The weekend was nice and warm and sunny.....just the kinda weather i was looking forward to...to try apna naya camera......the results can be seen via this link....njoy....and for the photo enthusiast...click on the picture and u get all the details like shutter speed and aperture etc.
only jhanjhat...u need an imagestaion accout to view them.....dont worry though...its free....:)

I was at the Outlet mall yesterday in Aurora......after I was done visiting this particular store...I found this book store close by....book stores just draw me towards them...I could spend the entire day in Bordes on B&N......got myself a few books......the weekend is comin up...and like I mentioned before....to read in bed all snuggled up is the second best thing I like to do (in bed)...I like reading books by Indian authors....stories which are based in India.....my favorite being Poona Company by Farookh Dhondy...I like reading about parsis.....a class of society that has always fascinated me.....so coming back to that I found this book called Bombay Time by Trity Umrigar....its about parsis in Bombay.....

and today I decided to look up if I could find some more information on Thrity Umrigar...'cause I had heard about her before but did not know much....and surprise surprise.....she has been an Akron resident for a while.....and has written quite a few articles for apna local newspaper..i.e. The Akron Beacon Journal.....though her website does not mention where she is now...but I did find out that she is visiting faculty at Case western Reserve University in downtown Cleveland....hmmm...

Second book I got is Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee by Meera Syal.....which deals about the ieves of three women in London...somehow apna desi's in U.S.A. dont seem to be a fascinating lot....but if you have ever been to the UK....apna desi's ...or Asians as they are called there...are a fascinating lot...so thats how I landed up getting this book...

Third book....The Nanny Diaries: A Novel by by Emma McLaughlin and, Nicola Kraus.....its a satire based on the actual lives of two NYC nannies....

Now I'm not too sure which one to start with .....Any suggestions????

The weekend was awesome...On saturday I did my second most favorite thing....and that's to lie in bed and read...non stop...I have always liked Khushwant Singh's works and when I had the oppurtunity to read his Autobiograpghy...I did so with both hands......and spent an awesome three hours on saturday afternoon doing just that....

As I mentioned earlier....Sunday was non-stop sports......Saw Ferrari win...India win..pity it was not 3 outta 3 as the Cleveland Cavs were blown out by the Detroit Pistons......returned home Sunday evening tired and sleepy.....and on top of that had to drive back in the snow from Cleveland...and a drive that takes 40 minutes...took close to 90 minutes......another miracle...was in bed at 9.00 p.m.....doubt when that will happen again....

Formula 1...Cricket.....Basketball, NBA ishtyle......

Saturday, March 20th.....6 p.m. onwards sleep......wake up at 1.30 a.m. on Sunday March 21st.......watch Malaysian Granprix from 1.30 a.m. to 3.30 a.m........4.00 a.m. onwards India vs. Pakistan........11.30 a.m. depart for Cleveland.....watch Cleveland Cavs take on Detroit Pistons at the Gund Arena at 1.00 p.m......chance to see LeBron James in flesh and blood.....go Cavs....could my life be filled any more than this, with sports...??????.......( saying it just like Chandler).......

Last night was watching Dil Hain Ke Manta Nahi.....it got me thinking....is it a case where they just spend way too much time with each other on that trip (4 days max I guess) and fall in love....or rather they think they are in love with each other........I know its only a movie and I'm not supposed to think to much about it....but then how often does it happen to you or maybe you see it happen to others...that they may just spend time with a person and then they think they are in love....I may not be putting it down too well.....but hope you get the idea.....

maybe i'll try putting it down in better words later ...but at this moment ..lack of sleep won't let me function too well....and since yesterday i have had my share of putting down my thoughts into approproate words......am writing this paper along with my advisor from grad-school...though I graduated last year we still have some papers to write for conferences and hope that some of them are picked up for publication in journals....anyways with this paper my tally will go up to 5 conference papers and 1 trade-journal publication and still counting.....:)

later gator....

Reproduced with Vicky's permission....All rights reserved.......and this is surely not for the fainthearted....

The Things That Make You Go OHHH!

