reached this hotel called The Westin St. Francis in time.....this is where the the conference is being held...........the hotel is on Powell Street which is this long street that climbs up the hills....and it has a trolley car to ferry the passengers from one end to another....realllly fascinating


the presentation was at 3.00 pm,........i thought I spoke a bit fast...but thats ok........I expected a few questions but all I got was one suggestion........however after my talk a lot of people came up to me and personally asked me all the doubts they had about my work.....and I think I was pretty successful in answering the questions.......once this was done I called up my adviser back in Akron to update him on the day's proceedings..........spent an hour that evening at a reception party that was hosted by a couple of companies....had two glasses of white wine to celebrate my first presentation .........and soon was homeward bound on the 6.50 p.m. BART to downtown Berkeley.........

All in all.......a job well done........

California.....knows how to party....

Reached Oakland Airport on Friday afternoon..............i was quite excited about the whole trip for three reasons.....firstly I was meeting my 'school and chaddi' dost Bitta after nearly two years ...secondly I was here in California ( San Francisco) to make my first ever presentation on my research....and thirdly because I was in California and looking forward to great weekend ahead before the presentation on Monday...............


Friday evening was spent in catching up on old times and driving up on the hills behind the University of California, Berkeley.......it was cloudy and the sun was peeping out every once in a while and shining onto some parts of the Bay .......at one point the rays were falling only on this one island called Brook's Island ...and it was soooooooooo awesome......pictures have been taken and will be posted in due time.....once i get back to Ohio.....that night as we were trying to sleep ....Bitta and I in turns would take the name of some random classmate of ours from Loyola High School, Pune and burst out laughing......no incidents were mentioned...its just that all our experiences in school have been common because we were in the same group in school......hence only names were enough....

Saturday morning Bitta gave me a tour of his University ...........also visited Telegraph Street...the hippie quarter of Berkeley......with the vibrant colours and the roadside stalls and the music being played around I was quite sure that if Wonderland exists,this was it...... after a late lunch we decided to go into San Francisco...........San Francisco is very different from the big cities like New York and Los Angeles that i have visited ..........it stands out in terms of its location on the bay and also because of the hilly terrain...among other things its unique because of the tram service that still runs in the city..........after a trip down Lombard Street which is the crookedest street in the world and up Jones' Street which is the steepest street in the city that one can drive up ( 29 degrees incline), we decided to go and spend some time at Fisherman's Wharf or Pier 39 as it is better known........it was like a carnival there on a Saturday afternoon.........shops selling ice creams, pretzels, crepes....and a whole lot of other goodies....did a little bit of shopping there.....things other than memories, that will remind me of this trip.....saw the sea lions who have made pier 39 as their permanent abode.....and headed back to the car since we were parked in two-hour parking and had to move out from there by 6.00 pm........drove around the city for a little more and then decided to head home to Berkeley via the Golden Gate Bridge and the Richmond Bridge .......i should mention about the island Alcatraz here.....the one made famous featured in the movie 'The Rock'........this is visible from practically everywhere in the city...if you can view the ocean then you will see 'The Rock'............

The drive back home was an altogether different experience.........the view from the bridge was great.........on the way we stopped by in this town called Sausalito.....home of the mega rich in the north bay area.....the houses there are on the hills and the hill is right next to the ocean.....feels like you are in the French Riviera...........lovely houses.......view of the bay from practically every room in the house......must be great to live here.....and expensive too.....a short pitstop and we were out of Sausalito.....and soon back home in Berkeley via the Richmond Bridge.....all in all and eventful day.....


and here I am in Bitta's lab........on a nice Sunday afternoon......rejoicing because the L.A. Lakers beat the Minnesota T'wolves to tie the playoff series at 2-2.........go LAKERSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been a busy busy week......
work.....deadlines....presentations.....and yes ...finally I did manage to see Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.......for a while now it was not being screened at any of the theaters nearby.......and I wanted to watch it on the big screen....so waited till the University got around to showing it at the Student Union Theater.....seats in the last row......new theater....and free popcorn ( thats what comes along as a perk on Wednesday's).............am so glad I waited a while and saw it on the big screen......yep LOTR rocks......

am gonna be out of town attending a conference this weekend and most of next week......so wont be updating the blog very often...actually these days whether I am in town or not, i really don't update.....but then..........till then folks....take care and be good......and wish me luck for the presentation at the conference.......