Racing at midnight on a wide open highway, even better in between two trucks about a car's length in between them. Yesterday was Haddi's birthday, and we all went out to Thirsty Dog out in Fairlawn to get some grub. After kicking everyone's ass in the trivia game, and consequently getting one of the highest score ever at that location, i proceeded to let the others win and feel good about themselves :)

Anyways, after the dinner, i was merging onto the highway, when this car started tailing me...and i was like F...... A... no one trail's me like that, but when i realized it was HT, ol' buddy, ol' pal....IT WAS ON! I sped and touched about say 90 when he tried to get onto the left lane, i cut him off, he tried the right then, i was on it....then came 'the move' as i was on the left lane and there was this saturn i think in front of him on the right lane, doing about 60, so i made sure he was stuck behind it, i slowed down and was side by side with the saturn with hemya stuck, there was an onramp, which is like a half a lane that starts to help people merge in, the harami, went onto the onramp and overtook the saturn from the right....i was like WHAT!!! IT was really on now....100, 110, my car would'nt go any faster, its an inline four probably 1.8 liters, giving about 140 tops, and i was going against a Vr6, probaby 3.0 liters with 300 horses....but it was on like a mo....fu......

then came the one thing that could help me, traffic, see being from mumbai, you learn to look at traffic like objects on a driving course, the objective being to get atmost an inch from the objects while trying to get the the front of the traffic and onto the open road....now it's time for me to boast a little bit.....i was trailing HT....on the left lane, and we were behind some car, stuck because the right lane was fully clogged, so i tailed his ass, or as some of you F1 fan's know i entered his slipstream, the good thing about slipstreaming the guy in front of you is that, a) he dosen't know when you are going to take a violent turn to over take him, and b) it's his responsibility to make sure he dosen't kill you because by the time he reacts to your turn you are about three fourths of his car length to the right....you see?
so yeah that was my big move, and then he came back with his big engine to overtake me....and finally the trucks appeared from the right onramp, i had decided what i was going to do....i pulled to the left behind HT who was stuck again behind a car, and on the right came the trucks, i took a quick right in between the two trucks went to the rightmost lane and got ahead, and made a mistake, moved to the leftmost lane, i thought HT was still on the left lane, but the harami had followed me and stayed on the rightmost lane, and on a wide open lane.....so that was the end of that....but hey! we didn't get a ticket...we didn't kill anyone! and we did the one thing that reminds me most of HOME! AND WE ENJOYED THE OFT FORGOTTEN FREEDOM OF FLYING ON THE STREETS!

{My edit}....the Jetta is a VR6 2.8 L with 174 horses @ 5800 rpm..but its the low rpm torque i.e. 181@3200 rpm ,which is the killer...basically offering plenty of power at all engine speeds.....once I reached home I kissed the car on the steering wheel and actually got out and planted a few on the trunk and the engine cover...............muaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Some pics from the new SLR

Long one ...this

Got the long due haircut on Friday…not that there is much in the upar ka kheti…but once in a while (read every 3 months) it feels good to get that remaining hair cropped really short…someone at work remarked that I had gotten myself a haircut…..and went on to thank the almighty ‘cos I was starting to look like a hippie….post haircut I found myself at BestBuy……walked around a bit feigning interest in all sorts of things from CD’s and DVD’s to MP3 players….when the photographer inside me knew why exactly I was there….a while later I casually walked to the photography section and without much deliberation I got myself …yeah u guessed right….the Canon Rebel 6.3 megapixel Digital SLR…….

I would rank that as my second love in life at the moment.……whether I have a first love and if I do then what is it…that’s for you to guess and me to decide….:)……spent the evening lying on the couch waiting patiently for that qualifying to start…….due to my healthy lifestyle (in terms of sleeping)……I found myself falling asleep a little past midnight…..considering the fact that I am usually in bed by 11.00 p.m……..those were the days when the night actually started at 11.00 and bedtime was close to 4 or 5 a.m……..grad school…I miss you…….after watching Ferrari display what the do best….(leaving the best of the rest behind) I hit the sack a little past 2.00 am……

Saturday and Sunday basically consisted of

- Innumerable phone calls to junta….
- Beer and Beer and a little more Beer…
- A visit to this tiny town east of Cleveland to visit my Mama and his family….
- Realization that I have grown up a bit…..cause it’s the very recently in twenty something years that I have kids calling me Mama…..feels kinda nice….
- Lots of experimentation with the new camera…resulting in some very nice pictures….along with nature…I have some self portraits of this specimen that likes to call himself the Thakkarmeister…
- Watching Ferrari do…what they do best……game set match to the team from Maranello


Two things my dad mentioned over the weekend………firstly he said that I am similar to my grandfather in a few ways…..that being a liking for good cars (Volkswagen) and good cameras……my grandfather or Daji as I would like to call him used to be the proud owner of Volkswagen Beetle in the 1970’s……so no surprise there when I got myself a Volkswagen (Jetta)……feels nice being compared to the grand old man…the old man being my dad of course…….later during a conversation Saturday night dad called me a rascal …something he likes to call me quite often..followed by which he called me a rebel….was a play with words (since I got the Canon rebel)...yeah but I am quite the rebel of the Thakkar khandaan...…anyways...yeah....that’s my third rebel in as many years……to which I replied while quoting G. B. Shaw….. 'All reasonable men try and adapt themselves to the world. Only a few unreasonable ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. All progress in the world depends on these unreasonable men and their innovative and often non-conformist actions' ….to which he says I should have taken up a career in literature or something to that effect….I said I could have done a lot more than being a Polymer Engineer….he then asked me “Like what???”….to which I replied…. “ Well the digital SLR is my first step towards becoming a professional photographer”…..I would have liked to see his expression after that……I quite seem to enjoy these father-son conversations that border on becoming duels……what say Pa?