I'm no Superman

There is this sitcom aired every thursday after F.R.I.E.N.D.S..........its called Scrubs

.........its about these interns and their life at Sacred Heart Hospital.....the title song to the sitcom is reproduced below.......makes a lot of sense to me when i go about expecting to much from myself ...or when work pressure is too much to take....it kind of gets me back to reality and makes me realize that every human has his or her own limitations.....yes....i realize i am human after all....and its ok to just sit back and accept limitations.........and live life to the fullest.........

Out the door just in time
Head down the 405
Gotta meet the new boss by 8 am

The phone rings in the car
The wife is working hard
She's running late tonight again

Well
I know what I've been told
You gotta work to feed the soul
But I can't do this all on my own
No, I know I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman

You've got your love online
You think you're doing fine
But you're just plugged into the wall

And that deck of tarot cards
Won't get you very far
There ain't no hand to break your fall

Well
I know what I've been told
You gotta know just when to fold
But I can't do this all on my own
No, I know I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman

That's right

You've crossed the finish line
Won the race but lost your mind
Was it worth it after all

I need you here with me
Cause love is all we need
Just take a hold of the hand that breaks the fall

Well I know what I've been told
Gotta break free to break the mold
But I can't do this all on my own
No I can't do this all on my own
I know that I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman

Someday we'll be together
Someday, someday
Someday we'll be together
Someday
I'm no Superman

Two of your closest friends from out of town visit you in one weekend......

Great party at your place that carried on into the early hours of morning....

Nice and sunny weekend......

Good deals when you go shopping.......

Dinner at Luigi's.......

Ferrari on pole position at the San Marino Grand Prix..........

(UPDATE) .....4/20/03.....2.33 pm......Ferrari come 1st and 3rd at the San Marino Grand Prix.......

How good can a weekend get???.........life is good..

As a kid ......

did you wanna run away from school .....?

were you more interestestd in what the kind of pencils and sharpners and erasers your friends had....always wanting to look at their stuff.....?

did you love the 'khana' your friends got and were more than willing to exchange your 'dabba' for his.......?

have you dictated the terms when playing football or cricket because you just happened to own the football or the cricket ball......?

have you forged your mom/dad's signature on report cards, remarks, teacher's notes etc.....?

if you were a boy you never wanted to get married because girls are so uncool....?

if you were a girl you never wanted to get married so you don have to leave your family ever....?

have you come home late and said to your mom.." cycle ka tire puncture ho gaya....isliye late hua"....?

and the list continues....any additions?

The whole weekend has been spent in doing the most constructive thing ( according to me that is)....SLEEP.......finally managed to make it to the Univ. in the evening.........off all the time I had over the weekend.....I manage to make it on Sunday evening.....and this was tough too....just as I was about to leave home......Adi flicks on to the Turner Classic Movie Channel and they were playing ' Roman Holiday'......so anyways I did manage to make it to school and get the little bit of work done.....

Well the weekend does end on a very positive note though....just got a call from a friend asking me if I wanna join him for dinner at ' Luigi's'...my favourite restaurant in all of Akron.......and the best part about this place is that its not a part of some large chain....family owned since the 1950's.....and they serve the most delicious Italian food......have already made up my mind.......Pizza with hot pepper rings and mushrooms and some lasagna.....and maybe some more mushrooms in butter........*drool*.......

later alligator.......

Hello!!!!! Anybody home????

We got our land line connection in September 2001....and we opted not to buy an answering machine ...instead we chose to have the voicemail facilty that was provided by our phone company......so basically since then our voicemail message was something like this" Hi....u've reached 330-761-9177------we are not there...leave a message.....beep"...all this in a very sad tone recorded by none other than yours truly.........finally I got fed up of that message and decided ki its high time that I do something about it....so one afternoon last week after lunch my room mate Adi and me decided to change it......and it had to be funny...no more sad noises.......the plan was hatched......and the message was recorded...........in which we both play an active part..........its something like this

ME: "hello!!!!........hello!!!!.............hello!!!!..........hellllo!!!!!....
HELLLLLLLOOOO!!!!.........Adi......dekh to kaun hain phone pe......"

Adi: "hello!!!!........hello!!!!.............hello!!!!..........hellllo!!!!!......."

Me : " hello!!!!!!!....helllo!!!!!!!!!......hello!!!!!!!!! ........ohhh sorry !!!!....we are not there * slight laughter* ...leave a message........"

so now that we had recorded this we just could not wait for someone to fall for it......and yesterday........we had two victims......one of them (wont take the name cause that someone reads this blog and will surely kick my ass for mentioning it here ) called me back on my cell phone and asks" So ...did you guys actually not hear me or were you playing a joke on me" and I say " No dear...thats our voice mail message".....and believe there was this annoyance in this persons voice because I am pretty sure that to every 'hello' said by Adi and me there must have been another hello at the other end.....

and second victim(s) my mom and dad......my dad actually sent me a mail saying that he tried calling me at home but it seems that we could not hear his voice here because Adi and me kept saying "hello ........hello" ............and he goes on to say that probably its the VSNL connection ( they use PC-2-PHONE) thats bad...........

Mission accomplished........and I wait in anticipation for the next victim.................mwwhahahahahahahahahahaha

tired.......*sigh*......

Sailing to Philadelphia

Kinda dedicating this post to my brother and his to be wifey cause thats how this I got down to writing this post

My brother's girfriend used to stay in Philadelphia, USA.....and in those days when we were studying to be engineers, most of the conversations between my brother and me involved a lot of leg pulling....he did most of the enduring....... while he was still courting her and no one at home knew, I thought it would be a great idea to pull his leg with everyone around................so that May for his birthday I got him this album by Mark Knopfler called Sailing to Philadelphia............... everytime I asked him in front of my family what the name of the album was.............he would look at me and kinda blush and smile at the same time and say softly " Sailing to Philadelphia"....and no one really had a clue why he did that..........and I would have this great feeling of acomplishment................i still do.............those days i was beginning to appreciate good english music from the 70's and 80's.......so I did know about Mark Knopfler...but had never heard much of Dire Straits' music.........

once I was done with all my leg pulling I got down to listening to this cassette.......and then fell in love with the title song " Sailing to Philadelphia" ....and all I knew was that the song was about these two guys who talk about drawing some line........so I did some searching and got the lyrics .........the song is basically about these two surveyors called Charlie Mason and Jeremiah Dixon who drew this line called the Mason -Dixon line to divide the states of Pennsylvania (owned by the Penn family) and Maryland State ( owned by the Calvert family), to solve a dispute over the land between the two families. .....................Mason was an astronomer employed by The Royal Society in Greenwich, England. ...........Dixon was a surveyor from Cockfield in Durham County in England.................. the amazing thing about the work done by these two is that they made their " mark upon the earth" aided by the night sky, the stars and a few instruments..................... though this work was not really groundbreaking, the fact that they created a boundary with near constant latitude is really amazing................recent GPS measurements show that at times they strayed as much as 800 feet and as less as an inch from the constant latitude............during the years of slavery the Mason-Dixon line came to be line dividing America into north and south : freedom and slavery...........

Anyway......am reproducing the lyrics to the song below....

I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth...

He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society...

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
A Mason-Dixon Line

Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forests of the Iroquois...

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning has begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here...

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
A Mason-Dixon Line

If i assume that life is a fairytale....if not everyone....atleast I think I will live happily 'ever after'.

Rain

Its raining outside......

I wish I could just take my bike and rush to Sinhagad and have some of those lovely 'kanda bhaji'

or then maybe i am sitting in my room back home in Pune and staring out of the window watching that peepal tree in the rain and mom gets me some awesome chai and kanda/batata pohe.....

or i am at Kamala Nehru Park.....thoroughly drenched and having a cutting chai with a spicy dabeli and a Benson and Hedges Lights

maybe I am on the bridge near the backwaters of Khadakwasla Dam and and am enjoying the spray of the rushing water below and in my hand there's a well done bhutta with a lot of mirchi and limbu........

or then the lights suddenly go out due to the rain and Saul my four year old ( his age then) cousin wakes up ...the darkness and the thunder scares him and i rush to his side....to scare him even more.....and mom is cooking something in the house ( ok i put that in because i wanted food here too)

come to think of it there is food in every one of the memories i have written about.........do i live to eat.....or then is food an important part of those memories.........dunno...all i know is i am really hungry now.....should go home....have a good weekend people

Beverages come in the wierdest of colors...and they look even wierder when the picture is converted into a negative

Red - Killians Irish red beer
Green - Mint liquer
Light yellow - Scotch and water

Gudi Padwyacha Nimmitane Saglyana Hardik Shubheecha

this semester will be the last semester i take classes........since I am done with most graduate school requirements i need to take only one class this semester and none in summer.....tomorrow have a mid term for this class....so am probably gonna be taking my last midterm ever.....and soon in a month's time will probably be taking my last final........18 years of education......come a long way.....was one hell of a ride....enjoyed every bit of it

is this the end of an era???