Bas jhala attttaa……nantar bhetu ok!!!!

For some there is soccer...some like american football....and then there is cricket....or NBA basketball....whats ma passion?....Formula 1 all the way.....the Australian Grand Prix takes place this weekend......Schumi and Rubhino are a second faster than the Mclaren's in Friday practice.....what a way to begin the season..but then again you cant say much by looking at the practice times.....where the teams stand relative to each other after all the developmental work thats gone into the 2004 cars and all the miles put in testing, is something which we will know sometime late Saturday night here.......I hope to see a closely fought season this year too with Ferarri finally kicking everyone's a#$%.....

FORZA FERRARI....may the force be with you

This is on the wishlist.......Maybe...just maybe this weekend....:)

Saw Ashi Hi Banva Banvi ,again...though after a very long time.......agdi varcha class picture ahe....according to me it ranks up there with all other classics like Hera Pheri, Golmal, Jaane Bhi do Yaaro etc......another thing I kept doing while watching the movie last night was to try and identify the different areas of Pune the film was shot in.....feels good to hear words like 'Pashan Road' and see the Shaniwar wada in a movie instead of the usual Sanpada or Worli and glimpses of Gateway of India..........times like these make me all nostalgic about Pune.....

yeah I do miss the city where I grew up and and spent some of the most awesome years......but what I have gained by calling Akron, Ohio my home is very precious too.....for the moment though I am very happy calling 277 Torrey Street my home.....for a while, I may not be able to go to Good Luck and have some chai and bun muska followed by a Benson and Hedges Lights......but I am very content sitting on 'Torrey' ka porch and having some chai and bread butter (with sugar ofcourse) ...followed by a Marlboro Ultra Lights......

aaahhhhh sukh!!!!

Between the ages 5-7, I did not like going to school at all….all I wanted was an excuse to stay at home…..however I was not the type who could come up with excuses that convinced Ma…..it started of as a typical weekday, the only difference being I was down with an upset stomach…….in spite of that Ma insisted that I go to school……I remember it was a Thursday because Papa was at home and he came along with Ma in the lunch break with some ‘dahi bhat’.

I kept telling Ma that I was not feeling well and I wanted to go home, but she would not listen…….after the lunch break was over, I wearily walked back to the classroom……I felt so bad that I was not on my way home with Ma and Papa……the moment everyone settled down in class, I put my head down and in a few minutes I was sobbing like I had suffered this big loss…..and so some kid goes, “Teacher, Puneri is crying!!!!”….so she shouts out from her desk, “Puneri, what’s the matter?” and the I blurted out the first ailemt I could think of and shouted back midst tears, “Teacher, my throat is paining!!!!”…..and continued sobbing…..

Before I knew it a call had been made to my folks, my bag was packed and I was dispatched to the school office and was instructed to wait for Ma because she would be on her way…….my joy knew no bounds and this sick kid who, just a while back, looked like he was suffering from some big ailment ,suddenly looked like he had struck gold……Ma and Papa came and kept questioning me on the way back about my throat ache…..all I had to say in reply was “ My whole throat is hurting”…fearing an attack of the flu or laryngitis or tonsils, I am pretty sure Ma must have taken me to Dr. Shirole’s clinic and got my examined head to toe (Paranoid that she, considering I am the only kid)……for the record I loved going to see Dr. Shirole because he had so many cycles for the kids who visited his clinic and to top it off he always had ‘shirkhandachya golya’ for all the kids…….

To be able to pull this off, opened a whole new world for me and in the next couple of years I was able to pull off the ‘ my stomach is hurting’ routine quite often…..to the extent that this one time my Chacha came to pick me up with medicine, in the hope that I would have it in the school office and feel better and get back to attending classes…..and just a few minutes before he arrived, Matthew Sir walked into the school office and after he found out that I was in the office waiting to be picked up because my stomach was hurting….he looked at me with a smile and said… “I know you are lying. Your stomach does not really hurt. All you want to do is get home”……I guess my million dollar smile gave it away…

One helluva brat, I was (sorry ….am)....lekin....garva se kaho, hum nahi sudhrenge